Coffee: Making it and keeping it hot off grid

I really can't remember a time when I haven't had coffee every single day. I began drinking coffee when I was about 11 years old. Of course, back then, Mama would make sure it was more milk and sugar than actual coffee, but it made me feel like one of the grown-ups to have some when they did.

Over the years, my affection for coffee hasn't diminished one bit. I do drink it every day and enjoy every cup.

For a long time, I made it in a drip coffee maker. Of course, after awhile, those things mess up. Either they won't brew the coffee or the warmer plate won't keep the coffee hot. So, I switched to an electric percolator. I have to say, the flavor of percolated coffee is far superior, in my opinion, to drip coffee. The last percolator I had got to where it would start brewing the coffee all over again after about 20 minutes, as if it thought it was a new batch.

That's when I decided to go "old school" and get a stove top percolator. I was in control of how long it perked and when to turn it off. Keeping it hot meant either warming a cup in the microwave or keeping the electric stove burner on it's lowest setting. I did make it on one of my butane stoves, too, but the problem of keeping it hot was still there.

Last summer, my sister gave me an electric percolator so I started using that. So far, it's worked beautifully and it looks like it's going to continue to do so. The problem now is that we are soon going off grid, and that percolator uses a whopping 1000 watts of electricity for brewing.

So now, I'm reverting back to the stove top percolator, with one difference. I'll be keeping freshly brewed coffee in my Thermos brand pump pot so I don't have to waste time or butane (using butane stoves) reheating it for the next cup.

Here's the video I did, outlining my plans. After I made the video, I made a pot of off grid coffee and put it in the pump pot I talked about in the video!