Hello!

Welcome to The Epic! I am launching this blog as a manifesto for and a guide to living well. The title and motto of the blog are taken from the Epicureans, at least some of whom believed in the notion that not one minute of the future was guaranteed to them and that as a result they had the duty to live life to its fullest every moment.

I believe in discovering fun and pleasurable things wherever I find myself each day and I am told I have a knack for unearthing them. My hope is that by sharing in my pleasures and some of my ways of finding them you will begin to collect all the riches that lie in the moments of your life. They are there. Take them! All our lives should be.....Epic.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Coffee Classic

One of my very early memories is of my Mom making coffee in the morning in the kitchen. She always had this morning radio program on and they always played a song they called "the percolator song" which I think was a coffee company ad jingle. The instrumental part of the song was meant to imitate the bubbling sound that a coffee pot made. The song combined with my Mom's own percolator to create an auditory memory that is very strong. And very happy.

That percolator sound was lying dormant in my mind until the wonderful day last week that my wife brought home a percolator! I did not even know you could buy one new any more, but our friends at GE make the genuine item, shown above.

There are many benefits to making coffee with a percolator rather than my Germano-Techno coffee maker. The coffee tastes better. It doesn't come out scalding hot. Rather, the percolator coffee is a gentile temperature that allows immediate (and pain free) sipping. It is fun to prepare and brew coffee in the stainless steel basket. It looks cool. The best thing however is the sound. That percolater bubbling noise brings back some of my earliest good memories. And even though my Mom lives fifteen hours away now, we have coffee together every morning. Just like the old days.

13 comments:

heavy tweed jacket said...

I'm with you on the percolator. My mother still favors the Farberware percolator. I like the sounds in the morning and the smell. I have very happy memories associated with it. Thank you for making me smile today.

M.Lane said...

Just returning the favor HTJ!
Your pancake recipe is great!

ML

~Tessa~Scoffs said...

Last summer my coffee maker broke and I bought a percolator. I love it and I am listening to it right now with anticipation.

Old School said...

That was the Maxwell House Percolator Jingle:

Here it is:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2761577

M.Lane said...

Tessa, I KNEW you would have one!

OS, I can't believe it! THAT IS THE EXACT SOUND/JINGLE!!! Thank you so very much. It is just as I remember it.

Thanks for the visits and comments.

ML

*Pink Preppy Party Girl* said...

I agree--percolators are great and I have many wonderful memories of watching that glass top perk with coffee. I had to moved on to my stove top Italian option because I need coffee -first thing and cannot wait for perculator to finish.

Old School said...

My pleasure, sir.

Ben said...

I'm in! Off to Target or Wal-Mart tomorrow. Hopefully I can find one in a 4 cup size.

The tyranny of the cappuccino masses will end.

Thank you for your guidance.

Pigtown*Design said...

I house-sat for someone for a year and they had a percolator. I loved the way it infused the air with with the coffee smell. Thanks for the memories.

Johnny Virgil said...

For some reason, I can't get it to be strong enough. What am I doing wrong? If I grind it too fine, it gets through the basket. If I grind it larger, it's too weak.

M.Lane said...

PPPG, you are right. A percolator does require a bit of patience which isn't always in long supply in the AM!

Ben, a manifesto for our time!

JV, this is sort of a mystery. Maybe you should use more coffee in the percolator. I have not noticed this myself and I drink strong coffee. Perhaps one of my other readers will have a suggestion...

Thanks all for your visits and comments!!

ML

Old School said...

JV:

Try 2 Tablespoons of coffee to each 6 ounces of water. The longer the water percolates over the coffee grounds, the stronger the coffee brew becomes. With practice you will learn how much coffee, how long to brew and percolate, etc. Don't let the coffee boil. People used to say "Boiled coffee is spoiled coffee".

Easy and Elegant Life said...

My grandmother can make instant decaf taste like the best brew on the planet. Her secret? She uses my dad's 1960 something model which we thought had given up the ghost.