Coffee

A slow life is all about enjoying the moment and extracting the greatest interest from the smallest of tasks. Take the morning coffee. I could simply slip a capsule into my daughter’s Nespresso machine and press a button. But where is the fun in that?  Where is the anticipation that will lift my coffee from a barely remembered caffeine fix to an event that will split my day between ante and post coffee?

As well as the Nespresso machine we have a little stove top moka pot which has an enclosed bottom chamber filled with water and as it starts to boil the steam forces the nearly boiling water through a middle chamber packed with ground coffee into the top chamber. It is a remarkably simple device invented by an Italian that to my mind makes the perfect coffee. Not quite an espresso but still a short strong coffee. I think it is the nearly boiling water being passed through the coffee grounds under pressure (more than gravity but less than an espresso machine which I believe should be over 7 bar) which is the secret to a good coffee.


A few years ago my wife bought me a beautifully designed cast iron handheld coffee grinder. Apparently the man in the shop was a bit reluctant to sell it, I think it had been on the shelf for many years and he wasn’t entirely sure it worked. At first it was very slow but after I washed it the efficiency increased significantly. I suspect the teeth of the grinder were clogged and now I can grind enough beans to fill my moka pot in 3 to 4 minutes.

Grinding my own coffee beans ensures they are perfectly fresh even if I am not sure I can taste the difference. I did resent paying more for beans than ground coffee but I recently noticed that my favourite Italian blend beans in Aldi are 20p cheaper than the same blend ground. I guess all the “bean to cup” machines are starting to change the economy of scale in the coffee bean market. With my little grinder it would take me at least 30 mins to grind a full packet of beans, so I am earning myself 40p/hour. Not much but more than the $2.15 a day that the world bank defines as extreme poverty.


My moka pot takes 25g of coffee and 300ml of water and claims to make six cups, which works out at only 50ml per cup. This is enough to savour and enjoy your efforts but I generally feel I deserve two. If no one else is around to drink the remaining 4 cups I will leave them in the pot to enjoy the following day, either cold or after a brief blast in the microwave. Still just as good.


9 Sept 2024

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