Ever the eager learner, our fearless host of THIRSTday David asked about our home espresso setup at home I mentioned last week.
We are about baseline for fanciness. We have a little four-cup drip machine for when my parents come to visit, but when Toby wants drip coffee, he makes himself a pour over using this little doodad.
I hate drip coffee except when I’m struck down with a migraine and need the caffeine hit, so I never use his contraption.
I found out about Nespresso espresso makers while staying at the Connaught in London. Each room came fully equipped with all the Nespresso equipment you’d ever need, but I was too afraid to try it for fear of breaking it. Back in Seattle, we tried it out at Sur Le Table down at the market, this time without fear of breaking stuff.
Toby’s birthday prezzie this year was a super-basic model Essenza, which isn’t terribly pretty, but works just as well as the other Nespresso machines I’ve tried. You do need to use Nespresso coffee pods, which isn’t terribly eco-friendly, but it’s better than driving to a Starbucks and back, I suppose.
As I said, insane espresso machines are kind of par for the course here. This was a wedding present a friend received… and she then promptly returned when she couldn’t figure out how to use it. That’s silly. Our stuff works and makes sense and is lovely. I worried the pods would be the most annoying thing to stay on top of, but Nespresso’s delivery is insanely fast and the espresso itself is significantly less expensive than anything you’d get at a coffee house — even if you were to just get a straight shot there.
So the Essenza is on the left. You lift up the little top lever thingie and put an espresso pod in. The Aeroccino is on the right. It warms up milk or froths it, but I haven’t messed around with any milk-frothing business yet. Then, I dump everything into a mug, which is usually a Starbucks City Mug because they’re bright and lovely and big and make me smile.
Anyway. So perhaps that was interesting or useful? I didn’t publish this on Thursday because Thursday evening  I was busy being harassed by a waitress at Buckley’s Queen Anne who chased me down the street accusing me of dining and dashing (I was renewing my parking). So on Thursday I was actually still reading Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones and drinking a virgin bloody mary.
The end. Perhaps I’ll have better action shots next week.
This is quite the Kaffeeklatsch you have going on there. I’m on my way— OK, not really.
NOW–3 things:
1. The “checking the meter” excuse is overused. You must try something new for the dine-n-dash attempt.
2. What did you use for your pics? Instagram or other?
3. We need some videos–I want to see these devices in ACTION!
3b. Froth that milk!
1. Didn’t you see all my tweets that evening? I left ALL MY GRADING on the table, PLUS a book, PLUS a full drink! Yarrrrrgh.
2. Camera+! It’s da bombbbbbbbb.
3. Well now I’ll need to reclean the kitchen. EXCELLENT, I can avoid NPBTS even further. <3
3b. Probably not. :)