h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

After recently purchasing a "french press," I found that I was able to make some pretty good coffee. Of course, my parents' generation (the baby boomers) will have you believe that the automatic drip is the best way to make coffee.
But in the end, nothing beats grandma and grandpa's coffee. Their coffee is always made with a percolator. And while now days this is at first the most expensive way to get into coffee, this way will still make you incredibly happy.
First you need to realize that our grandparents really knew what they were doing. They didn't need electricity or indoor plumbing to make an exceptional cup of coffee. A common percolator pot can be placed on campfire coals and make better coffee than any plasic plug-in unit.
You should try to go a little out of your way to find a percolator with a glass plug on top. It will be worth the extra effort.
Simply place the grounds in their bin, place the water in the bottom, and add heat. If you have the glass top, you will see when the coffee starts to get dark.
When it's ready, you take the coffee pot off the heat and let the grounds settle to the bottom. Otherwise, they will end up in your cup. Grocery stores now have filters to keep the grounds from going through, but you don't really need a filter.
The best part about a percolator is that if you ask around, one of your relatives or depression-era friends probably have one and would be happy to give it away to someone who would really appreciate the gesture.
Another great way to get into percolating is to spend about fourty of fifty bucks and buy a nice plug-in percolator. The only plus to the plug-in is you can plug it in and walk away for a while. After a few minutes of percolating, the plug-in lowers the temperature so you don't burn up your pot.
Another advantage to having a percolator is that you'll find the hazelnut tastes more "hazelnutty." The Irish cream tastes a little creamier. (did you think I'd say Irishy?) And you will find that you will often have little happy flashbacks to the time when you first started drinking coffee in Sunday School, where they made coffee pots in large aluminum canisters that were never moved from that spot since the church was built.
The old guys used to tell me that coffee would stunt my growth. And it's a good thing the coffee did stunt my growth. I don't want to be any taller than 6'1". But I digress.
If you have a drip or a press, don't throw them away. They still serve a purpose. But don't throw away the caffeine values that our ancestors worked so hard to protect.