Owning a fully automatic home coffee machine · Thursday February 1, 2007 by colin newell
Super-Auto or fully automatic coffee makers are all the rage now. But you have to ask yourself one question: “Can you control yourself?”
Upside With a standard Super-Auto machine, you add coffee beans and water. You push a button. That’s it. Really. That’s it.
Downside Buy one of these units and you will drown in great coffee. On the evolutionary scale, there are few genetic upticks between the human and, say… the gerbil.
Or a hamster. You know what a hamster is, yes? My point: It takes very little stimulus to cascade from civilized beings to caffeine-pellet gobbling rodents.
Anyway – a true story: A wealthy uncle of mine bought a swiss made fully-auto coffee maker.. about 1700$
for his kitchen. A Solis Master 5000 digital.
He loved it. Perhaps a little too much. Heck, I borrowed it for 5 days for use in my lab. And the 4 normally adult male techs in my shop quickly morphed into human/hummingbird hybrids. The more they buzzed around the Solis for yet another shot the more hummingbird-like they became. Go figure.
The Solis is a good machine and the after-sales support is top notch. So, after a year, the sales/service centre that
sold it to him suggested a free check-up.
They were so amazed when they got it in the
shop… and they called me. I can remember the call…
Within 365 days of us, he has clocked in 14,000
servings of coffee. They thought he was running
a restaurant.
This Uncle, who is in his 60’s has a wife who is 32.
He has (or had at the time…) a 3 year old.
He claims: “I put my coffee maker on at 5AM and
I make one or two Americanos coffee every hour til
when I turn it off at 10 PM!”
Do the math. He pressed the brew button over 10,000
times in the space of one year.
Now THAT is coffee drinking!
Personally, I drink about 8 fluid ounces of coffee a day.
Not 8 fluid litres. If I drank coffee like this, my head would explode. Or maybe my bladder would go first.
Either way, if you think you can handle one of these units, go ahead an try. But keep a support group handy… or a life-line or something.
You have been warned.
Toast for the discerning palate... · Sunday November 5, 2006 by colin newell
It`s true: Society has conditioned us to replace our toasters once a year.
Well, I say no to cheap toasters.
I mean, do the economics: If every Canadian toast-eater replaces a 49$ toaster (for their family of 4) every year (the average length of time a 49$ toaster lives) – that adds up to the GNP of most 3rd World countries.
Now, wouldn’t you rather send that money to the local food bank or the Red Cross? I know I would.
For that reason, I had no trouble paying slightly more than 49$ for my Viking Professional Toaster.
For me, it is not about the prestige or bling factor of a shiny real toaster. I mean, I could have paid 500$ for a hand-made Dualit.
Yes. It is hand-made. How do I know? I have looked at quite a few of them and judging by the build-quality, I can only assume they are assembled under the most stringent English standards.
Anyho. The Viking Professional toaster (at a couple of pennies over 300$ Canadian) looks like it will last between 10 and 20 years.
Do the math readers. This purchase makes economic sense. Big time.
And how is the toast?
The toast is wonderful! The finished product (the toast readers, the toast!) is evenly browned and not dried out. The Viking Pro appears to be double insulated (and at 1000 watts of power) can be handled at any time during the toast cycle. Short of sticking your fingers into the toasting chambers, it is impossible for you to burn yourself.
So. Stop wasting money. Get a better toaster. You will be glad you did!
So much stuff to do... · Sunday October 1, 2006 by colin newell
Spending the weekend with Carole and Kyle of Baratza.
Making them coffee.
Playing with the Virtuoso grinder.
Making Aeropress coffee.
Touring the odd cafe and bakery.
Have been testing a bunch of new espresso makers/machines.
Not revealing too much til I am done.
Anyone out there? Hello.
There is a strange echo in here. :-)
Comment [1]
Putting the knife to Gaggia · Wednesday August 2, 2006 by dave
After long and faithful use, I was finally sufficiently fed-up with the shower plate in my Gaggia Espresso to do the unthinkable. I hauled it out and within moments had filed down the exaggerated ridge that surrounds the shower screen.
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