“For real sippin’ coffee, you’ve got to start with the green bean. Back when I was a boy we had to go all the way to South Carolina to get our coffee. We’d get two or three bushels at a time and bring it home and parch it.
“I had me a parchin’ oven I made myself. Got me some rocks and built me a sort of furnace. Fixed me a sheet of tin in it and put my coffee on it and built me a good hickory fire underneath. You could smell that coffee aparchin’ all over the country.
“All the folks back then parched their own coffee. It shore was a tantalizin’ smell when you was ridin’ around the country and a batch of coffee was parchin’. Made a feller want to hurry on home and get himself a cup.
“Like I said, you’ve got to start with the green bean. Then you parch it real good. Parch it till it gets brown like a chestnut. Then you get down your coffee mill or coffee grinder and grind just for your wants.
“That way you’ve got fresh coffee. Just grind enough at a time for a pot full. Back in them days we never had ways like they’ve got now for keeping’ it fresh and we just ground from one meal to the next.
“Ever now and then I get a good cup of coffee. But it’s only them times when some of us go up in the Smokies on a picnic. I always make ’em take a long a tin bucket to make coffee in. When it’s acookin’ it smells like coffee and when you taste it, it tastes like coffee should taste.
“Now, I like my coffee boiling hot and strong. Most folks make it so weak it’s like drinkin’ colored water. And then don’t drink it hot. The hotter it is the better. Scaldin’, that what it should be.
“Why, I drink it with the steam a boilin’ off of it. Sometimes folks look at me like I ain’t got good sense. Once a feller said didn’t I know if I stuck my finger in that hot that I’d blister it. I told him I reckon maybe I might, that I’d never tried it, but that I’d been drinkin’ it that way since I was hoe-handle high and besides it would kill any germs in my stomach.
The old Man laughed.
“Some folks are funny, ” he said. “Don’t know nothin’ about what a body can take and can’t. Of course, I pour out my coffee in my saucer and blow it a little.”
—John Parris Mountain Cooking
I was reminded of the piece by John Parris last week when I shared the excerpt from Harvey Miller. I’ve never seen green coffee beans, but the two excerpts sure make it sound like that is the best way to make coffee.
I come from a family of coffee drinkers. I never seen any of them parch coffee beans, but most of them liked it black, strong, and scalding hot. Pap preferred to use a percolator to make his coffee, The Deer Hunter does too.
I was probably about 20 years old when I started drinking coffee. I’m not as tough as The Deer Hunter and Pap, like Granny I like cream in my coffee. I only drank coffee of the morning, but it was the first thing I went for after getting up from the bed.
An illness I suffered back in 2017 ended my coffee drinking days. Boy I missed my morning cup. Miss Cindy bought me a jar of Postum and I started drinking it. It’s not coffee, but it’s not bad. After all these years of drinking Postum I’m not sure I could go back to drinking coffee. The Deer Hunter says that’s okay he’ll drink my share too.
I remember my great aunt Pearl saucering her hot tea as the old man described and I’ve seen Granny do her coffee like that too. But those are the only two folks I can remember seeing pour their hot beverage into a saucer to cool it.
Last night’s video: Walking in the Snow & Warming by the Fire.
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I’m like the ole feller said the hotter the better. My husband says , you can’t have no feeling left in your tongue. I guess I don’t lol Yhis reminds me of my dad, he drank coffee of course breakfast, lunch and dinner. His coffee ☕️ could walk. He would put 4 or 5 heaping teaspoons in his cup. It would be black as coal. Now I like mine strong but not that strong.
I LOVE coffee made on a fire. I do this when we have a crowd for our cider party or other times. It tastes so much better! And it reheats better, too. I can not stand to drink reheated coffee from a microwave. I have never parched coffee beans, but it must smell good.
If you read the Little House on the Prairie books, Pa Ingalls always drinks tea & he saucers it. He states in the one book that coffee is okay for women, but tea is a Man’s Drink! Isn’t that kind of funny?
