Coffee

What is this thing with coffee machines?
Having low blood pressure, I drink my coffee at health-warning, resurrection strength. Sometimes I make it so strong even I can´t drink it. But I make it in a cafetiere, not a machine. It seems to me that the secret of good coffee is just to mix good coffee with boiling water in a pot. If I want to be really posh, I make it with bottled mineral water, which enhances the aroma and flavour. It´s like making good tea, except that you don´t need to brew it as long. The more you expose good coffee to clarted up tubes and machine innards, and the more of a head of steam you get up while doing it, the more aroma and flavour is lost. In the case of a lot of home coffee machines, anyway. Obviously not all. And then, coffee made with a machine is often barely tepid by the time you get your frothy little cup. And the cup usually is little. No, give me my sturdy, unpretentious little cafetiere, preheated to keep it warm, with coffee made to the strength I like it, and enough for a good top-up.