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Language: en-US

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Nostalgia … is weird.

00:00:02.840 --> 00:00:06.480
It sometimes makes
us do things that don’t make any sense.

00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:08.740
Now look, I’m not immune from it either.

00:00:08.740 --> 00:00:12.740
I still like to make compilations of the music I like on cassette tapes.

00:00:12.740 --> 00:00:16.410
Rather than just
make a playlist which takes two minutes,

00:00:16.410 --> 00:00:19.680
I like to listen to each song as I record
it onto the tape,

00:00:19.680 --> 00:00:23.660
get good at pausing the deck at just the right time for small gaps,

00:00:23.660 --> 00:00:26.120
adjust the levels so that it doesn’t peak too much, and

00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:26.620
Ooh!

00:00:26.620 --> 00:00:28.840
When you get to the end
of a side, you gotta look for a song that’s

00:00:28.840 --> 00:00:31.910
just the right length, or maybe go with one
that’s a little too short and then rewind the tape

00:00:31.910 --> 00:00:34.980
and re-record the last 4 with a
bit of a longer gap in…

00:00:34.980 --> 00:00:37.900
Anyway, nostalgia makes us do weird things.

00:00:37.900 --> 00:00:40.460
And it made me buy a percolator!

00:00:40.460 --> 00:00:42.500
But first, a word from our sponsor!

00:00:42.940 --> 00:00:46.020
This episode of Technology Connections has
been brought to you by;

00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:53.640
Do you ever decide to make toast and find yourself limited to just that one toaster on your countertop?

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Well, 
Too Many Small Kitchen Appliances has you covered!

00:00:56.930 --> 00:01:01.739
Thanks to Too Many Small Kitchen Appliances,
you’ll have your choice of not just toast,

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but toaster, too!

00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:07.200
Are you tired of not being
able to slow cook seven meals at once?

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With Too Many Small Kitchen Appliances, you’ll
be slow cooking in style!

00:01:11.460 --> 00:01:14.200
Don’t delay, add a little Spice to your life with

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Too Many
Small Kitchen Appliances Today!

00:01:17.240 --> 00:01:19.600
Thanks, Too Many Small Kitchen Appliances!

00:01:19.600 --> 00:01:25.240
Ya know I’m glad they chose to pitch in because I was getting a little bored with my selection of coffee makers.

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Every morning I like to brew two nice cups of joe, and I’ve grown weary of only having

00:01:30.040 --> 00:01:31.980
five coffee makers to choose from.

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So I’ve bumped that up to seven with the addition
of these two percolators.

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What is a percolator you ask?

00:01:37.860 --> 00:01:39.820
Why, what a great question!

00:01:39.820 --> 00:01:44.060
If only there were a piece of long-form internet content to answer that for you.

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Oh right!

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This is a percolator.

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For some reason you
can still buy these!

00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:54.880
These stalwarts of coffee’s past used to be in nearly every home,

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but then we were introduced to the wonders of drip coffee and we decided

00:01:59.240 --> 00:02:01.080
these are awful!

00:02:01.080 --> 00:02:02.860
At least most of us did.

00:02:02.860 --> 00:02:07.380
And now of course we’ve been introduced to the wonders of plastic single-use coffee pods,

00:02:07.380 --> 00:02:10.980
because we can’t be bothered to put a filter in a basket
anymore I guess.

00:02:10.980 --> 00:02:16.600
And for those of us who like to work for our java, there are just so many ways to go about it these days,

00:02:16.600 --> 00:02:22.100
like pour-over, French press, cold brew, and whatever other fanciful techniques are making the rounds.

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Fun fact! Coffee gadgets make
up 80% of Too Many Small Kitchen Appliance’s

00:02:26.820 --> 00:02:28.060
yearly portfolio.

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We interrupt this program with a public service
announcement.

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Dear demographic,

00:02:33.340 --> 00:02:38.620
we would like to inform
you that "fresh" and "hot" are two different concepts.

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Believe it or not, the freshness of a cup
of coffee is largely independent from its hotness.

00:02:44.100 --> 00:02:48.360
Those of you who will accept nothing
less than burns-your-tongue fire liquid

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are ruining it for the rest of us.

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For you see, many establishments which subscribe to this “hot IS fresh” philosophy

00:02:55.840 --> 00:02:57.820
(or else cater to those who subscribe)

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use carafes warmed by a hot plate.

00:03:00.580 --> 00:03:03.080
This burns the coffee in short
order.

00:03:03.080 --> 00:03:04.920
For those of us who can taste things,

00:03:04.920 --> 00:03:07.460
burned coffee is bad.

00:03:07.460 --> 00:03:13.700
An alternative philosophy is to maximize the
time a given quantity of coffee remains palatable.

00:03:13.700 --> 00:03:19.620
Some establishments use insulated coffee servers
to keep brewed coffee hot as long as possible

00:03:19.620 --> 00:03:23.120
without introducing more heat and burning
the coffee.

