The end of an era (almost)

Pretty soon after we moved into our new house here in Beacon Hill, Carrie and I bought a spiffy espresso machine (a Rancilio Silvia):

From Blogger Pictures

...and a rather run of the mill (no pun intended) Cuisinart grinder:

From Blogger Pictures

Carrie and I are both avid coffee drinkers  - we even had our first date at a local cafe; after moving in together and combining our resources, however, we quickly realized that, between the two of us, we were spending a lot of money on our one-off  trips to the cafe. We had hoped that by investing money in decent equipment up front, we could make our own coffee drinks and save money in the long run.

Problem was, we didn't have all the pieces in play. We had a pretty kick-ass machine in the Silvia, and can always get good beans, but, as Alton Brown would put it, we didnt have all of the elements of good espressso; we had the Macchina Espresso, the Mano dell’operatore could be obtained with time, the Miscela with money, and the Manutenzione kept up on, but our 15-setting  Cuisinart was incapable of delivering the Macinadosatore! We just could not get a fine enough grind of coffee that would produce a decently pulled shot.


So, we splurged yet again, and got this little beauty:

From Blogger Pictures

This Maestro is a smaller, home version of the same grinder that some of the smaller chains and one-off cafes around here use. It has 40 settings, and, sure enough, it does produce a very fine powder that allows us to pull the perfect shot of espresso.


So - why the end of an era (almost)? Well, for both Carrie and I, going out to a cafe is much more than just an opportunity to get coffee. It's a social event - a chance to get out of  the office, away from the home, and see other individuals in a nice, third place setting. We won't be giving that up completely- but we will have to adjust and make this change in our lives.