Now, I don't mean to go off on a rant,
Generally speaking, most people have a coffee maker, and they buy a preground mix. Being a latecomer to drinking coffee at all (my wife was a fan, and she got me drinking coffee shortly after we met), I had a bit of an exploration of how to properly drink it.
Why did it take me until my later 20s to get into coffee? Because I found the scent of coffee to be disturbing, figuring it was virtually undrinkable without milk or sugar, and I never attempted drinking black coffee. That's why when I met my wife, and she only drank black coffee. As it turns out, I quite like coffee. It's similar to her; she didn't think beer was drinkable until I introduced her to something that wasn't Alpine, Molson, or Coors; I believe it was a stout.
After moving around, I took a job with a software developer. Lots of coffee was needed. The office had a machine like this:
It was a subscription-based machine that gets monthly service - sometimes for hours. Hooked up to a water supply, all we ever had to do was put beans into the top, put out mug underneath, and press buttons. This coffee was even better. I hadn't had freshly grounded beans before, or at least I didn't pay attention to it.
My next step was buying a similar machine for home. Something like this:
But not one with an auto-cleaning function, so it required a good 5 minutes a day of maintenance. Other than that, the coffee was great, even better than the one at the office. The office coffee was a significant improvement over the stale-tasting pre-ground stuff, but there was always likely a bit of grime caught up in the tubing, which rots when wet, and pollutes the pot - dark roasted coffee generally masks this. But even my coffee maker wasn't perfect, there would be bits we would miss, and that would pollute the pot.
After years of this, fate's kind messenger broke my all-in-one, coffee maker. As a quick fix, I bought a simple grinder to use with the old machine that I dug out from our box room. Something like this:
It comes with a brush. It works simply: put in the beans, lock, grind, flip over, and you have a cup of freshly ground coffee for your coffee machine. Residue can be brushed out. The pots of coffee I have been drinking have been perfect every single time. No pollution... the reason is that a simple coffee maker is simple to clean. There's no leftover grime. The grinder remains dry, aside from some of the oils from the beans. The best part about it is cleaning isn't an arduous 5-minute task (because you haven't had your coffee yet), rather it takes seconds. Another benefit that it has over office-level machines and home all-in-ones is the far quieter sound. A separate coffee grinder is a small hum and a rattle, while the all-in-one models sound like something that belongs in a garage shop.
This post was my long-drawn-out story on how I came to find the perfect solution for a good mug of coffee. It's a simple regular coffee machine + grinder + good coffee beans. Fancy all in one and self-cleaning solutions turned out to be inferior.
Does anyone have a similarly weird coffee story?
Generally speaking, most people have a coffee maker, and they buy a preground mix. Being a latecomer to drinking coffee at all (my wife was a fan, and she got me drinking coffee shortly after we met), I had a bit of an exploration of how to properly drink it.
Why did it take me until my later 20s to get into coffee? Because I found the scent of coffee to be disturbing, figuring it was virtually undrinkable without milk or sugar, and I never attempted drinking black coffee. That's why when I met my wife, and she only drank black coffee. As it turns out, I quite like coffee. It's similar to her; she didn't think beer was drinkable until I introduced her to something that wasn't Alpine, Molson, or Coors; I believe it was a stout.
After moving around, I took a job with a software developer. Lots of coffee was needed. The office had a machine like this:
It was a subscription-based machine that gets monthly service - sometimes for hours. Hooked up to a water supply, all we ever had to do was put beans into the top, put out mug underneath, and press buttons. This coffee was even better. I hadn't had freshly grounded beans before, or at least I didn't pay attention to it.
My next step was buying a similar machine for home. Something like this:
But not one with an auto-cleaning function, so it required a good 5 minutes a day of maintenance. Other than that, the coffee was great, even better than the one at the office. The office coffee was a significant improvement over the stale-tasting pre-ground stuff, but there was always likely a bit of grime caught up in the tubing, which rots when wet, and pollutes the pot - dark roasted coffee generally masks this. But even my coffee maker wasn't perfect, there would be bits we would miss, and that would pollute the pot.
After years of this, fate's kind messenger broke my all-in-one, coffee maker. As a quick fix, I bought a simple grinder to use with the old machine that I dug out from our box room. Something like this:
It comes with a brush. It works simply: put in the beans, lock, grind, flip over, and you have a cup of freshly ground coffee for your coffee machine. Residue can be brushed out. The pots of coffee I have been drinking have been perfect every single time. No pollution... the reason is that a simple coffee maker is simple to clean. There's no leftover grime. The grinder remains dry, aside from some of the oils from the beans. The best part about it is cleaning isn't an arduous 5-minute task (because you haven't had your coffee yet), rather it takes seconds. Another benefit that it has over office-level machines and home all-in-ones is the far quieter sound. A separate coffee grinder is a small hum and a rattle, while the all-in-one models sound like something that belongs in a garage shop.
This post was my long-drawn-out story on how I came to find the perfect solution for a good mug of coffee. It's a simple regular coffee machine + grinder + good coffee beans. Fancy all in one and self-cleaning solutions turned out to be inferior.
Does anyone have a similarly weird coffee story?
