I've loved coffee since I was 9 years old - thanks to my father, Taiwan and Mr. Brown.
In fact, Mr. Brown was my standard for coffee until I reached high school. Then I discovered the joys of the french roast at La Madeline... and later in college the bottomless coffee cup at places like Kerby Lane Cafe and Einstein's Bagels.
Then I took an internship at Boeing in Seattle and discovered the latte. Not just any latte mind you, Starbucks' mocha valencia latte.
I didn't indulge much in this drink because technically I was still a poor college student, but my "friend" Chainwhip at the time introduced me to the wonders of the french press coffee - dark, bold and oily coffee. Wonderful with condensed milk.
But I got tired of french press coffee because sometimes it was tricky to get a decent grind out of a cheap blade coffee grinder, and pre-ground coffee was too fine for a french press. I also often over boiled the water so my coffee became bitter and undrinkable. Or I didn't empty my french press fast enough and the subsequent cups were bitter and undrinkable. More recently I only use my french press for tea.
I did dabble a bit in homemade drip coffee when my roomies had a coffeemaker and in more frequent uses of my Vietnamese coffee contraption.
But neither were satisfactory. I had officially become a coffee snob.
In the last year or so I've been contemplating buying another coffee contraption - maybe stovetop "espresso"? Or better yet a stovetop cappuccino maker that also froths your milk.
But I never pulled the trigger because I read that the coffee from these things taste more like extra strong drip, something you can do with your french press or Vietnamese drip - both of which I already owned. So I played with the idea of buying a full blown espresso machine. Why not? Oh wait, I'm cheap and these things are expensive.
Then I saw that Costco.com was selling the SAECO Aroma for $189.99.
I thought about it. I went back to look at it multiple times. I looked like a good deal. The machine got good reviews. I hemmed and I hawed and returned to the site one day to find this...
Then of course I found out that it really was a steal deal. That slow cheap trigger finger lost out. I decided to do some real research, with the help of Chainwhip, and found a decent deal through Starbucks, 20% off all merchandise. (Today is the last day for this sale!) Their starter machine is the SAECO Via Venezia which is incredibly similar to the Aroma.
We took a visit to a Starbucks in downtown Seattle yesterday to take a look at the machine and discovered that it was marked down $30. I asked the salesperson if the 20% off was in addition to the marked discount, she checked the price at the register, and by golly it was! This swanky little espresso machine, priced originally at $280, was on sale for $199.
I bought it as a gift to me for Christmas.
So last night I pulled 3 shots. The first was terrible, the second was divine, and the third was almost as terrible as the first - and it was fun! Merry Coffee to me!
Oh wait, I forgot to mention that Chainwhip passed on to me the Starbucks giftcard he received from his director. It had $10 on it, so my total for the espresso machine was only $189... which is the same price the SAECO Aroma was selling for at Costco.com. Thank you Jesus! And Happy Birthday to you too. You're the only person I know who gives but receives nothing on his birthday.
