Sunday, October 08, 2006

Coffee, anyone? Anyone? Please?

What a way to start a Sunday morning. My coffeemaker died. Looks like the heating element finally called it quits, probably from being left on all day too many times and having water spilled over it like a baptism every once in a while in my 4 AM waking stupor. But, hey, nine years. Not bad for the modern small appliance.

Of course, shopping for a new one is definitely in the near future. I was looking for same on web-pages, and in the Sunday ad circulars which outnumber the actual news portion of the Sunday paper by 3:1. There are many options, too many for this woman who just wants two cups of coffee in the morning. I was amused by a 4-cup coffeemaker, tiny toaster oven and little griddle combination. Given my tendency to not always be mindful/fully conscious first thing in the morning, what do you think the life expectancy of such a nifty little item would be in my kitchen?

The search continues. In the meantime, my minor caffeine addiction needed to be satisfied. This being the first morning without the proper equipment, the results were disappointing. Boil water, steep coffee in tea pot for five minutes (tea lovers, forgive me), filter through fine sieve and serve. It lacked its usual robustness and left too much fine coffee sludge at the bottom of the cup for my tastes. Next experiment will no doubt include the original coffee filter system in some way.

However, this cannot go on. I may be a morning person by nature, but this coffee-making improvisation requires too much thinking at an hour when I'm lucky to be able to find the kitchen light. I need my sunrise mud and I need to not think about it beyond spoon coffee, pour water and hit button. Simple stuff. It will happen again and probably before the week is out. Trust me.

1 comment:

Lauren Swartzmiller said...

A week later and I still haven't bought another coffeemaker, although I have shopped and am mulling over several options. It's not that they're expensive, as all the brands and models I'm looking at are around $15. I'm just slow to make a decision about it.

I've also gotten rather good at the more labor-intensive steep and filter method I've honed over the last week. Seems to have a better flavor, too. Maybe all I need is an insulated carafe, hmm?