My dad would always have a cup of coffee on a saucer after dinner. My mom would fill the cup so high that when he put in his cream & sugar, it’d be right to the rim. We’d get told to not bump the table so he could blow on it & bend down to slurp off the top bit before it spilled all over. Coffee was ALWAYS on in my childhood home & it is in mine, too. Now neither of my parents really drink it anymore. My mom switched to decaf for some odd reason & my dad gave up putting cream & sugar in it & only has maybe one cup in the a.m. I got one daughter that likes that iced coffee, but she gets so jazzed up that we can’t stand her after she’s had a cup LOL. her mouth will go a mile a minute & she’s bouncing around. Someone will finally say, “Natalie, have you been drinking coffee?”. We tell her to knock it off.
If you want to know how to make good campfire coffee, go watch Kent Rollins & his chuckwagon cooking on Youtube! Best coffee ever.
I’ve never roasted coffee beans but being a serious Country Primitive Antique collector I’m lucky enough to own 5 table top wooden and one beautiful wall hung cast iron Arcade coffee grinder. My Grandpa and Grandma Shuman lived at the head of the Hickman Hollow in an old house with oil lamps for lighting and a cast iron cookstove in the kitchen. Grandma had a big grey enamel ware coffee pot that must have been 3 gallon. It sat on the back burner and Grandma would fill it with water and dump in a big amount of coffee. It would set there all day long cooking away. If it was breakfast time and Grandma was frying eggs she would throw the shells in the coffee pot.
I remember setting at the table next to Grandma and she would eat a hot cereal that was called “Pettijohn” and would sup her coffee from her saucer.
The eggshells settle the grounds. Also a splash of cold water slowly poured down the spout-ways will do it, but that cools it.
YOu’re lucky to have experienced that kind of living. I’d go back to it. Don’t like, & shun, alot of modern ‘conveniences’. Think they steal something from us & they don’t give us the ‘time’ that we are lied to about.
My paternal grampa always “saucer’d and blowed” his coffee from the little bowl he just finished his morning oatmeal in. As a little girl, I’d sit and watch him do this, seeing the little chunks of leftover oats floating around in his coffee, thinking EWWW! LOL. That’s a really good memory from a long time ago, actually.
JFG coffee! That’s what Daddy drank. He would settle for 8 O’Clock if he couldn’t get JFG. Grammaw was the other way around. She had to have her 8 O’Clock. The stuff she made with it was bitter as gall but that’s the way she liked it. I believe it shortened her life. She only lived to be 96. If she hadn’t drunk that awful stuff I’m confident she would have made it to 102.
Did I ever tell you about when I asked the cafeteria ladies at work to save me the coffee that was left over? When they asked what I wanted it for I told them I needed it to patch potholes in my driveway.
The most memorable cups of coffee I ever had was in Cody State Park in Wyoming. The daughter who was 12 or 13 and I were going horseback riding and we went to the corral early in the morning to meet our guide. We were early and I was offered a cup of cowboy coffee made in the enamel pot over a fire and offered in an enamel cup. I can’t even remember what it tasted like, but I sure do remember the experience and would love to relive it even though I hate riding horses.
I’ve seen my mama parch green coffee beans, smash them up and boil them in a can. That’s what she liked best, boiled coffee. I’ve watched my grandparents have scalding hot coffee, blow it into a saucer and sip from the cup, then drink the coffee from the saucer. My grandparents used a cup and saucer for their coffee, not a mug like we use today.
I started drinking coffee at 15 years old, my parents were both avid coffee drinkers and my brother, my older sister not as much, but Daddy always saucered his coffee, Mother always got 8 O’clock coffee beans from the A&P and ground them herself and used an old-fashioned drip coffee pot. When she was alive, she drank coffee all day long, guess who took after her…..Me! I love my coffee and the first thing I want when I wake up, but I do like a little coffee mate in mine and it doesn’t need to be hot, I can drink it any temperature, but I can still see my Daddy pouring it in a saucer, sweet memory.
I’m surprised no one mentioned putting egg shells in coffee grounds. I knew several families that made their coffee that way.
