Coffee, Tea and Me» drip coffee makers

A Lack of Coffee Makers in Olongapo City, Philippines

RT Cunningham — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:00:16 +0000

While I was shopping at the Royal Subic supermarket at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, I noticed various brands of imported fine grind gourmet coffee on one of the shelves. One that I specifically remember is "Melitta Fair Trade Organic Gourmet Coffee". It's not cheap, with the "Sun & Moon" blend being $8.50 for 10 ounces/283 grams. Still, I had a desire to drink something besides the instant coffee I've been drinking. Since I don't have a coffee maker, I set out to find one.

Appliance Stores that DO NOT carry Coffee Makers

After visiting a few small appliance stores and two major appliance stores, I've almost come to the conclusion that Olongapo City is the instant coffee capital of the world. I only found two brands of coffee makers in the two major appliance stores and only a couple of choices of models. One brand is "American Home" and the other brand name is an oriental name that I couldn't pronounce and I can't remember.

The American Home automatic drip coffee makers resembled other coffee makers I've seen and even owned while living in the US. When I got home, I did a Google search for these coffee makers and guess what? I couldn't find them anywhere. The closest I could come was "American Home Appliances" in the American Home building in Quezon City (metro Manila), Philippines. My guess is that it's a locally produced brand and that the "American" part of the name is a misnomer, probably intentional.

Other Options

The American Home coffee makers are cheap. The only one I liked at the "Savers" store costs a mere 600 pesos (about USD $13.00). It will suffice until I can get a better one. It has a "built-in" coffee filter, so at least I don't have to buy any paper filters for it. I won't be buying it until June, however, because I'm strapped for cash until then.

One of my neighbors, whose family recently moved from California, told me that they brought their coffee maker with them because they knew they couldn't find any locally. He's a disabled ex-military guy, just like another neighbor of mine. They're both Filipino, however, so it's not like I'm being surrounded by other Americans even if both of them served with the US military.

My wife is returning to the US this month for a few months (less than a year). My oldest son's family (including our grandson) lives there and my son's paying for the tickets. Anyway, my wife always sends at least one "balikbayan box" every time she's in the US. This time, she'll be buying a better coffee maker.

One other alternative is to take a trip to Manila to find what I need or want. Because I absolutely refuse to go to Manila unless I'm going for some other reason (such as a trip to the American Embassy) and I seriously doubt I'll be doing that within the next year, Manila is not an option.

As soon as I have a coffee maker, and some gourmet coffee, I'll start writing about the gourmet coffee and let you know how it tastes. Of course, I'll be comparing it to the standard brands like Folgers and Maxwell House only at the beginning.

Similar Articles:

Choose your Pod Coffee Maker Wisely

RT Cunningham — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 09:20:27 +0000

A pod coffee maker, as I recently found out, is the preferred term for a single serve one cup coffee maker. It's because it forces water through little coffee packets, or pods, under pressure. Examples of some pod coffee makers include models like the Keurig Special Edition B60 Gourmet Single Serve Coffee Maker and the Black & Decker DCM18S Brew 'n Go Personal Coffeemaker with Travel Mug. If this is the kind of coffee maker you want to buy, there are a few of things you need to be aware of before plunking down your hard-earned cash.

Pod Coffee Maker Coffee Drawbacks

According to the Consumer Reports article, "A different (but not better) breed of brewer", each cup produced by a single pod is relatively weak compared to that which you can get from a traditional automatic drip coffee maker.

If you like your coffee a little on the strong side, and a particular pod coffee model doesn't allow you to use more than one pod at a time, it's best to skip that model and find a model that does. To be honest, I hadn't considered it until reading that article.

Another caveat is that there's usually little choice in the brands of coffee you can use or the coffee varieties within each brand. The pods tend to be machine-specific, not interchangeable with any other pod coffee maker, and sometimes specific to a particular model even when produced for other models from the same manufacturer.

The final issue you need to be aware of is that only some of the coffee pods are available for purchase at the local supermarket. That's okay, really, because the best-tasting, top coffee brands aren't usually sold at the local supermarket.

Pod Coffee Maker Sales

According to an article at The Gourmet Retailer, "Sales of Pod Coffee Makers Jump 20 Percent", pod coffee maker sales are up 20 percent for the first six months of 2010 compared to the first six month of 2009. Pod coffee makers already account for 30 percent of the sales of all drip coffee makers.

I wonder how long the percentage of pod coffee makers being sold will continue to rise. How many people buy these coffee makers without realizing the drawbacks that come with them? The drawbacks are obviously going to be more profound depending on what pod coffee maker is chosen, the consumer's location and the prices of the pods. A person living in a large US city is going to find availability much more to their liking than a person living in a rural farm town.

The key factor driving pod coffee sales is convenience. I don't think the sales are going to slow very much anytime soon. Being able to make a single cup serving of coffee at home or work, when one cup is all you want, is just way too convenient to ignore.

