Espresso

Posted on 2003/09/17 10:36:36 (September 2003) by john.

The way coffee should be.

For my half birthday the other day (childish, yes, I know) Chie gave me one of those little espresso maker thingies. We'd had an electric one for a while, that gave pretty disappointing results (and is in fact now broken), so we thought we'd get back to basics. Today I gave it a go for the first time.

One important thing of course is to use a decent Italian espresso coffee - NOT THAT SHIT YOU ENGLISH PEOPLE CALL COFFEE! Ooops, sorry, I thought I was Lorenzo for a minute there.


Here's the little thingy, whatever you call it. Unfortunately we don't have a gas hob, as I'm pretty sure these things were designed with gas in mind. Still, it seemed to work nonetheless.


Mine has a glass bit in the lid so you can see what is going on inside.


...and here's the finished product, lovely rich strong espresso.


A gratuitous close-up.


Here's a video (AVI, DivX, 320Kb) of the action - I opened the lid temporarily to capture this in its full glory. Warning kids, don't try this at home, coffee gets sprayed all over your kitchen. You might be better off right-clicking and doing "Save Target As..." than trying to view the clip directly - it didn't seem to work for me like that.


So, my verdict? Taste was very good. Texture was still slightly thinner than I'd like it, and there didn't seem to be that nice little frothy bit on top by the time it got into the cup, but maybe these issues can be resolved through experimentation. On the whole though, pretty good.

I'm not sure who is sadder, you for writing it or me for reading it!!

Posted by Mad Mumsie at 2003/09/17 21:41:18.

A man and his espresso maker, it's the most natural love in the world.

Posted by John at 2003/09/18 08:34:42.

Damn! I'd expected a full on polemic in favor of espresso at the expense of all other forms of coffee, given your title.

Posted by Travis at 2003/09/18 19:40:11.

I must be going soft in my old age! I just don't seem to have any rant left in me...

Posted by John at 2003/09/19 11:20:32.

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