Monday, September 7, 2009

Monday Morning Chat Over Coffee????


I woke up this morning and prepared coffee in my Mr. Coffee maker like the one above only black. Don't you think it is stupid to have a white plastic machine to make brown coffee that stains the best of materials? But I digress. Oh, that's right I am allowed to digress here on Chats.

But back to topic. My Mr. Coffee maker failed. I will admit it has done better than the Black & Decker models. I went through three of them in six months which resulted in a surge strip for the coffee maker as the failures seemed to be of an electronic nature. That was my working theory. Then a friend told me that one of the reasons electronics are cheap at Wal-Mart is they get the factory seconds or reconditioned models often. So I bought my Mr. Coffee from another outlet. I bought the cheaper model because four coffee makers in less than a year is getting right pricey.

And the Mr. Coffee did last about six months I think. So better than Black&Decker but not good. Mother had a peculator that lasted so long the coating on the inside was coming off exposing the brass base metal and making the coffee taste funny. And I previously had a Krupps (gift from my sister) which made espresso and coffee. It lasted almost seven years.


Then I went through a few years with a French press coffee maker. I was living alone and could indulge myself with fresh ground coffee made a couple cups at a time. I loved my French press but I broke it. So here I sit with decisions on coffee makers. I have the Senseo which makes it one cup at a time. Expensive per cup but it might cut down on how much I drink. I can retrieve the Mr. Coffee (a white basic one) from the rental unit temporarily until I have funds in the budget to either buy a new Krupps or go back to a French press.

Frankly, I am leaning toward the latter choice. It is simple, elegant, easy to clean, and has no electronics to fail. I already know how to boil water so no learning curve with the timing/brew/grinding options covered in a bigger manual than my computer came with. I already have the Senseo and an espresso machine.

How do you make your coffee in the morning?

5 comments:

Bekkieann said...

I had to go look. I have a Mr. Coffee 4-cup model (which is really two cups after all). My previous one broke a few months ago, and this smaller model has effectively cut my coffee drinking in half. I've considered the French press. I do grind the beans in a Capresso with the burr grinders, and I think I make a pretty decent cup of coffee. I like my delay-brew feature on days like today when I had to run my daughter to the airport early in the morning. I can set it up the night before to turn on and have a pot ready for me when I wake up.

I'm not a fan of Black and Decker, as they seem to only last a year or so. The complaint I have of my Mr. Coffee is that it doesn't make the coffee at hot as I like it.

JBinford-Bell said...

The Mr.Coffee that just failed never kept the coffee as warm as I like it either so I was constantly doing 30 seconds in the microwave.

It has a timer feature with clock which added just one more devise that had to be re-set every time there was a power outage. And setting it before I went to bed was an exercise in futility because of power winks during the night.

thebutler said...

My last maker was from Gavalia (free) which I did enjoy using. It died, possibly from over-use; I pulled out the old Mr. Coffee it had replaced because it had begun leaking water out all over my counter top; which this time around, is not happening yet. I bought another Black and
Decker the other day to have on hand when this one gets up to its old tricks again.
I am just glad you had coffee to drink this morning!

The Blog of Bee said...

I know, I know, it's Thursday already.

What you call a French press we call a Cafetiere and I love them.

Eons ago I had two electric coffee percolators which I used for dinner parties. I think they were ceramic. I cannot remember the brand but I know it wasn't Black and Decker because in those days when I thought of that brand, I thought of drills. They were very elegant.

In my kitchen apart from the cafetiere, I had a beige coloured Krups coffee maker and another that made cappucino and espresso. They were my husband toys as he loved to make coffee. I preferred my Turkish coffee pot.

JBinford-Bell said...

Corning used to make a nice ceramic coffee maker. I have been reading pros and cons of various types of coffee makers and the percolator is a no-no because it uses boiling water. Where drip doesn't? Or espresso forces super hot water through the grounds? I used to have one of those delightful hour glass makers with the wood waist that you made drip coffee in. Danish I believe. Don't see those much.

This morning I used the espresso maker to do me two mugs of coffee. This is down from my four but found myself very satisfied with that.