I didn’t drink coffee much growing up. Occasionally when I was outside in the cold and it was available, I’d have some. I preferred it with cream, no sugar. When I went to college and started working nights, I started drinking a lot of coffee. It kept me just awake enough to get my job done and to pay attention in classes. In fact, I drank so much of it that it turned my stomach acidic. Even decaf didn’t help; so I started drinking hot tea. I continue to do so to this day.
I worked in Spain for most of 1991. Hot tea was not generally available at breakfast or at the coffee canteens; so I started drinking coffee again. Trust me when I tell you that it was the best coffee I ever had. I found that many of the purveyors of that dark liquid had their coffee custom ground from specific beans. Coffee grinding stores were scattered around Madrid when I was there. Starbucks, plain, is reminiscent of that Spanish coffee, but doesn’t really hold a candle to it. IIRC the coffee was made a cup at a time using water and steam.
My parents didn’t drink coffee. Eventually mother got instant stuff. In the evening about 10, I’d fix a cup black, she said she was sweet enough. Then I went & woke her up to get ready for work at hospital.
When I worked the night shift, I found 1 cup of coffee was helpful for a nap. Then when it was time, I would awaken, ready to go. Had discovered coffee has a reverse effect on me. Now, I don’t touch the stuff.
My husband and son like their coffee strong and straight black. I like mine medium with real heavy cream but I have to reheat after adding the cream. I’m like Mama and I always get it too hot or not hot enough. I have never been to Starbucks on my own but my son bought me one of their drinks once–one of the sweetened ones. It was good but I can’t bring myself to pay that much plus I would never figure out the menu.
For years Mama had a percolator and she would just keep adding grounds to make another pot. It would get extremely strong! I remember her and her sisters sitting around the table drinking coffee and smoking (they all finally quit except for one) and talking. Pet milk was the creamer of that time. They are all gone now and I hope they are enjoying a coffee klatch in heaven.
Growing up I would take sips out of my Mom’s coffee – Folgers instant, with milk. I always thought I was so grown up, even as a teenager, when I got to drink some of her coffee. As an adult I use medium roast in my coffee maker, with whole milk. I don’t like instant now, I have gotten spoiled, I guess. I don’t use flavored creamers. And I don’t go to Starbucks. Like Randy, they would go out of business if they depended on me because I have never even been to any coffee place like that! And I can only drink my large one cup of coffee in the morning. Any other time of the day it does not taste good to me. But my morning cup is pure joy to savor! I had never heard of saucering your coffee, or tea, until I heard about it from you.
Donna. : )
I didn’t drink coffee until I joined the Navy.
On my first ship, in the port engineroom, we were two days out with no sleep, and I was feeling it. I was advised to grab a cup of coffee. I expressed my doubt, as it was over 105 degrees away from the exhaust manifolds, but he reassured me it would help.
I burnt my mouth, and it was so strong I couldn’t open my right eye for three seconds, but it did the trick. I could feel it hit my system and away I went.
I’ve been drinking it that way ever since.
I remember when I was a young girl, the A&P grocery store here in town had their own coffee beans that they would grind and package while you waited for it. It smelled so good! While I do enjoy regular coffee, I keep Hills Bros. in business. French vanilla cappuccino is my favorite! I get the taste of coffee, chocolate and vanilla. I can’t tell you how many containers I have bought over the years.
Gloria, in SC you can still buy whole bean Eight O’clock coffee in grocery stores. There will be a grinder at the coffee isle to grind it you need to. It does smell good when it is first ground.
Randy, that’s it! Eight O’clock coffee. I thought that is what it was. Thanks for jarring my memory. I’m going to see if I can find some.
I drink a lot of coffee. One of my father’s sayings was, “It don’t take as much water to make coffee as some people think it does.” He liked his coffee strong.
I love a cup of strong coffee first thing in the mornings, have all my adult life.
My dad always saucered his coffee, I just sip it hot.
I think they call it cowboy coffee now although I didn’t know it at the time. Daddy would get the coffeepot boiling then dump in the grounds. When it returned to the boil he slid it to a slightly cooler part of the stove where it would simmer until the grounds settled to the bottom. The coffeepot had holes poked in it where the spout was attached which were intended to catch errant grounds but invariably failed. The first cup might be free of grounds but the proceeding ones had increasing amounts of them. But what’s a few grounds? Think of it as you would watermelons or grapes. The tastiest ones are the ones with seeds. You eat your way around the seeds, right? So it is with coffee!