00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:26.320
While this may lead to coffee which is slightly less hot,

00:03:26.320 --> 00:03:29.460
I promise it actually tastes
much better!

00:03:29.460 --> 00:03:31.920
And as a bonus, it reduces waste.

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Related pro-tip! If you use a drip-coffee
maker, be sure not to start the brew too long

00:03:36.900 --> 00:03:38.873
before you intend to drink the coffee.

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Likewise, when brewing is complete, be sure to turn the unit off as soon as you can.

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This minimizes the time the hot plate burns the coffee,

00:03:46.860 --> 00:03:52.560
a side-effect of this style of coffee maker which your host feels gives them an unfairly poor reputation.

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After all, what is drip coffee,
but slower, automated pour-over?

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Speaking of pour-over, 
how does one actually make coffee?

00:04:00.540 --> 00:04:03.580
Aha! At last, we are back on track.

00:04:03.580 --> 00:04:04.400
Well,

00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:08.080
it all starts with a plant with particularly
particular preferences regarding

00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:10.000
where it would like to grow.

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Let’s just skip over all of the in-between thorny things like exploitative labor practices

00:04:13.820 --> 00:04:15.920
and get to the part where
we roast the seeds

00:04:15.920 --> 00:04:18.600
(which we call beans for.. reasons)

00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:19.800
of this plant.

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We burn them, but like,
not too much

00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:23.960
(with some notable exceptions).

00:04:23.960 --> 00:04:27.440
After this rather heated ordeal and possibly
a bit of grinding,

00:04:27.440 --> 00:04:28.560
Arabicadabra!

00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:32.640
it ends up on store shelves where you buy it because
you’re addicted to it but of course really

00:04:32.640 --> 00:04:35.269
you could stop whenever you please it’s just... it's just so good so why...

00:04:35.269 --> 00:04:36.600
why... why bother amirite?

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[slurps obnoxiously loudly]

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OK, well to turn coffee beans into delicious
Hot Brown, we need to make hot water

00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:47.060
and ground coffee very close friends through some kind
of introduction.

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This as you may recognize is a maintenance serv…

00:04:49.740 --> 00:04:51.480
an ordinary coffee maker.

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To use it, you simply put a filter into the basket,

00:04:54.380 --> 00:04:59.200
endure the internet comments about how you should be using unbleached filters prompted by this shot,

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add some ground coffee,

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put the thing in the thing,

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the water in the other thing,

00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:04.980
and flip the switch.

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The water in the reservoir is heated and pumped 
(in a very clever fashion I might add)

00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:13.380
to a little drippy thing where it will land on and seep through the coffee grounds

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and end up in the pot below it,

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now infused with the sweet sweet caffeine that was in the beans.

00:05:19.340 --> 00:05:21.420
And flavors and other
things probably, too.

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Before we were introduced to the wonders of
Mr. Coffee, we had to deal with...

00:05:26.540 --> 00:05:27.520
these things.

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Now, don’t get me wrong, the invention of
the coffee percolator was itself a pretty neat thing,

00:05:32.180 --> 00:05:36.360
as it presented a good balance
between convenience and quality.

00:05:36.360 --> 00:05:40.520
There had been other ways to get your Hot Brown before, but some were really finicky,

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others couldn’t make larger quantities of coffee, so

00:05:43.480 --> 00:05:49.029
for a time here in the US we settled on these as fairly good catch-all solutions.

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I have here two kinds of percolators.

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A stove-top version,

00:05:52.840 --> 00:05:54.660
and an electric version.

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They both operate using the same exact principle,

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but the electric one has a distinct advantage which we’ll see shortly.

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However, the glass one illustrates
how they work much better,

00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:06.720
because it’s glass and we can see through it.

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Percolators use the fact that boiling water creates bubbles to force water up a tube.

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Percolators have three basic parts:

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A vessel for holding water to be heated.

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A vertical tube, sometimes called the perk tube but that’s
actually a misnomer.

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And the tube travels through a basket which holds ground coffee above the water level.

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On a stove top percolator,

00:06:31.550 --> 00:06:36.200
you’ll find that the base of the tube has
a sort of upside-down funnel thing.

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When it's assembled,

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this funnel covers much of the bottom surface.

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The purpose of that is to catch bubbles that form as the water boils.

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See, when you fill the percolator with water
and place the tube and basket inside,

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water will travel up the tube to the same level as the
water in the pot.

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As the water is heated and approaches boiling point,

00:06:57.780 --> 00:07:00.240
bubbles of water vapor form on the bottom.

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Many of these bubbles simply float to the surface but some of them get caught by our little funnel thing.

00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:11.020
This forces them to travel up the tube, and as they bunch
together, they force the water sitting in

00:07:11.020 --> 00:07:13.020
the tube to travel upwards as well.

00:07:13.020 --> 00:07:16.409
It then splashes
against the inside of this glass knob thing

00:07:16.409 --> 00:07:19.120
(which allows you to see that the pumping
action is occurring),

00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:22.000
and falls onto the spreader plate below it.

