Message #44687

[mccoy]

I'm not that huge a fan of coffee, but it recently became sort of a hobby, whereas my wife is a coffee addict.

In Italy, coffee has always been equal to espresso away from home, whereas at home it was traditionally equal to mokka brewed on a gas stove.

Presently, the espresso machines cited by Uwe, mainly with capsules but sometimes with paper filters, govern the market.

I recently switched from a plastic capsule espresso machine to an automatic machine, mainly out of concern for residuals of plastic material in the final beverage.

Also, the machine I own now (pretty expensive), has interchangeable containers for different types of beans (very handy when switching from caffeinated to decaf) , grinds the beans, and has adjustments for grinding, water quantity and temperature.

The above allows us to optimize for taste each chosen variety or mixture of varieties. I am experimenting with several varieties of Arabica coffee, to see if the final taste really justifies the cost. I haven't had the chance yet to taste Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, the most expensive and renowned of traditional coffees (excluding the Indonesian Kopi Luwak, made out of grains defecated from a sort of local ferret).

The above being said, I still prefer cacao, I just mix the powder with hot water and add some honey, more often erythritol.

Also, I discovered that the world of coffee and caffeine content can be very confusing, similar to the world of nutrition. I'm going to paste some excerpts from the scientific literature.