Coffee, Tea and Me» automatic drip

Is Coffee Beginning to Get Scarce?

RT Cunningham — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:54:04 +0000

It may not be time to start hoarding grind coffee, instant coffee or coffee beans just yet. According to reports, however, a coffee scarcity is just beginning. Whenever something starts becoming scarce, prices go up. Have you noticed prices going up for coffee yet?

Coffee Exports to Drop

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, "Coffee Exports to Drop Amid 'Scarcity,' ICO Says".

The chief exporters, Colombia and Brazil, just aren't capable of producing more coffee right now. I don't know what the deal is with Colombia, but Brazil apparently received too much rainfall last year.

Stock market investors are having a field day, expecting prices to rise even further than they already have.

Home Grown Coffee

It may be time to start thinking about buying coffee grown in your home country. It wasn't by design, but I've been buying a local brand of coffee since I've lived in the Philippines: Nescafé. I buy the instant coffee that comes in 200 milliliter jars, at a cost of 215 pesos or a little less than USD $5.00 per jar. It's grown, packaged and produced by Nescafé Philippines even though it's not locally owned. The price hasn't gone up in the last year, of that I'm sure.

It's far cheaper than any of the imported coffee products and tastes better than most. Nescafé is also sold as canned iced coffee, just like other well-known brands. I have been trying to put aside some money to buy a decent automatic drip coffee maker but… not only have I not set aside the money, I haven't actually seen a decent automatic drip coffee maker since I started looking around.

I don't think Nescafé is sold as grind coffee. I could be wrong, but I've never seen anything but what I mentioned (and that includes their pricier brand, Taster's Choice). If coffee exports are indeed dropping and prices are rising, then it's in my best interest to just continue drinking what I've been drinking – Nescafé instant coffee.

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Using Our Hamilton Beach Iced Tea Maker

RT Cunningham — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:59:45 +0000

My wife brought a Hamilton Beach iced tea maker back with her in August of last year (when she only stayed for a month) and it sat on my kitchen counter, gathering dust, until she returned permanently a week ago today. I had an instant iced tea in a jar, also collecting dust, for at least two months. In fact, the moisture from humidity was absorbed each time it was opened and the last time I opened it, the powder was hard. I tossed it the same day my wife arrived.

Teabags

One of my sisters-in-law is living with her soon-to-be husband. He spent months (a couple of years, I think) as an overseas Filipino worker in Qatar. Each time he returned for vacation, he brought something back for me. The last time, he brought back a box of "Lipton Yellow Label" teabags which sat in a kitchen drawer until the day my wife returned.

My wife also brought three boxes of Luzianne teabags with her, so we have plenty of teabags to go through before we have to get some more. I've only been drinking one or two cups of coffee per day, in the early morning, since my wife arrived. I've been drinking brewed iced tea the rest of the time. I had actually forgotten how much better brewed iced tea tastes than instant iced tea. I'm sure I'm not the first to say there's a world of difference.

Brewing the Tea

The reservoir above the carafe can hold as many teabags as you see fit to use. I prefer to use five of the small ones or three of the large ones. The drip "switch" at the bottom can be set to mild, medium or strong. I really don't see the point, but I set it to strong. After the tea is finished brewing, and it shuts off just like an automatic drip coffee maker would, the tea is a dark, "golden" brown. That's the best description I can use, but it looks awesome considering it's actually black tea.

My wife was the first to make iced tea with the tea maker. She tried putting the ice in the carafe before brewing, but it melted by the time the brewing was completed. The second time, she added ice after the fact and that worked fine. It still melted quickly, so I told her to just forgo the ice and we could add ice to our glasses each time we filled them with tea. That's what we've been doing ever since.

Coffee or Tea?

I still need my coffee in the morning, when it's still cool outside and prefer it during the late evening once it cools down again. In between, I like to drink iced tea instead of plain water.

What's going to be interesting, over the next month or so, is finding more teabags made with black tea. I've found some with green tea, but none with black tea, and I don't like green tea. I guess the search will go hand in hand with my search for a decent coffee maker.