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After the spreader plate spreads it out, this
very hot water now falls onto the grounds below it

00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:29.440
and seeps through them.

00:07:29.440 --> 00:07:33.260
Which, by the way, is where the name percolator
comes from.

00:07:33.260 --> 00:07:37.540
Percolating just means filtering liquid through porous materials.

00:07:37.540 --> 00:07:40.400
Really, all coffee makers are percolators.

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Because percolating is how you make coffee

00:07:42.920 --> 00:07:45.599
(excluding of course things like a French press which use infusion,

00:07:45.599 --> 00:07:47.340
but that’s not important right now).

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But, probably thanks to the lovely sounds these make as water splashes to the top,

00:07:52.040 --> 00:07:57.600
we’ve confused things a bit in the States at least and sometimes refer to this water splashy action itself

00:07:57.600 --> 00:07:59.200
as percolation.

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That’s probably how these tubes got called the perk tube,

00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:04.120
and anyway I’m spending WAY too much time on this

00:08:04.120 --> 00:08:05.540
so let’s continue.

00:08:05.540 --> 00:08:09.280
As the water percolates through the coffee,
it picks up that caffeine

00:08:09.280 --> 00:08:10.580
(and flavors and colors I guess)

00:08:10.580 --> 00:08:12.100
and…

00:08:12.100 --> 00:08:14.980
then it ends up right back
where it started.

00:08:14.980 --> 00:08:18.000
This here is the fatal flaw of the percolator.

00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:22.040
For you see, there is no
separation between the fresh water

00:08:22.040 --> 00:08:24.040
and the brewed coffee.

00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:26.160
It’s just one big happy family!

00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:32.140
This of course means that the coffee’s concentration continually increases as the coffee is percolating.

00:08:32.140 --> 00:08:35.400
You eventually start running brewed coffee through the grounds again,

00:08:35.400 --> 00:08:36.460
and then again,

00:08:36.460 --> 00:08:39.800
and that’s generally not a recipe for good coffee.

00:08:39.800 --> 00:08:43.560
Some people like the fact that the coffee
recirculates as it does.

00:08:43.560 --> 00:08:44.760
We call these people

00:08:44.760 --> 00:08:45.700
"masochists."

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To be fair, though, you can control how strong the coffee becomes using time.

00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:55.960
Just let it percolate for however long you like, then remove the heat and serve.

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This was after all how everybody did it before our savior Mr. Coffee appeared.

00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:05.360
But designs like this glass one have one more
flaw up their sleeves!

00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:10.000
They don’t start moving water up the tube until the water is boiling.

00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.540
And quite roaringly, I might add.

00:09:12.540 --> 00:09:17.960
Remember how I was saying in that PSA earlier that
adding heat to brewed coffee will burn it?

00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:22.180
Well, this percolator burns the coffee
while it brews!

00:09:22.180 --> 00:09:24.980
Hey, at least it kills two birds with one stone!

00:09:24.980 --> 00:09:28.020
This electric one works in a much more elegant
fashion.

00:09:28.420 --> 00:09:30.200
[metallic clanging as the things are removed from the thing]

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Its water conveyance tube doesn’t have a funnel thing at the bottom,

00:09:35.580 --> 00:09:39.280
and that’s because it heats the water in a very small spot.

00:09:39.280 --> 00:09:43.360
Look in the bottom and you’ll see
that the tube fits snugly into this little recess.

00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:48.180
This is the only part that actually gets hot,
so when you plug it in it starts percolating

00:09:48.180 --> 00:09:49.920
almost immediately.

00:09:49.920 --> 00:09:54.250
Effectively the tube traps
small quantities of water in the heat chamber,

00:09:54.250 --> 00:09:59.150
which causes it to boil rapidly, and so the
bubbles formed shoot some of it up this tube

00:09:59.150 --> 00:10:01.500
where it will then percolate through the grounds.

00:10:01.500 --> 00:10:03.040
In this basket.

00:10:03.040 --> 00:10:07.540
That water then gets replaced by the colder water surrounding the heat chamber.

00:10:07.540 --> 00:10:12.660
This does still have the recirculation flaw
of the stove-top percolator, but it means

00:10:12.670 --> 00:10:15.180
that it’s not constantly burning the coffee.

00:10:15.180 --> 00:10:20.040
Most of the water gets heated from the water that falls through the basket and back into the pot

00:10:20.040 --> 00:10:23.240
and this allows the device to have an automatic stop function.

00:10:23.240 --> 00:10:26.700
As it percolates,
the bulk of water slowly gets warmer,

00:10:26.700 --> 00:10:32.060
and once it gets near boiling point, a thermostat
cuts in and switches the device into a warming mode.

00:10:32.060 --> 00:10:36.160
In this mode it no longer gets hot enough
to continue pumping water to the top,

00:10:36.160 --> 00:10:38.060
so the brewing action stops.

