And, people, how stiff do you like (or make) your cappuccino foam ? Are you a "micro" foamer, or do you prefer a stiffer foam ? One
From what I've read and seen on the videos, there is clearly an anthropology dissertation (or two or three) to be written on espresso culture and rituals. I suppose I could get into a rant on consumerism and how we've been sold the idea about being "serious" equalling spending serious money on equipment and accessories ---and this seems true of almost any endeavor these days---, but I do love the techie beauty of these machines and the real knowledge that seems to go into a good number of morning coffee rituals out there in the world. I, on the other hand, am not exactly an amateur, but I have a plastic tamper, folks. Maybe it's the challenge...
*As usual, dear reader(s), I am following my passions here, and have no financial connections to SCG or the machine pictured.
2 comments:
Being a high-church kind of guy, I am strongly attracted to ritual and ceremony as well. Coffee-making, especially given its first-thing-in-the-morning prominence, is a kind of communion: Me, some beans in the grinder, an unbleached paper filter, and some filtered water. It's calming and centering, the grinding, the pouring. This cup is the new caffeine in my blood. I understand the convenience of having a maker with a timer set up so as to make the coffee for me, but I don't know. That feels like cheap grace. I try to do what I can to earn it by making it myself.
Like you, I certainly feel the pull of technologies that enhance experiences that I enjoy, and/but like you I have to ask myself, At what point, when we want to buy into or upgrade our technologies, does the law of diminishing returns kick in? I drink my coffee black most mornings, so my needs are pretty simple: a drip brewer, a grinder, and--my one splurge (but, you know, "splurge" is a relative term)--good beans. So, this cappuccino machine seems excessive--but then again, I don't drink cappuccinos on anything like a regular basis, so the idea of owning even the cheapest machine with a way of steaming the milk strikes me as unnecessary.
Forgive all this rambling that really just repeats what you're saying. I just really like making my coffee, and I think the thing I like most about it is precisely that it's so simple and yet so utterly satisfying.
Ah, Cordelia, you have been gone so long. Nice to see you are back.
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