I love coffee in the morning. Actually, I pretty much love coffee at any time of the day. I had a really great coffee maker. It was one of those complicated machines with a thermos rather than a glass carafe. Anybody who knows coffee knows you do not make coffee into a glass carafe that sits on top of a heating element. Do you want your coffee to taste like the boiled down Folgers they serve in gas stations?
I had to put my fancy coffee maker down. About once a month or so it would clog up in some way I could never figure out and deposite 8 or so cups of coffee and grounds on the kitchen floor. I would return to the kitchen after my shower and have to clean up a mess. Cindy does not like it when I yell an objects early in the morning and finally told me to throw it way. Evidently yelling at objects seldom results in a solution. I did throw the coffee maker away.
“I want a simple coffee maker”, I said. “Fancy coffee makers have too many things that can go wrong.”
So, she bought me a Black and Decker 12 cup programmable. Black and Decker – I thought they made drills and stuff. Anyway, I will ignore the progammable part. The programming is pretty much used to set the time your coffee maker should start working in the morning. Every good coffee drinker knows you do not grind your beans the night before and just let the poor grounds sit there awaiting their fate. It has a glass carafe. This is OK – I drink my cup and then leave for work (or to the campus bookstore where for $1 before 9 you can get a large cup of Caribou coffee).
I read the manual for my new coffee maker. I understand that reading the manual is not a very manly thing to do and it certainly is not the kind of behavior one would expect from a tech guy. However, I have a reasonable excuse. I was trying to find out what kind of filters I had to purchase for my Black and Decker. My fancy now disposed of coffee maker had one of those fancy gold baskets, but that machine will not be spoken of again. Anyway, I could not find the place where it explained what kind of filters I should buy. I decided on the size 4 malita (the grocery store did not carry the Black and Decker brand). We will have to wait until tomorrow morning to see if the filters work. I have already promised I will not raise my voice if I must purchase a different type of filter.
I did find something quite interesting while reading the manual. There is a section intended to help users solve common coffee brewing problems (I wonder if there was a section in the manual I did not read for my fancy coffee maker – not to be mentioned again).
Here is what I discovered from the manual.
Problem – Coffeemaker (is this really one word) does not turn on.
Possible cause – Coffeemaker is not plugged in.
Solution: Check to be sure appliance is plugged in to a working outlet and turn the on/off switch to “on”.
Problem: Coffeemaker brews clear water.
Possible cause: There may be no grounds in removable filter basket.
Solution: Add sufficient amount of coffee grounds to paper filter in basket.
There you have it – Making coffee for dummies.
I just realized this title is kind of ambiguous. Coffeemakers for dummies. bah…..