Coffee…One Amazing Luxury of Life

Coffee is one of those things that seems like it is universally adored wherever I go.  As a kid growing up you may just simply hate it and one day you wake up and "suddenly" it is just marvelous.

Everyone who loves coffee has a different set of memories that recall where they first began to love coffee.  Maybe it was the smell of it brewing in the morning.  Or maybe it was the warmth that trickled inside you on a blustery morning.  For some it is even a beautiful thing to look at.  For others it is a wonderful hand warmer while you sit around the table in the morning talking about the plans for the day.

For yet others it is all of the above.

Maybe you had coffee many times before but you went on a trip somewhere and you find out hey THESE folks know how to make coffee!  That happened to me.  My folks always drank plain old grocery store coffee...yes the cheap stuff.  Partly that came from their upbringing from the days when money was tight and coffee was VERY expensive.

For my wife and I we had drank coffee for years but it wasn't until we went on vacation in Hawaii that we found some coffee that was SO spectacular that we honestly could not believe it.  We spent years trying to replicate it.

Then another time I had a business trip that took me from Paris to Milan...all over Italy, Monaco France and Spain along the Mediterranean Sea.  We explored the vast array of sites, sounds, foods and flavors of coffees throughout the European countries.  It was marvelous.  I could NOT believe how different the coffees of each country were.

Of course, there were variations within the countries as well as there would be in any country but we were amazed how there seemed to be a regional flavor to the coffees and simply crossing a border could change everything.

Once again, I spent years trying to reproduce all these coffees.  It is a labor of love and fun for all...well...more so for me than my wife.  You see, she is happier with Cafe' American where as I like to experiment with the coffees of the world.  I love many of the darker coffees that my wife simply does not enjoy.

But that is OK.  That is why there are so many flavors to try!

There are also a myriad of coffee makers to try to get different results.  My folks always had the percolator type.  Boy they could boil those grounds forever it seemed.  It made the coffee bitter to me.  Not so much because of the coffee pot I suppose but because, again they tried to be economical and get too much coffee out of too few beans.  OK I NEVER saw my parent grind a bean one.  I try to use whole bean coffee all the time and have gone through several coffee grinders trying to find one that was just the right grinder.

So grinders are an important step in the process.  Your grind needs to be different for the different styles of coffees and coffee makers.  ( I still want to just call them coffee pots because that was what I grew up with.)  Also, yes I know it is a pain but grinding the coffee right before you use it will WITHOUT QUESTION provide the freshest, best tasting coffee.  If you are a busy person you *can* grind extra, put it in an airtight container and put it in the freezer for use later, but honestly it will not be quite the same.

When I got back from our first trip to Europe I was in town about two days before I had purchased an espresso machine.  The coffee itself has turned out pretty well, but I learned the lesson that a LOT of people learn and that is that the cheap espresso machines don't froth milk quite as well as the better machines.  Still it DOES work and is way better than not having one.

Frothing the milk is something that takes a certain amount of touch.  The machines in general are manual in that area.  They handle everything about making the coffee but frothing the milk is a total manual operation for the most part.

Be sure and look around here at the CoffeeSocial.net.  You will find a tremendous selection of international coffees as well as domestic ones.  You will find plain ole' coffee pots and exotic high end cappuccino makers.  Espresso machines are abundant.  Coffee grinders are available.  You will find a section on commercial quality restaurant coffee makers as well.  Cups and saucers, French presses...they are all here.

Don't forget to look at our silver and silver plate coffee supplies as well.  There are even sections on collectible coffee merchandise...even antiques.

So hopefully you will find what you want and enjoy your coffee for years to come!