00:10:38.060 --> 00:10:41.611
And for the icing on
the cake, a little neon indicator will light up

00:10:41.611 --> 00:10:43.569
to let you know that it’s done!

00:10:43.569 --> 00:10:45.820
So, want my impression on how...

00:10:45.820 --> 00:10:46.380
"well"

00:10:46.380 --> 00:10:47.760
these make coffee?

00:10:47.760 --> 00:10:49.629
Let’s do a taste test shall we‽

00:10:49.629 --> 00:10:55.600
I’m going to be using my everyday coffee,
so I’ll get a great sense of how badly these butcher it.

00:10:55.600 --> 00:10:59.940
I’ve ground the coffee rather
coarsely as you ideally should when using a percolator.

00:10:59.940 --> 00:11:03.380
This is, incidentally, another
reason why these went out of favor,

00:11:03.380 --> 00:11:08.120
as coffee manufacturers stopped selling pre-ground percolator grind coffee.

00:11:08.120 --> 00:11:10.620
Anyway, let’s cut to an unscripted segment!

00:11:10.620 --> 00:11:13.460
[ jazz piano plays softly ]
Hi! Welcome to an unscripted segment!

00:11:13.460 --> 00:11:17.010
So, you may notice that one of the percolators
is not here, and that’s because while I

00:11:17.010 --> 00:11:20.780
tried to make it work with the little hot
plate that I’ve used in other videos,

00:11:20.780 --> 00:11:25.980
that does not produce enough heat to make it percolate
so it needs to be on an honest-to-goodness stove.

00:11:25.980 --> 00:11:31.460
So that will be happening upstairs,
and I will bring it back down here when, uh,

00:11:31.460 --> 00:11:32.300
it is ready.

00:11:32.300 --> 00:11:34.160
But first! I’m going to start this.

00:11:34.160 --> 00:11:35.620
And show you how to do it!

00:11:35.620 --> 00:11:39.500
As I said in the scripted segment, I am using
my everyday coffee.

00:11:39.500 --> 00:11:41.460
What is my everyday coffee you ask?

00:11:41.460 --> 00:11:45.190
I’m not gonna tell ya because everybody
judges everybody for that kinda of thing but

00:11:45.190 --> 00:11:48.540
I will tell you it is NOT from Starbucks and
it is Fair Trade.

00:11:48.540 --> 00:11:50.500
That's all you need to know.

00:11:50.500 --> 00:11:55.540
I am definitely not a coffee snob and I refuse
to let myself become a coffee snob,

00:11:55.540 --> 00:12:01.260
but I am pedantic enough that I measure my coffee
out every morning by weight.

00:12:01.260 --> 00:12:06.320
And I have put the exact same amount of weight that I always do with a drip coffee maker

00:12:06.320 --> 00:12:09.240
inside this coffee thingy.

00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:09.980
Basket.

00:12:09.980 --> 00:12:14.329
And, the same exact amount of water that I
would normally use to make this quantity of

00:12:14.329 --> 00:12:16.460
coffee is in the percolator.

00:12:16.460 --> 00:12:19.790
The only difference
here is this is a percolator, and this was

00:12:19.790 --> 00:12:23.860
ground more coarsely so that it would work
better with a percolator ‘cause this does

00:12:23.860 --> 00:12:26.960
not have a filter in it. I could put a filter
in it, but I did not.

00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:32.100
♫ slow, rompy piano ♫

00:12:35.920 --> 00:12:40.220
And, I will not be judging grounds that get
in the water because I expect that to happen

00:12:40.230 --> 00:12:42.840
both on this one and the stovetop model.

00:12:42.840 --> 00:12:45.940
But, for this coffee maker,

00:12:45.940 --> 00:12:48.540
you start by filling it with water which I already did.

00:12:48.540 --> 00:12:49.640
You put the perk tube

00:12:49.640 --> 00:12:51.460
[a perfect little water bloop noise just happened]

00:12:51.460 --> 00:12:54.200
into the bottom and fit it in that little recess.

00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:56.080
Slide this over it…

00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:57.500
[slidey noises]

00:12:57.500 --> 00:12:58.340
Cool.

00:12:59.020 --> 00:13:01.320
Now this is the spreader for this one,

00:13:01.320 --> 00:13:02.440
that goes on top.

00:13:03.680 --> 00:13:06.840
And then this whole thing
gets shoved down with the lid.

00:13:06.880 --> 00:13:07.940
[more metallica]

00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:08.580
[THUD]

00:13:09.300 --> 00:13:10.520
Is that difficult?

00:13:10.520 --> 00:13:13.360
No, but I find it to be
way more finicky than

00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:15.920
a regular old coffee maker.

00:13:15.920 --> 00:13:19.820
This has an old-school kitchen appliance plug,
so I will plug it in.

00:13:19.820 --> 00:13:21.520
[pluggy sounds]

00:13:22.580 --> 00:13:25.900
And you will notice that this starts making noise quite quickly.

