Classic Old French Enamelware Coffee Pot & Grinder

Someone asked me a good question a few months back: How do you make coffee in these classic old coffee pots?   

These pots look fabulous sitting on the counter top, don't they?  Even better on the kitchen table surrounded by interesting cups and a plate of warm croissants..... What would it be like to actually use one of these pots when the book club comes to visit? It's lots of fun to imagine what that might be like! So let's consider how you would use it.

First, imagine having rich roasted coffee beans.  

Then you would want an old grinder coffee mill like this one. 

Finally, of course, you would need one of these pots. Any color will do. The enamelware ones from France seem to come in a wide range of colors.

 

 

 You would grind the rich roasted coffee beans as finely as possible by pouring them into the top-side opening of the mill and letting them work their way down through the spinning blades of the coffee mill. 

The ground coffee collects in the small drawer at the bottom of the mill. 

After putting the grounds at the bottom of the classic old coffee pot, you would add water. Then as the water boils, preferably over an open flame... you wait until you get a strong whiff of that fabulous rich coffee. Using a very thick pot holder, you remove the pot from the flame, you watch the pot and wait while the grounds settle to the bottom of the pot. 

Final step: pour slowly and sip carefully.  YUM! 

Now, of course, there are modern-day safety and health issues to consider. But I am just saying, if you like to dream about having and using one of these classic old coffee pots, then you now know how to envision the coffee-making process! 

Bon Appetit!