One of the cool things about this current wave of coffee is how older ideas get reexamined, tweaked, and brought into the 21st century. The Chemex wasn’t always the staple brewing device it now is (though admittedly little to nothing has changed about it in the past 60 years). Automation gave ground to manual brewing, but single-serve brewers like Curtis’ Gold Cup and Seraphim and temperature appropriate home machines have all since caused a spike in automation adoration. And now, the percolator is getting a makeover thanks to the PERK.
Launching today on Kickstarter, the PERK (whose video was filmed at Iconik Coffee in Santa Fe, featured here on Sprudge) relies upon the fundamental mechanics of a percolator—heated water that gets circulated over a bed of coffee grounds—but with a modernized approach to controllability. Normal percolators rely on near boiling (if not boiling) water to circulate over the coffee, which can lead to over-extraction. The PERK uses a pump to move the water over the grounds, affording the brewer the ability to regulate and control the temperature. And the PERK also has a programmable timer that shuts off the pump at the designated time, ending the extraction. It is a pretty vast improvement on a regular percolator that requires you to pull the device off/shut off the heating element, which will still brew until the water temperature has naturally decreased.
The PERK is looking to raise $100,000 through Kickstarter and has already raised nearly $18,000 in its few short hours of existence, so it’s likely to get fully funded. Scheduled to retail at $299, there are still a handful of Kickstarter perks that bring the cost down to $149 (or $174 if you’re not quick enough to get the SUPER-Duper Early Bird Special).
Oh and tea. It does tea, too.
For more information on the PERK, its functionality, or to back the campaign, visit their Kickstarter page here.
Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network.
*all media via PERK
