Re: Which Coffee Maker
I've never been into a starbucks, don't they sell REAL coffee? AKA, espresso?<br /><br />A drip machine does not make espresso nor can it make crema.<br /><br />A good barrista will never make a bitter coffee, if it's bitter, send it back. Once coffee has past a certain temp (I think 89C) it's junk. <br /><br />A true espresso is short/black/NOT bitter. From my experience, most europeans don't add sugar but I do. Never add cream,water or milk. There should always be a dark brown float ontop known as crema, this is achieved via pressure. The higher the pressure, the tastier the crema (that is what I was referring to when I posted about 1.5bar). This is the most common way to drink coffee in europe, often drunk out of cups the size of shot glasses. It is very strong and contains less caffiene than 'instant'. It should not inhibite sleep, it will help with digestion (especially with a grappa chaser). The most common bean used is arabica. Espresso is the base ingredient for all the following - <br /><br />A long black is when plain water is added, all it does is weaken the strong flavor. This is more suited to western tastes, in fact, in Rome it is known as 'Caffe Americana' due to the GI's drinking it weaker during WW2.<br /><br />A flat white is probably the most common way a westerner drinks coffee, it is simply a long black with milk. AKA long white. It is called 'flat' because it has no froth or visible crema.<br /><br />Cappuccino is 1/3 espresso, 1/3 latte and 1/3 milk froth (BTW, skinny {low fat} milk makes the best froth). In Italy, it is only drunk at breakfast time.<br /><br />A latte is 1/3 espresso, 2/3 heated milk. Latte literally mean 'milk'. My mother drinks it using goats milk (yuk!)<br /><br />A machiata is a long black with a dash of milk, machiata litterally means 'stain'. The milk give the black coffee a slight stain color.<br /><br />There are more but I won't bore you any further.
<br /><br /><br /> http://store.cafemaison.com/bodum-coffee-maker-santos-3000-10.html <br /><br />I have the stove top model, but the electric with timer model sits on my sisters counter, she has more money than I do.