Similar Articles:

Coffee and Coffee Maker Accessories

RT Cunningham — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:03:53 +0000

As any coffee connoisseur could probably tell you, coffee and coffee maker accessories are almost as important as the coffee beverage itself.

You don't have to take my word for it. Bear with me as I list some accessories that you may or may not be aware of.

Coffee Mugs

I really had to start with this one because coffee drinkers use coffee mugs, not coffee cups. There really is a difference. There are companies that specialize in nothing but coffee mugs, some plain and some with logos or writing on them, and they don't need to expand into other areas. There are so many coffee drinkers in the US alone that they really don't need to diversify.

Travel Coffee Mugs

The only thing travel coffee mugs (or coffee travel mugs, depending on how you word it) have to do with regular coffee mugs is that they're designed to hold coffee. The difference is that the travel mugs are usually designed for safety while driving. Some of them have special lids and some are designed to fit into coffee holders, either on a console or hanging from a door window.

Since a lot of people are on the go all the time, especially while traveling to and from work, many convenience stores (and I won't bother to name them) offer several pots of coffee to choose from. They usually offer a limited amount of free or discounted cups of coffee with each purchase of one of their travel mugs.

K-Cups

Although K-Cup portion packs are used specifically with the Keurig single cup brewing systems, other coffee manufacturers are taking that idea and adapting it to automatic drip coffee makers and other coffee makers.

The K-Cup is a plastic container which includes the filter and the ground coffee beans. The Keurig coffee maker punctures the foil lid and forces hot water under pressure through the K-Cup and into a coffee mug. The brewer is pretty simple to use; I've seen a Keurig coffee brewer in action.

Flavored Coffee and Flavored Coffee Creamers

The flavored coffee I'm talking about started out as flavored non-dairy creamers. They were offered in groceries stores and then expanded to the convenience stores to go along with their "coffee on the go".

The dairy people got into the act and started offering flavored dairy coffee creamers and then the coffee people got into the act and started offering coffee products with flavoring in an attempt to steal that market share back from the dairy and non-dairy people.

I really don't know what order it all transpired in, but it seems that's the order as I remember it.

Specialized Water Filters

While some people (including me) use bottled water to make coffee with, others have started buying specialized water filters to purify the water that ends up their coffee mugs. I haven't personally seen one, but I've seen them advertised.

Regardless of how you purify your water, anything tastes better with coffee than tap water that has too much chlorine added.

More Accessories?

There are more coffee and coffee maker accessories available than you can shake a stick at and I'd be naive to think that I could even begin to list them all at once.

I'll end the list here and leave myself the option to list more as I find the time to look around.

Similar Articles:

It All Starts with Espresso in US Coffee Shops

RT Cunningham — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:52:26 +0000

It seems that all of the coffee drinks in US coffee shops start with espresso as the base. It may not be true for all coffee shops, but it's certainly true for Starbucks and Seattle's Best.

Unlike most people who come and go and pay little attention to anything but what they're doing at the time, I observe everything that goes on around me. I have seen how both of these companies make coffee drinks — I purposely observed every facet from start to finish.

What Exactly is Espresso?

Espresso is sometimes referred to as espresso coffee and it's often mispronounced and misspelled as "expresso". Invented in Italy, as were most coffee beverages, it's a concentrated form of coffee, up to three times as strong as a regular cup of coffee.

You can't make espresso with ordinary automatic drip coffee makers. You need an espresso machine which brews the coffee under extreme pressure. Most people don't have one at home.

When served as espresso, the coffee is normally served in espresso cups of one kind or another. In most coffee shops, they use cheap containers that can be thrown away. Restaurants use fancy cups designed specifically for espresso. The cheapest espresso cup is usually more expensive than expensive coffee mugs.

Observations

I don't normally buy coffee at Starbucks or Seattle's Best (which has been owned by Starbucks since 2003). It's good coffee (at least in the US), but it's just too damned expensive. Of course, I won't buy coffee from fast-food joints either and that's because it usually tastes like they made it with my dirty socks.

On rare occasions, when I really needed my coffee fix, I bought coffee at both Starbucks and Seattle's Best. In March of 2008, while I was picking out books at a Border's bookstore, I succumbed to the smell of the coffee brewing nearby (within the bookstore). The aroma is what caused me to buy coffee at Starbucks on previous occasions.

I always ordered cappuccino. I like cappuccino a whole lot more than the other coffee drinks. Whenever I ordered a regular-sized cup, I noticed they used one shot of espresso. Whenever I ordered a large-sized cup, they used two shots of espresso. No wonder I always got a quick caffeine buzz after drinking the cappuccino (I never really thought about it until now).

Espresso Experience?

Other than being used for the cappuccino I drank, I have never tried espresso as a stand-alone coffee drink. With cappuccino, it's diluted by the added milk. I picture acid reflux coming back to haunt me if I try espresso straight from the cup, therefore I will probably never try it.

I know a few people that only drink espresso. It's not for me. I love the smell and flavor of coffee as it's normally brewed at home. I don't need a caffeine buzz every time I drink coffee, thank you very much.

Similar Articles:

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.

Similar Articles: