A Very Welcome Sight

I arrived in Paris today for a work meeting that lasts until the end of the week. This is actually turning into something of a habit as I was in Paris from Tuesday to Friday last week for a meeting related to another project I'm working on. If this week is anything like last week then there won't be much to blog about as I won't get to do any sight seeing of any kind. Having said that I did think the sight that greeted me when I got to my hotel room today was worth blogging about.

When traveling in mainland Europe I'm always annoyed by the fact that hotels never seem to provide coffee making facilities in the rooms. This is common in the UK, but I've almost never seen it anywhere else. So imagine my surprise, and delight, when I found a kettle and coffee in my room. Mind you I guess this means the rest of the week will be downhill from here!

First Cup Of The Day

For years I used a mixture of free coasters (I acquired quite a few as a student) and AOL CDs (well they should never actually be placed inside a computer), but last Christmas Bryony bought me a set of 'proper' coasters for the desk in my study. I'm not entirely sure how accurate the message is though.

Whilst it is undoubtedly true that before my first cup of coffee I can't handle anything, I'm not sure that after the first cup I can handle everything!

clean me!

Disaster Strikes!

I've run out of instant coffee! This is a disaster! I've no idea how it happened but this is the first time in my life I've run out of coffee.

Ah well I'll just have to make do with fresh coffee for the rest of today until I can get to a supermarket tomorrow -- how will I cope!

Coffee in Breakfast

Whilst I like a proper full English for breakfast I'm also quite happy with a continental breakfast as long as it is accompanied by copious amounts of strong black coffee.

This morning though I got coffee both with and in my breakfast! The drink was better than the food but as yet another source of caffeine I can't complain.

Contes d'un buveur français de café

Thanks to Rob for spotting this -- pure genius! Hopefully I got the French title right (it should mean Tales from a French Coffee Drinker) but blame Babel Fish if I didn't as my French only extends as far as hello and thank you.

Coffee Induced Hallucinations

A Durham University team are reporting that heavy coffee drinkers are three time more likely to experience hallucinations then other people. Maybe this explains the topless coffee shop in Maine.

Expensive Coffee

We often have problems at work funding the replacement of kitchen items. We used to have lots of kettles but as they die they aren't replaced. We have a fridge in the office but this also isn't currently working and a replacement hasn't been ordered yet. Now I'm not complaining, I'm sure money in the University is just as tight as it is in the rest of the economy, I'm just setting the scene.

One Chicago school district was obviously not short of money (or maybe they were but the manager didn't care) as they spent $70,000 on just 30 coffee machines! What is even worse is that five months after they were ordered 22 of the machines were still unopened.

You can read the full story on the website of the Chicago Tribune.

Tassimo Coffee Maker

You may remember that around a year ago I started a sequence of posts looking at making coffee, mostly so I could talk about the cornucopia of coffee machines I own. Sorting through some photos I was reminded that I had intended to blog about a Tassimo coffee machine.

One of the two hotels we stayed at on honeymoon was Sheildhill Castle which rather than a kettle had a Tassimo coffee machine in the room. Now surprisingly I had not only never used one of these machines but I'd never even seen one in the flesh before. They are really simple to use (stick in the water and a pod, sit back and wait for coffee) and will make other drinks not just coffee. Honestly though I think I prefer any of my other machines.

Firstly, the use of a single pod for a single cup of coffee has to be bad for the environment. Secondly what happens if Tassimo stop making the pods, or in the current financial crisis, go bust? Easy, the machines will suddenly stop producing coffee, an absolute nightmare!

I think the best thing about them is that they are convenient for a hotel and very easy to clean. Also the brightly coloured pods laid out in a tray look pretty!

Dalhousie Castle Cafetiere Coffee

The first hotel we stayed in was Dalhousie Castle. I'll get to talking about the hotel in a later post, but first impressions were good.

As many of you will know I quite like coffee. So I was very impressed with the coffee tray in the hotel room. The tray didn't contain the normal boring packets of instant coffee, instead there was a cafetiere and Dalhousie Castle branded packets of fresh coffee (and decaf for those who might prefer that). Not only did it look good but it was also by far the best coffee I've ever made in a hotel room.

Coffee: "Cona" Vacuum Pot

Click To Play

On this strange journey through my coffee making equipment we reach the final stop, a "Cona" Vacuum Pot. I was given this coffee machine as a graduation present back in 2006. This machine is my most recent, most expensive, most fragile and most fun coffee machine. It also makes the best coffee!

