Drip Coffee Makers - super simple, super cheap
Gather 'round the fire with some delicious cups of hot brown as I tell you the story of American hot brown.
The Engineer Guy's video on the coffee maker's Bubble Pump
• Coffee Maker: Pumping ...
My percolator video
• Coffee Percolators: An...
The infamous Kettle video (which I have a feeling inspired the even more infamous New York Times article...)
• Why don't Americans us...
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00:00 Intro
01:05 Kettles are Confusing
02:20 Why kettles don't make our coffee
04:51 Introducing Mr. Coffee
08:12 Exploring a vintage Mr. Coffee machine
10:57 Brewing Temperature and Control
16:19 Modern design and theory of operation
21:25 Speed comparison and taste test
23:20 Coffee Saver feature test
26:37 The cost-saving hot plate
28:59 These things are stinkin' cheap
30:21 Coffee Pragmatism
31:21 Some advice for cheap drip brewers
32:08 More Pragmatism and the Flavor to Effort Ratio
33:23 The drip brewer's reliability weakness
34:27 Conclusion
35:22 Bloopers
Don't hold back on those coffee opinions! It boosts engagement :)
Cringe af’
Crying at that first blade grinder.... it hurts to see even mediocre coffee destroyed in such ways...
Americans just love acting like they're the centre of the universe, which is why they're always so surprised to find out that Canadian culture is... actually very different
Can’t wait for your videos on the espresso machine, Aeropress, etc.
The stock footage at 3:26 made the talk about beans more tolerable somehow.
I feel like you’ve opened the door to explore espresso machines now. It would make for a good video anyway, there’s a lot of mechanical goodness happening inside.
Especially in the fully automatic ones. They are basically witchcraft.
Would definitely watch this. The only two YT channels I watch are this one and James Hoffman.
Most of the electromechanical stuff on this channel are pure gold to watch so yeah, I'm also voting for this.
Yeah! I wanna know how mine works
Lucky whores~
As a central European: we have both an electric kettle AND a coffe maker. Since we can't decide which hot brown we want at any given day.
Canadian here: We just use the drip coffee maker's boiling function if we only have that, for large volumes; toss the teabags into the carafe and let it run. If it's loose leaf, treat it like coffee grounds.
Yeah, electric kettles are so useful. Sometimes for instant coffee if Im too lazy for the coffee maker, or tea, or preheat water for some dish, maybe cooking noodles, etc.
@@termitreter6545 Instant coffee? Oh dear... 🙂
These days, all kinds of coffee capsule and pad machines are popular at least here in Germany as well. It's a similar business scheme as with printer ink: selling the same amount of coffee for 5 times the price. And people are buying it. It even tastes awful, IMHO.
@@whocares281 not to speak of the frankly AWFUL environmental aspect of those aluminum capsules.
Man I just watched nearly 40 minute video about a Mr. Coffee machine and I don't even drink coffee. Something about how this guy presents things just draws me in for a relaxed ride.
Same
Same
Ditto
That’s why we are all here
Same!
The look of that original Mr. Coffee machine is phenomenal.
"Big tubs because some families will absolutely get through it in a month." I have been promoted to the status of "a family." I don't feel lonely anymore.
According to Stouffers, I'm a "family of four".
@@jerelull9629 And 1 member of your family is that lovely beard.
@@SomethingEternal Thx, but I got tired of that unruly bush and trimmed it down quite a bit; My wife says I look better this way, without the wild man of Borneo look. I should change my avi to match reality.
@@TheDredConspiracy I go through about 2 a month. Wife hardly drinks any coffee. If we ever divorce, I'm just going to tell everyone that was why.
Apparently I’m 2 families because I go through 2 of those a month😂😂
This man could make a whole 2 hour documentary on anything, and I would watch all of it.
just speed run thru his serie playlist, yeah, i did lol.
@ ikr even tho he talks about the most common things it is super entertaining
I went backup to check if the video was 2 hours or not cause he has such a knack for making long videos feel shorter I honestly wasn't sure.
I can’t wait for the deep dive into shower curtains!
His series on video disks is about that long
''I add cream and sugar, yes cream and sugar because I love myself..'' What a fascinating, detailed overview of the physical components and functions of the original Mr Coffee drip coffee maker, simply enthralling... Thank you.
“Yanking gingerly.” The bane of takers-aparters everywhere.
That bi-metal strip to control the water inlet is just genius. I love how limitations bring innovation.
ehh, at a high level the idea is pretty similar to the car thermostat which was invented in 1934 according to Google.
Bimetallic strips were the rage in those days actually, they were in toasters, fuses, hairdryers, you name it. It would have been surprising had they NOT used a bimetallic strip for it.
Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from a video game. "All scientific advancement due to intelligence overcoming, compensating, for limitations. Can't carry a load, so invent wheel. Can't catch food, so invent spear. Limitations. No limitations, no advancement. No advancement, culture stagnates." -Professor Mordin Solus (Mass Effect 2)
Yes. I completely agree. There needs to be a lot more of this kind of simple but effective and robust engineering. Not only keep costs down but improve reliability and use less electronic circuit boards that increase complexity and accelerate obsolescence.
@@jkeelsnc the attitude to crease a device (and software) should be that if you remove one feature it won't work for its intended purpose, if you add a feature that's not required for the intended function then it is bloat and complexity and should be removed
I'm dreaming of a collab of you and James Hoffmann, a man of coffee makers, electric kettles, scientific method, and good old british sass.
Yeah I can’t see that going well.
This would be extremely interesting if nothing else!
He'd have to go through a proper class on cupping coffee and he'd need to have a whole host of concepts explained to him in order for those two to have a functional interaction. James values good coffee in ways that this guy isn't even aware of, so I don't know what would be gained from a collaboration.
@@SpencerDonahue James Hoffmann gave a crash course to Tom Scott that went quite well, so if Alec Watson is able to stomach James' insufferable coffee-nerdiness, this could work. I'm especially curious as to the actual differences in taste between those machines.
@@xmarteo True, but he'd have to fly to England for that. He could get the exact same level of professional education from a roaster in his local area. There is definitely someone near him roasting small batch, direct trade light roasted coffee and they'd probably be happy to bring him in for a coffee tasting. It would likely be as revelatory as it was for Tom.
Latin American here. Pour-over coffee’s not just a fancy/enthusiast/hipster thing, it’s one of the cheapest ways to make coffee (café colado). You just need a reusable plastic or fabric filter, no goosenecks or cool glass beakers needed. A lot of us have all sort of drip machines, espresso machines and/or electric kettles (specially in the countries that drink Mate), but if you’ve just moved into a new house and you don’t have kitchenware yet or if your grandma’s making it (and it always tastes better), you’re gonna boil or microwave some water and pour :)
"Pour over" looks a whole lot like a manual Mr Coffee. What am I missing?
The extraction is more even and you don’t burn the coffee as easily. The cheap drip machine drips water on the same spot, overextracting and burning the coffee at that spot and not extracting all the other grounds around = bitter and harsher taste. But you can get drip coffee makers with a better shower for a more even spread or even a pour-over-robot which is a drip machine with a rotating shower head and multiple opening and closing holes in it. The differences may not be that big with dark roasted coffee but you’ll miss out if you like the lighter roasted beans or speciality coffee. You can also get crazy using goose neck kettles and timer, pouring water in ceramic filter holders while checking the scale for the perfect amount of water to time ratio, depending on the coffee grind size and water temperature.. not a must for enjoying a good cup tho 😅
@@nash0rn that's sounds reasonable, but has anyone done blind taste tests?
