Back to the Future - Old School Coffee

The past couple of months have been somewhat of a challenge. Foremost was my sister passing on but it started back in November when the computer bit the dust and we had to get a new one. Well, yesterday our Mr. Coffee coffee maker went kaput. IT ONLY LASTED EIGHT MONTHS! I think we can strike off Mr. Coffee from our list of preferred brands - there's absolutely no reason in the world a coffee maker should only last a few months. That being said, the last really decent one we had was a Krups - made in Germany (we won't buy a German appliance made anywhere else BUT in Germany). 

As a result of my sister passing, I had resolved to finally continue with the scanning of family photos, halfheartedly started some years back, with the intent to scan them and pass copies on to the family. One of the nice by-products of the scanning was reminiscing about some of the hi-tech and low-tech of days gone by. We stood there looking at the now defunct, fancy electric coffee maker equipped with timer, heated plate, and controls for normal or strong coffee now just a paper weight and Betiina happened to say, "Why don't we just pour the water right in the top?"

I remembered a photo that was scanned just the other day. The photo itself was primarily of my birthday cake many moons ago, but just to the side in the photo was our old coffee pot - shown below. I remember mom placing that aluminum cylinder atop the ceramic pot. The cylinder was the strainer - no fancy-shmancy paper filters in either natural or bleached varieties. Nope, just a metal, handle-less pot with a whole bunch of holes poked in the bottom. Mom would boil the water, pour it into the strainer, and wait. When the water stopped running out of the bottom the coffee was ready - simple! And it tasted good.

We can use the broken coffee maker to make coffee the old-fashioned way!" Simple. First cut the cord off. It's just in the way and without knowing exactly what's going on inside the unit, it's best to take temptation - and a potential fire hazard - out of the mix. Second, strip all the covers off the thing - they're just in the way too. Next, use the carafe to measure out how many cups you want. Pour that water into a pot and boil. While the water is cooking put a filter into it's normal place in the machine. When the water boils, pour it slowly over the grounds (the filter compartment isn't nearly as spacious as the old one in the photo above and won't hold all that water at once). Wait for it to drain through and voilà - coffee! Okay, I realize this is only a temporary fix, but ya know what? our foray into past-tech worked pretty darn good.

Back to the Future - Old School Coffee - Enjoy!