i drink coffee

lots and lots of coffee. i love coffee. black, no sugar. unadulterated. unadorned. strong. hot (although i'll drink lukewarm if it's an emergency). i have a coffee with me ALWAYS from the time i awaken (usually 12:30 am) until 10:00 am (sunday through thursday) and as long as i'm up (friday and saturday). i love the taste, i love the smell. i know good coffee and i know bad coffee. i know pod coffee and instant and brewed.



there is NOTHING like brewed coffee. nothing. i remember my noni's kitchen. there was ALWAYS a coffee pot (you know the kind i mean. a PERCOLATOR. yes, i said PERCOLATOR) on one of the burners. i grew up drinking coffee (when i stayed with her that is. my parents didn't give me coffee as a child). she used to get a big bowl (the italian slang for that is scidella - skee dell ah - i don't really know the spelling) and put a tiny bit of coffee in a tiny bit of sugar AND fill the rest with warm milk. she used to serve toasted italian bread with it, slathered with butter. you dunked that bread in the coffee. (in all fairness, she'd do the same with tea too every once in a while). my mouth is watering right now............mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......



anyway, i read this article yesterday. i got so mad i wanted to bitch slap someone across the fact (not to worry, i didn't). $11,000 for a machine that 'BREWS' ONE cup of coffee? $20,000 for another machine that makes ONE cup at a time? having to wait YEARS to become sensai and zen with the coffee machine??????????? are these people seriously F**KING NUTS? go to effing wal-mart and buy A PERCOLATOR if you effing want A GOOD CUP OF COFFEE. they talk about 'brewed' coffee like it's something new and something different. wtf????????? what hath we become? i can see those trendy white yuppie assholes lining up for a steamin' cup - as i write this (and that vein is standing out in my neck)


At Last, a $20,000 Cup of Coffee
By OLIVER SCHWANER-ALBRIGHT

WITH its brass-trimmed halogen heating elements, glass globes and bamboo paddles, the new contraption that is to begin making coffee this week at the Blue Bottle Café here looks like a machine from a Jules Verne novel, a 19th-century vision of the future.
Called a siphon bar, it was imported from Japan at a total cost of more than $20,000. The cafe has the only halogen-powered model in the United States, and getting it here required years of elliptical discussions with its importer, Jay Egami of the Ueshima Coffee Company.
“If you just want equipment you’re not ready,” Mr. Egami said in an interview. But, he added, James Freeman, the owner of the cafe, is different: “He’s invested time. He’s invested interest. He is ready.”
Professionals have long been willing to pay prices in the five figures for the perfect espresso machine, but the siphon bar does not make espresso. It makes brewed coffee, as does another high-end coffee maker, the $11,000 Clover, which makes one cup at a time. Together, they signal the resurgence of brewing among the most obsessive coffee enthusiasts...............

by the way, we have a flavia creation 400 at work. it's a 'brew by pack' machine (not pods, but little foil packet things). I LOVE IT! we get free coffee, tea and hot chocolate. each floor in each wing has it's own pantry with it's own flavia machine. i like it so much, i was thinking of buying one (the home model of course) for myself. there are so many choices for both teas and coffees and chocolates)

picture: Peter DaSilva for The New York Times - The Japanese siphon bar at the Blue Bottle Café in San Francisco.

(the flavia pic is from the flavia website)