Oh, you eat seedless grapes and watermelon? You filter your coffee through a pretty little paper basket? You sssspoon your ssssweetener in your little cup and add your choice of vegan creamer with its floral notes? Then you add the lukewarm spew (sorry I mean brew) if there is room in the cup? Well, THAT AIN”T COFFEE!
This is written in a third person perspective so don’t get mad at me!
I was never much of a coffee drinker. My mother and sister loved their coffee – hot and black. I’m like Miss Cindy ginger tea is my choice of a hot beverage. I do remember seeing my relatives pour their coffee in a saucer. Take care and God bless ❣️
My Dad use to call for a “cup o Joe” and at times needed a cup Java. He said he picked up those terms in the army. Now there’s a drive through to get a “cup o Joe” on every corner any which way you like it. I am amazed at the prices. I like my one cup medium roast, medium temperature, low cost cup o Joe, black, first thing in the morning at home.
Good memories. Our daddy was tough. Never knew how he could drink his coffee like that. Wound up dying from cancer of the larynx (throat). Just saying….
More years ago than I care to remember, I was told that coffee should be “as hot as hell. as black as sin and as sweet as love” and that is the way I drink it:-)
Victor, learned to drink my coffee the same way, hot, black, and sweet when I was 12. The only problem I had was mom. She would look over her bifocals with that look; you know the one. Yeah, like you passed gas at the dinner table and sat there silent like your sister did it. And mom eyeballing me the whole time.
Anyway, that was over 50 years ago. Mom’s gone, dad too. I still drink it just like that. My wife drinks it with creamer, yuck! While I drink it hot, black, and sweet, the sweet is now artificial. Oh well, ya wanna cup?
My granny saucered her coffee from a small cup with a thin, fine curved handle. She preferred it with cream and sugar whenever possible. She had a coffee pot she placed directly on the stove. No basket, just dumped the ground coffee in and let it boil. After a little bit she took it off the heat and dropped in a pinch of baking soda. She said it settled the grounds and “leveled” it. You could smell that coffee all the way out in the yard. And it was so good. She never washed the inside of the pot, just rinsed the used grounds out. She said it was “seasoned” just right, and she didn’t want to change it. I got myself a stovetop coffee pot for my hope chest so I could make it the same way. Still have that pot for emergency. Thank you Tipper for brewing up that memory.
I’ve never heard anyone in my family talk about roasting green coffee beans, but that was interesting to read. I remember my mom boiling coffee beans when we went camping to make her coffee in a pot. At home she used a percolator on the stove with ground coffee beans. She never let use kids drink it because she said it would stunt our growth. However, I had a friend named Shelby when I was around 8 yrs old, she was around 13 yrs old and she drank coffee everyday. Every time I went to her house she would offer me coffee, but at first I wouldn’t take it because I didn’t want my growth to be stunted. Shelby was tall, so she laughed at me when I told her that. Finally one day I tried it. She made mine like she made hers with lots of cream and sugar. It was the best hot drink I’ve ever had. This went on for several years with my mom never knowing I was drinking coffee until Shelby’s family moved out of town. I wanted coffee so bad I finally told me mom I’d been drinking coffee over Shelly’s house and I liked it and wanted to drink it at our house. Yes, I got in trouble and because I’m the shortest one in my family she reminded me if I had waited till I was fully grown to drink coffee that I might be taller…lol…oh well. I now have to drink either half caff coffee or decaf coffee. I still like mine with cream but it’s now powder cream because I like it really hot and I now use Stevia instead of sugar.
