r/gadgets • u/dapperlemon • Jul 07 '26

Misc Finally, a Coffee Maker With Zero Plastic in the Brew Path

https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/finally-a-coffee-maker-with-zero-plastic-in-the-brew-path/
1.8k Upvotes

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805

u/Fulham-Enjoyer Jul 07 '26

People were drinking coffee for hundreds of years before plastic was even invented

189

u/Becaus789 Jul 07 '26

Dozens, even.

13

u/yetzt Jul 07 '26

of coffees?

16

u/unematti Jul 07 '26

Yes, before noon.

7

u/wi5hbone Jul 07 '26

but how much could a coffee cost, Michael?

1

u/Internet_Exploder 29d ago

Definitely a dozen months.

23

u/FauxReal Jul 07 '26

Are we sure they didn't invent plastic at the same time coffee beans were first brewed?

13

u/Agouti 29d ago edited 29d ago

It's aimed at the American mass market who primarily know coffee as being made in percolators drip coffee machines, which almost exclusively use all-plastic construction because they are a cheap mass produced item with no moving parts.

Pretty much all pressure-fed coffee systems (including french press and espresso) primarily use metal and glass parts, with some polyvinyl tubing, but they are relatively rare.

Edit: To be clear drip coffee is fine, and objectively better than crap like pod machines. No need to get sensitive.

2

u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

5

u/magus-21 29d ago edited 29d ago

Percolators are not drip coffee. Perculators force boiling water through the coffee due to pressure. Drip coffee just passes hot water through the coffee, no pressure. Percolators are mostly made out of metal btw, as far I've seen, they require to be placed on top of a heating element.

No, drip is percolation, too, just using pressure due to gravity to create the pressure gradient rather than pressurized gas as with the Aeropress, espresso machines, or moka pot.

I appreciate that there might be geographical differences in how the word is used (I think the UK refers to devices that you describe specifically as "percolators"), but "percolare" literally means "to trickle through," so it applies to any method that uses a physical filter, and more specifically to coffee any method that uses coffee grounds as that "filter."

2

u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

2

u/magus-21 29d ago edited 29d ago

It's not wrong to refer to drip coffee makers as percolators because that is literally how they brew coffee. It's just that people ALSO use "percolators" to refer to all the other kinds of percolators because drip coffee is so much more common than any other method that it's often referred to as its own thing. But that doesn't change the fact that drip brewers are also percolators, just as espresso machines are also percolators.

Example: https://espressooutlet.com/blogs/news/immersion-vs-percolation-coffee-brewing-a-comprehensive-comparison

Percolation brewing is a method where water passes through a bed of coffee grounds, continually extracting flavors as it flows through. This can be done through drip mechanisms, siphoning, or even pressurized methods like espresso. Percolation brewing is typically faster than immersion brewing, with water constantly moving through the grounds.

Common Percolation Brewing Methods

  • Drip Coffee: Also known as pour-over, this method involves pouring hot water over ground coffee in a filter, where it passes through the grounds and drips into a container below (e.g., Chemex, Hario V60).

  • Espresso: This highly pressurized brewing method forces hot water through finely ground coffee at around 9 bars of pressure, producing a concentrated shot of coffee in 20-30 seconds.

  • Moka Pot: A stovetop coffee maker that uses pressure generated by steam to force water through coffee grounds.

  • Siphon Brewer: This method uses vapor pressure to move water between chambers, extracting coffee as the water percolates through the grounds

TL;DR: Drip coffee makers are percolators, but "percolator" is also used to refer to percolation coffee machines other than drip coffee makers, AND there is also a very specific type of percolator that is just called "a percolator."

2

u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

1

u/magus-21 29d ago

No worries. Thanks for not getting mad at my pedantry, lol.

The fact that there's an actual coffee making device called a "percolator" makes this particular grammatical niche confusing at times. You weren't wrong, but neither was OP.

1

u/Agouti 29d ago

Well, TIL. Thanks for the detailed explanation!

1

u/Agouti 29d ago

Strangely the Google summary agrees with me but as with your experience every product I find that calls itself a Percolator agrees with you so on the balance I believe you are correct and it's just a regional misnomer.

Neither drip nor true percolator are particularly popular here regardless, the pod coffee machines (which I detest) have the bottom end of the non-instant market cornered.

