Something old, something new ...

There’s something about January which raises hopes and stirs the senses. New plans, new places to discover and, for me, new coffees to try.

Right now, I’m sitting here sipping on a rather nice single origin Mexican roast from Dundee’s newest roastery, Brewery Lane. This medium roasted coffee is made from organic beans from the cloud forest biosphere reserve in the Chiapas region in Mexico and fully delivers on its promised tasting notes of caramel, chocolate and hazelnut, which combine to make a delightfully enjoyable coffee.

But it’s not all “out with the old, in the with new”. Taste and smell are powerful sensations and can evoke memories and emotions well beyond their moment in your mouth.

Take, for instance, our long-awaited Christmas trip to the in-laws. Coffee on Boxing Day morning took an interesting turn when my father-in-law, Mike, knowing I liked coffee, disappeared deep into a kitchen cupboard and resurfaced, proudly brandishing his Russell Hobbs coffee percolator.

Percolated coffee was high fashion in the dinner party decade of the 1970s. I remember both my parents and grandparents had percolators and just seeing it on the kitchen worktop brought back a flood of memories from past festivities.

Although you can still buy them, the percolation coffee brewing method has fallen out of favour. Purists point out that the percolation process regurgitates the coffee through multiple extractions, and results in bitter, over-brewed coffee.

A cross between a stove-top coffee maker, a kettle and a modern drip decanter, the percolator is a complicated hybrid.

My father-in-law has got his coffee percolation methods honed to a fine art and, after showing me how it all worked, set about creating my Boxing Day brew.

Once switched on this gurgling and burping contraption belched its way into steaming hot coffee. Swirled into hot milk, it created a rich, smooth and slightly more syrupy coffee experience than you get with modern brewing methods.

The percolator was knocked off its perch with the evolution of instant coffee in the ’80s, however the market shift was probably more to do with convenience than with taste. Like all good coffee brewing methods, percolation takes time, patience and a commitment to the process. And it’s the process that creates the memorable moment. This decades old percolator doesn’t just make coffee, it conjures up memories of dinner parties with friends, family gatherings and special occasions. Who wouldn’t want a special vintage coffee making contraption in their house that did just that?

• Brewery Lane Coffee: brewerylanecoffee.co.uk

• Vintage Russell Hobbs Coffee Percolators: Available in charity shops and on second-hand auction sites for as little as £15.

Saturday, January 8, 2022 | 13

Brewery Lane coffee is made out of organic beans from Mexico’s Chiapas region.