Yes they have. Youll want to do pour over if your doing a single cup. @RonJohn63
@@RonJohn63 It's more that Mr Coffee is an automatic pour-over, but yeah. You lose some control over things like flow and spread, but gain the ability to click a button and walk away.
I feel like the original Mr. Coffee machine is looking at me, judging silently. Surely I'm not the only one who sees tiny robot man holding a coffee pot
😏
"There are only so many things I'm willing to become an enthusiast for..." said the man sitting behind 3 coffee makers during his 2nd coffee maker episode.
Who grinds and weighs his coffee and can taste the difference between freshly opened and three day old beans.
His enthusiasm is actually for hording 10-20 different variations of everything.
All from the channel that has at least two catchphrases (he's an enthusiast for those too!), one of which being "Through the magic of buying two."
never thought I'd hit a point in my life where I'm excitedly clicking on a half hour long video about drip coffee makers but here I am.
Meh, it happens. I'm stuck at home, bored and browsing random videos and posting to internet anons.
And then scrolling down in the comments section for said video... yeah, I get it.
what's next, electric toothbrushes maybe? Hair dryers?
let go of expectation and life unfolds itself
I've always liked documentaries even since I was a teen. Learn stuff. 👍
The KZhead algorithm robot randomly (and I mean RANDOMLY, I watch totally different content) delivered this video on my home page. I absolutely love your channel!!
I like how this is a technology story that intersects with American culture. Well done sir!
I am an Old Geezer and I remember the invention of the Mr. Coffee drip coffeemaker. One thing you did not mention is the prevalence of instant coffee during the time before Mr Coffee. Between the years of the late 1950's and the early 1970's in office break rooms, the ubiquitous instant coffee and an electric percolator used to keep hot water warm was the de facto standard. There wasn't any time to use anything else during the week. It is no wonder that people loved perked coffee during the weekend, in spite of it easily scorching if not carefully watched. Even perked was so much better than the instant garbage they usually drank. When Mr. Coffee machines were introduced, coffee lovers saw light from heaven. They could make a pot fast at the office, and it didn't taste like bilgewater. Another thing you did not mention on the later versions is the handy little spring that allows you to take a quick cup even though the coffeemaker is not done.
Nah forget the auto stop mechanism, shove the mug directly under the stream of fresh coffee and simultaneously try to pour from the pot at the same time. 😁
@@melmoomlem7321 too messy
I was also waiting for the auto drip stop feature to be mentioned
My Great Uncle invested in the Mr. Coffee and swore to the 200 degree thing his whole life. He was rich as hell and I remember him having a faucet in his house that put out exactly 200 degree water which was amazing in the mid 90s.
hr suiter Melita you like? That is not Coffee, some other drink u got used to drink.
My wife and I never bothered with coffee until we bought a Keurig to accommodate guests. We were hooked, and it became a daily indulgence. Then we moved, had to put things in storage for a while, yada yada yada, ended up with a cheap Mr Coffee as a “good enough” substitute for a few months and were BLOWN AWAY by how much better the coffee was. We eventually went the French press route and settled into a slightly hoity-toity routine we like. Amazingly, my wife put the old Mr Coffee up on facebook marketplace and someone actually bought it-I had the pleasure of instructing an astonishingly muscular immigrant with a delicious accent in the coffee brewing process, in a sandwich shop parking lot. He was obviously new to the US, and had no idea how to make coffee, but knew he needed it in his life and approached his new learning with a sense of awe and wonder. The good word keeps spreading!
I prefer French press as well. What brought you to the French press? For me it was camping. The Stanley company makes this ingenious French press that uses a separate piston container with the screen membrane at the bottom that pushes down into the brew pot. Firstly the water heating container is now the steeping container simplifying the process and reducing the amount of items taken camping. It’s also nice as the design becomes useful on any stove top or hot plate making it very versatile for travel, as well. Now, I can have almost the exact same coffee anywhere as the household method is the same as the travel! No need to relearn the process for other situations. Secondly, it is impossible for grounds to slip past the filter as they would just bypass the piston container seal and enter a void between the piston container and brew pot. Because this actually introduces a bit of pressure to the system, the system is more akin to aero press in process, though I cannot produce any creme this way. Lastly the top fits on both the brew pot and the piston container, meaning the brew pot can also double as a kettle, though I prefer a real kettle for that. Back to the coffee; I liked the darker and earthier flavor produced from this coffee. I even did a back to back comparison with the same coffee in the safe amounts and found that I really liked the flavor of the French press method, regardless of the other variables. I suspect it’s the introduction of the fines from the ground coffee that causes this as I now prefer them in all my coffee and have switched to metal mesh filter even on the MrCoffie style makers.
@@macmurfy2jka That's interesting, if I ever get back into camping I'll have to seek out such a product-when I was a kid, our camp coffee solution was a percolator, with which my dad had a brief affair before realizing it could do nothing but burn the coffee. Anywho, that does sound like kind of a cross between french and aero. I've enjoyed aero press coffee prepared by others, but haven't really put much thought into it myself. For us, the french press was just the right compromise between ease of use, economy, versatility, cost, and waste. It helped that we'd already acquired an electric kettle, so now between a cheap hand-cranked burr grinder and an electric blade type grinder we already had, we can adjust the fineness of the grounds, the temperature of the water, the bloom, and the brewing time to not only dial in to a coffee we both really like, but to make a crude espresso when the situation calls for it as well. It's certainly more finicky than most people would be willing to tolerate-for example my wife's grandma and aunt raved about how good our coffee was, took notes on the process, went home and ordered all of the equipment, and still had to wait until we visited and could teach them how to use it all 😆. But in practice, for us it's no big deal. We're already making breakfast for ourselves and five kids, and it's pretty easy to integrate all of the steps into that routine. I'm a tinkerer, and I actually kind of like the slight variations in the final product that come from minor differences in the process. The one thing I still haven't figured out to my liking, is the "bloom" step. Every explanation I find seems to be nonsense at some level, and I can't work out the chemistry in a way that satisfies my curiosity and skepticism, but I can't argue with the results-it seems to be responsible for the most drastic difference in the final product, resulting in a far less sour taste. It feels like voodoo to me, but the coffee is just sooo much better with a roughly 30-second bloom before adding the rest of the water. I'm usually happy with plain Jane drip coffee if someone serves it to me, but for daily use I can't imagine switching to a process that didn't allow for a bloom.
I'm no coffee snob (my preferred coffee is actually McCafe or Dunkin' Donuts and I have a basic drip brewer), but Keurig coffee is awful stuff. If I'm at someone else's house and they offer coffee, I always accept, until I find it's a Keurig, then I quickly decline. The only good thing about those machines is their ability to make several cups of different beverages in quick succession when you have a group of people with varied tastes (assuming none of them are actual coffee tastes!). You can make a hot chocolate, a "cappuccino", and a chai tea one after the other... can't do that with any other machine!
