Quadrupolo Espresso

So, yesterday afternoon when I met Ms. Crafty for coffee at the Roma in Berkeley (a delightful outing all around), I ordered a usual afternoon quaff, a double espresso.

I expected to get this:

But instead, they filled a cup like this:

I'm not complaining - really - I'm not. I like that their "doppio" is my "twelvo." The economy alone is fantastic, but I also get to enjoy that much more of a tasty beverage.

But this is dangerous. On one hand, I could be considered a recovering caffeine addict and seeing that giant bowl of espresso, I was excited, like I was getting 3x my "fix" for free. I kept looking at it thinking, Are they really going to give me all that? Without charging me extra? Really?

So I tried to play it cool, like I always drink that much espresso at 4 in the afternoon and it's cool. It's cool. I can handle it.

We sat down and got caught up as I sipped my way through my dense coffee lake. It wasn't too long before I noticed my hands were shaking. And I usually talk fast, but I think I was on the verge of sounding like the FedEx guy from their 80s ads.

Even Ms. Crafty noticed the shaky hands - it was hard to hide. But she saw what they gave me. Anyone would have been shaky and twitchy, running off at the mouth about pajama pants and making stew.

I got home in time for dinner, but wasn't hungry (shock). I caught up on email and read a few magazines waiting for The Wire to come on. Man, that show. We're so sad to see it come to an end, but it's been a treat to watch it from the start and see how it will all wrap up.

When it was time for bed, I'm sure you can imagine what happened then. Yup - lying there in a very warm, pre-heated cocoon, reading my book, I could have kept reading all night and perhaps into Wednesday afternoon. I could have painted the garage and rototilled the back yard.

I think I've learned my lesson. It was rough getting up this morning. And for the second night in a row, I was awake at 4:30am, thinking it was morning - and the first night that happened there was no caffeine OD at work. Maybe my brain thinks we've moved to Hawaii. If only.

The Joy of Saeco (Thanks Dad!)

This post is for Griffin, who isn't sure if he'd want his coffee/espresso to be *that* automated. If you had one of these, that thought wouldn't enter your pretty little head ever again.

Here's the smart little guy sitting comfortably on my kitchen counter:


It sits on a swivel base so you can easily access the water reservoir from the top on the back left side and/or the bean hopper on the top right side. The reservoir holds about a liter of water & the bean hopper holds about a half pound of coffee beans - enough to last me a week or more drinking a couple of cups a day.

The water dispenser/milk frother is the nozzle on the right, and the espresso/coffee dispenser is on the left. Underneath those is the removable drip tray that slides out for easy dumping/cleaning. To the left of the espresso dispenser you can open up the front door of the unit to access and clean the "brew group" - the unit that receives the ground coffee from the hopper, tamps it, pre-moistens it, brews the coffee & then expels the "puck" (used coffee grounds) into the little compartment you can access on the left side of the machine for easy removal.

I only have to dump the pucks once a week and I've cleaned out the brew group a few times with a soft brush - that's it. The drip tray needs to be dumped & cleaned once a week and the water reservoir needs to be filled every other day or so depending on the demands of the habit.

In the bean hopper you adjust the coarseness of the grind as well as the dosing - how much coffee is used for each brew. Once you have that set to your liking, all you have to do is turn it on (the button on the left), wait about 45 seconds for it to warm up, turn the dial to the amount of coffee (single espresso size to a full mug of 'americana') then press the button in the middle and get ready.


The button on the right is for dispensing hot water, though that's the one thing I don't recommend using as it means refilling the reservoir a lot more often and the water isn't boiling hot - it seems to cool off fairly rapidly. For things requiring hot water the tea kettle seems the most straightforward route.


If you want to steam milk for a cap or latte, after the machine warms up, you turn the little nob on the right side of the machine above the steamer nozzle and wait about 30 seconds for the hot water to turn to steam, then shove that sucker into your pitcher of milk and in a minute or two, you've got hot foamy froth ready to go.


And the crema... look at the crema!


I never minded making a pot of coffee in the mornings before work, but now with this wonderful robot, I have a delicious cup of coffee in a minute, vs. 15 or 20, and each cup is a fresh cup. I'll never go back to a regular coffee machine again.

Ponder that over your next cup of drip...