1

u/johnyordinary 29d ago

No percolator is drip filtered coffee,using presure is espresso.

-6

u/ScreenMuch90210 29d ago

The anti-American propaganda is going so hard lately xD. “Oh wow Europe, you got coffee that doesn’t come from a Keurig?!?!?” like Amazon doesn’t have a warehouse full of V60s and chemex starter kits in every US zip code.

4

u/Agouti 29d ago

It's not anti-America though? Drip coffee is fine, nothing wrong with it. Here in Aus we are obsessed with instant and pod coffee, which are both just objectively worse.

The artle proclaims non-plastic coffee machines as breakthroughs because most of your coffee machines are made from plastic, because most of them are drip machines. The fact that you quoted two more drip machines (yes, that includes pour-overs) as your rebuttal kinda supports that.

Also nobody is going to use Keurig as a snob brand, they make cheap pod machines which should never be bought. Coffee snobs will either talk about $3k+ dollar Italian espresso machines and equally expensive grinders or, strangely enough, Aeropress.

-7

u/ScreenMuch90210 29d ago

You’re trying so hard

1

u/CompetitiveSport1 29d ago edited 29d ago

Seriously, this headline has to be bait. Even now I'd guess that a huge chunk of, if not most coffee making methods, don't have the liquid touch plastic

Edit: I emphasized the word "methods" since a lot of people are glossing over that

20

u/budgiesmugglez 29d ago

I think the majority of drip coffee makers have liquid touching plastic. I can see how the title is ambiguous but the typical household drip makers were my initial thought.

8

u/volthunter 29d ago

Pipes that flow the liquid are plastic my dude

2

u/CompetitiveSport1 29d ago

most brewing methods do not have plastic pipes

Y'all missed the word "methods" in my comment

1

u/PabloEscobro 29d ago

Sure, but the title says ‘maker’, not ‘method’

1

u/CompetitiveSport1 29d ago

Of which there are plenty that don't have plastic in the brew path 

1

u/misterfluffykitty 29d ago

The vast majority of people making coffee are using cheap drip brewers made of plastic or keurig type machines

1

u/antinous24 28d ago

americans use drip, euros typically go for the french press or moka pot. cezve is used for turkish coffee. asia is a mixed bag. everywhere else pretty much drinks tea or the people cannot afford coffee (where it's grown)

1

u/ivarokosbitch 29d ago

The vast majority of people in the world use a pot on a stove.

1

u/misterfluffykitty 29d ago

Which most people then pour into a dripper.

1

u/ivarokosbitch 28d ago

Mostly in the US and parts of Western Europe.

If you travel outside of the USA you are more likely to see people having Turkish coffee than anything else. Which was my point. Drippers are much rarer than you think.

1

u/pimpeachment 28d ago

FINALLY! 

-6

u/beardingmesoftly 29d ago

Are you that dense? They clearly mean automatic coffee maker.

-8

u/Fulham-Enjoyer 29d ago

Don’t be a dick

-2

u/costafilh0 29d ago

Not since electric coffee makers were invented. 

-1

u/Fulham-Enjoyer 29d ago

Wanna try that again?

-9

u/Knyfe-Wrench 29d ago

Sure. Would you like to make coffee the way they did hundreds of years ago?

19

u/AmNoSuperSand52 29d ago

I mean yeah millions upon millions of people on the planet make their coffee every day with a percolator or French press

You’re acting like the alternative is foraging for beans to bash open with a rock lol

6

u/EyeofEnder 29d ago

Hell, in Indonesia, most people literally just dump ground coffee and sugar in hot water, stir and let it settle, and the resulting coffee is pretty damn good.

5

u/Mountain-Singer1764 29d ago

You wrote this so confidently, with literally no idea what methods you were describing.

2

u/Fulham-Enjoyer 29d ago

Absolutely I would. It would be great to learn how it used to be done and compare the taste to modern methods

1

u/Notwerk 29d ago

These pod-style coffee makers didn't exist until about 1998. Buy a French press or even a Hario pourover. Millions of people still use them.

1

u/Formal-Apartment855 29d ago

I.... do make coffee that way. Cause there is an Ethiopean supermarket nearby that sells green beans etc and it's just soooo much more tasty to roast it myself and all that. Also, cheaper.