… and oh! My daily addiction is tea with one sugar, sometimes with milk, sometimes black.

I have a caffeine intake of virtually zero, so if I need to stay awake, I drink soda or a little bit of coffee, and I’m wired.

My wife and I found ourselves going to Bucky’s everyday to get our Americano’s until they had their annual sale where we decided to get one of those expensive espresso machines. Well, it’s pretty darn good! It’s very consistent and you have a lot of control over things like grind, temprature, how many shots, etc.

We puchased the Delonghi EAM 4500 which has a one button Cafe Latte or Cappachino mode! Pretty slick. The only problem I’m finding…and I’ve had it almost a week is that I can’t froth my own milk. It doesn’t allow you to froth or create foam manually. We’ve made cappachinos, americanos, mochas and cinnamon dolce lattes! Pretty on par. We still have a little tweaking to do since we really just got the thing.

It normally goes ofr $1800, but we got it for $1150. Not too bad. We figure it will pay for itself in about a year for the amount of times we were going to Bucky’s(that’s how my daughter pronounces it).

Anyways, hope this helps

I used to laugh at my mother when she couldn’t drink coffee after 2, well it’s happened to me. I would never get to sleep.

For me, grind fine. Not powder but still fine – much finer than a typical maxwell house grind. Get a good drip coffee machine that get the water quite hot but not boiling. Some capresso machines do coffee very well but if you want espresso, read epinions and such or check out a coffee review site. If you want really good espresso, you’ll grind finer and spend some serious dinero on the home machine. Regular coffee machines like Mr. Coffee, just won’t do and taste noticeably worse, if not entirely bad, with flavored coffee too.

Next, know your measurements – for me that is typically one scoop for two coffee cups water – that is 6 oz in a coffee cup, not 8, so 12 oz of water. These should be marked on even cheap coffee machines now. The amount that works per scoop may vary per machine but it actually varies mostly by the temperature of the water. And of course, start with the coldest filtered tap you can use which brings me to my next point.

Third, use filtered water. This is perhaps the most important step. USE FILTERED WATER. This gets rid of any metallic taste or worse present in municipal supplies or wells. Of course, some unfiltered water works great with coffee, like the stuff I had in SW Virginia but this is a rare treat. Rare good flavored water can enhance coffee, but otherwise makes it worse. So, since you’re in the city, filter that water. No mineral/spring water.

Now, brew and don’t leave it on the burner. Immediately after it finished brewing, pour your cup and put the rest in a vacuum carafe. This will keep the coffee drinkable for hours instead of turning to carbon, oxidizing or into Waffle House brew (YUCK!).

Now, store those beans in a vacuum tight container and keep them in the freezer. Mostly, though, air tight containers will do most of the preservation work for you.

If you like flavored coffee, use cream (I use a very little heavy whipping cream and I mean a little!) with it; this enhances the flavor and adds an appropriate sweetness. If you like regular coffee, drink it black unless you’re trying to relax – but if that’s the case what are you drinking coffee for anyway?

The beans and the source of the beans matter. I love superbeans.com which gets most of their beens from Hawaii, since the guy use to live there, via Maui Coffee Roasters. If you love Peet’s, make sure the beans you use are the exact ones Peet’s uses when they grind and brew.

Always grind beans immediately before brewing; you’ll notice if you grind then brew the next day there will be less flavor. Don’t buy pre-ground coffee.

I’d say the importance of this information is:
1) filtered water
2) temperature of water when brewing
3) amount of water per scoop
4) bean source
5) storage of coffee after brewing
6) storage of unground beans

With a little experimenting which I hope you can do two or three more times, you should have something approaching if not exceeding most coffee house’s brew. It’s not hard if you follow these steps.