Creepy comment that others people of color
@@boethjelle8769 Only one person here has brought skin tone into the conversation.
A decade or so ago i was in the market for a new coffee maker, and knowing about the problem of a hot plate burning and ruining coffee, i found a great solution for keeping my coffee warm: I got one with a thermal carafe. It works great.
I have found so many ways to mess up making coffee before I have coffee in my system. (forgetting water, forgetting power, etc). My favorite was when I carefully measured a certain amount of whole beans, dropped them into the brew basket, and looked in thinking… wait a moment.
The number of times ive brewed hot water cuz i forgot to add grounds 😂
Omg. A friend who was neither a coffee drinker, nor particularly smart, made a pot of coffee for a party. We polished it off and she asked if I could make another pot. I went to empty out the used filter and grounds and it was just an empty, wet filter. We were baffled until we realized she only had instant coffee and had used that in her drip machine. We still tease her about it, even though she has had a couple of barista jobs since then and brews a mean pot of real coffee.
@@amasterofone If you need hot water in a hotel room (e.g. to make instant oatmeal), that's a reasonable way to get it.
I poured coffee grounds in the water side once... that was fun to undo...
The coffee paradox.....How does one make coffee before one consumes coffee?
As a non-American who has only seen these things in movies, you have no idea how grateful I am that this video exists! Thank you for thoroughly sating my curiosity. :)
Until this video, I had no idea this was a uniquely American thing. These are an extremely common household appliance in this country.
@@michaelcalvin42 they are not. Literally every household in Germany has one.
@@michaelcalvin42 So much so that most hotels in the US feature some sort of coffee brewing apparatus as part of the standard room amenities alongside minifridges, microwaves and towels. Even lower end hotels and motels that don't have things like room service or wetbars (like the one I work at) still have some sort of single-cup coffee option in the rooms.
@@Enkelados1 Thanks for the extra data point! It would be interesting to see a graph of countries broken down by kettle/coffee machine adoption.
These are absolutely ubiquitous in the US. Practically every home I visited growing up had one. And while they don't seem to be uniquely American (it seems a lot of German commenters say they're common over there too), it seems that they're not generally common in other countries, which is definitely a bit of a shock to me, but I guess not all that surprising the more I think of it. My guess is that, within Europe at least, they're probably not very common in the Romance-language countries where espresso-based drinks are more popular, and not common in the UK or Ireland (because, tea). As for countries outside of the US, Canada, and Europe, it seems either coffee is not a big part of the culture or instant coffee is the cheap go-to. For example, I know instant coffee is wildly more popular in Mexico than in the United States for your daily cup, probably because instant can be so much more affordable.
Fun fact: in the Netherlands, we have both a strong tea and coffee culture, so most homes will have both this type of coffee machine (or one with pads) as well as an electric kettle
Yet you charge your guests for a cup of it. Wild
It's the same in Canada, at least for myself and my friends and family. We have a gooseneck-style electric kettle with temperature control that's great for V60 coffee but also works well for tea that doesn't want as hot water.
@@Spetsnazty we ... charge our guests? This is new information?
Same in Australia. Tea and Coffee are both really important.
Same in most of europe
"Phosisticated".... I love this guy...
I thought it was faux-sisticated 😉 Mind you, I didn't check the captions so now I wonder...?
The best thing about your videos is that they fly by. Most other videos that are this long tend to drag on, but yours seem so much shorter than their actual length. This is because you're so engaging and entertaining all while educating! Love your work, sir!
I know right? Its been half an hour already?
He also works hard on writing an interesting script. A lot of it's about the prep, and he certainly does that as exampled by him looking at 50 year old patents to figure out how the original Mr. Coffee worked. Who does this? Alec does!
It's because it's all interesting information delivered on a great way, while other channels pad their content with crap, repeat themselves, and take forever to get to the point to reach a certain video length.
Way too long! he needs to tell the basics first, 20 sec 20 ml golden rules! then tell how crappy US people drink coffee! Mr Coffee and other crap is not they way! 5 minutes max, the bi metal machine, 5 for the Italian machines! that was enough.
I agree. His videos may be long by KZhead standards but he still manages to leave me wanting more.
"I'm not willing to become a coffee enthusiast!" *proceeds to name and model approximately a dozen different coffee brewing devices* "And I also weigh my coffee." ... Mate, you're an enthusiast. Perhaps not an afficionato, but definitely an enthusiast.
☕😁
"Weird coffee person", as James Hoffman puts it
To be fair, this seems to be the level of effort that he puts into many tasks that he talks about, like Christmas lights.
@@bearcubdaycare I would also consider him a Christmas Light enthusiast though
I'm of the type where I'll put in grounds till I reach "good enough" then go about my merry way. It's not worth the effort of measuring in my world, so i don't.
As a housekeeper, I rolled my eyes and understood deeply when you said Keurig (I forgot how to spell it but my autocorrect sure knows damn that's advertising)3:56
Another great video. I watched this episode like a classic mystery thriller. Well done. As the son of an engineer, all your videos have resonated with me more than I’d like to admit. Keep them coming !
Drip coffee machines are the dishwashers of coffee makers. They're consistent, reliable, and effective AS LONG AS YOU USE THEM PROPERLY. If you weigh your coffee and use the same mass of coffee each time, the other variables will make a much bigger difference (bean freshness, how recent the beans were ground, whether you're using an insulated carafe). Plus, guess what I'm not doing while my drip machine is making coffee! Yep, you guessed it! Making coffee! Great vid, Alec.
Would using a consistent volume of ground coffee substitute well for weighing a particular mass?
@@johndododoe1411 Yes, but that puts the onus on the roaster/packager and the density and everything could vary based on import time, transit, farm of origin, etc. It's probably really close but it's like gasoline from crude oil. You may think it's all the same, but it's actually all because of lots of processing and treating that it behaves (and tastes) identically. Same with Beers, Wines and chocolates. And really this is because the base of all of these is plants, and no two individuals are alike (unless cloned or grafted). But yeah it's a way deeper "does it actually vary" than you'd think
@@johndododoe1411 No, not really. Different roast levels have different densities - lighter roasts expand less and offgas less during roasting.
@@johndododoe1411 Yes and no- weighing it on a food scale is your absolute best bet, because it accounts for the total mass, whereas the volume can be affected by how tightly packed the measuring spoon is, how much air is in it, etc, but it is still gonna be more consistent than eyeballing it.
If you grind your own beans, you can boil water while you grind, and then Aeropress or French Press are zero extra investment of time or resources. If you don't grind, then sure, the math changes. The only thing drip coffee makers are best at is making A LOT of coffee with store bought grounds. If you have a family of people who all drink 2+ mugs a day, yeah, drip coffee makers make sense. And yes, they can utilize store bought grounds. But like, even just moving to a local roaster who will grind to your specifications... So much better. You do you. But most coffee snobs, more than anything, like the ritual. My fiancee now looks forward to the part of the trip when she wakes up and I'm hand grinding beans, and by the time she can sit up and clear her head, I have a perfect couple of mugs of Aeropress for us to share, maybe with a pastry I stole from the hotel breakfast. It's a whole thing. Maybe you don't want that whole thing. I get it. But it's a great part of my life, and I'd never go back to drip machines.
