For a lover of coffee, is there anything worse than a broken coffee pot and no replacement? This will invariably happen at six in the morning when you have to be at work for eight. It’s Murphy’s coffee law. If this happens to you, you’ll probably be scrambling for alternatives and if you have a teapot, you may have wondered:
Can you make coffee in a teapot? Is it straight-up sacrilege resulting in awful coffee or does it actually work?
We wouldn’t necessarily recommend making coffee in a teapot, but it can be done as long as you have the right equipment and some patience. You can also make coffee straight up in a pot on the stove too, though again, it probably won’t taste like the coffee you get out of a regular coffee pot or something like a Chemex.
The Process of Making Coffee
If you’ve been here a while, you probably know how making coffee works, but if not, here’s a quick overview.
Coffee is made by running water through coffee grounds. The water runs through the grounds, extracting the coffee essence as it goes. The quicker the brewing process is, the finer the ground has to be, or else the water won’t be there long enough to extract the coffee. Once the process is done, you have coffee.
Coffee pots are specially designed to facilitate this process. The basket, cup, or other storage is placed at the top of the machine with the grounds and then water is heated, pushed to the top, and then allowed to filter through, resulting in coffee.
French presses work by pouring water over the grounds and then pressing the grounds very slowly and carefully to the bottom and allowing the coffee to steep. In any event, you need to have water with full access to the grounds to get coffee.
This brings us to the non-coffee pot methods of getting your boost!
Making Coffee in a Teapot
Coffee can be made in a teapot, but you need the right equipment. You will need the following:
- A tea ball, infuser, or a nut milk bag for the grounds
- A large saucepan, kettle, or other place to boil water
- A teapot
- Fresh coffee grounds, the coarser the better (fine grinds will result in a sour cup of coffee because the water won’t be going through fast enough)
- Freshwater
Prepare the coffee by boiling water in the saucepan and then putting the grounds in your tea ball, infuser, or nut milk bag. You want to use something that has as small holes or a fine weave as possible so that the grounds don’t end up in your coffee (too much – there will always be a few floating around). Figure on putting about one tablespoon of coarsely ground coffee into your infuser for every cup of water.
When the water is boiling, put your infuser or nut milk bag into your teapot and pour the water in. Then let the water and coffee brew for about three minutes, stir, and let it sit for another three minutes. Remove the bag and then pour your coffee and enjoy.
What Does Coffee in a Teapot Taste Like?
In other words, does this method create coffee that’s any good??
The coarsely ground coffee gives you a more natural coffee taste with many people stating that it is a very full-bodied drink, quite similar to what you would get out of a French press. This makes sense as French press coffee is made the same way, but with a filter as part of the system rather than an infuser or a bag.
Some people also say that using a tea infuser creates a brighter cup of coffee since the pour-over method that uses a paper filter takes out much of the coffee oils.
However, this method does take some practice and you may find that you end up with floating coffee grounds, depending on what you used to filter the grounds and the water together.
It’s easy to make a slightly weaker cup than what you are used to and certainly, the flavor will be different than what you get out of a coffee pot or percolator pot, which can take some getting used to.
But as long as you are using a fine filter, coarse grounds, and good water, you should get a pretty decent cup of coffee – at least enough to get you through the day. And some people find they even prefer it this way!
Making Coffee in a Sauce Pan or Pot
You can also make coffee without any filter system at all (aside from the final pour into cups) but be warned that it can be quite rough! Also known as ‘cowboy coffee’ (because of the idea that it was made over the fire while the cowboys were working), this method makes a coffee that is very similar to Turkish or French Press coffee.
In order to make it, all you have to do is add coffee grounds to almost boiling water and then simmer it for half a minute or let it sit away from the heat for three to four minutes. Then strain or filter the coffee into coffee cups and serve.
You will probably end up with a few grounds in there, but practice makes perfect, and it is a ‘no tech’ way to make coffee using tools that you should have in your house no matter what. This method can be used while camping or in your own kitchen.
If you have finer grounds, you should use a Turkish coffee method where you simmer the coffee for a few seconds after it has ‘bloomed’ (creates a lot of foam), stir to remove some of the foam, and repeat taking it on and off the heat and stirring.
Once you’ve done this about three times, set the coffee pot away from the heat and let it sit for about three minutes. This method takes some quick reflexes because boiling coffee grounds can overflow in a matter of seconds.
For French Press style coffee, you’ll use coarse grounds, just let the coffee steep in a pot of hot water, stirring a few times, and once the grounds have bloomed, set the coffee put to sit somewhere for three to four minutes. It’s a much simpler method, but it usually results in a very full coffee!
Once you have let the coffee sit, strain or filter it into cups using filters or a mesh strainer with a coffee filter in the strainer and pour through.
Like making coffee in a teapot, you’ll end up with a much deeper, full-bodied coffee that can be quite strong. It takes milk well and it has more of the coffee oil present than coffee run through a coffee pot.
Conclusion
As you can see, you don’t need a coffee pot to make a good cup of coffee. You can use a teapot to do it or even a pot on the stove! But you will want to carefully watch your coffee to ensure it doesn’t boil over and make sure you use something like a strainer, filters, or infuser to ensure that you don’t get a cup full of grounds!
This method of making coffee can create quite a strong cup too, so keep that in mind as it may be stronger than what you are used to!
Have you ever made coffee in a teapot? How did it work for you?
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