Chris - love to see you talk about coffe. But pal - I have to differ on your taste. Senseo is a pod coffee. And I suppose it is better than instant. But you have to go Swiss man!

The ultimate is buying a Jura coffee machine - the cadillac of swiss coffee machines. But if you want amazing coffee - without the price - and still not the cardboard taste of Senseo or Tasio - the one to go for is Nespresso. It is the best - bar none. Ultimate. So far - 10 friends have come to my house, tasted - and nine have purchased.

I tried it at my friends house in Zurich. He first introduced me to Jura - and then told me somethng as good existed for 1/9th the price. And it is true. Just amazing coffee.

Cheers to you an Ms. P.

Stefan

Well…it’s time to take your coffee passion to the next level and start drinking truly fresh coffee instead of those weeks old beans you get at Peets and all the other similar coffee shops. In the old days they use to say “plastics” when they wanted to give out the big tip, now it’s “home roasting!” Once you’ve gotten the hang of home roasting it’s difficult to be satisfied with anything else. One of the best of many sites to find information, equipment and green beans is www.sweetmarias.com
You can start roasting with something as simple as a hot air popcorn popper and as your disease progresses you can graduate to more expensive and capable machines….but you can roast GREAT coffee in a popper that cost $15 bucks with information easily gleened from the web.

Try this blend for a real coffee:

100g Columbian
100g Costa Rica
50g Dark Mocca

Far superior than any other blend I’ve tried including proprietary ones. Caffeine punch from Columbian and Costa Rican with the dark mocca to smooth the taste

Chris,

I don’t know how interested you would be in roasting your own coffee, but if you want the ultimate freshness and complete control of the degree of roast and an almost unlimited selection of beans, this is the site to visit:

http://www.sweetmarias.com

Check out the I-Roast II. I run two of them at home to keep up with the demand.

Hi Chris,
I have abandoned all my coffee making gizmos for the Aeropress.
http://aerobie.com/Products/aeropress.htm

Review by coffee geek here.
http://www.coffeecrew.com/content/view/345/27/

The Aeropress has been described as a “kind of a French press on steroids - a cross between a pressure brewing system and traditional french press or gravity drip”.
Eric

I too prefer the simple french press. I work at home a lot, and miss it when I’m on the road. I’m waiting for Bodum or someone else to come out with a travel version - a small mug that fits in a small french press that fits inside a custom made kettle. Could be used for coffee or tea on the road. Anyone ever heard of anything like this?

As for coffee, my favorites are some organic fair trade Nicaraguan coffees, from the Jinotega region, from small growers like El Jaguar (http://www.allegrocoffee.com/page.php/id/45#farm30) and Selva Negra (http://www.selvanegra.com).

My wife’s from Nicaragua, and we’ve actually been to Selva Negra. They rent cabins in the rainforest next to the plantation. The best cup of coffee I ever had was delivered to the room there, sipped on the porch while wrapped in a blanket, watching the birds and listening to the howler monkeys…..

So I take it that you would have preferred an iPhone? HAHA. I believe the coffeemaker is refundable through Amazon, we won’t take offense if you exchange it for something that is more of use. If not, I hope Ponzi enjoys it for the Colombian or Espresso and Lattes…I also received a Tassimo for Christmas and I am quite bummed that I cannot use the awesome coffee that I brought home from Puerto Rico since it is not encased in a disc.

I agree with the lack of choices, now if only Tassimo could invent empty discs that the owner can put their choice brand of coffee into…too much to ask for I suppose.

Cheers and welcome home,

Monica

Tassimo is one of the most idiotic machines ever created!
Let’s start with the fact that the on/off switch is located in the back, so 1970’s. It’s back there to save a penny’s worth of wire. Some bean counter [pun intended] did that! It requires a manual to use this thing. If you need a manual to make a cup of coffee at home, something’s wrong with the coffeemaker’s design!
Then we get to the t-discs, these things have a bar code, which means the machine has a microprocessor & a bar code reader. Microprocessor, bar code reader, plus near boiling temperatures, something is sure to go wrong.
Then, all it makes is 7 ounces of coffee at a time. Few people drink only a single 7 oz. cup at a time. Because the coffee is pre measured, there’s no way to adjust the strength of it.
The brains behind this thing claimed it was aimed at the hard core Starbucks’s user. The Starbuck’s user goes there both for the coffee & the atmosphere, internet access & just to take a break.
That 7 oz. of coffee costs at least 50¢ per cup, that was when buying the discs at Costco, but they don’t sell them anymore as the Tassimo is a massive failure! A good quality regular brand will cost no more than 10¢ a cup at home.
In fact, it’s so much of a failure that Kraft had to take a $245 million charge against their earnings for the year [2006, I presume] last week. A Kraft spokesman claimed they still had faith in the product.
Yeah sure!
Just buy a $20 or less drip machine & a good coffee, you’ll be much happier!