On Saturday my wife and I were Christmas shopping at a local mall. We wandered into a fancy kitchen store to get ideas for gifts for our family. We got to the section of the store where they displayed coffee makers. As I am staring at the 22 rows of various machines all designed to do one thing, mix coffee grounds and water together, I have an incredible flashback to the simple ceramic coffee percolator my aunt used to make her coffee in. I compared her simple electric appliance to the pour-over, french press, computerized, grinding, steaming, and cold brewing options of today. I looked at my wife and asked “What in the world has happened to coffee?”

I have been a coffee drinker my whole life. It is a comfort food for me. I remember coming home from high school and drinking coffee and eating homemade cookies with my mom. I remember mom perking a full pot for my dad before he went off to work the midnight shift at a local hospital. Growing up, the coffee was brewed in a stove top percolator. I can remember watching every night as the water bubbling up into the glass top turned from clear to dark brown meaning the java was ready to be served. Later my parents switched to a Mr. Coffee drip machine. Still, sometimes, my dad would simply boil the grounds in water in a pot on the stove when he didn’t want to mess with the coffee maker. They usually bought the brand that was on sale. It didn’t really matter whether it was Folgers, or Maxwell House, Hills Brothers, or A&P.  Nowadays I don’t buy the large container my parents used to get. I go for a little higher end beans in the 12 oz bags. My coffee sensitivity has been honed.

My love for coffee has been transferred to my three daughters. Each one of them is a serious consumer of the magical beverage. My oldest has a special coffee nook in her apartment. My middle daughter works at a specialty coffee shop and is learning to roast beans. My youngest has two or three cups every morning. It seems to becoming one of the tides that bind.

All of that being said, after 40 years of drinking coffee every day, I have to ask: what has happened to coffee? It used to be simple, black or with cream and/or sugar. Now it comes in endless flavors, with soy milk, with steamed milk, as a  latte, as a frappe, or any number of other choices. I need a dictionary to order a drink at most coffee shops. My daughter who roasts coffee wants a certain kind of coffee maker for Christmas. It took her a half hour to explain the way it mixes coffee grounds and water is superior to the way my coffee pot does. I’m not convinced.

Tomorrow morning I’ll have my simple black coffee as I get ready for the day. The same drink I have had for the last 40 years.  I know my three daughters will be having a black coffee too. Theirs may come out of a fancy machine or a trendy pour-over gadget. In the end I guess it doesn’t matter. It’s that enchanting drink that has been shared in my family for generations. I may not understand how complicated it has become but I do appreciate it as a beverage that has created fond memories and a connection between generations past and future.

  My aunt’s electric percolator *

   My parents’ stove top percolator *

*examples