00:13:25.900 --> 00:13:28.339
It’s already making… making noises and

00:13:28.339 --> 00:13:29.339
it’s only been this long

00:13:29.340 --> 00:13:33.220
♫ suspenseful music ♫

00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:35.060
And now it is percolating.

00:13:35.060 --> 00:13:38.280
So, I’m now gonna
go upstairs and start the other one.

00:13:38.280 --> 00:13:39.880
You guys, uh…

00:13:39.880 --> 00:13:41.080
keep watch of this.

00:13:41.580 --> 00:13:43.700
[ pew, pew pew pew, pew pew ]

00:13:43.700 --> 00:13:47.840
(it does sound weirdly like a laser blaster when sped up)

00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:51.560
Fascinating, innit?

00:13:58.280 --> 00:14:01.280
[now it sounds like a steam train]

00:14:01.280 --> 00:14:03.240
[I think I can, I think I can I think Ican
ithinkican]

00:14:03.240 --> 00:14:06.180
[ithinkicanithinkicanithnkcaithcith]

00:14:06.740 --> 00:14:10.000
Oh god, IT’S GONNA BLOW!

00:14:10.300 --> 00:14:13.300
[sound returns to normal as video resumes
normal time]

00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:14.540
[click as the light turns on]

00:14:14.560 --> 00:14:19.160
[A throbbing gurgle/boiling sound slows and gradually stops]

00:14:21.320 --> 00:14:25.940
There were also beeps coming from upstairs - that was me setting a timer for the other percolator

00:14:28.580 --> 00:14:32.900
I just got back from upstairs because the
one on the stove JUST started percolating

00:14:32.910 --> 00:14:34.900
and this is already done.

00:14:34.900 --> 00:14:38.520
So, uh, again the
stovetop models…

00:14:38.520 --> 00:14:40.920
I don’t know why anyone would use them.

00:14:40.920 --> 00:14:45.060
Anyway, I have set a timer for five minutes; that’s how long I’m going to let that percolate.

00:14:45.320 --> 00:14:45.840
Umm...

00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:50.319
I just wanted to say that the one thing I’m
not quite sure of but it looks to be OK is

00:14:50.319 --> 00:14:55.269
some experimenting I was doing earlier indicated
that the glass one needs to have a fair bit

00:14:55.269 --> 00:15:00.300
of water in it in order for it to percolate,
if you only have enough water to, say,

00:15:01.160 --> 00:15:04.960
fill a mug like this it doesn't really percolate
at all.

00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:10.040
Um, so the amount that I have in there seems to be percolating pretty well… um,

00:15:10.040 --> 00:15:15.740
but if it is noticeably weaker than this I will assume that it just needs more water

00:15:15.740 --> 00:15:19.820
but I’m not wasting ANY MORE of my good coffee on this experiment.

00:15:19.820 --> 00:15:21.820
Anyway, I’ll be back in a bit.

00:15:21.820 --> 00:15:24.420
I’m back! And I brought this!

00:15:24.420 --> 00:15:27.879
Now, this is, uh, not particularly dark but the coffee

00:15:27.879 --> 00:15:33.620
that I use doesn’t make a very dark coffee
anyway so I’m not necessarily concerned about that.

00:15:33.620 --> 00:15:35.480
I have two mugs with some cream and sugar
in there.

00:15:35.480 --> 00:15:37.160
Yes, I take my coffee with cream and sugar

00:15:37.160 --> 00:15:39.060
because I love myself!

00:15:39.060 --> 00:15:45.340
And yes, this one was in keep-warm for five
or six minutes, but I don’t think it will matter much.

00:15:45.720 --> 00:15:48.280
♫ a rhythmic jazzy riff starts to play ♫

00:15:48.420 --> 00:15:55.120
This is about the darkness that I would expect
out of my, uh, out of my drip coffee maker.

00:15:55.400 --> 00:15:56.700
[some lovely pouring noises]

00:15:57.020 --> 00:15:59.580
Ehh, it’s a little lighter but not much.

00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:01.840
[man this is good Foley]

00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:05.640
This also pours really weirdly out of this.

00:16:07.500 --> 00:16:10.999
And I’m sure it’s bunching up against
the [clears throat] the grounds.

00:16:10.999 --> 00:16:15.520
I tried to put the same amount of cream in
here and it is a very similar color.

00:16:15.520 --> 00:16:16.850
So, hey!

00:16:16.850 --> 00:16:20.640
We did uh… we at least got that kinda right
didn’t we?

00:16:21.400 --> 00:16:24.080
I think this is a... is a tad lighter, but not much.

00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:24.580
OK.

00:16:26.560 --> 00:16:33.320
So, time to come clean I used this once
before and it wasn’t awful

00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:35.200
but it smelled horrible.

00:16:35.560 --> 00:16:38.500
Same exact thing, the smell…

00:16:39.420 --> 00:16:41.180
it just smells…

00:16:42.140 --> 00:16:43.560
not pleasant.