For some reason, I'd like to see a collab between Technology Connections and James Hoffmann. I'd enjoy the combination of both the history review and the arguments over which brewing method makes better coffee. 🤔
YES
I came to the comments to suggest the same!
Yes, I'm sure their personalities will marry wonderfully in a collab
I would LOVE this
I was just thinking that!
Curiously enough, I'm an American living in Asia (for about 14 years), and I use my electric kettle literally every single day, usually multiple times. And maybe only 5% for tea. It's insanely handy. But I also have a nice automatic drip brew coffeemaker which I love. Lol. Great video, this was fascinating stuff, especially the bimetallic strip on the old Mr. Coffee. Cool!
For years I was a daily full pourover snob, until earlier this year I happened to housesit a week for someone with an old school Mr. Coffee and was reminded how perfectly acceptable a daily cup that makes with so much less direct input. Now I drink automatic drip most days and only get out the chemex if serving coffee to a crowd (my daily is a small-carafe machine for limited counter space reasons) or if I feel like taking my time to do it "just right" on a weekend. Also so nice being able to set it on a timer and have it ready when I wake up on days when I know I'll have an extra busy or early morning. Never looking back. (Also the far bigger difference is the grind, I do feel a little silly using my hundreds-of-dollars burr grinder with my thirty buck coffee maker but really the former makes so much more of a difference than the latter)
I've moved to using French press when I'm lazy.
In archaeology, I can't tell you how many times the answer we have is 'no one reorded that because it was so common and everyone knew about it'. as I watch a video explaining how to brew coffee, I can't help but wish someone would etch this onto some clay tablets so future archaeologists dont decide all those weird objects in the landfill are 'ritual totems'
See: 'Motel Of The Mysteries' By David Macaulay
Are you saying that the morning caffeine of billions of people around the globe doesn't make coffee makers 'ritual totems'?
@@Arrzarrina Touché - based on the responses of coffee drinkers I know, it's not only a ritual, but probably THE most important ritual. But still, they may as well know what went on instad of throwing it into the "religious artifact" bin out of pure ignorance
@@johngalt97 same author as "City" and "Pyramid"?
I can’t imagine a more effective way to invoke @James Hoffmann to appear in your studio. This is a noble endeavour. I salute your efforts.
i second this!
Get James Hoffmann in the video asap!
I doubt James Hoffman will be up for it, maybe try Hames Joffman
Wait what? You can invoke James Hoffmann
@@NigelDraycott I don’t know, but if Alec doesn’t succeed with that video, I think we can conclude, then it is not possible.
I drank 2 cups of my drip made coffee while watching this great video. Thank you.
I got one of these brewing directly into a thermos jug. Keeps the coffee hot and fresh.
Customer: “Waiter - my coffee tastes like mud!” Waiter: “Well it was ground only an hour ago!”
*groan*
Boom-boom!!
Some months back, I watched your video "why don't Americans use electric kettles" and I remembered someone had gifted my husband and I one years back. I thought maybe I was misremembering, so I took a look, and I found it - still in the box and all. To be honest, I didn't really think about it before. My goodness, I've gotten literally daily use out of it since. It's so quick and easy to use. Thanks for the information and for enlightening me to these nifty things. I just came by this video, and remembered you, so I had to tell you!
Nice 👍
Good to hear.
Besides tea what else do you use the electric kettle for?
@@newagain9964 glad you asked! I use it for a lot of different things, so I'll name a few. -to heat up boiling water to clean/sterilize surfaces -to sterilize and kill weeds and their seeds -to rapid boil water, and put it into a stovetop pot and crank up the heat to get a fast boil going for things like pasta -to put the boiled water into a tall stovetop deep-fryer pot (with metal basket), load up the basket with my chickens' eggs, then dip them and time it to pasteurize a dozen at a time -to make oatmeal easily, especially if the microwave is already in-use. Same for Ramen. Those are just a few great benefits to having an easy button-press kettle. It boils a decent amount of water in just a couple of minutes. You may need to sterilize water, or even have other uses. Hot water heat packs, etc etc the list goes on. I still use it every day, and I wrote that comment 4 months ago.
@@newagain9964 In addition to the other answers, mine is: - using hot water in cooking process, where a bit of hot water added can help things. - straight up cooking stuff, like onsen eggs - instant noodles and various other instant foods - filling hot water bladders meant for stomach aches and muscle pains - I can use some hot water, mix it with cold water, and get a nice warm foot bath Those are some of the more common uses. I have also used them to do things like cleaning oils (extremely hot water helps to dissolve the oil more easily), melt butter and chocolate (put them into a container, and use the hot water as a bath), and sometimes even using a bit of hot water to heat up metal lids so the thermal expansion helps me open cans/jars easier. I use one of those hot water dispensers though, since my household drinks a lot of tea and other hot drinks.
I recently talked with one of my teachers who said they use the keep warm function and told them that all that will wind up doing is burning the coffee and I sent her this video as evidence, now she shuts off the drip brewer and puts it in a nice insulated container instead
This is so good. I have had the same Braun drip coffee maker for 22 years. It works! Nuff said
I don't know how you do it, but you consistently get me to watch long form informative videos on topics I care very little about. Your videos are always good for killing 20-30 minutes and increasing the amount of useless knowledge I posses in an unexplainably entertaining way. Keep up the good work telling me more about things I don't care about, but still find fascinating when you present them.
I don't even drink coffee anymore yet I watched this whole video. And even when I did drink coffee, I never made it at home, I only drank it at work.
I always love how your videos are a mix of How It's Made, BBC, TED talk, and elecronic dissection videos. It's really refreshing and informative at the same time. I never get tired of listening to your voice or listening to all the things you decide to talk about or explain to us. So many things I never knew I wanted/needed to learn about!
Ditto
Plus, the awesome theme song!
plus a little bit of Project Farm
Asking as a non American, do you guys have the decade or so of Joe DiMaggio product endorsements to thank for your expression 'a cup of Joe'?
@@MuckingMunt I just asked my mom, she said yeah. I never knew that either.
Wow! I never knew a humble metallic strip and I could have so much in common. Crazy world!
I'm glad this video exists, because I always wondered how my previous job's coffee maker immediately spit out the coffee when I poured the water in. On more than one occasion, my coworkers and I have made a huge mess by not putting a carafe under the brew spout before pouring in the water. The original Mr. Coffee design explains this (although it could be that the Bunn-O-Matic we used constantly warmed a supply of water within the machine). Also, my drip coffee maker has the spout over the basket attached to the lid, so it lifts it out of the way for me.
When I first started in the 1990s in the technology industry one of the first questions to ask if a computer had problems staying on was "Do you have a Mr Coffee plugged in near it?" And it was specifically a Mr Coffee not other coffee makers, and sometimes that was indeed the problem sharing a circuit with a Mr Coffee caused enough problems with power draw it caused some computers to be unstable.
