I have a dinner at my church on Wednesday night, and volunteered to provide drinks, both hot and cold--decaf coffee naturally being one of the go-to hot drinks. I would be using the church's percolator, given that there's probably going to be 100 people or more; well aware as I am of the inferiority of this method of coffee brewing, for this many people it's the only practical way to go.

That said, given how percolators make pretty substandard coffee, is it worth spending a lot of money on good decaf beans from my local roaster, grinding them fresh before brewing, or would I be better off buying cheap pre-ground stuff? While good coffee is certainly worth the expense in most cases, at the end it's what's in the cup that counts, and if good coffee is going to end up tasting no better than bad coffee due to the percolator, then I don't think I can justify the expense. So does anybody have experience with percolators? Is it going make any difference what sort of coffee I use, so long as it's ground fairly coarse?

Martacus wrote:I have a dinner at my church on Wednesday night, and volunteered to provide drinks.. --decaf coffee naturally being one of the go-to hot drinks. ... ... is it worth spending a lot of money on good decaf beans from my local roaster, grinding them fresh before brewing, or would I be better off buying cheap pre-ground stuff?

It depends... What religion?
[sorry... couldn't help myself.]

It could be tested --- If you have an electric perc machine (or pick one up at a thrift store) brew some of each at home and make a decision based on that. You could even invite a few members of the congregation over to do a blind taste test...

Hopefully it will go better than this taste test turned out.

Yeah, I don't think things will be quite that extreme. I'm starting to think maybe less expensive supermarket beans, then grind before brewing will be the way to go. Just gotta remember to dial my grinder way out from where it is now--somehow I don't think espresso-fine grounds will do so well in a percolator.

Randy G. wrote:It depends... What religion?
[sorry... couldn't help myself.]

So good coffee is the way for a Church to get converts -- I always wondered how that worked . . .

We use percs for catering, and inferior brewing method aside, they still turn out some pretty decent coffee when you consider the volume. We use 1 pound ground on electric perc on our Grindmaster mills as close to the event as possible.

Also, to preserve temperature as much as we can, we pour into a preheated Cambro (5 gallon insulated dispenser). It may not be ideal, but when you don't have a Fetco 6000 Series brewer and accompanying thermal dispensers that can travel, it'll do in a pinch.

For the record, I have done this at events for our church and the leap in cup quality from the normal preground can coffee they use just wows the whole parish.

Agreed that the increase in quality is significant enough that many people (non coffee folks) will taste the difference. If push came to shove on budget I would look for a decent mass market whole bean coffee like the Eight O'Clock brand and grind that up. It will be miles better than Folger's, Maxwell House et al.

zin1953 wrote:So good coffee is the way for a Church to get converts -- I always wondered how that worked . . .

Actually, what I was thinking when I typed that was the flagellation some religions practice and others denying themselves certain types of enjoyment and entertainment (dancing, alcohol, etc.). I thought those would actually benefit from bad coffee more than good.

It's not like cheap coffee is really that cheap now. Was rather surprised when I walked down the supermarket isle the other day and read the $ per/lb tags

Get something fresh roasted and local - these usually cost about the same as beans from a grocery bin in my area. Something exotic is often not required or welcomed when serving large groups. The more neutral the blend the more accepting the group tends to be has been my experience. Everyone seems capable of appreciating fresh vs stale though.

Thanks for the replies.

I wound up buying a couple of pounds from my local roaster anyways--a fairly "regular" Colombian decaf--had them grind it right there and went straight to church to set up. As it turns out, they already had a pot made from the church's stock of mass-market grounds. They were only expecting me to bring cold drinks for whatever reason, rather than both. I told them to put them in an airtight container and stick them in a freezer right away, so they at least won't go completely to waste. Such is life, and at least my cold drinks all got used up.