Saturday's blog on a Sunday...(remind you by chance of my earlier-in-the-week "Munchy Monday" occurring this week on Tuesday?)
coffee, coffee, coffee...or:
kafe (pronounced KA-fey) [Albanian], kopi [Indonesian], kava (pronounced kah-va) [Slovakian]...
Yes, back to that luxurious, ebony filth that so many of us crave. Only because, in terms of success, my weekly goal of eliminating non-recyclable coffee cups from my life failed somewhat miserably. Until yesterday's exciting development.
We purchased a coffeemaker. Brand spankin' new.
Which is a big thing since we like to avoid new product purchase when at all possible.
Unable to find a used one anywhere else, and it not being garage sale season, we decided on the local hardware outlet in town. The salesperson there pounced on us briskly and then quickly tired of us as she continually checked back with us and we seemed no further in our search for The Perfect Machine. Did we want a timer? Did it really matter? Not too cheap that it would break almost immediately and not too expensive that it would break our budget. We knew for sure that one of those mesh filters was a must: who wanted to buy wasteful paper filters even if they can go in the compost?
And so on and so on...fortunately our children wandered quietly amongst the aisle, eyeing up weird and wonderful inventions that may save time but mainly steal precious pocketbook money and take up even more space on the counter (or in cupboards never to be seen again). They were more elated about the rows of colourful can openers and measuring spoons than the black or white machine models we were considering. Who wouldn't be? (And who knew that you can not only choose blue or black can openers but shades of blue...funky teal? Navy? Baby blue? Insanity!)
Eventually, our decision made, we handed over our cash and made our way home. And brewed our first homemade batch of mountain blend arabica.
And discovered that our main mission (mesh filter) was a bit of a sneaky promise on the packaging. We still have to use a paper filter.
But at least my experiment with re-using the paper filter (dump contents in compost and then rinse) has been effective for four uses so far!
But how do you know which coffee machine is best for the environment? One that uses the least amount of energy. (So a coffee press is a better option of course. And we do have a fabulous Epicure Selections one that I use - the disadvantages are amount of time to make and that it only produces 3 cups at a time.)
Single cup makers? They promise less waste but what of the little plastic cups and tin lids left after one drink has been enjoyed? An easy response would of course be to just give up the blasted black stuff...
Oh, and last tip with regards to the environment (and wallets) and coffee machines: don't forget to unplug your coffeemaker between uses as it otherwise continues to drain electricity from the outlet....
As I write hubby dumps my mug's contents into re-useable mug for our drive to Family Thanksgiving "in the city".
Bottoms up! Glug, glug.
No comments:
Post a Comment