That doesn't surprise me, electrical noise is still a problem for internet modems and power line Ethernet devices when something is plugged in the socket right next to them, or if there's a double adapter plug involved
@@schr4nz he mentioned power draw, i doubt it was the inductance that was the issue, most likely it was the 1500 watts, thats around 12 or so amps at 120 volts, a computer with a chonky CRT on top will most likely top the breaker out by using at least 300 watts dragging the breaker firmly into overload territory for a 15 amp supply same idea would happen if someone happened to have a space heater plugged in nearby as well or honestly even a decent sized microwave especially when the microwave was first switched on
For drip machines, the diameter of the shower head, and the diameter of the holes in the shower head, are very important as it relates to the thorough saturation of the coffee grounds and, therefor, thorough flavour extraction. Secondly, brewing temperature is quite important. Most modern-day drip machines have a tiny shower head with tiny holes. You have to look far and wide to find a machine with a large shower head. Currently, I'm using a $13.99 Sylvania drip machine (not sure whether they're still available) which produces much better coffee than the $79.99 DeLonghi drip machine (which I returned) due to the larger shower head (and larger holes in the shower head) and higher brewing temperature of the Sylvania machine. The DeLonghi machine was brewing at 167 degrees, whereas the Sylvania machine was brewing at 197 degrees. Also, the DeLonghi machine left the upper, outer portions of coffee grounds dry. There was complete saturation of the coffee grounds in the $13.99 Sylvania machine.
I can't believe I've watched this not once but twice
Same
A collab with James Hoffman could be really fun for this water/coffee series! (Plus he could do a video to see if he can figure out the difference in taste between machines)
"A very tumultuous double-blind ABX coffee machine test"
I look forward to the look of dawning horror on James Hoffman's face as he realizes he's about to drink coffee made in not one, but two separate Mr Coffee machines.
*THIS!*
@@sirspate You are underestimating the probably an error in communication makes James believe for a second he’s about to drink ::shivers:: Folgler’s. ::visible distress::
@@sirspate Eh. He's done some reviews of drip machines, including very cheap ones like this. He doesn't prefer them, but I wouldn't describe his reaction as "horror," especially when he's using his own choice of coffee and grind. Now, when he reviews sealed bags of coffee that have been in someone's attic for decades..... See also, his reviews of "coffee flavored" food and drink for some choice reactions.
I have a strong urge to mention this while I watch your fantastic video. My grandparents loved the original Mr. Coffee maker so very much, they purchased 2 for when one would inevitably break...it never did. When I moved into my first apartment (in the mid '90's) my grandparents were loving enough to give me the second Mr. Coffee they purchased which they had never used and still was in the box. It only seemed fair as my grandfather urged on my coffee addiction at a very young age with his pockets always being filled with Coffee Nip candy. Anyhoo, I used my beloved Mr. Coffee maker daily (multiple times a day) for over 20 years before it could no longer function. It was the most reliable product I've ever had.
It could even still be easily fixable. The guts of the thing look robust and interchangeable
That’s really sweet :)
I recognized it as the coffeemaker in our house as a kid from the video.
@@outsider344 I agree, it looks like anyone with a soldering iron and a shred of sobriety could repair it.
That is a crazy durable kitchen gadget.
The amount of effort put into these topics is astounding. I love these deep dives. Bravo!
Love this video. Made me realize that you don’t need a fancy coffee maker. I actually switched from a French Press to an inexpensive Melitta machine (that was later sort of endorsed by James Hoffman)
When I first discovered your channel it took me a while to figure out what it was about your videos that was so fascinating and eventually realized it was the same itch that The Engineer Guy used to scratch. You're doing an excellent job carrying on Bill's legacy, Alec.
This comment made me think engineer guy had died. He's still alive
@@610jrod RIP big man. Gone but not forgotten.
@@610jrod Sorry about that! I couldn't find a good way to say it without it sounding like he died :-|
What's happened to Bill Hammack? Is he unwell? Is he doing academic work? Has he just retired?
@@iAmTheSquidThing I miss him too. He published a book and talked about his new kid in one of his last videos. I wish him the best.
I have to say, I always find your “documentaries” fascinating and have learned more from you than many other KZheadrs. Topics seemingly boring and mundane come to life. And the funny thing is it’s not even done with fancy video effects and production tricks. A dude in a chair talking about shtuff. Keep up the good work!
This is probably the reason I keep coming back to his videos. You put it very clearly. Dude is a master of subtle jokes.
I constantly think about how terrible indoor ac units are. He has placed information in my brain that I will take to the grave
He has this cool lava lamp effect in the background though....
@@evanthieme8349 Why? Death from hypothermia?
Hello! Just discovered your channel, it's nice indeed! Did you find the moka you was thinking to buy?? I'm Italian, and I can suggest you a few things about mokas. :) 1) if you can find one, buy a steel moka suited for induction... they're just better and safer than aluminium ones, despite wide popular belief here in Italy. Of course, they're more expensive. 2) I think it's better if the moka is of medium size, like between 3 to 5 cups. 3) coffee grind size has to be thinner than for filter coffee, and coarser than the one for espresso coffee. Like always with coffee, high quality freshly roasted (and just grounded) beans can make a HUGE difference😜 4) fill the water reservoir to the valve level with COLD water. 5) Insert the filter cup over the water reservoir, then fill it to the border, not more. NEVER press the coffee in any way!! 6) close the moka by screwing it with some force, and place it on the stove. Whatever type it is, the heat has to be VERY low. The lower, the better, because it means that the pressure will build up inside, allowing the vapor to push water through the grounded coffee BEFORE it gets too hot... resulting in a much much much better taste. With my induction stove, which has 10 power stops plus the "extra power" one, the optimal regulation is between 3 and 4. When I had gas stove, the best regulation was the lowest possible without causing the flame to die off :D 7) when coffee starts coming out at a fast rate, THAT'S exactly the moment to turn heat off. Better have a little bit less coffee, than adding a distinct burnt taste to all the coffee you just made :D It will take at least ten minutes (you're NOT gonna make good moka coffee in a hurry😄), but the result is so much better than the burnt ,yet shallow tasting broth you'll get in the average Italian home LOL. (most Italian people use too much water, use too high flame, and don't shut off the heat until water is virtually finished from several minutes, and what's coming out are just vapor bubbles😫) It can sound complicated, but actually it's not at all. It can be shortened into this to: use very good coffee; put cold water inside without going over the walve level; don't press the coffee into the filter; put the moka on very low heat, and turn off the heat as soon as coffee starts coming up at a fast rate.😎 P.S. Spoiler: moka coffee tends to be quite a bit stronger than the average filter coffee. Of course, with aeropress, if you use more coffee or limit the water amount, you can still obtain similar results to moka.
Ty!
I never knew i could get excited about a coffee maker. thanks.
I was eagerly awaiting a “through the magic of brewing two of them” At a former job, I was a security guard at a large office building. We used the Bunn-O-Matic’s scattered around the building for our own consumption. Ditching the provided food service coffee, and using my personal stash (since I had to drink it too), gaining mass approval from the morning shift, it was still hotter and more acidic than my home brewer. I cannot logically explain it, but though a change in coffee was a great improvement, those food service machines just cannot make a good cup of coffee.
How far from your work do you live? I wonder if water hardness has any effect.
@@oxybrightdark8765 It was probably the boiler's temperature. James Hoffman (who has almost certainly been mentioned several times in the comments) has suggestions on the proper water temperature for different roast levels of coffee. Too hot or too cold, even by 5°F, and it affects the flavor.
