Archive for the ‘Coffee’ Category
From June through August I have a personal rule: No hot coffee. A couple of summers ago I tried to drink hot coffee during the summer, and it was a disaster. Since I drink about five cups a day, I was constantly sweating from the intense heat of the coffee. I probably should have realized the iced coffee solution immediately, but it took me the entire summer. Here’s one of my favorite iced coffee recipes for beating the heat:
~Brew some espresso in your espresso coffee maker and cool one shot.
~Mix the shot of espresso with 2-3 tsp. cocoa, ½ tbs. vanilla extract (the good stuff) and 1-cup of milk.
~Pour in a tall glass with ice. You can create a delicious coffee smoothie by simply putting the drink in a blender for a few seconds.
I’m always a little suspicious of products that work in miraculous ways. Take Durgol for instance. I spent weeks trying to scrub the calcium deposits from my espresso machine with vinegar and nothing happened. Then I put Durgol in the machine and it’s like new in five minutes. If it can bust through calcium and lime that fast, there must be some pretty harsh chemicals in it—at least that was my thinking.
In fact, Durgol doesn’t contain any additives, unlike most other decalcifying products. This means that after you use Durgol in your machine, there isn’t any chemical residue and the machine is odorless—not even the vinegar method can say that. When the Durgol mixes with the minerals, it creates salts, which don’t harm the environment. Durgol actually works to remove lime in the water, which can be left over from detergents.
Some people are baffled when I tell them that I spent over a $1,000 on a coffee machine. They just don’t see the point in spending four figures on Solis espresso machines when you can get a functional drip machine at a department store for under $50. It may not seem like a premium coffee machine could possibly twenty times better than a drip machine—but it is.
My Solis espresso machine is so easy to use it practically brews the coffee itself. Plus it has an array of peripheral features to take my coffee concoctions to the next level. And when it comes down to it, you’re more likely to use your machine when it has all of the bells and whistles. Personally, my coffee machine is always out and ready for when I might need a pick me up throughout the day—and it’s great for entertaining.
An expert operator of an espresso machine is a “barista,” the Italian word for a bartender. In Italy and other parts of Europe, a barista is considered a career position, often with specific skills and training passed down from generation to generation.
In other parts of the world, the job of a barista has been frequently seen as an employment choice for young people, mostly as a starting point in their career, but is not seen as a life career choice. As a result, many coffee shops have moved to fully automatic espresso machines which allow a minimally-trained employee to create an espresso drink by merely pushing a button.
A few days ago, my son got pulled over for doing 55 in a 40. He just got his license a few months back; I can’t believe he’s already gotten a ticket. My husband and I grounded him for the rest of the summer and took away his license, of course, and while he’s stranded at home, we’ve decided to make him do some long needed chores.
First, I’m making him clean all of the windows in the house and dust the entire place, ceiling to floor. Then he has to retile his bathroom sink, which is totally disgusting. And ever since he started drinking coffee last winter my machine has never worked right, so I’m making him take the espresso decalcifier to it. Now that I think about it, it seems like he’s getting off a little easy; I think I’ll make him do the gutters and clean out the garage too.
Looking back on it now, the idea to combine hot milk and coffee seems apparent, but just 100 years ago this was a novel idea. The first cappuccino maker was actually an espresso machine, which was patented by Luigi Bezzera at the turn of the 20th century. Italy was the first country to serve the cappuccino, and it saw increasing popularity up until the 1940s.
In 1948, Gaggia introduced the modern, high-powered espresso machine that we know it today. This innovation made making cappuccinos easier and facilitated its proliferation around the globe. Particularly in Britain, where there had long been a tradition of drinking coffee with milk, the addition of heated milk and milk foam caught on quickly. Today cappuccinos are seen as a specialty beverage in many parts of the world, where they are usually enjoyed before noon.
My son moved into his own apartment about a year and a half ago, but last weekend was the first time my husband and I had visited his new abode. He was never the cleanest person when he was living at home, so I went in expecting the worst. And I wasn’t disappointed. Garbage and clothes were strewn about the house and half of his belongings weren’t even out of the boxes yet.
Within seconds my maternal instincts took over and I went into a cleaning frenzy, tackling everything from the bathroom to the attic. One area that was particularly dingy was the kitchen; instead of cleaning his dishes, I think he simply goes out and buys new ones. To make matters worse, there is hard water in his apartment complex, so I had to break out my descaler and clean all of his appliances. I know my hard work will all be for not, but at least the apartment will be clean for a few hours.
Once you’ve achieve your preferred roast, your job’s not done yet. Like other foodstuffs, the beans will continue to cook once you remove them from the heat source, so it’s important to cool them down quickly. As soon as they are out of the heat, pour the beans into a colander, which will allow them to lose their heat more rapidly.
If you are roasting coffee indoors, there will probably some smoke from the beans; simply turn on the exhaust fan on the stove to dissipate it. Like all good things in life, quality roasted coffee takes time. The beans won’t reach their peak flavor until about 24 hours after the roasting process, so if you can, hold out on popping them in your Saeco espresso machines ‘til then. During this time, excess CO2 is released from the beans and the new chemical structure stabilizes
Now that we’ve covered the beans, it’s time to move on to the roasting process. If you don’t have a newfangled roasting machine to use in conjunction with your coffee makers, you can roast your beans in a simple convection oven. Simply lay the beans out on a baking sheet, preheat the oven to about 500 oF and roast for 15-20 minutes. There aren’t any steadfast rules when it comes to roasting coffee; as I said yesterday, the roast is largely a matter of personal preference. But you still need to know 
so you know when to stop. Here are some of the easiest indicators:
~Color: Once you create beans you like, burn that image into your mind and try to replicate it in subsequent roasts.
~Smell: As the beans become done, the smell will morph from green veggies to rich coffee.
~Sound: The beans will begin to snap and pop as the water is forced out as steam.
~Time: If you use the same roasting method each time, the duration of the roast will be your most reliable metric.
Most people have enough difficultly choosing roasted coffee beans from their local grocery store to use in their cappuccino makers; and as you can imagine, selecting green, unroasted beans can be even harder. Making distinctions between beans with nothing but your eyes isn’t effective, so your best bet is to simply try out a variety of unroasted coffee beans from around the globe until you find a flavor profile you like. This may sound like an arduous undertaking, but most suppliers have some sort of sampler option which allows you to try an assortment of coffees without blowing your budget or doing months of research.
The beans are certainly an important part of the equation, but coffee drinkers know that the roast is a main determinant in the flavor. The more you roast the coffee, the more you detract from the natural coffee flavors. This is one of the biggest benefits of roasting your own beans; the fact that you can cater the roast to your distinct preferences.