When I was little Bobby (my beloved granddaddy) always poured his coffee in a saucer and supped it up. He was up at about 3:30 every morning to truck coal all over the place. If you slept til daylight, he figured you for a lazy rascal! I’m a coffee lover and I ain’t gonna lie- Mike Lindell’s MY COFFEE is without a doubt the best coffee I ever tasted and I figure myself to be a coffee expert so you can believe me on this. It’s high priced but the best taste I ever had twanging my buds (as Mr. Darling used to say on Andy.) I have espresso loving friends and to me it’s like drinking syrup. It’s too much like a brick hitting my stomach. I’ve got a coffee plant and it sure is pretty but I’ve yet to see a first bean. I’m gonna add this- wasn’t everything better than it is today? Talk about fresh and smelling right!!! I wish for days like there used to be with REAL FOOD unprocessed and unGMO’d. And, yes, I’d drive 100 miles to see coffee parched and get me a bushel or 5…
I lived in a small Texas town (about 15,000) for awhile. There was a fella there that roasted coffee. He bought dozens of bags from different places. He had an old roaster but I don’t remember where he told me it came from. My bride kept a standing order for roasting days. I had quit drinking coffee by the time we moved there.
I used to drink a lot of coffee. (2 – 3 pots a day} I started at about 10 years of age. When my doctor said I needed to change to decaf. I quit. That stuff is nasty and doesn’t taste like coffee. Now I drink a glass of milk at one meal and ice water all the rest of the day. Once in a while if it’s real cold I’ll have a cup of hot cocoa. I remember people saucering and blowing their coffee when I was a kid.
Daddy saucered his coffee that was handed to him from a stovetop percolator that had been boiling for a few minutes. I drink my coffee slowly for the first hour in the morning and I’m good for another 24 hours. Freshly ground beans are always best. There’s not a snobby bone in my body, but somewhere along the way, I learned to be a coffee snob. One of the simple pleasures in life is to fill my cup with good coffee and plenty Coffeemate.
Coffee ‘beans’ are not beans but the coffee cherry’s seeds. We have coffee growing up the road on the higher elevations of Oahu. Pretty good coffee, but pricy!
I’ve never seen a green coffee bean nor have I seen coffee parched. I have however had my share of sassered coffee with my late grandparents and my late Momma. And it was always black. I generally drink mine black as well. I switch back and forth with Postum. My grandmother drank that too. I’ve enjoyed coffee from a percolator and a Mr. Coffee, I reckon I will take either if it’s available.
I remember my mom would have a cigarette in one hand, and a cup of coffee in the other, all day long. She quit smoking when they found a spot on her lung. I generally only drink coffee on Saturday and Sunday mornings because I’m a morning person anyways, don’t need the caffeine, nor do I want to be dependent on it. I use half & half and real unprocessed sugar.
My uncle said his grandfather made coffee the cowboy way. He put the coffee beans in a black skillet full of water, let it boil on the wood stove, liked it black and strong.
I like to say I grew up in the Navy. I learned to drink coffee there. Hot and Black. In the ‘Old Navy,’ when the ship ‘cleared for action’ and went to ‘General Quarters’ for battle, Galley fires were extinguished. At the Battle of Manilla Bay in 1898. Admiral Dewey ordered that galley fires remain lit and coffee is made available throughout the night as the fleet entered the bay. It became a tradition in the Navy to make coffee available 24 hours a day. The engineers in the Firerooms (Boiler rooms) and engine rooms take pride in their “Black Gang’ (a term left over from the days when coal was used for fuel) coffee. Purportedly so strong that you can stand a screw driver in it.
John Parris is correct in saying that the best coffee is made from freshly roasted and ground coffee beans. The canned grounds are not ‘fresh.’ Freshly roasted coffee off-gases. If ground and canned immediately after roasting, the cans would swell and, sometimes, burst. The coffee companies ‘stale’ coffee for several days before grinding and canning.
Well, it is time for Mr Kuering to make the second of, probably, five cups I’ll drink today.
Sure didn’t know that ground coffee information and how they have to ‘stale’ it. No wonder some folks think their fresh roasted coffee is so much better! I’ll need to try that someday.
My oldest sister’s husband was on a carrier in the Pacific during WWII. He said they always had coffee and a fresh pot never lasted long. He preferred to drink it from a thick walled ceramic mug that held maybe 5 or 6 ounces. He liked it strong and black.