It's by design. Brew-siht-quik tech cares little for the consumer's experience (short of going full barista with a machine that costs as much as a car). On that note, starschmucks coffee isn't expensive just to make you feel important. They do have to pony up for some eye-wateringly expensive equipment. And they do neutralize the water supply to the stores so it's nearly distilled when it reaches the machine... *"the more you know" theme music plays*
@@oxybrightdark8765 several miles, but same water department.
@@warp.routine I call that stuff Starburnt. Bleah!
I’m glad you briefly acknowledged that people who make pour over coffee have electric kettles. I was in the coffee industry and almost all my friends have electric kettles for this reason! It’s just funny to me that we don’t have many electric kettles as a country because coffee, but those that do have them because coffee 😅
I used my electric kettle for French press...but I don't think I ever used it for pour over. Because I had an induction burner...and a gooseneck pour over kettle for the burner was smarter. I do suspect that there are more of both induction burners and electric kettles than the video suggests. Oh, and I actually have 2 electric kettles. One's a Japanese vacuum electric kettle...gets the water hot, then mostly shuts off, using a double wall tank so it cools (and thus needs more heat) only intermittently. NOT particularly good for coffee...or black tea, for that matter...but the water holding temp was very good for green teas. It was also nice to have hot water on demand to, say, rinse out the fines that got into the cup using a French press, or for the residue if your cup sat for a while.
That's because most people are fine with acceptable coffee. Drip coffee is good enough that it's ease vs optimal taste ratio is fine the vast majority of people. Basically, you are comparing an enthusiast group to a control group. It's like asking why most people don't do custom BIOS settings on their PCs or do custom tuning on their cars. However, I would like to say that if you are making Japanese style iced coffee, drip coffee makers are actually the way to go for the most part. Yes, there are more taste optimal methods. But since steeping time is less of a factor than rapid cooling, dripping on to ice directly is a fairly good method to achieve almost as good results as manually doing it with a chemex.
Our electric kettle is mostly used for ramen and sometimes tea. I also use it to pre-boil water when cooking since it's far faster than our glass-electric stove.
Ive got a Breville one i put in anoth coffee and water the night before and press the timer button , in the morning it starts brewing i wake up to the smell off fresh coffee and its in the pot ready to go just anoth to fill a mug to drink to wake me up then some goes in Thermos for work and the rest in a mug when driving to work bloody fantastic , love it 😊 from Australia 🇦🇺 the best thing ive ever owned and saves heaps of time and money buying coffee on the go to work in them drive throughs its paid for its self over many times 😊
This was a great video on coffee makers. I watched your video on the electric kettle over a year ago and It got me to dig mine out of the basement and I have used it daily ever since. I switched over to a French Press a few years ago but was heating my water in a small sauce pan on my gas stove. The Hot Pot seemed like another pointless appliance till I was properly educated on the benefits of using one. Prior to the French Press I did use a 4 cup Mr Coffee. I enjoyed learning about the history of it. Thanks as always for the informative videos. As a coffee snob (I roast my own beans at home now) I'll be watching your Percolator video next.
"I think I've gone on long enough." I can't disagree enough with this. The more you ramble about loosely associated things, the more I tend to enjoy your videos; that enjoyment does suffer some diminished returns, but they're still there.
Fully agree
The biggest game changer for these: get a double walled insulated carafe and dump your pot of coffee in it. Coffee is kinda like French fries where heating it up after its cooled too much is a bad time. A good sniff test for a quality coffee machine is if it includes a double walled coffee pot already
Yes, this! I've got one of each and the insulated maker brews a hotter pot and using the insulated carafe keeps it warmer for longer. The insulated maker doesn't use a vacuum or do any kind of inert gas back filling, so it won't stay hot, but it does lead to a hotter pot right off the bat because it doesn't leak the heat out of the container so easily.
Unfortunately they are opaque, which means I often forget that they're half full of coffee, leaving them on the table for days and then being left with a stinky carafe 😅
@ You don't drink the entire carafe in one day? I usually have to brew two pots and I always wash it out between days.
Best advice on the video.
Or just transfer the coffee into a thermos
My wife is Ukrainian, so we have an electric kettle that is used every day. I have and like the 4 cup drip and a Kuereg. The "4" cup is actually 3 cups, but the third has usually sit too long. So my k cup is used daily. Like you said, my wife 25 years ago thought coffee was all freeze dried. I remember when Mr. Coffee hit the market, it was a big deal. Beat the heck out of percolator.
Growing up in the ‘80s, we had a Proctor Silex drip coffee maker. It worked the same way, and you often had a bit of liquid on the hot plate before the carafe was in place. I remember when it broke, we had a percolator in the closet, that looked like it was from the dark ages, and it tasted terrible. Nowadays, I’m the only coffee drinker in my house, and so I can use my 1.5 liter French press, and drink it all.
Man, that's really hilarious to me. I started watching this, thinking "didn't he do a great video already on the bubble valve and the simplicity of the coffee pot"? I absolutely forgot it was the engineering guy. I miss him, but I also am thankful that you exist. Thanks so much for this style of video. This long-format edutainment really is wonderful. :) Edit: to be clear, please cover ALL of the topics no matter who else covered them.
Did Bill die or he is just inactive?
@@stupidfanboyph Hammack haven't post any video for over 3 years now, yeah he is currently inactive
I never cease to be amazed at how you can hold my attention for so long talking about something so mundane as a drip coffee maker. It's a nonstop unloading of information that's presented in a way that is compelling and entertaining. Great video as always! As a side note I appreciated seeing the Pentax cameras behind you. I've always been a fan of them despite other companies overshadowing them.
I feel like it's a very good thing he didn't decide to become a cult leader or pyramid schemer. I feel like he would excel in both. (That said, some of those schemes are pretty culty)
If every teacher learned how to do that we would have a world full of geniuses.
I made it to 3.00. Grace
Unfortunately so far, there is nobody in the world who can hold my attention for air conditioning.
I used to have a coffee maker where the carafe was literally a giant thermos and kept it warm without a heating element. Made the best coffee ever
I’ve still got one like that, it’s a cuisinart that’s about 18 years old. Insulated metal carafe instead of glass, and no heat plate.
The thermos makes all the difference. That, and/or an insulated mug.
@@mcohen8025 I have that model, and besides keeping the coffee warm, it never breaks, which is nice.
@@itsROMPERS... yesss exactly! My parents have a similar model but with the glass pot and they’ve gone through several pots over the years.
@@mcohen8025 it's always such a pain because you have to find the EXACT replacement...errgghh!
Great video, I go thru drip coffee makers a lot over the years. I am old enough to remember my parents had a Percolator machine. Grinding beans right before you brew is probably the best tasting coffee. I recently bought a drip with a built in grinder. I dont use the grinder every day but when I do the coffee tastes better.
It's interesting to see this channel transition from obscure and peculiar pieces of last-century tech to the most common of household appliances.
I too miss The Engineer Guy. I just recommended his videos to my 17 year old. But I really appreciate all your effort and humour and knowledge. Well done!
Is he dead ?
It’s crazy to think some of his earliest videos are from 11 years ago.
Good news! He's coming back in march 2023 to do a series of videos about his latest book.
