Vigo County Historical Society

Metal pots likely were grounds for great coffee

To today’s connoisseurs of espresso, latte, and cappuccino, the simple pot of coffee this Historical Treasure produced might not pass the taste test. This coffeepot does not use a filter, plunger, vacuum or percolator tube. It just boils water and pours out the finished product.

While doing reading about the migration West, I ran across this description and Englishman wrote on how his breakfast coffee had been made by the restaurant on his journey to Western America: ". . . the coffee--three parts burnt beans--which had been duly ground to a fine powder and exposed to the air, lest the aroma should prove too strong for us, was placed on the stove to simmer till every noxious principal was duly extracted from it."

My grandmother used a pot similar to this one. She slow roasted her beans each morning and ground them just before she used them. Using fresh cold water, she brought it to a boil, took the pot off the cook stove then added her ground coffee beans directly into the boiling water. When the grounds settled to the bottom, the coffee was ready to drink. She made great coffee.

This metal coffeepot was from the home of Sarah J. Sims. It also was used by her daughter and granddaughter. A close inspection shows that it has been repaired several times. These women were probably good coffee makers and the pot was part of their secret. The coffeepot was donated to the museum by Lois Black Snyder and can be seen in the special exhibit, Hoosier Homemakers.