Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Thoughts on Coffee Makers

Over at Cool Tools, Steven Leckart does a quick rundown on a lever-action espresso maker.  You boil water, load the filter, then use two levers to force hot water through the grounds to make your morning espresso.  The simplicity, ease of use and care, and the ability to make a decent cup of espresso after the power goes out really appeals to me.  If I'm going to survive the zombie apocalypse, I'm going to need caffeine.

JP over at Eyes Never Closed recently went halfsies on a Keurig coffee maker, and seems to like it.  As a gadget geek, I've always liked these contraptions.  I first ran into something like this a few years ago when I was visiting a vendor in Germany, and their office coffee pot automagically ground the beans, heated the water, brewed the coffee, and spat it out into a cup.  The coffee was good, the ability to choose what coffee drink you wanted was neat, and hey, I got to push buttons on a machine.

I've had coffee in just about every form that I can think of:  boiled cowboy coffee made over a fire, espresso and cappuccino made by well-dressed Hungarian waiters, Turkish made by an old man on the side of a goat trail outside of Sinop, boiled black mud bought for a couple thousand rubles at a Russian "truck stop", percolated coffee made in silver bullet urns in Lord knows how many Army command posts and offices, Taster's Choice out of an MRE (nasty, but you gotta do what you gotta do, and it's drinkable after mixing in cocoa mix, sugar and creamer, and occasionally - peanut butter), and of course my old stand-by:  the Mr. Coffee on the kitchen counter.

I've tried my hand at a few presses, and didn't like the experience of picking grounds out of my teeth, but I'm probably doing it wrong.  I've never had a chance to try using any of the vacuum brewers, but I have had a few cups out of one, and it was pretty good. 

So, how do you all make your morning wake-me-up?  What's your favorite way to prepare the blessed juice of the bean?

8 comments:

ZerCool said...

Usually it's a Mr. Coffee automagic drip pot.

On lazy weekend mornings, a french press.

Dunkin is an acceptable stand-in, and a couple of the local stop'n'robs have surprisingly good brew.

When camping, *nothing* will beat a stainless or enamel perc-pot sitting on the edge of a wood fire.

bluesun said...

I get up in the morning at 6:30 without an alarm clock and go about my day without Coffee, Coke, Mountain Dew, Red Bull, or Weird B-Vitamin-and-Herbal-Extract-Based-Drinks, etc. They all taste disgusting to me, anyway.

Professor P. said...

I am a Keurig junkie. We have one at home, and the husband and I each have one at our office. In fact, my college students have dubbed mine "The Coffeepot of Consolation" and they come looking for a cuppa Joe at least once a day.

DaddyBear said...

How expensive are those Keurig capsules?

Ruth said...

Mr coffee drip, but I buy whole bean and grind about a week's worth at a time (I'm not functional enough first thing in the morning to grind each day). I do have a stove top perculator for the occasion when I need coffee without power. If for some reason I have to rush out of the house without coffee I hit DD and get a coffee with extra cream and sugar so as to hide the taste. I have to add that I grew up in a household of tea drinkers and my dad is still horrified that his daughter drinks coffee!

Old NFO said...

Cajun coffee (brewed strong) out of a Cusinart maker... drink the whole pot before I leave for work!

Link P said...

We have a Cuisinart that grinds the beans and brews the coffee before we wake up as long someone remembers to set it up at night.

WV: mousemp
Rodent Army Cop

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing information..
GoCoffee offer office coffee machines and maker at low prices & provide 5% off your first order and free nationwide shipping.
Office Coffee Machine

Creative Commons License
DaddyBear's Den by DaddyBear is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at daddybearden.blogspot.com.