00:16:43.560 --> 00:16:46.540
You know, like I like the smell of a fresh cup of coffee.

00:16:46.540 --> 00:16:48.200
This is NOT. THAT.

00:16:48.200 --> 00:16:50.060
This is very pungent,

00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:56.300
like there’s a sharpness to it and, uh,

00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:00.260
and also like a chemical smell?

00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:03.019
And I don’t like it.

00:17:03.020 --> 00:17:03.760
At all!

00:17:04.740 --> 00:17:08.700
This one, which definitely has more grounds
in it for what it’s worth.

00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:14.120
Oddly enough this one has less of a smell.

00:17:14.120 --> 00:17:16.580
It’s still not good, it’s… it’s not…

00:17:17.340 --> 00:17:20.880
Oh no, that chemical, that... that weird, like,

00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:25.860
pungent smell is there so these both smell really bad.

00:17:25.860 --> 00:17:27.529
[laughs]

00:17:27.529 --> 00:17:33.300
Like if you’re… if you’re someone who likes the smell of coffee and this is what you’re used to…

00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:35.020
ugh!

00:17:35.020 --> 00:17:36.500
You’ve not smelled
good coffee.

00:17:36.980 --> 00:17:40.680
I’m kind of afraid to taste these. Plus
they are probably quite hot.

00:17:41.540 --> 00:17:45.920
This one was boiling just a moment ago, this one’s probably not quite that hot.

00:17:46.780 --> 00:17:49.200
And I’ll start… I’ll start with this one.

00:17:55.820 --> 00:17:56.800
[grumble]

00:17:56.800 --> 00:17:58.160
It’s not the..

00:17:59.940 --> 00:18:02.480
I… If I were served this at a restaurant

00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:04.540
I would consider it bad coffee,

00:18:05.640 --> 00:18:11.180
but I wouldn’t not drink it. So It’s not so bad that I would send it back but this is not...

00:18:11.180 --> 00:18:15.060
This is NOT the coffee that I have for breakfast.

00:18:15.060 --> 00:18:16.100
With breakfast.

00:18:16.100 --> 00:18:17.240
[lip smacking]

00:18:17.240 --> 00:18:18.640
Uh. No.

00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:20.260
No. Ugh!

00:18:20.260 --> 00:18:22.680
It tastes so
bad! There’s a…

00:18:24.560 --> 00:18:27.920
it’s like worse than vending machine coffee.

00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:29.580
At least I think so.

00:18:29.580 --> 00:18:33.140
It is not… there’s nothing… it, it,

00:18:33.140 --> 00:18:37.420
it is coffee but it doesn't have any of the
pleasant aspects of coffee.

00:18:38.280 --> 00:18:40.280
Shall we… shall we try this one?

00:18:40.660 --> 00:18:41.860
I’m a little afraid.

00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:44.740
[slurpy slurp]

00:18:47.180 --> 00:18:49.180
Oh this is worse.

00:18:49.180 --> 00:18:50.620
See, this one actually doesn't

00:18:50.620 --> 00:18:51.120
[clears throat]

00:18:51.120 --> 00:18:53.820
this one doesn’t taste burned to me.

00:18:53.820 --> 00:18:58.210
Surprisingly enough. This one does.
This tastes like coffee that’s been,

00:18:58.210 --> 00:19:01.080
ya know, left in the coffee pot for two hours.

00:19:01.080 --> 00:19:01.720
And it’s…

00:19:01.720 --> 00:19:02.860
I JUST made it.

00:19:05.420 --> 00:19:07.040
Yeah. It’s got…

00:19:08.780 --> 00:19:12.380
It’s a different kind
of burn from what I’m used to but it’s there.

00:19:12.380 --> 00:19:18.900
‘Cause normally I describe the taste
of burnt coffe as almost a, almost a carameley

00:19:18.900 --> 00:19:20.780
(or care-a-meley) um,

00:19:20.780 --> 00:19:23.170
obviously it’s not
pleasant like that but I think it’s almost

00:19:23.170 --> 00:19:27.740
like a caramelization is what I get from it.

00:19:29.800 --> 00:19:33.280
This one is so much better. Like, if you’re
gonna use a percolator…

00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:36.120
don’t!

00:19:36.120 --> 00:19:37.280
Not on the stove.

00:19:37.860 --> 00:19:39.960
Get... get an electric one.

00:19:39.960 --> 00:19:42.130
And I should
say, I don’t know if all electric ones are

00:19:42.130 --> 00:19:48.940
created equal but I’m assuming that since
this is still available for purchase, this

00:19:48.940 --> 00:19:53.840
is the design that is, ya know, left. The
one that’s been refined to that.

00:19:57.540 --> 00:19:59.780
See, it’s so funny ‘cause now this tastes
pretty good

00:19:59.780 --> 00:20:00.900
[laughs]

00:20:00.900 --> 00:20:03.360
In comparison to this, this is…

00:20:03.360 --> 00:20:04.800
MUCH better!

