I can certainly understand protecting the highly valued and treasured Bialetti you have at home.
But if you wanted to take one with you on your travels, even the budget of a terribly underpaid Diplomat
p) might manage the cost of a new, unsentimental pot. The link below is the US Amazon, but it should be available for a similar price across the pond. (I know you have the problem with $=£, and VAT...but still...)
http://www.amazon.com/Bialetti-Expr...85626&sr=8-1&keywords=bialetti+espresso+maker
Actually, I agree with you re the Bialetti; however, believe it or not, cost is not the issue, even on a generous salary. Rather, the issue is that it is much easier to boil a kettle, and use a French press, thus, in many of the twilight zone places I visit, and work in, my first port of call is to buy a kettle, and a French press, and then whatever form of real coffee I can find (usually LavAzza at astounding prices....)
We share the same model then! But 12 cups, really? Makes me think I drink too much espresso!
Anyway, that gurgling sound always more than compensates for the sound of the alarm in the morning.
Always a nice and encouraging start into the day!
Love it, that gurgling sound, Gurgle, gurgle......actually, mine makes six, not twelve cups; I doubt I have consumed twelve cups of espresso at a time since I was a student.......wait, memory strikes a chord. Ooooops. Maybe not twelve, but certainly, the total which some might locate under the category called 'many' have indeed been consumed more recently than undergrad days.....
I wish I had your problem. I wake up incredibly early whether I want to or not. I wake with enough time to make my espresso, clean up, and do a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle!!
Ah well, the blessings of the Golden Years.
Enjoy your latte, Mate!
Evidently, someone who greets the morning sun with a grin.
To be honest, I am not certain that this is a matter of age. For my part, it most certainly is not, as I am a night owl, and morning finds me morbid and murderous, clutching duvets over my head and growling imprecations at the world. Me, I am no longer in the first flush of youth, and I can never remember a time in my life when I leapt balletically out of bed upon waking in the morning (unless the temperature was already approaching 23 degrees at 8 a.m. and the sky was a pellucid blue, daring me to partake of the joys bestowed by engaging with life as a cheerful and active participant).
Oh you know Shrink is going to buy one of those! I just know it.
So do I.
Just took a quick look at some information. The scace, plus the recommended data logger, costs $914!!!
Even I'm not that crazy! If I'm really honest, part of the reason I don't like it is it is ugly, and esthetics count. Also, it is just one step more information than I can process. I'm sure it somehow makes the espresso better, but even holding the price out...TMI. I don't think my palate is that finely tuned that I would really know the difference. Anyway, I might have mentioned before...too damned expensive!
So nyaah, nyaah..
SandboxGeneral, I'm not getting it!!
Hmmmm. Let me say, I have my doubts that this robust statement of intent will withstand the vicissitudes of life, or temptations of fate.....
In my best Yoda voice, oh you will, you will.
Yes, I agree, you will. Sometimes, an apple is just asking to be bitten into.....
I never thought I'd say this, but the scace is just more than I need.
Then again...never say never..
Stay tuned to this space for further updates...but don't hold your breath!
We shall....
I forgot to post a few days ago about a regular coffee experience I had. During the week one day I was getting a bit tired and wanted a coffee. All we had in the office was a small package of Ghirardelli freeze dried breakfast blend. I made that in the Bunn coffee maker and it tasted absolutely horrible!
The boss and I had to go out to Tim Hortons and get a proper tasting drip coffee.
Aaaah. Awful.. Instant coffee can only be classed as a crime against humanity, and an utter affront to civilisation, and a complete insult to anything resembling good taste. Above all, it is not, never was, and never can be, classed as anything that might be called coffee...
Might I humbly suggest, quietly and calmly...that any form of instant coffee is totally unfit for human consumption!!! It is horrible beyond description!! Brown, foul tasting....stuff! (This is a family thread)
Humble and calm...that's me!
I find myself (not for the first time) in complete, utter and total agreement with you on this.
Buddy you aren't kidding! That stuff is so bad I wouldn't even give it to a dog.
No, that would be most unfair to any dog, even the ones that bite....
You're right! Giving it to a dog would constitute animal cruelty!
Really, I just can't understanding drinking that stuff. I realize it's convenient, but for the same effort (essentially, boiling water) one can have press coffee. No more work, and with good pre-ground beans...an excellent cup of coffee.
Ghirardelli has a well earned reputation for a good product, but not even Ghirardelli can make drinkable ersatz coffee. It is just such a a total desecration of coffee, it's impossible to make it drinkable.
Again, I cannot but agree. Well said; instant coffee is an abomination, really, it is just an excuse for bad taste, a lazy simulacrum of what coffee should be, an affront to the sheer civilised concept of what coffee, coffee drinking, coffee houses, and cafés actually represent.....
I really enjoy Ghirardelli's chocolate though! I even visited Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco and got a chocolate scented t-shirt. But I've never tried their coffee before the other day.
Agreed; Ghirardelli's chocolate is excellent, which makes it an even greater source of surprise that they fail to understand what good coffee should entail....
Ersatz Kafee?! That sounds (and most probably tastes) like an invention by the Aparat! Cruel and mean stuff, made to rule the world in a convenient way...
You said it.....