Clean Out That Coffeemaker For A Great Tasting Cup

Coffee addicts, take heed! That precious appliance on your countertop ? gasp! ? needs to be cleaned out once in a while. Have you been noticing a stale, funny taste in your coffee lately? It?s very likely that your poor coffeemaker is just screaming for a good cleaning. The good news is: it?s dead simple to clean. All you?ll need is some good old-fashioned white vinegar and tap water.

Vinegar is a powerful acid, and works to replace many of the harmful chemicals you might be cleaning with right now. And when you use it to clean out your coffeemaker, it really scrubs it out from the inside, getting rid of buildup that makes your coffee taste less than gourmet.

To clean the coffeemaker:

1. Pour vinegar into the holding tank where you?d normally pour in the water. Fill at least half full with vinegar.

2. Don?t add any coffee. Ick?can you imagine the brew that would create?

3. Run your coffee machine as usual, letting the vinegar do the work of scrubbing it out and descaling the works from the inside out. Empty out the used vinegar.

4. Run at least two or three cycles with just plain water, to truly get rid of all lingering vinegar taste.

5. There is no step five ? see, I told you it was simple!

Cleaning your coffeemaker like this at least once a month, or more often if you?re a caffeine junky, will keep your coffee tasting fresh and utterly delicious. Give it a try and you?ll be shocked by how easy it is!

Christina Spence is the author of the Happy Slob?s Guide to Housecleaning, the funniest, most laid back cleaning guide EVER written. Get your copy today, and join her free weekly newsletter at http://www.happyslob.com Her love for good coffee also shows at her Coffee Creations blog: http://coffeecreations.blogspot.com

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29 August

Espresso Makers: Depending On Your Need There’s An Espresso Maker For You

Since Starbucks first went International in the early 1990s, espresso has been the number-one item on the minds of those who need a quick pick-me-up to get their day started. It started out as a fad, but with the onslaught of Friends on NBC in 1994 and Starbucks reproducing like rabbits throughout the last decade of the 20th Century, it has morphed into a worldwide phenomenon.

But what is espresso exactly. To put it in the simplest terms, espresso is coffee’s more aggressive and strong willed little brother. Espresso is caffeine’s answer to a shot of whisky. Just as addictive in some cases, but will not get you thrown in jail.

Espresso is made by filtering 1.5 to 2 ounces of water through tightly ground, espresso coffee, roughly the caffeine equivalent of four cups of coffee. If everything goes according to plan, what you get is 2 ounces of compressed caffeine with a small layer of foam on the top. The resulting concoction looks like a dark German beer with a head?only a lot smaller.

But how do you make espresso? Is it as easy as Starbucks would have you believe? In a word?yes. So where do you start? Again, the answer is simple?right here. There are five basic types of espresso machines. Let’s take a quick look:

  • Stovetop espresso makers are popular with hikers and tourists because they do not require electricity. But since the stovetop espresso maker is usually the one-cup variety, you won’t get the creamy foam layer top. What you will get though is a very concentrated shot of espresso.

  • Steam powered espresso makers work a lot like the stovetop variety but is fashioned more like the standard pump driven espresso makers. Still convenient for tourists and hikers, the steam powered espresso maker is not as popular with this crowd because of its bulky size.

  • The piston driven espresso maker is the grandfather of all espresso makers and the reason most espresso comes with a foamy top. Invented in 1938 by Achille Gaggia, the piston driven maker is still a good way to make espresso, though not often used. This kind of of espresso maker is sold as an antique as often as it is the caffeine junkie’s primary maker.

  • Pump driven espresso makers are the offshoot of the piston driven variety and the most popular maker in commercial settings. Usually hooked up directly to the building’s plumbing, pump driven makers heat the water as it is filtered through the coffee and uses a built in shot timer to help insure every shot of espresso is exactly the same.

  • Automatic espresso makers are becoming increasingly popular because the machine does almost everything for you. Automatic machines consistently produce the same espresso shot every time and require less fine-tuning than commercial makers. In addition, this expensive but consistent alternative to your daily trek to the corner coffe house does everything from grinding the beans to disposing of the spent grounds. The only thing the user has to do is turn on the machine.

    Now that you know how to make espresso, how do you decide what your favorite concoction is? After all Starbucks has more varieties of espresso than Baskin Robbins does ice cream. You do not want to make a fool of yourself when you when you are late for work and don’t have time to make your morning wake-me-up at home. Yo need to feel confident and proud when you walk up to the conter and ask for:

  • ESPRESSO – For those who prefer the simple things in life, a single shot of espresso, no foam, is probably best.

  • ESRESSO DOPIO ? Or a double espresso is for those days when you just cannot wake up.

  • If you are feeling a need for some balance in your life, try an ESPRESSO MACCHIATO (a single or double shot of espresso with a whipped cream top).

  • For those sweet and sour days, try an ESPRESSO ROMANO, a single shot of espresso topped with a sliced lemon peel.

  • For amateur espresso drinkers who prefer a foamier, creamier, more chocolaty taste than a straight shot of espresso, CAPPUCCINO, CAF? LATTE and MOCHA CAPPUCCINO is probably the safest bet.

    So now that you know everything there is to know about espresso and why there seems to be a Starbucks on every corner of every city in every state in every country in the world, you can decide whether you want to join in on this worldwide phenomenon. But beware…if you decide not to join the crowd on this one, you will likely be left behind. A caffeine-powered work force is what made the world what it is today.

    Allen Shaw is a successful author who provides information on espresso makers for A1 Coffee Makers. I am the news director at USA News Network and have been working as freelance writer for 2 years. I’ve been published in a few magazines, newspapers and websites and my specialty up to this point has been movie and music reviews.

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    23 August