Chekhov's Mistress
Don’t Torment the Beans!
I was just preparing a piece for this space on making the perfect cup of French press coffee, which began…“On any given morning, you might find me with a kettle of boiling water next to my ear…” Yes I thought I was truly obsessive over my coffee making. But then a couple of things happened: First, I found CoffeeGeek.com.CoffeeGeek.com. They are truly obsessive over coffee and they have a good guide to making press coffee. So, I’m not going to put up my thoughts on the matter because they cover it very well.
I only believe in making press pot coffee or espresso and I worked hard to develop my press technique. I rarely drink espresso because it’s so difficult to find a shop that makes it well. But then, along came this deal by Illy, the Italian coffee roaster, for an espresso machine and cups for darn near cheap, just for agreeing to buy their coffee for a year (which is anything but cheap). While I haven’t given up on press coffee, I am now obsessed with making the perfect cup of espresso.
There seems to be some controversy over the use of E.S.E. pods, which are prepacked pods of espresso that have been pre-measured and tamped. These are absolutely critical aspects of making espresso, so it’s nice to have them for a quick cup. But for the purist, which I am, they are somewhat irksome, because they take away from the art of coffee making. However, I have not dismissed them completely because they do making a consistently good shot of espresso. The only problem I have with them, besides upsetting my purist sensibilities, is that a) you can only make single shots with them and b) they don’t allow you to “dial-in” that perfect cup, and c) they are expensive. To be exact, the pods are 57 cents per shot, which is 87% more than Illy ground or whole bean coffee at 30 cents per shot. Well, one does have to keep themselves occupied somehow.
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About this Post
- Posted by: Bud Parr
- Date: April 28, 2004
- Filed Under:
Polygluttonous: Food/Places
- Comments:0
- Links to this Post: Technorati