Often referred to in our house as my chemsitry set it is difficult to describe how it works (other than it involves creating a vacuum) so I videoed it making a pot of coffee. Given how fragile looking it is and the fact that it takes quite a while to make coffee this way I don't use it very often, but it is great for getting out and making coffee at the table after a meal with guests.

I hope you enjoyed that brief tour around my coffee making equipment. At least now if you are ever in the house you will know what kind of coffee you can ask for!

Coffee: Filter Coffee Machine and Espresso Pot

So far we have seen a cafetiere and an espresso machine. Whilst they both make nice coffee they are not very useful when you have lots of people around who all want coffee all the time! For that you need a filter coffee machine. They are easy to use (add coffee and water and leave alone), they keep the coffee hot, and they are easy to clean and refill when the coffee runs out. Again I went for a relatively cheap model, but it works a charm and makes it very easy for me to provide lots of coffee.

The next coffee machine I acquired, an espresso pot, was a present. An espresso pot is the exact opposite of the filter coffee machine in that it makes a single cup of coffee. Unlike the previous ways of making coffee this one is actually quite fun as there is a certain element of having to watch and wait for the coffee to be ready -- mainly so you don't burn the thing dry leaving it on the heat too long. As an added bonus it works quite well on an Aga.

Coffee: Espresso Machine

Whilst I'm usually happy with coffee made in a cafetiere, I do like a good espresso. So the second coffee machine I bought was a cheap espresso machine. The nice thing about this particular machine is that it has an attachment for making frothy milk. Now I never have milk in my coffee but I know someone who does like a good cappuccino. This usually means that I make a full cafetiere of coffee and a full carafe of espresso so that I can also froth enough milk to make a nice cappuccino using the cafetiere coffee so that everyone is happy.

Coffee: Cafetiere

The first piece of coffee making equipment I ever bought (other than a kettle!) was this cafetiere back in the autumn of 1998. Given that it has been very well used over the last 9 and a bit years I'm surprised that it has lasted as well as it has -- especially given that the glass in my parents first cafetiere got broken on one of the first attempts I made to clean it after it had been used!

As coffee makers go a cafetiere is relatively boring. You add coffee grounds and hot water, wait a minute or so then depress the plunger so as to ensure the grounds don't end up in your cup. However, for someone who was used to instant coffee, the difference in taste is phenomenal and was well worth the small investment at a time when I was a relatively penniless university student. I can't remember exactly where mine came from (other than it was a shop in Meadowhall) or how much it cost, but the Another Coffee website has quite a range to choose from, including one attractively priced at £8.95 for the current crop of penniless coffee loving students.

The first coffee I bought to use in the cafetiere was Hot Lava Java from Taylors of Harrogate. I was probably drawn to this brand a) by the bright coloured packet b) the free matching storage tin and c) because the back of the packet described the coffee as a "blast of pure caffeine". The description goes on to say: Containing twice as much caffeine as a normal coffee, this blend is not for the faint hearted. Drink it at night, it'll keep you wide eyed until the wee small hours. Drink it during the day, you'll have so much energy you won't be able to sit down. Thinking back it was quite popular late at night with my housemates when we all had coursework deadlines the following day!

Coffee: Introduction

Given the title of this blog I thought it was about time I talked about coffee. So over a number of posts I'm going to introduce you to the frankly daft amount of coffee making equipment I own. First though I thought I'd start with a couple of good resources for anyone else who is interested in coffee, and to which I'll refer during these set of blog postings. So, among the many books I own are two entirely devoted to coffee.

The Coffee House - A Cultural History: This is a fantastic history of the introduction of coffee and the coffee house culture to England and mainland Europe. From the first coffee house in London opened in 1652 by Pasqua Rosée, to the modern proliferation of coffee house chains, such as Starbucks, there is very little of the history of coffee in England that is not covered by this book. A very interesting read, even if you aren't that interested in drinking the coffee!

Coffee: The title says it all, this book is like an encyclopedia of coffee (I assume the linked book is the same even though the ISBN numbers don't match). Whilst it does overlap slightly with the previous book it also provides detailed instructions for using many different types of coffee maker as well as quite a few coffee based recipes. I've found it very useful, even if only for working out what approach to making coffee I want to try next!

And for those of you without ready access to my collection of books there are a few useful/interesting websites as well.

The Another Coffee website is a great place to go to buy anything coffee related, from coffee to very expensive espresso machines through cheap but simple ways to make coffee. I could probably spend a small fortune on this site if I let myself.

Whilst not entirely useful, the "illustrated" coffee cups on World of Latte are lots of fun to look at, but if I ever make you a cup of coffee don't expect it to look quite that fancy!

Hopefully that has whetted your appetite for the coffee related blog posts that will follow over the next few days/weeks.