Going back to "old school" - we have a percolator

I wrote a blog a few days ago about my auto drip coffee pot dying and making "camping" style. I was at a resale shop and found a percolator for around $3. I figured that it could not hurt to try so I bought it. I have never used a percolator before and online read that many coffee enthusiasts hate them. So I thought it would be a good time to experiment and see what happens. I had coffee made with a percolater once before at my aunt's house. It tasted weak but that may have been the way she made it. My aunt does not make strong coffee. No instruction booklet came with it so I looked up online what to expect and measured the water in my old drip carafe so I would know how much water and coffee to start with. We recently had snow so I also went out into a clean snowdrift and melted snow to use as well as my regular bottled water. 

I used Hawaiian coffee that I had been given as a gift and tried the experiment (it was preground for the auto drip). I used 10 cups of water (at least it was to the "10" mark as I measured with the autodrip carafe) and five scoops of coffee in the percolater. It made a lot of noise but seemed to be brewing. There is a switch to control strength (I have it set for the strongest). It automatically shut off after ten minutes. I transfered the coffee into a thermal carafe to keep it warm and poured a cup for myself and my dad. I was plesantly surprised. It did not taste burned or bland or any of the ways many of the anti perc blogs said it would. The coffee made with the snow water did taste milder but that may have been the snow and not the coffee maker.  Considering the price I am happy with the perc.