Learning latte art was on my list for this year, and my first attempt was pretty rough. Embarrassingly rough. But today’s pour actually had a shape to it. Not a heart or a rosette or anything recognizable other than a squiggle, but definitely not a blob either, and that feels like real progress. Baby steps, right?

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My son Bay is really into coffee, and he picked up this limited edition bag of beans. I am waiting for him to open it so I can grab a cup or two of pour-over. The design on the bag is pretty cool, right?

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I spent an hour at the café catching up on my blog today. I was planning to go to a coffee shop, but Mariko suggested I try La Madeleineis, a cozy French bistro. What a great idea! I ordered a coffee and was so tempted by all the delicious-looking savory pastries, but I managed to resist this time. Next time, I might not be so strong!

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I’m trying to cut back to just one cup of caffeinated coffee each day, so I make a pot of decaf to get me through the workday. I think it tastes great! It’s also comforting to have a hot cup to sip on throughout the day.

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One of the perks of working in the office is easy access to the coffee machine. Actually, we have a coffee machine at home too, but it’s not as fancy as the one at the office. Our home espresso machine, which grinds whole beans for each cup, is far superior to the pods in the office. All that being said, I guess the office coffee machine isn’t really a perk.

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I broke my old Hario decanter the other day, so I ordered a new Hario V60 Pour Over Starter Set. It’s such a nice size, and even comes with a pack of filters. It’s cute too! I love it.

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I’ve started to drink more decaf coffee during the week, and grinding the beans by hand and pouring thru the filter has become a process I really enjoy! And I think the flavor is really good! I’m using a Hario filter and decanter which flows well so I am not waiting a long time like I have to do with my metal filter. I like that. Yum.

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We’ve been upgrading our car-camping gear recently and one area that we were lacking in was our camp coffee prep. I’ve always pre-ground the beans at home and brought it with us in a plastic bag, but I decided to buy a Hario Mini-Slim Ceramic Coffee Mill so that I can grind the whole beans just before brewing. Freshly ground coffee is so much better than pre-ground!

This mill is hand-operated with a crank and takes about 2 minutes to grind 12 grams of beans, which is a good amount for one cup of coffee. On this mill’s measuring scale, that means filling it to the #1 marker. It definitely requires a little bit of muscle, so if you don’t have strong arms and wrists, a coffee mill such as this might not be a good idea. On the flipside, the extra exertion would be a good way to get your blood flowing in the morning.

I need to mention that the coffee mill comes with a barcode sticker on it that absolutely sucks to remove. It tears and is super gummy, and the mess gets everywhere. Just getting it to the stage where I can use Goo-Gone on it took a while. What a pain in the butt!

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I bought these instant coffee packets at the supermarket today. Each box cost less than a dollar, whereas if you buy “backpacking coffee”, you’ll be paying over a dollar per packet. Granted, the backpacking coffee is supposed to be much tastier, the price is over my threshold.

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こんばんは。How’s it going?

Sadly, our Braun Coffee Mill finally died. It served us well for maybe 18 years or so, and just a couple of weeks ago I was thinking about how amazing it was that it was still going strong after all this time. Well, that may have jinxed it because the motor started having a little trouble a couple of days ago, and then today it stopped altogether. But wow, I can’t complain! It did its job well.

But hey, I needed to make coffee so I got out our antique coffee grinder, and got to work. This little thing is actually pretty good! It’s a Burr-type, but it takes a while to grind by hand and I don’t want to do it every morning.

Therefore, I went online and ordered a new coffee grinder. I’ll post about it after I’ve tried it, but I’m excited about using it. Like the hand grinder, the new one is also a Burr grinder, whereas the Braun was a blade-type, which cuts the beans. Burr grinders crush the beans and it’s supposed to yield tastier coffee… I guess we’ll soon find out!

またね〜

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