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Make Good Coffee
Coffee is the the blood of life...
The Perfect Latte
The key to a good espresso drink
of any kind is the beans and the grind. After that, you just
have to figure out how to make your machine give good coffee.
With an Espresso Mini or Il Primo
from Krups, this is what I do:
What You Need
- Peet's Major
Dickason's Blend or their House Blend. Peet's is much better
than Starbuck's, so does Consumer Reports.
- Stainless steel pitcher for
steaming milk.
- 14 oz. (425 ml) of milk (I prefer
nonfat).
- 6 oz. (250 ml) of water.
- 2 containers (one marked for
volume--like a measuring cup).
What You Do
- Throw away the weird thing that
attaches to the steam spout--it's worthless.
- Pour water into machine.
- Turn on machine.
- Place metal filter thingy into
handle and gently pack it (don't shmush it--if it's too packed,
the machine will EXPLODE! with an effective yield of about four
kilotons). Use about 2 1/2 of the scoops that came with the machine
(this scoop is what is referred to in both Peet's and Starbuck's
literature as one Standard Coffee Measure.
- Place handle in fitting and
crank it hard.
- Open up steam spout.
- When steam starts to come out,
close spout. These two steps prevent water from coming through
before it is hot enough to make espresso.
- When 4 oz. (~165 ml) of coffee
has come through, take out the first container and place the
second one under the spout.
- Place milk (in stainless container)
under the steam spigot, and open up steam all the way.
- Adjust attitude of milk container
so that milk is flowing in a vortex and this vortex is sucking
a small amount of air into itself (this makes the froth at the
top while the steam heats the milk). Continue to do this until
the side of the stainless container (now you know why it has
to be metal--it conducts heat) is the temperature that you want
your coffee to be.
- Turn off steam.
- Pour milk into tall cup or glass
(I use clear lucite).
- Pour coffee (in first container)
over milk in glass.
- Enjoy!
- Turn off machine when it decompresses.
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