A Brief Observation on the matter of....Coffee.

[Being a transparent attempt to merely take up space on the blog with a post of dubious content]

I really do prefer the way coffee tastes when I grind the beans myself, immediately before brewing. It comes out stronger, fresher, with more "zip". (If wine people can talk about "bouquet" and "finish", I can talk about "zip".) But last week the grocery store had my brand of coffee on sale, plus I had coupons for additional savings on the ground coffee only, and not the whole bean. So I got the ground stuff...and while not as good in the cup, it is kind of nice to not have to drag down the grinder every morning.

Being a big believer in brewing freshly ground coffee, I would never get one of those coffee makers they have nowadays -- the ones with VCR-style timers so you can load the grounds the night before and set the machine to start brewing at eight hours later. That's eight hours the grounds are sitting in the basket, exposed to air which dries out the oils and thus dulls the flavor, and that's eight hours your water is sitting in the reservoir with no air in it. (Aerated water makes good coffee, which is why you should let the faucet run for ten seconds or so before filling the carafe to transfer the water to the reservoir, and start your brewing immediately.)

My mother used to have the extremely questionable practice of brewing a large pot of coffee in the morning, drinking her two cups, and then turning the thing off and then microwaving cold coffee back to hot later in the day. The mere thought of doing that makes my skin crawl. And when I was in Target the other day, I was surprised to see that they still make percolating machines! I thought those had gone the way of the dodo when everyone realized that percolated coffee tastes lousy.

Now that winter is coming, it will soon be time to dig out the espresso machine. I don't make very good espresso, I'm sorry to say -- never practiced much -- but I love a cup of hot chocolate dosed with a serving of espresso. As for coffee accessories I don't own, I've always wanted to try using a French press and a stove-top vacuum pot.

Oooooh, pot's done brewing! Gotta go.