00:20:04.800 --> 00:20:06.000
This is…

00:20:09.960 --> 00:20:14.540
and to know that it did this to coffee I like makes me wonder if I had, ya know,

00:20:14.540 --> 00:20:17.480
just like... had some
random coffee and put it in there would I

00:20:17.480 --> 00:20:20.740
even tolerate it at all.

00:20:20.740 --> 00:20:21.480
I…

00:20:21.480 --> 00:20:22.160
mmhmm…

00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:23.380
could not tell ya.

00:20:25.060 --> 00:20:29.160
Since I don’t know if you can see this at all I will take a picture of the tops.

00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:34.800
This is just so you can see that the, uh, darkness is pretty… is pretty similar between the two.

00:20:34.800 --> 00:20:36.540
But, uh, yeah.

00:20:37.340 --> 00:20:40.700
This… neither of these make
what I would consider good coffee.

00:20:40.700 --> 00:20:46.160
This makes “okay” coffee but I still would not take
this over drip coffee…

00:20:46.160 --> 00:20:47.279
EVER.

00:20:47.280 --> 00:20:51.780
If I had no other option but this, I would
definitely take it over this.

00:20:51.780 --> 00:20:53.820
Especially because it was faster!

00:20:53.820 --> 00:20:57.120
I'm surprised how long it
took this to even start percolating.

00:20:57.120 --> 00:21:03.380
This, um, I mean it didn’t start until this had
finished so this is definitely faster.

00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:08.460
I mean this is kinda charming! I’ll give
it that.

00:21:08.460 --> 00:21:09.460
That’s it, though.

00:21:09.460 --> 00:21:12.960
The actual finished product… gross!

00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:13.700
Gross.

00:21:13.960 --> 00:21:14.960
Gross.

00:21:15.500 --> 00:21:18.680
Do not use
a percolator… I mean like…

00:21:20.260 --> 00:21:21.520
really? I just… ugh.

00:21:21.520 --> 00:21:26.140
I just have to ask the people who say
they like this… have you had coffee that’s

00:21:26.150 --> 00:21:29.120
been in a drip machine or anything better?

00:21:29.120 --> 00:21:30.990
Lots of people consider drip to be “bad,”

00:21:30.990 --> 00:21:35.169
I disagree with them. I think it… as I said
earlier I think it has to do with when people

00:21:35.169 --> 00:21:40.000
allow it to get burned, I think coffee fresh
from a drip machine is perfectly fine;

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:43.040
pretty good, even. But...

00:21:43.040 --> 00:21:46.300
If this is your idea of what “good
coffee” is, I dun… ehmmm.

00:21:46.300 --> 00:21:49.020
We are at an impasse ‘cause I can’t agree with you.

00:21:49.020 --> 00:21:51.020
But anyway, shall we get back to the scripted part?

00:21:51.020 --> 00:21:53.560
I think we should get back to the scripted part.

00:21:53.560 --> 00:21:55.020
So there you have it.

00:21:55.020 --> 00:21:56.560
Percolators.

00:21:56.560 --> 00:21:59.040
Why are they still made?

00:21:59.040 --> 00:22:01.820
Well I suppose these ones are good for camping… or

00:22:01.820 --> 00:22:04.820
other places where
you have fire but not electricity...

00:22:04.820 --> 00:22:07.880
But as far as electric ones? I have no idea.

00:22:07.880 --> 00:22:11.010
It’s gotta be purely nostalgia at this point.

00:22:11.010 --> 00:22:15.320
Or else fears of plastic components maybe?
I did read that in some reviews.

00:22:15.320 --> 00:22:19.600
Whatever the reason, I would not recommend purchasing one.

00:22:19.600 --> 00:22:21.720
I mean… they’re not even easy to use.

00:22:21.720 --> 00:22:25.740
It’s much more finicky than just a
drip machine, and it’s a huge hassle.

00:22:25.740 --> 00:22:29.300
In general I just don’t see the appeal of these at all.

00:22:29.300 --> 00:22:34.000
Now, in fairness, its coffee is nowhere near as bad as this guy's coffee

00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:37.250
so I could probably get used to it eventually.

00:22:37.250 --> 00:22:41.660
Still, though, it is much much worse than my plain
‘ol drip machine.

00:22:41.660 --> 00:22:45.080
Then again, I’m just a youngster whose only known
drip coffee

00:22:45.080 --> 00:22:48.620
and the supposedly better options everyone tells me I need to embrace,

00:22:48.620 --> 00:22:57.220
and just as this coffee tastes weird and wrong to me, I suppose there are people out there to whom this…

00:22:57.220 --> 00:23:00.300
style of coffee is just right.

00:23:00.300 --> 00:23:01.070
I mean,

00:23:01.070 --> 00:23:05.750
it’s smelly dirt water to my tastes but,
different strokes and all that.

00:23:05.750 --> 00:23:08.760
Well, thanks for watching! I hope you liked
this silly little video.