By the way, don't miss his videos on the university channel, for example this: kzhead.info/sun/p7CKkdifrHSdd5E/bejne.html
Another book? He published a book and talked about his new kid in one of his last videos. I wish him the best.
I love my Gaggia espresso machine. It's super simple to use (grind into my portafilter, tamp it down, put the portafilter into the machine, press go - coffee 30 seconds later), but I can certainly understand why it isn't for everybody - especially a whole team at a high-tech fancy youtube studio.
As much as I love my espresso machine and my press can, nothing feels more homey than a cup of Joe with a drip brewer
As a coffee shop owner, I appreciate and can confirm everything in this video. I love your channel, I hope you never stop.
love coffee flavor, good coffee is a hidden joy on earth
27:10 I recently completely disassembled my coffe brewer, and for the computer geeks out there: there is actual thermal paste used between the plate and the heating element. it was hilarious, never in my life i'd imagined changing the thermal paste on my coffee maker!
Thermal paste, pads, and grease are quite common in many products, all the paste/grease/pads do is create an even surface of high thermally conducive goop to allow optimal thermal transfer, thermal glue is quite common too!
So how much RAM did you upgrade it with?
I've never had coffee (or tea) but always enjoy some of the brilliant analog machines of my youth. Thanks!
In my house we also use the coffee maker to make tea from time to time it's great!
Since the electric kettle video I've started using mine to boil water for pasta, not just tea and it's made my life so much better!
How do you keep noodles from sticking to the element?
@@m1t2a1 You pour the boiling water into the pot you cook your pasta in.
@@JonasKFriedChicken @m1t2a1 what Jonas said lol
The Engineer Guy is one of the earliest facts-based educational channels I found. I still watch his various clips, especially the marvelous aluminium can episode :)
That video was so incredible, I must have watched it nearly a dozen times since I first saw it
Haven't heard of him for years, yet I recognized him immediately when "aluminium" was mentioned.
I remember watching his videos before KZhead. Wish he would make more.
@@salted6422 Wow! I watched that episode years ago! I couldn't believe someone could make an aluminum can so interesting!
Man that episode about the aluminum cans is just beautiful.
I grew up on percolated coffee and my wife and I used a percolator until the early to mid 80's, a perc took up less counter space. It wasn't great coffee, but we didn't know any better.
this vid made me buy a drip coffee maker for my office and its a godsend, thanks Mr. Technology Connections sir!
The coffee flavor degrades if heated more than a 30 minutes after brewing, so it's best to not use the warming function too long, as James suggests. When I pour my first cup of coffee, I turn off the coffee maker and pour the rest of the coffee into an insulated carafe, which keeps the coffee nice and hot for hours. This is simple and beats having to microwave later cups of coffee.
Correct!! I do the same thing..
Just like a professional coffee shop!
Thankfully there are coffeemakers that have a thermos-carafe. No need to pour the coffee into a different carafe after brewing.
Nuking coffee is another way to ruin it IMO. I prefer to drink it cooled down.
Who’s James?
23:50 This is why the cone filters are better. No matter how much you're making, the grounds are always forced to the middle of the filter. Also, cone filters don't collapse and cause a mess like the basket filters sometimes do.
I disagree about the collasping. I do have a 12-cup Melitta pour over with No. 4 filters. One of the reasons I am not a fan of it is they collapse sometimes when pouring the boiling water. And of course they are impossible to unfold once that happens, because boiling water. I did have an idea after watching this that may make it function better, but won't help the collapsing filter.
Cone filters can collapse sideways, causing quite a mess as most of the water bypass the coffee and the soggy paper disintegrates to leak wet grinds everywhere. Checking this hasn't happened becomes a habit of experience.
@@johndododoe1411 Weird, never had that happen. Typically the coffee holds it open.
@@joshua.harazin Agreed. Pour the water slowly in the center, pause a second for the grounds to wet the filter, and no collapse.
Many use screen filters now i still use paper filters with them less cleaning
You are of the few people I can watch, and actually understand whats being said, without feeling the dastardly impulse to correct whats being stated semantically. Thank goodness for vocabulary and intelligence. You have restored my faith in humanity!
I'm sorry you feel that way about most of your fellow English-speakers.
I applaud your research Sir
I’m not a coffee guy at all, but I watched every second of this video with rapt attention. I love this channel so much. The combination of historical deep dives with inspired engineering and gleefully corny humour is genius. Great work as always.
You've given me a new word, and I'm very thankful. "Rapt" will make a fine addition to my lexicon!
Check out James Hoffman s channel. I hardly ever drink coffee and am happy with whatever I get, but I have happily watched hours of his coffee centric videos.
@@outsider344 yep...jh is another gift to a troubled world. Nice hair too!! 🙂
I don't really drink coffee but this video made me want to get a cup haha
I wish I too could watch it rapt... 😓
Strips of metal, the bi representation we've been waiting for. 12:44
From my experience with my bi friends, they do noticeably expand when heated. And the pan people I've interacted with have... you know what, I'm gonna stop here
Not sure if this counts but I feel it's similar, back when I was younger (about entering double digits) we had an original Keurig in the house, and it didn't take my little brain that long to figure out "hey, if you don't put in a Keurig cup, you can just make an instant cup of hot water!" Very useful for tea escapades. Had it as a special interest for a while.
We had a drip machine in our office and it used to supply coffee to the Testing Team for three shifts, six days of the week. We all paid into the 'Coffee Club" and took it in turns to buy biscuits/cakes whenever the fancy took us. In eighteen months we only had to replace the unit once ( the first unit was pretty ancient and had been salvaged from the electrical waste skip and repaired by one of the team). In terms of value prop this machine aced it: £28 retail and we used it to produce maybe ten pots of coffee per day and it never missed a beat. Instant coffee is the worst!
I just wanted to say thank you for having subtitles that are always accurate and grammatically correct and perfectly punctuated. I’m not deaf, I just prefer subtitles and I hate when they deviate from what is being said so much.
Keep telling yourself you're not deaf. LOL. Nobody _wants_ to read subtitles.
A note on instant coffee: it's often "burnt" by dumping the freshly boiling water in the mug. I've seen a noticeable improvement even with cheap instant coffee when using 85-90C water instead.
I actually use instant coffee only for my shakes, just blend it up with ice and water and you got yourself an ice cap
You're right my parents both have tea and coffee so when making one for both of them I boil the kettle and pour the water straight away into the tea pot, but wait till the tea is half way brewed before I pour the water into the coffee cups
Just put it in the microwave man
As a general rule of thumb, whether making instant coffee or pour-over coffee, the water should not be hotter than about 93C (200F). Coffee grounds / beans begin to burn / scald over that temperature, resulting in a burnt flavor. When I boil water for my pour-over (or instant), I wait about 40 seconds after I turn off the kettle before I pour the water - that's enough time to get the water down to a temp that won't burn the coffee grind. Only really ideal if you're making just a single serving of coffee though, if you're tyring to make a large amount of coffee (i.e. a full pot), you'd have to keep reheating the water as you work.
@@TheWoblinGoblin Yecch! I hate the sour taste of microwave ions! J/K, that's what I do! (on rare occasions when I drink instant)
There is a rare half decent instant coffee you can use for emergencies but, proper coffee made from beans is on another level. I'm from the UK and was making my own coffee in the 80s using a percolator, then onto a filter machine, then a French press, now I have a bean to cup machine that I spent lots on but I love. It took into the early 2010s until you could get a decent coffee from a "mom and pop" cafe instead of a big chain.
