17 January 2007

Great Coffee


One of my favorite Christmas presents this year is a cool little italian-style stovetop espresso maker. It's supposedly a "3-cup" size, but I find it's just about right for one smallish serving.

The coffee it produces is dark, rich, hot and tasty. I love it.

I don't use it everyday, 'cause it does take a bit longer and as I said, it makes a smallish serving. But on the weekends in particular, it's a great way to start the morning.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have noticed how much larger cups/mugs are here than in Europe. It probably does make 3 European sized cups! :) Gotta love a big mug of coffee tho!

Dan said...

Yeah - it's funny how different the serving sizes are... and I have a hard time imagining a 2 oz cup of coffee as a "serving" (gosh, that's small).

Anonymous said...

Espresso cups ARE smaller because of the extra strength. I have a couple of favorites I "liberated" from a night cruise on the Duna (Danube) in Budapest.

You must be WIRED after having the whole product! --although I usually have a doppio (double) myself.

If you want the same effect, more easily prepared, use Italian roast in a regular drip grind maker.

Dan said...

So I guess I have a doppio plus, then...

I've tried different roasts in my regular drip maker, but it doesn't get quite the same consistency & depth.

I read somewhere that espresso actually has less caffeine than regular coffee, because the water spends less time in contact with the grounds. I dunno...

Anonymous said...

Interesting - I had never heard that . . . so I did some quick research. Results seem to be inconclusive, but I thought this was interesting --

Is it true that espresso has less caffeine than regular coffee?
Submitted by Daniel on Mon, 2006-01-16 01:26.
Yes and no. An espresso cup has about as much caffeine as a cup of strong coffee. But servings for espresso are much smaller. Which means that the content of caffeine per milliliter are much higher than with a regular brew. Moreover, caffeine is more quickly assimilated when taken in concentrated dosages, such as an espresso cup.

The myth of lower caffeine espresso comes comes from the fact that the darker roast beans used for espresso do have less caffeine than regularly roasted beans as roasting is supposed to break up or sublimate the caffeine in the beans (I have read this quote in research articles, but found no scientific studies supporting it. Anybody out there?).

Here's the caffeine content of Drip/Espresso/Brewed Coffee:

Drip 115-175
Espresso 100 1 serving (1-2oz)
Brewed 80-135

Anonymous said...

I bought one of these in Italy when I was a student and it's still going strong (pun intended). The rubber gasket gets replaced, but the pot itself is apparently indestructible. It makes really good espresso.