I got up this morning and thought “I need a coffee”. I’m not interested in pour overs, I want that shit ready when I get up. Are people still doing drip coffee makers in 2026? Or are they all bullshit machines full of vendor lockin?
The standard coffee pot brings such a wonderful spirit of community. Having an easy option to make 4, 8, or 12 cups is good for the soul and invites one to imagine using it for a gathering that would call for it.
Keurig is the epitome of alienation and Western decadence. You WILL consume this alone, or you will be greatly inconvenienced. You WILL create endless single-use plastic waste. You WILL soon have a useless, expensive, broken appliance (as time has gone on, it seems to me that older Keurigs invariably break down like the overengineered cheap plastic crap they are).
It is curious to me, when you read literature from the 70s and before, how often people seemed to drink coffee - in Raymond Carver’s stories, for example, the characters seem to have a pot of coffee on at all times and have no problem drinking it together at 11pm. That shit would keep me wired until the following night and ruin the next week of my life lol. Maybe I’m just overly sensitive to caffeine.
I wonder if the coffee back then was just less potent, kind of like with weed
No, their bodies were just full of over-the-counter amphetamines
When you’re that hopped up on speed, coffee is a downer
My grandparents used to just make it weak when they would drink it in the evenings, like use way less grounds. Idk why they didn’t just drink decaf at that point though
based on absolutely nothing but vibes, i’m gonna guess that it used to be generally more potent because robusta is cheaper and people had less say in what they got
Overall correct analysis.
Re 11pm coffees my thoughts:
There are different ranges of body clocks considered acceptable in different cultures. If you get some sleep in nap form you can stay up later. Ive been around people who eat dinner at 9 or 10pm as a normal thing too. Whereas others consider 6 as late.
Don’t forget about coffee additives like chickory which decrease caffeine. And there are some methods of coffee that are deliberately weak, like having very coarse grinds. I read about it once I can’t recall all the details. But it was done on purpose for this very reason.
Factors affecting all this are how externally regulated your time is, like if your whole social groups economy is based around a need to be at work 5am every single day then all night coffees won’t be popular for working adults. If early mornings are absent, seasonal, optional, can be missed now and again or made up later then you can indulge. I wonder how proximity to the equator where days and nights have consistent durations effects this one way or the other.
I’m not picky when it comes to coffee, but I appreciate a good one. There’s something comforting about a cheap diner cup of drip coffee that’s just a little bit too bitter. At a third-wave coffee shop drip is where it’s at anyway. Pour over takes too long and frankly if i can’t make a full pot at a time it’s seems too decadent.
I’ve tried making coffee almost every other way: moka pot, french press, vacuum filter, aeropress, espresso, Keurig and nescafe pods (yes I know). All of them come up short either in quality, time, volume, or even flavours (when using light-medium third wave roasted beans, some methods can miss flavours or come out too sour).
I try to get nice beans, grind them fresh, and make a pot in my cheap automatic drip. It’s the way to do it. Lately I’ve been drinking Zapatista beans from Chiapas. They’re really quite good.
I’ve heard good things about the Zapatistas beans. Famously Alex Jones used to sell them on the Infowars store and had to down play the fact that the Zapatistas are far left militants lol. He just liked the coffee apparently.
How does one get Zapatistas beans
This is the one I drink. It’s on the pricey side, but it’s very good and supports a good cause.
2nded. It is good coffee.
Drip is all I drink for the most part. I drink at least a pot a day at work
How do you function lol I’d be neurologically destroyed by that much caffeine
I will say, as a ADHD haver. Caffeine just hits some people differently. I can drink coffee have my medication and still sleep. My wife drinks black tea before bed and is up all night.
There is also something to be said about being ND and having various disabilities like autoimmune issues. In some cases caffine can reduce pain. I don’t think there is a lot of research on this yet, but from personal experience and the few things I have come across something is there.
Aka to all the above. Self medication is a hell of a thing.
huh, wonder if that’s an active analgesic effect or a consequence of focusing on something else taking one’s mind off the pain.
That has been one of the theories.
There’s a vasodilation effect, which I think is the theory for why it can help with migraine onset.
Some people metabolize the caffeine faster then others and people who metabolize it fast feel a lesser effect apparently.
I’m the solo programmer and systems guy for my telecom engineering firm. I write and maintain all the project management, design, and quality assurance software myself. I have to reverse engineer AI generated code that is sent to us by clients (none of it works), and I have to train ~10-20 employees on new design, and run multiple large scale build outs (usually areas with ~50-100k customers).
It’s a good day when I can get by on just one pot lol. The owner of the company is also a 3rd generation rich kid who has the executive function of a cockroach and thinks the best use of his time is harassing the employees and re-writing the company handbook every other day because he didn’t like the color of someone’s tie.
