Coffee Pot Wars: Mr. Coffee Meets the Percolator

In kitchens and break rooms across America the Seventies saw battle lines drawn between two opposing camps: those loyal to the traditional percolator, with its familiar sound and delightful smell, and a newfangled gadget called "Mr. Coffee," being hawked on TV by one of baseball's greatest legends.

With a percolator, water was boiled at the bottom of the pot. Steam pressure then caused it to rise via a tube to the top, where it would pour over the coffee grounds, which were held in a metal basket. See the above photo. The water percolated through the grinds down to the bottom, and the cycle repeated itself until the coffee reached sufficient strength. A percolator took up little space, and required scant attention, although it was a bit of a hassle to clean. The smell, however, was one of its greatest appeals, and should not be played down. Neurologists tell us that the ofactory nerves are connected directly to the amygdala, a primitive part of the brain which controls our strong emotions. So, you could say that the powerful aroma of perked coffee had a profound psychological effect on people before they even tasted it. There was also the familiar, rhythmic sound of the unit.

Mr. Coffee was a new kid on the block - an automatic drip coffee maker. Of course, drip coffee pots had been around for years in various forms; you put the coffee in the top and poured water over the grounds. But with Mr. Coffee the process was automated. You simply put cold water into a reservoir, and deposited the grinds into a paper filter in a basket. Press the switch, and a few minutes later you have a pot of drip coffee. Mr. Coffee was faster than a percolator, and much easier to clean. In addition, it did not boil the coffee, a process that purists insisted hurt the taste.

The makers of the Mr. Coffee machine knew they had a tough job on their hands - convincing Americans to change something as basic as the way they brewed their morning caffeine. So they signed up the Yankee Clipper, old Joltin' Joe DiMaggio himself to hawk the product. It worked. Introduced in 1972, Mr. Coffee was a hit, and soon many other manufacturers were creating their own lines of automatic drip coffee makers. Models came out in various colors, and with features including timers. Soon the percolator became an item largely reserved for large-scale brewing.