00:23:08.760 --> 00:23:12.800
It turns out that I bought these percolators almost a year ago!

00:23:12.800 --> 00:23:16.820
Now I bought them for making a video, certainly not to make coffee, and

00:23:16.820 --> 00:23:19.000
I… I kinda forgot
about them.

00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:23.120
Uh, this glass one was a vintage thing from eBay, but the electric one came

00:23:23.120 --> 00:23:24.800
right from the Amazon.

00:23:24.800 --> 00:23:29.940
And there are a startling number of options on there, including glass stovetop models.

00:23:29.940 --> 00:23:33.529
Reading the reviews makes me question my sanity quite a bit

00:23:33.529 --> 00:23:36.180
Then again, like I said, some people like
different things.

00:23:36.180 --> 00:23:38.140
Can’t account for taste.

00:23:38.940 --> 00:23:41.560
♫ scaldingly smooth jazz ♫

00:23:43.580 --> 00:23:46.480
A little too short and (chair creaks) and
then rewind… shoot.

00:23:47.500 --> 00:23:50.000
My loud chair strikes again!

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:52.020
Then we were introduced to the wonders

00:23:52.020 --> 00:23:53.440
(crashing noise)

00:23:53.440 --> 00:23:54.540
(laughs)

00:23:54.540 --> 00:23:58.560
Boy this was supposed to take… this was supposed to be quick. It is not quick!

00:23:58.560 --> 00:24:01.280
...you see, many establissments whits..

00:24:01.780 --> 00:24:02.700
Establissment…

00:24:02.700 --> 00:24:05.700
establishments which! Oh, that’s a tongue
twister.

00:24:05.700 --> 00:24:08.060
And those of you who like to work for our
java

00:24:08.360 --> 00:24:09.340
[stares confusedly]

00:24:09.340 --> 00:24:10.760
Those of us.

00:24:12.260 --> 00:24:12.760
Hoooh,

00:24:12.760 --> 00:24:14.740
that would explain why that sentence felt
broken

00:24:15.120 --> 00:24:19.240
...ench press, cold brew, and whatever other fanciful
techniques we are mmm...that are…

00:24:19.240 --> 00:24:21.320
fffforking the forking fork.

00:24:21.320 --> 00:24:23.820
It ends up on store shelves where you buy it! Bec…

00:24:23.820 --> 00:24:25.400
oh shoot I need a coffee mug.

00:24:25.400 --> 00:24:28.330
How does one actually make coffee? Ah ha ha!

00:24:28.330 --> 00:24:29.860
Ah ha ha ha ha!

00:24:29.860 --> 00:24:31.160
(ehhh, what the was that?)

00:24:31.520 --> 00:24:35.200
...the water in the pot. As the water heated and appro… oops

00:24:35.200 --> 00:24:37.740
Now, I’ve grounded the coffee. Grounded?

00:24:39.640 --> 00:24:40.700
You’re grounded!

00:24:41.980 --> 00:24:43.320
OH I'M SO CAFFEINATED RIGHT NOW

00:24:43.800 --> 00:24:44.980
Let me tell you a story real quick, you see when I was about to make this video there was a knock at the door

00:24:44.980 --> 00:24:46.180
but it turns out that was actually just in my imagination! I went to the door and nobody was there.

00:24:46.280 --> 00:24:47.500
Startled, I thought to myself "is this a side-effect of all that coffee I've been having?"

00:24:47.500 --> 00:24:48.340
but then the Coffee Fairy showed up to reassure me that no, I am totally fine, so on about my business I went.

00:24:48.340 --> 00:24:49.380
Really, I'm quite happy to have the Coffee Fairy always there for me when I need him or her or they not really sure on the gender there.

00:24:49.380 --> 00:24:50.740
So anyway, I went to go start recording the video after the Coffee Fairy had showed up and everything was going super smoothly! Except is wasn't at all, it was really quite a mess, lots of things were going poorly.

00:24:50.760 --> 00:24:52.160
Like for example the lights were all buzzy and flickery but really they weren't it was just something wrong with my vision, again I thought maybe I was having too much coffee but I thought back to what the Coffee fairy had said and they reassured me I was A-OK so I just kept on going

00:24:52.160 --> 00:24:53.200
But then my memory card was full so I needed to re-format it but what if there was stuff I needed on there ya know? Like, maybe I didn't actually finish my last video, maybe it's in some weird vide purgatory, I don't know these things, so I needed to check real quick that I had finished the video and it turns out I had!

00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:54.640
So I went ahead and reformatted the card, but that angered the lawn mower and so then I had to deal with that guy. He's really quite an ordeal. Pretty sharp but way too fast for my tastes one of these days he's really gonna damage somebody.

00:24:54.740 --> 00:24:55.960
Anyway, I hope this gag doesn't flag some sort of captions spam 'cause like I did it but anyway byeeeeeeeeeeeee-

00:24:56.280 --> 00:24:57.700
HOT BROWN