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Memories of Mornings with Folgers Coffee

RT Cunningham — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:40:11 +0000

The logo and style of the can may have changed since I was young, but the Folgers coffee can is something I can distinctly remember, along with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee wafting its way from our glass percolator. Good times and good coffee in the original grind is something I am unlikely to ever forget. (My grandmother used to use an empty Folgers can as a spittoon she kept outside her front door. Yuck!)

Regular Grind versus Automatic Drip Coffee

I don't know if it's just me, but some I think something was lost in the transition between regular grind and automatic drip coffee and Folgers coffee is no exception. The aroma isn't the same and doesn't invade my senses as I wake up in the morning.

Does Folgers sell regular grind, the kind made for percolators, anymore? I don't know because it isn't sold locally (in Olongapo City, Philippines). I can find the automatic drip kind and the Folgers coffee crystals (instant), but not the regular grind.

I'll soon be buying an automatic drip coffee maker, but I may end up buying a percolator as well, if I can find one. Even if I have to grind my own coffee beans, I think the flavor and the aroma will be worth it. Of course, it's low on my "to do" list because I have a lot of home things to take care of first and I need to take care of them within the next six months.

Do you remember Mrs. Olsen? She was the lady in the commercial that said Folgers was the best coffee because it was mountain grown, the freshest kind. I don't know about all that, but that was replaced by something along the lines of "the best part of waking up, is Folgers in your cup". A coffee cup, I presume.

To wrap up my soliloquy, I present you with:

The Best Part of Waking Up

A sweet little boy surprised his grandmother one morning and brought her a cup of coffee. He made it himself and was so proud. He anxiously waited to hear the verdict on the quality of the coffee. The grandmother had never in her life had such a bad cup of coffee, and as she forced down the last sip she noticed three of those little green army guys in the bottom of the cup.

She asked, "Honey, why would three little green army guys be in the bottom of my cup?"

Her grandson replied, "You know grandma, it's like on TV, The best part of waking up is soldiers in your cup."

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Mr. Coffee – The First Automatic Drip Coffee Maker for Home Use

RT Cunningham — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:51:05 +0000

It may not be the best automatic drip coffee maker available, but the Mr. Coffee coffee maker was the first brand to hit the market in 1972. In business, you either have to be the first or the best if you want to have guaranteed success. Okay, so you can get away with being second best and still succeed, but it's not guaranteed.

Mr. Coffee and Joe DiMaggio

When the commercials started appearing on television in 1972, Joe DiMaggio was the celebrity spokesman pitching it for the company. Joe DiMaggio was a famous baseball player who played exclusively for the New York Yankees from 1936 to 1951. He died in 1999 at the age of 84, the age my own father is right now. Anyway, automatic drip coffee makers, like Mr. Coffee, suddenly started appearing in kitchens across America.

I don't know if it was the product or Joe that convinced my mother to buy a Mr. Coffee, but she bought one nevertheless. I don't remember exactly when she bought it; I know she bought before we moved to Hawaii in 1974.

Automatic Drip Coffee Makers versus Coffee Percolators

When the automatic drip coffee makers first came out, the coffee didn't taste as good after brewing as it did with the percolators. The trouble was that the grind available in most stores was still designed for percolators. After the grind specifically made for automatic drip coffee hit the market, I couldn't tell the difference anymore.

There are some that lament to obsolescence of the percolators, saying they were more "green" than the current coffee makers are. They cite the paper being used for the filters and water evaporation as being "non-green".

They obviously haven't heard that certain fast-growing trees are being used solely for the paper and yet it's still recyclable. The new trees reach maturity before they're even needed. I don't buy the water idea either. A percolator puts out as much steam as an automatic drip coffee maker. I only had to put my hand above a spout one time to find that out.

In this day and age, the best coffee makers for home use are automatic drip coffee makers because they're more widely supported by the coffee industry. As with any technology, that may change and something better may come along.

Popular Culture

Unlike other brands, the Mr. Coffee name has become a cultural icon. It was parodied as "Mr. Fusion" in the Back to the Future movie trilogy and as "Mr. Radar" and "Mr. Rental" in the Spaceballs. The actual coffee maker made cameo appearances in TV shows and other movies, playing itself and has been included in the lyrics to songs and gets referenced in short stories.

I don't know what the Mr. Coffee automatic drip coffee maker did to be such a popular cultural icon. Oh yeah, it was first.

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