I come here to learn things I never questioned. And I love it!
One thing I've noticed become more common in middle- to high-end machines is that they ditch the hot plate (or make it a separate switch again) in favour of dripping the coffee into an insulated pot. Very likely to improve the taste because the coffee doesn't get burnt while keeping it hot. Also, cone-shaped filters are the default for German home machines (probably thanks to Melitta, who are _the_ name brand for filters), I've only seen flat-bottomed filters on large commercial machines.
You can always transfer the coffee to a thermos bottle after the brew. Way better than re-heating in the microwave
I started doing that because I hated the taste of over heated coffee. The thermos serves me well, it can keep my morning coffee stash hot for hours.
@@deed5811 I rarely drink coffee, but the last time I made some a few months ago, I put it in a metal thermos and was also blow away by how long it stayed hot. I shouldn't have been...the darn thing advertises itself as doing such, (keeps cold things cold and hot things hot). I've seen that when loaded with ice cubes, it can keep them there for hours without the cup ever going in the freezer. But as I rarely drink hot drinks, I had yet to test it with a hot beverage. From now on, I'm definitely putting my hot beverages in this cup as well.
I took a larger thermos of ice water to a concert in august in Texas. Had to be there at 4:30pm (I did a rare VIP). Left after 1:30 am. Thermos was still cold and had ice even after sitting in an uncovered parking lot all that time.
Melitta is the most used brand both for filters but for coffee too in Brazil. At some point I even though Melitta was a Brazilian brand, as it's everywhere 😂
I remember when we got our Mr. Coffee. It was a big deal back then. It really did revolutionize home-brewed coffee. Households almost universally used percolators, and Mr. Coffee let you make coffee that taste MUCH better but make it faster and more easily. It was one of those rare times when advertising didn't exaggerate. And if I remember correctly, Joe DiMaggio did not want to be a spokesperson and kept turning them down. They eventually persuaded him by showing him that their device really was a huge improvement. And now that I've watched this video and have a craving for a hot cup of coffee, I'm firing up my device to brew one.
About descaling: I'd recommend using a solution of citric acid instead of vinegar. While any acid that is safe to ingest is fine for descaling a coffee maker, citric acid tastes a lot milder than vinegar (some citric acid or vinegar will remain in the machine even after running water through it multiple times, and it will end up in the coffee).
Very interesting video, as always. My parents in Brazil also always used similar machines and after a lot of overthinking, I have to agree. Pretty good coffee, easy and cheap ❤
MEMORY UNLOCKED: my aunt had one of those old fake-wood-grain Mr. Coffee machines in her (finished) basement, where we had a great big extended family Thanksgiving every year. I hate coffee, but I still know how to make it (my dad taught me so he wouldn't have to do it himself, apparently I make excellent coffee that I can never enjoy) - so after Thanksgiving dinner someone would always ask me to make coffee in this ancient 70s monstrosity. Since I only used it once a year I always forgot how it worked and I hated it! Now she's gone and I wish I had one more chance to puzzle through it :( And yes, I miss the engineer guy too
When I was a little kid we got a new coffee maker to replace our Mr coffee that was very similar after it broke. I was all upset that we replaced it so my mom cut the cord off and gave it to me so I carried it around in my wagon with my toys for about a month... 😂
My kids also make the best coffee in the world. Tastes exactly like the coffee I or my wife can make, but don't tell that to the kids, it will ruin the breaking bad vibes they get when carefully determining the coffee to water ratio and the joy from seeing the result drip into the pot, and us enjoying every sip.
He's making a new book! It comes out next year :)
What happened to EngineerGuy?
At an old job years ago, I earned a reputation for making particularly good coffee. Someone finally asked how I was doing it, since I was using the same water and coffee packets everyone else was. So, I happily shared my secret: I washed the basket and pot before I made it.
For the record, I'm german and in my experience most of the coffee that people make at home is ground coffee in 500g vacuum packs. Many use filter machines, the french press is not uncommon, and some ground their coffee themselves. Machines for espresso and other fancy stuff are common in public places and relatively seldom compared to filter coffee makers. Instant coffee is the least common, at least in homes. People mostly choose it for mobile situations or at some workplaces when only an electric kettle is available.
I say it in English so everyone can understand it. I grind it myself and use a filter made of porcelain and paper filter. Boil water wait a second and then pull it slowly in circle movements over the coffee which I by the way always grind very fine (small grains). Do that two time or more depending how much I want and it's done. Of course boiling the water again is also a step then. milk froth I do with a machine so automatically and it's perfect I sometimes eat it pure 😂. And I use different coffee beans depending what I want and milk too sometimes more fat or not. Theoretical I could use other milk than cow milk but I never tried. Also expensive. Which is a good point also why I use the old way to make coffee like that because over time it's probably one of the cheapest.
Don't forget Moka Pots!! I mean, as far is my very limited information goes it's a rather italian thing, but from people starting to use it (including me) it makes perfect espresso (easily made into an americano), especially in lower quantities. As long as you don't care as much about the Créma (who even expects a good one outside restaurants or espresso machines). I had a drip machine, which was in almost all stakes more than okay. But in low quantities, got weird and clunky. I love Moka Pots for their very aquivalent size and i don't mind the 2 minutes of cleaning.
@@leeroyjenkins1937 I know them they are very traditional and quite the same as those press variants right?
I am in Canada and in my home we have a large, ground coffee filter drip for the mornings and a French Press for the afternoon cup. We have a can of pre-ground coffee and we grind beans for the press. We also have an electric kettle.
@@leeroyjenkins1937 there is a trick we use here in italy to get cream from a moka, as long as you have some extra time and like a bit of sugar in your coffee. You basically take a tiny bit of the first coffee it comes out and mix it with a spoon of sugar (like a teaspoon of coffee for 2-3 of sugar, just enough to wet it), and then you just whip it with (even by hand since it's such a small quantity). After a bit it will become a smooth cream that you can add it to the brewed moka to mimic cream on it
This is the video that made me get a drip coffe maker. I love that thing.
Thanks for bringing back memories of my parents using that old Mr. Coffee where you pour it and have to quickly replace the carafe. Definitely some expletives were used if done improperly.
Seeing that old Mr. Coffee machine brought me back to when I was a kid and was allowed to make the coffee for my parents in the morning. My dad would leave for work about the same time I got up so instead of waiting for the full pot to brew, I had a system worked out where I would keep a mug under the drip spout and add the water, and when the mug was (I think) half full, shut off the brewer. The remaining coffee would fill the mug almost full, and then you had a second to switch the mug and carafe before turning the power back on and finishing the brew. It wasn't perfect as you would get a little dribble on the hot plate if you weren't quick enough, but dad got his mug and I got an extra 5 minutes of sleep. One thing I love about modern coffee makers is the ability to program them to auto-brew at a set time. Prepare the grounds and water in the evening, set the timer for a specific time, and wake up in the morning to the glorious smell of a fresh brew. Most days the smell of the coffee will wake me up before my alarm even has a chance to go off. Another great video! Looking forward to the next one, whatever that may be about!