26 December 2008

Boxing Day: Coffee on the Cheap

Two of my favorite and most cost-effective ways to make coffee:
  1. cafetiere (aka "french press")
  2. Italian stove-top maker
The cafetiere could not be simpler, and makes really good coffee, especially a big pot to share in the morning. The press is much cheaper than an automatic drip machine, and makes better coffee.

The Italian stove-top maker does not really make espresso, but makes really good similar coffee -- thick and syrupy, similar to Greek/Turkish coffee. It's a little bit like the old percolator coffee pots that my grandparents used to have. Very quick, easy, and cheap. I find it a perfectly good substitute for espresso, and you save hundreds of dollars on the hardware.

The only problem with having both is that you should use different grinds for each -- finer for the stovetop and coarser for the press. A quality grinder + these two things is a much better allocation of coffee-themed resources than an all-in-one machine.

I can't think of a boxing day tie-in yet. Need more coffee.

2 comments:

  1. does anyone do percolator type coffee anymore? besides funeral homes?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've not seen one in many years. They are kind of pointless now I think.

    ReplyDelete