"New" coffee pot

[kit]

Consumption of coffee is a subject near-and-dear to many of our hearts. I've mentioned before that the coffee pot I use daily is an old electric-perk that my wife and I got as a wedding present when we got married in 1970. It's a 'Hoover' (believe it or not) and is 45 years old. It still works great and makes a fine cup of coffee.

However, I recently resurrected this old aluminum 'de Lusce' pot from West Bend. It's a drip pot and was either a wedding present to my mom and dad, or purchased shortly after they were married in 1939, and it still works fine. No glass to break or electrical parts to wear out.  And the puppy is over 75 years old.

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So I used the same amount of water and same amount of the same coffee that I'd been using in the electric-perk and the resulting coffee was MUCH better from the 1939 pot. It tastes just as good as a cup of fresh coffee in a fine restaurant and it only takes a little more time to prepare. Chances are I'll be using this pot for the duration.

[clarencebunsen]

One difference is that with any perk coffee maker, it heats up just a small bit of solution at a time. The first time it is water. After that it is a dilute coffee solution which becomes increasingly concentrated. I believe that continuously reheating of the coffee to boiling changes the flavor. Some like the result but others prefer a drip or press method.

[Deleted]

I found another use for the French Press coffee pot. I happen to find another in a box in the bottom of a cabinet. It is perfect for washing a few pair of no show socks. Just place three or four pair of socks in the pot fill with hot water and a little laundry soap and a little bleach place the plunger on and by golly push it up and down several times then dump and rinse under cold water. Works perfectly and is better than washing white socks with colored clothing. I don't have any other white clothing. I just found it nuts to continue to buy white socks wear them and keep them in the laundry hamper until I had enough to wash in the machine. Although it is easier to just throw them out and buy new ones. Oh well didn't mean to change the subject.

[Clipper]

I think our local IHOP does the same thing Alan. The last couple of times we have eaten there the coffee tasted as though someone had washed their dirty socks in it. lol

Kit, does that de Lusce coffee maker work similar to the old restaurant coffee pots that resembled a funnel that sat on top of the glass or metal pot with a beaded chain protruding from the bottom opening? I remember the waitresses putting coffee in the thing and then dumping a pot of hot water into it and letting it drizzle through into the bottom pot. I am assuming that these things were the predecessor to the modern drip brewers that we see now in diners and restaurants.

Kathy and I were talking the other day about how coffee makers have changed over the years. I remember when the Mr Coffee was a truly innovative appliance that was on everyone's Christmas list. Just in my adult lifetime I have gone from an aluminum percolator that went on the stove, to a plastic electric percolator. I still have one somewhere packed away in the storage building, left from my single days and probably purchased at a thrift store after a divorce. Next came the first of many Mr Coffees and other brand drip coffee makers, and finally we have progressed to the point of having a Keurig coffee maker that pumps pressurized hot water through a small cup of grounds to make a single cup. My thoughts also wandered back to the days of the old fashioned, gas fired coffee urns at the Hunts Point Diner on Charlotte Street in Utica. That diner served a great cup of coffee and whenever I was downtown on a chilly day I would walk to the Hunts Point Diner for a cup of coffee and get one to go to sip on the way home on the city bus. Those coffee makers made a substantial amount of brew and kept it scalding hot. Goetz's, N. Genessee Diner, Yorkville Diner, Augies in Whitesboro, Jack and Andy's in New Hartford, and the Jet on River Road all had those old time gas fired urns back in the day. The last place I remember seeing one of those old timers was at a diner in New Jersey in the late nineties. I was amazed that they still were able to keep it up and brewing after all those years. It still had all the fancy scrolled metal work on the top and the skirt around the burners. It had to be 50 years old if it was a day.

To me a good cup of coffee rates right up there on the list of things that I consider special. Since I quit drinking alcoholic beverages, I have become a an appreciative connoisseur of a good cup of joe. Surprisingly I am not a fan of the fancy coffee base beverages such as espresso or demitasse. Just give me a good quality cup of black coffee, or an occasional cup of flavored regular coffee with a touch of creamer and sweetener for a change of pace.

