Clean your coffee grinder with rice. Wait, what?
Okay, so this is more of a reminder to myself than anything, but maybe you all will find it useful too. (And yes, I get that Livejournal is not the best tool to make self-reminders, but it'll do for now.)
Apparently you can clean your coffee grinder with a handful of rice grains. Er, raw ones. Don't run cooked rice through your coffee grinder. Anyway, it seems that the rice grains will both scour the inside of the grinding ... uh ... crucible? Container? ... and absorb the oils and whatever other crap that builds up inside the grinder.
The consensus I'm reading from the comments in that entry indicate that it's best to grind up a handful or rice, then another one, and then one throwaway load of coffee beans. I'm loath to grind up coffee beans only to throw them away, but I imagine that particular pot might taste kinda ricey if you drink it.
Also, I need to look into getting a new coffee pot. I have three separate machines for making coffee, and none of them are exactly right.
1. The French press is great. The coffee tastes fabulous, and it doesn't require much maintenance. But I can only really make half a pot at a time. If I make the whole thing, the second half will be cold by the time I finish the first half. Drinking microwaved coffee is a moral wrong, so I hear. Drinking microwaved French press coffee is probably a crime against humanity.
2. The little travel cup coffee maker makes about the right amount of coffee. I can drink one or two of the travel-sized cups over the course of a couple hours, and that's just fine. But the bastard has started to leak in awkward places, and it just makes a mess. Anyway, even if it worked reliably, it's not really suitable for company. Seems rude to hand someone a stainless steel travel-cup, like "Take this coffee and GTFO my house."
3. The old 12-pot coffee maker I got as a wedding gift (back in 1998, for those of you keeping score) is functional, but again - I usually make too much to drink at once. The machine will keep the carafe warm for a few hours, which is okay. But if I make coffee when I wake up (anywhere from 1300 to 1700, depending on how well the medication is working and how loud the kids are), and I want more before I go to work (say, around 2100), I encounter the Cold Coffee of Fail again. This coffee maker warns specifically against turning it on in order to warm the carafe, and Lord knows I don't need a glass-and-coffee grenade going off in my new kitchen.
However, my children, I have seen the light. And it illuminates an LCD display on iconoplast's Cuisinart coffee maker. Apparently it will heat a carafe of cold coffee (theoretically anyway - I don't believe iconoplast has allowed a pot of coffee to live long enough to get cold), and it filters its own water, and it tells you when it needs cleaning. This coffee maker is made of win and awesome.
I want it.
But I want to comparison shop too. Tell me about some awesome coffee makers. Ideally my new coffee maker will cost less than, say, $200. And have a relatively small footprint on the counter, because Meredith will physically kill me if I get an espresso machine-sized monster. Suggestions?
Apparently you can clean your coffee grinder with a handful of rice grains. Er, raw ones. Don't run cooked rice through your coffee grinder. Anyway, it seems that the rice grains will both scour the inside of the grinding ... uh ... crucible? Container? ... and absorb the oils and whatever other crap that builds up inside the grinder.
The consensus I'm reading from the comments in that entry indicate that it's best to grind up a handful or rice, then another one, and then one throwaway load of coffee beans. I'm loath to grind up coffee beans only to throw them away, but I imagine that particular pot might taste kinda ricey if you drink it.
Also, I need to look into getting a new coffee pot. I have three separate machines for making coffee, and none of them are exactly right.
1. The French press is great. The coffee tastes fabulous, and it doesn't require much maintenance. But I can only really make half a pot at a time. If I make the whole thing, the second half will be cold by the time I finish the first half. Drinking microwaved coffee is a moral wrong, so I hear. Drinking microwaved French press coffee is probably a crime against humanity.
2. The little travel cup coffee maker makes about the right amount of coffee. I can drink one or two of the travel-sized cups over the course of a couple hours, and that's just fine. But the bastard has started to leak in awkward places, and it just makes a mess. Anyway, even if it worked reliably, it's not really suitable for company. Seems rude to hand someone a stainless steel travel-cup, like "Take this coffee and GTFO my house."
3. The old 12-pot coffee maker I got as a wedding gift (back in 1998, for those of you keeping score) is functional, but again - I usually make too much to drink at once. The machine will keep the carafe warm for a few hours, which is okay. But if I make coffee when I wake up (anywhere from 1300 to 1700, depending on how well the medication is working and how loud the kids are), and I want more before I go to work (say, around 2100), I encounter the Cold Coffee of Fail again. This coffee maker warns specifically against turning it on in order to warm the carafe, and Lord knows I don't need a glass-and-coffee grenade going off in my new kitchen.
However, my children, I have seen the light. And it illuminates an LCD display on iconoplast's Cuisinart coffee maker. Apparently it will heat a carafe of cold coffee (theoretically anyway - I don't believe iconoplast has allowed a pot of coffee to live long enough to get cold), and it filters its own water, and it tells you when it needs cleaning. This coffee maker is made of win and awesome.
I want it.
But I want to comparison shop too. Tell me about some awesome coffee makers. Ideally my new coffee maker will cost less than, say, $200. And have a relatively small footprint on the counter, because Meredith will physically kill me if I get an espresso machine-sized monster. Suggestions?