My Pa drank coffee made in a percolator on a gas range. He would only drink it after finishing his meal and he wanted as hot as it came from the percolator. I’ve heard him tell waitresses that he wanted it after his meal and would send it back if they brought it sooner. I’ve burned myself spilling coffee that he drank at that temperature. I never figured out how he could do it.
My grandma made her coffee in a percolator and saucered it. I started drinking coffee in my twenties when I worked in an office with a group of older men. They kept a pot going all day. Now, I love it and look forward to that first cup of the day.
My grandfather always saucered his coffee. He always got up early and usually had the percolator going by 4AM. I do love a good cup of black coffee in the morning.
My grandfather started drinking postum during WWII when coffee was rationed. He also saucers his postum. when I would go spend a week with them every summer he let me drink the postum, I felt so grown up. Of course there was plenty of milk and sugar in it. now I drink exactly 3 cups of coffee in the morning then in winter switch to decaf or green tea. I always will remember the postum with my grampa.
My Dad and Mom “sasser-ed” coffee biled in a percolator on the wood cook stove. Boiling hot and black. They “milked” my coffee, which I was allowed on a really cold morn, so I could drink it from a cup. Nowadays I brake at Mickey D for my favorite cup of Joe to get my heart jump started. Sometimes I pay for the person in back of me to give them a good start for the day. Add a home cured ham biscuit and take on the day.
I’ve heard of sausering but can’t say I’ve ever seen it done. I also can’t say I’ve ever started off with green coffee beans to make a cup of coffee. Now days I don’t even drink coffee, I drink ginger tea in the morning and afternoon.
It’s funny how we develope habits and then change them along the way. I will be checking by to see what comments have been made. I am sure they will be interesting.
One or sometimes two cups of just store bought coffee will do for me each morning. Far many years I did not drink coffee but I loved slightly sweet iced tea. I hate flavored or cold coffee. Starbucks would go out of business if they depended on me. Several members of wife’s family will drink coffee all during the day, even in the hot summer. I remember my granddaddy pouring his coffee in a saucer before drinking it. My father in law wanted his coffee made in a percolator. Just a touch of blonde, a little sweet and lukewarm nowadays!
My Papa would pour his coffee in a saucer to cool it a bit. But all my grandparents drank their coffee hot and black. I prefer mine with sweetened creamer. I actually didn’t start drinking coffee until later in life otherwise I might have been drinking it like they did. Back when I was hoe-handle high.
I drink coffee, hot with half n half, but I also get on kicks of hot tea too, so they’re about equal I guess (except ai only drink coffee in the morning but I will drink hot tea all day long (usually decaf green tea.) Both my boys got me new tea cups this Christmas so I had to get some loose leaf teas for the new cups, I got a a coconut oolong tea and it is amazing. One of my husbands greatest possessions is his grandfather’s coffee cup. It is short, probably only holds 4 oz, and thick! He used only this one cup,.I always thought he liked that cup bc it kept the coffee extremely hot?
One other thing, I heard Momma say they “sassered” their coffee instead of “saucering”.
Momma said her Pa (grandfather) would parch the beans and put enough in his can for what he drank and grind/crush them with his ax handle.
My family on both sides come from a long line of coffee drinkers. Our children love it too. Hotter the better and strong enough to walk. Our youngest daughter says she goes to bed just thinking about how good the coffee will taste in the morning! My daddy was like that! Some things are passed down I reckon, but I missed that boat! I like one cup if it’s really cold out, but I need some cream and sugar.
Another great one…loved the ‘snow’ walk. Never tried roasting coffee…bet it is good. God Bless
Never knew that roast your own was ever a common thing for individual households. But I should have guessed from the old hand crank coffee grinders. Have to get our heads reset for ‘the old days’. There must be an interesting story about coffee in history; all the W questions, who, when, where and why plus especially how. I read somewhere once that Brits were coffee drinkers historically but there was a severe shortage so they switched to tea and didn’t ever quite go back.
Not so long ago there was smoked coffee on Amazon. I never tried it and it didn’t last long. Seems like it should have worked but must not have. Wonder if the old man Parris writes about got a hickory smoke flavor? I’d like to try that.