Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Coffee Makers And Coffee Grinders

By Nick Frykas

In kitchens and homes around the world, people love to brew coffee for themselves or for guests. Mornings wouldn't be the same without a fresh cup of java to get the old body going. Here are a few of the most common kitchen gadgets for making coffee in the home.

In automatic drip coffee makers, pre-ground coffee is placed in a paper or metal filter, which is over top a glass coffee pot. Cold water is heated and runs down through the coffee grounds, to produce freshly brewed coffee. These coffee makers are pretty easy to find in any department store, and have a 4 to 10 cup capacity. The coffee grounds are very economical to buy at the grocery store.

Single serving coffee makers are now available, which take a small packet of coffee grounds like a tea bag. The main advantage to these are that a single cup of joe can be made quickly, and there are many flavors and varieties available. Houses needing several cups at once won't find these machines as useful or economical.

Another popular tool for making small amounts of coffee is the coffee plunger, or French press. You place the coffee and hot water together, leaving it to brew for a few minutes, then push the plunger to the bottom to separate the grounds from the coffee. Since French presses don't use paper filters that would remove the oils and sediment with the grounds, French pressed coffee can be stronger and thicker than drip-brewed coffee.

Finally, there are espresso machines which produce a concentrated coffee 'shot' using hot water forced under high pressure through very fine grounds. A shot of espresso is thicker than regular coffee and has more sediment in it. Espresso is used in many other coffee drinks, such as lattes, cappuccini, and mochas. This is a much stronger drink than many are accustomed to, although some would say it is the only 'real' coffee.

A coffee bean grinder might be more trouble than you want to go through at home, but it does give you the freshest coffee. For more course grounds, a steel bladed grinder is sufficient. For a finely ground bean a burr mill is the answer, but a bit more costly.

We were given a coffee machine that has a timer and a coffee grinder built into it. Every morning the preloaded coffee beans go into the grinder and grounds pour down into the filter. By the time I get up, coffee is ready. It is one of my all time favorite kitchen gadgets.

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