Friday, February 11, 2011

My new gadget!

Alright, there's quite a bit of back story to this post... and I'm not sure where to start. Let me start way back when....

In 2007, when Kyle and I lived in Atlanta, we got an offer in the mail for a free coffee maker. We just had to fill out the mail-in form, buy two things of coffee and they sent us a free drip brewer! It was actually a pretty nice coffee maker and we didn't really drink LOTS of coffee, but it was better than the 1 cup drip brewer we had at the time.

Around 2008, I discovered the Kerig. I was in love with this coffee maker and always looked forward to my tri-monthly oil changes so I could make a cup at our local mechanic's :-) I didn't really want to buy one because we already had a coffee maker.

Oh I should also preface that I'm not a morning coffee drinker, I prefer to drink green tea, because for one I don't drink any caffeine during the day and I don't like plain coffee so I would have to load it with creamer and sugar - and I don't like the calories that comes along with that. Green tea offered just enough caffeine that I got a little morning pick-me-up but not nothing over the top.

Then probably about the same time my friend gave me her old electric tea kettle. I LOVE THIS THING! It was great for tea, just turn it on and it heats up my water while I'm finishing getting ready.

Okay now to present day. Oh another side note, just because I didn't favor coffee did not mean I didn't LOVE espresso drinks! (wow a lot of not's in that sentence) I am a lover of Starbucks, but it wasn't a regular thing - it was a special thing.
Like in Chicago...
morning jumpstart

daisy starbucks

In New York....
blizzard sled on sidewalk
Okay I know you can't see the Starbucks, but we're sitting in one and drinking it when I took this picture :-)

Like buying a thermal mug... then having it break (but then buying another) :-)
326 broken cup

And evening camping with our Starbucks via!
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Oh I'm not ready for present day yet. I told you there was a lot of back story, lol. Go back to May 2010! While visiting my brother we made our own 'Starbucks'/espresso drinks.
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Aliyah got a little frothed milk as her cappuccino :-)
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So since this experience I wanted my own espresso maker. But I couldn't quite find the one I wanted, so I never really acted on it. Just kept my eye out when I'd see them in stores. And since I was more of a tea drinker I didn't really worry about it.

Okay NOW to the present... I got a new job! I now work the second shift, 3:00 to 11:30pm, still part-time, but later than I'm used to. So to get adjusted I had been spending a lot of dough at Starbucks. I needed that extra kick that the tea just couldn't give me to make it through til midnight. Now what I always get at Sbux is the Tall-Skinny-Vanilla-Latte. Which runs a little under $4. Four dollars a day for 5 days in a row (my weekend shift) is $20 hmmm that's a lot to be spending regularly. So I began to think back to this buying an espresso maker idea again.

THEN just a few days ago I was catching up on a friend's blog, Three Baking Sheets to the Wind. If you haven't already came across this amazing little blog, I suggest you go take a look. Ali (the author) is a wonderful writer, she's funny and has great unique blog entries! She loves good beer and loves baking!! Last month she had a giveaway for a Tassimo T20 Brewbot. I had NEVER heard of this amazing machine! It was a single cup coffee brewer (much like the Kerig) BUT the best thing of all... it brews espresso! Cappuccinos, Latte's, oh my! The answer I had been waiting for had arrived, I now knew what my next espresso machine purchase was going to be. Ali does a great job of explaining it, but I needed to get a picture of the week this week so I got a few of my own machine while I brewed my batch yesterday before work.
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Starbucks makes the little 'Tdiscs' they are called (and about 9 other brands). It makes the normal coffee (for Kyle) and the frou-frou stuff for me (the lattes) as well as many other drinks like cappuccino, hot chocolate, tea, espresso, and some kind of cafe crema. Squeeeee I love it!

For the Latte & Cappuccino there are two Tdiscs, a milk disc and an espresso disc
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How does it make such wonderful goodness? It reads the bar-codes on the little Tdisc packages.
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MMMMMmmmm the perfect pick-me-up at 2:30 on a 1 degree day :-)
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1 comment:

Ali said...

YES! I'm so glad you love your little coffeebot. You make the process look so good, too :D

(thanks for the shout, too, fair Daisy <3!)

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