You all day at work:
Literally exactly this. Trying to explain to management that the script they were using for coordinate system conversion on 3 month worth of work was vibe coded and all of those projects need to be redesigned is never easy or fun.
At least I have virtually no oversight and just write all my code as open source GPLv3 Python packages that anyone can use lol. Only the stuff that’s project specific is in a private repo, but all my generally useful GIS development is public.
I like coffee
I know right ? I bet you think I am an empath cause I could sense you are intimidated by my free spirit.
I make cold brew for bulk coffee, I’d really call that the zoomer way of making coffee. I don’t know anybody my age with a regular drip pot or some Kurig bullshit. Then again, all my friends are bisexual so iced coffee is just part of the culture.
I use a drip machine because I drink a lot of coffee. Next best option for quantity is a French press but it’s slightly more hands on.
this is proletarian? it was made by a fuckwit who thought coffee was tea.
moka pot is where it’s at.
I use a drip pot, aeropress, and occasionally I’ll make cold brew. I don’t think drip makes for a bad cup of coffee, as long as you’re using beans that are freshly ground with a recent roast date (aside: if you see a sell by date on coffee beans, that’s irrelevant). It’s just that it’ll never make for a great cup of coffee.
Most of the fancy controls and features they put on the “nicer” drip pots are marketing fluff that make little difference, except for one: a thermal carafe. The weak point with most drip machines isn’t the drip mechanism itself, it’s the heating element the pot sits on. It’s cooking the coffee in unpredictable ways and that can impact the flavor. A thermal carafe is more akin to a thermos, using insulation to keep it warm.
If you do use just a regular glass carafe with a heating element, I would recommend turning the machine off the moment the dripping is done. That way you minimize flavor impact. If you need it reheated later, just pour a mug and microwave it; microwaving is by far the best method to reheat coffee as it’s not using a heat source that will impact the flavor.
I refuse to become a snob about coffee because it means Ive enjoyed every coffee ive ever had.
I like the plugin percolator the best
- clean up is simple, you knock the grounds out of the basket and rinse it out. Rinse the pot and pipe. Not a big mess everywhere scraping/cleaning screens, filters fabrics, tubes, tanks, reservoirs blah blah.
- zero consumable or disposable components.
- you can set it on an outlet timer for all kinds of schedules. Get outlet timers that will start at any time, stop at any time, can be different according to the day of the week, etc etc. And you can put other things on the timer. When coffee is scheduled before the sun comes up, I put a lamp on the same timer.
- set up at night or any time in advance
- small amount of space used, put it away when not in use if needed.
- beautiful classic chrome and black plastic look, no lights
- fixable
- very simple design. some of them dont even have any controls: when its plugged in, its on. That was why I originally bought an outlet timer, to provide a switch. But it means there is nothing to break or go wrong.
Problems:
- not extremely flexible in quantity made… You can’t really make 1 cup in a big perc
- expensive to buy new, and difficult to find used because nobody ever gets rid of them
- hot to the touch (metal parts)
- its nice to have one where the pot itself detaches from the base (not as pictured above) so you can conveniently bring it somewhere to pour then return to the power without in/replugging however it introduces an extra point of failure, theoretically.
If I didn’t have a perc I would be happy with a drip machine. Why be a snob when you can be satisfied?
Actually I did find a drip machine on the street, I made a couple of pots of coffee but then it stopped working. It seemed like there was a loose connection with the control panel so I opened it up. It smelled really bad and there were a bunch of old fly larva casing and gross stuff I’m there. But I’m such that is not representative.
Aeropress with flow control valve cap
Feel like I’m always learning about new aeropress stuff, I’ll have to try that sometime
I feel like the french press, a modification of guillotine technology, is probably more proletarian than a pour over set up
In the summer at least I make cold brew. So it’s ready when I wake up because I just have to pour it out from the container in the fridge. Cold brew is ridiculously easy to make. It drives me mad how many people go out and buy it in the summer.
I do have a drip coffee maker for when I have people over (otherwise my winter coffee is pour over). It’s a 30 dollar entry level Mr. Coffee and it works great. I see zero reason to spend lots of money on a fancy drip coffee maker.
I’m not sure if I prefer fresh iced coffee or iced cold brew. Ongoing internal debate
I do iced coffee at diners, there’s just something nostalgic about it
Cold brew is out, flash brew is in. Essentially like a cold brew but with more of the high temp “bright” (acidic) flavors which add dimension to the cup. Cold brew is nice for its muted character, but it does not have much of a range.
I’m a chemex guy. I’ll make a liter and a half at a time, which is usually over a day’s worth. An iced yestercoffee is my favorite breakfast.
no such thing as proletarian coffee
In Scandinavia drip coffee machines is the default at home brewing method. I’m kind of atypical for using a French press but that is what I’m used to from my parents. A French press also has the advantage of not taking up counter space when not in use and since I’m the only person at our house who drinks coffee, I like having a small French press that brews a single cup at a time.
