Coffee Anyone?

June 07, 2014

Coffee Anyone?

I love my morning coffee. It has to be a good one. There is no substitute for a deliciously smooth, piping hot, cup of coffee! And if it's good, it satisfies me for the entire day. If it's not, I find that I am looking for another, and another and another until I find one that finally satisfies me.

Over the years I have owned many a coffee machine, electronic and stove top styles. Percolators, drip-o-lators, high pressure espresso's, pod machines, and DIY grinder and cappuccino machine combo's etc...

For stove top styles, my all time favourite is the Atomic Cappuccino Maker. It operates by boiling the water in the lower container, which creates upward pressure, forcing the hot water through the ground coffee in its secured basket, and drips into its own collecting pot. Then with the residual steam and pressure, you can froth your own milk! And unlike other systems whereby they run out of steam, this never has a problem. I have been served delicious coffee whilst camping, made from this little beauty!

20th century design Icon - The Atomic Cappuccino Machine. And campers friend!

Ex HD (hubby dear) is a gadget man. And he comes from the school where "money buys excellence". I don't follow that philosophy, in fact, I have witnessed first hand via living with him, that often the opposite can be true. Anyhow, he purchased an electric version from a leading brand, with Wiz-bang features such as computerised screen, for about $1000. It grinds your beans, can make two cups at a time, froths your milk and cleans itself after every cup! It all sounds good but I found the cleaning mechanism kicks in too quickly, and if you haven't moved your cup away within time, you end up with "cleaner crap" in your coffee. OK, I must admit that I am more than likely multi-tasking to the extreme when I am trying to have my morning coffee, so it is likely that I forget I've even made a coffee, but none-the-less, the cleaner crap tastes revolting! I also find that the milk temperature isn't warm enough for me - I like a really hot coffee! Perhaps there is a way to alter the temperature but the instruction manual is so daunting, I didn't dare go there! I love that fact that I can recycle my coffee grounds though - the worms love it! It gets them going in the morning too :o) But it takes up a huge amount of bench space in a family kitchen, it is an eye sore, and it's computerised display is NOT easy to understand or work out. There are just too many variables that can go wrong in what should be a simple process. And come on, who needs that in the morning!

Someone recently served me a coffee at a lunch I attended. It was delicious! So I enquired what coffee machine they used. They told me it was the Aldi Expressi Machine. Cheap as chips at $79 (recently gone up to $89 for the machine only). It is a pod system, with a plethora of different strengths available to suit every taste and intensity. Pods cost on average $5.99 for a pack of 16 - that's 37.5 cents a coffee! It is sleek in design, comes in two colours (black or silver), is able to fit into a narrow space on a kitchen bench and has only 3 buttons! Basically, A: Lots of coffee, B: Not so much coffee and C: Clean. It has an easy to view water chamber, and you can purchase a milk frother for $28. They call it the Multi Beverage Capsule Machine because it makes amazing hot chocolates too. Here it is in my kitchen this morning!