Monday, July 14, 2008

Where's the coffee coming from?


All of Unruly's life I've used a French press to make my coffee every morning. She knows how those things work. Boil the water, dump the coffee into the carafe, cover the grounds with water, stir it, and press it down with the metal filter thing. She liked to help dump in the grounds and press down the filter.

Those carafes are pricey at about $20 a pop. And unfortunately, they are also very delicate, as members of my family have discovered when they whack 'em carelessly against the enamel sink.

In less than a year I've spent $40 on new carafes. And I got a little sick of it, so, when Hubster broke my latest carafe last week (no coffee in the morning = really crabby mommy) I decided to just go with a nice Mr. Coffee coffeemaker instead.

Unruly's fascination with that coffee maker the first morning I used it was hysterical. She has never seen a coffee maker work before and couldn't figure out how it was pouring the coffee into the pot. She watched and watched and watched, craning her neck to try to see where the coffee was coming from and commenting the entire time about it being "magic" and "funny looking."

That's my kid, fascinated by what most kids view as a common household appliance. She'd never seen one before, and I didn't realize what she was missing out on until it started brewing.

I do have to say though, coffee out of the autodrip pales pathetically in comparison to my French press coffee. There's a lack of body, a lack of depth and aroma. A lack of the strong, bitter, full flavor I'd come to love and appreciate from my French press. And I'm using about twice the amount of grounds to get the same amount of coffee and not even come close to the same flavor. That just ain't right.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, we have a camping French press that has a plastic carafe (of course, plastic=bad these days, so maybe it's not a good option....).

I've broken the traditional coffee carafes a few times myself....

Krista said...

We have one of those... mainly because my father in law is a coffee snob! We don't drink much coffee around here.

Sona said...

You do know that french press coffee is worse for you than brewed?

Anonymous said...

Just get another carafe ... and forbid anybody else to touch it. You'll feel ever so much better.

Linlee said...

I'm not a coffee drinker but my husband loves his french press. That's all he uses now.

Debbie in CA : ) said...

Hi, I'm new around here -- just lost my way while jaunting from blog to blog and found myself here. Your first posts were horsey and I am not (I'm ... well ... ummmm ... scared of the critters after being 10 and embarking on a furious off-the-trail-into-the-river experience). But, I digress ... I came upon the coffee post and laughed -- I drink tea. BUT, I think the french press are adorable and your postings are entertaining while introducing me to a whole new world. The blogdom is great fun, don't'cha think? Nice "meeting" you. : )
p.s. I've set out a trail of pebbles so I can find my way back to you.