quest for coffee gold

There is probably no one who has spent more money on coffeemakers than I have. Currently, I own probably six or seven. I have my expensive Bunn podbrewer (which uses expensive coffee pods to make sort of okay coffee). I have my thermal carafe Mr. Coffee. I have a Senseo pod machine. I have a Mr. Coffee espresso maker (which is hard to use so it doesn't get used), a small 4-cup thermal carafe pot (Cuisinart, I think) and I have a cheap aluminum drip coffee maker. (Of the latter, "drip" is the operative word. But the coffee is wonderful.) Those are upstairs in or near the kitchen. I suspect that I have a couple of other pots stored in the basement. At the garage sale we had a couple of years ago, I sold two or three pots. I've spent between $10 and $300 per pot, most of them around the $50-70 range. Face it. I'm addicted--not just to the coffee buzz, but to the pots themselves. In fact, for the last hour or so, I've been shopping online just to see what's new in coffeemakers.

I've come a long way, baby, from the girl who used to drink instant coffee. Admittedly, the reason I drank it is because it was what was available. That keys in to what I've been looking for: a way to make lots of delicious coffee that is fast and that doesn't result in stewed coffee. The thermal carafe system works well, but my Mr. Coffee is slow, and the thermal pot is hard to keep stain-free. (Thus, I no longer try to keep it stain-free--just build-up free.) And if you don't preheat the pot with hot water, the coffee isn't really very hot. I also suspect that the water doesn't get heated quite enough before it goes over the grounds.

When I was a kid, my mother drank instant most of the time, but Daddy preferred pot coffee. We had a large stove-top drip pot. We never used filters, so occasionally the coffee was a bit on the chewy side. And I don't remember the leaking, dripping problem of coffee coming out in the wrong places the way the last two manual drip pots I've had seem to do.

The coffee itself also presents a challenge. For many years, we've ordered coffee from our home state of Louisiana--Community Coffee dark roast, in the bright red wrapper. As I teasingly tell my students, it will put hair on your chest if you have none, and take it off if you do. No one seems to question the logic of such a statement, maybe because I am well known for my Southern hyperbole.

When we run out of Community, we buy Starbucks, but it's not the same. We've tried the usual brands--Folgers, Maxwell House, Hill Brothers, etc.--but to get the coffee strong, you have to get it bitter, too. Some of that stuff is so acidic, it could probably remove rust. For me, the "right" coffee has deep, rich flavor (I drink it black, no sugar), and it doesn't hurt my stomach to drink it. That's why we keep ordering Community, even though our coffee isn't consistent sometimes in grind. I tried grinding my own, the way true coffee lovers are supposed to do, but that defeats the purpose of having a lot of it, quickly.

One day, someone will invent the perfect coffee maker. The coffee will brew in moments, it will stay at the right temperature for hours, and the pot won't be hard to clean. Until then, I have to take what I can get--fast pod coffee that doesn't really taste as good as I wish it did (and often doesn't seem as hot as I wish it was), or pot coffee that takes awhile to make and either has to sit and stew on a burner or cool off in a thermal pot.

After all, we addicts have to get our fixes. No matter how expensive or time-consuming.
Dr. S.