[dave]

I'm trying to remember where on Charlotte was the Hunt's Point Diner. Was it next to (now I can't remember the name of a famous bar... was it Luley's?)
Anyway, this is from 1957, the Daily Press.

[Clipper]

The last time I was on Charlotte St. there was a parking lot where the diner used to be. It was a couple of doors up behind the abstract company that was on the SW corner of Elizabeth and Charlotte. It was a little white building with black trim, built like a trolley car diner but I am not sure if it was one or not. Just one long serving counter with stools and with the grill and such behind it, and a small kitchen in the back. It was almost across from the Charlotte Street entrance to the court house.

I don't remember any bar other than Roach and Quinns up the hill from the diner. I remember walking by there one evening on my way back to the busy corner from my friends house on Dudley Ave. As I walked down Charlotte Street, my typing teacher came out of Roach and Quinns, paused on the sidewalk to kiss his male paramour good night before walking to his car. I couldn't resist saying "good evening Mr. ******. " It was quite tense in typing class whenever I conversed with him for the rest of the school year. My parents advised me to keep the info to myself for fear of ruining the man's career and making him the subject of ridicule and victim of harassment at school. Incidentally, he was the first gay man that I ever crossed paths with. Needless to say it was quite shocking to a 15 yr old to see a male teacher with falsies, a woman's blouse, and a wig.

[kit]

"Kit, does that de Lusce coffee maker work similar to the old restaurant coffee pots..."

It's like some of them... but the deLusce is what is called a 'pour-over.' Hot water is poured in the top and it filters through the coffee and drips into the bottom section.  All gravity fed.  It's pretty much like the modern electric drip coffee makers of today.

But the best coffee makers I remember look like what you said, but cold water is put in the bottom section. The top part is a metal bowl and contains ground coffee which sits atop a fine gasketed filter that's held in place by a spring and chain that goes through a central tube extending almost to the bottom of the bottom section. At the end of the chain is a little "T" piece. A gentle pull and twist on that piece holds the filter in place. That whole assembly then attaches to the bottom section with a rubber gasket that makes an air-tight seal. On high heat, as the water in the bottom begins to boil, the increased pressure forces the hot water up through the central tube into the coffee grounds where the coffee slowly 'steeps' freely in the hot water. When the heat is reduced to low (it was probably on an adjustable timer, I don't know) the pressure lessens and the filtered coffee slowly goes back down the tube into the bottom section. It makes the best cup of coffee I've ever had.

I learned about this type of coffee maker back in the '60s from Bonnie, a waitress I knew at DanDee Donuts next to the Uptown Theater. I think it was one of the Bunn products.

[Clipper]

The pot you describe where the cold water is put in the bottom and when it boils it goes up to the top container to drip back down as the heat is reduced is what I mistakenly thought was a drip maker where the hot water was simply poured in the top to drip through the grounds and into the lower pot. The chain I described in my post must be the chain that holds the gasket in place.

[dave]

Here's a great resource of business names from down in the valley. The list of supporters for First Annual Ilion POLICEMEN'S BALL, Tuesday, November 24, 1938. It's at

herkimer.nygenweb.net/ilion/policeballads.html

Listed on the above is:

"The New Hunt's Point Diner: 622 Charlotte St., Utica, Opposite Court House and Elk's Home."

Also, here's a photo I found, circa 1950. Do you think that's the Hunt's Point Diner where I indicated?

[Clipper]

That IS approximately where it was located. I don't remember the Elk's Home, but the diner was just to the North of the building with the chimney on the side. I can't pinpoint exactly where it was anymore, but I have a vivid image in my mind of the black and white paint and the large lettering across the front, below the windows, spelling Hunt's Point Diner. I can still picture the owner. He was a slight little guy with the typical paper cook's hat and a soiled apron. I am a little confused by the "New" Hunt's Point Diner. It was in the late 50's and early 60's when I used to frequent the diner, and it was far from new.