Coffee. The sun may not rise but as long as we have our coffee, many of us would not mind. We brush our teeth, we sip our java. Coffee is a central aspect of our lives from the hour we rise. And perhaps all through the day and into the evening.
Coffee may also be a central aspect of our kitchens, too. We have coffee pots and drip machines, cappuccino and espresso machines, Nespresso devices, antique drip coffee devices … There are containers of beans, cans of ground coffee, and all those flavored pods. Machines and gadgets and tools from around the world.
When Suzi and I redid our kitchen, we installed a wonderful machine, the Jenn-Air® Built-In Coffee System. It’s a compact yet professional system that yields, I promise you, exceptional coffee. And it means we need far less “stuff” in our kitchen. Beans, just beans.
The system has been cleverly engineered by Jenn-Air®. Installation does not require any special electrical or water connections. Power is supplied by a standard outlet. Water for the coffee is supplied with a handy container that slides in and out. And, in the picture here, you can just see the slot at the top of the machine where you put your coffee beans. If you are a bean collector and need your own bean combination for a private special flavor, you are totally empowered with this machine. You can, of course, control the grind to get the flavor intensity you crave, too.
In the key, central working portion of the machine, a special milk container generates perfect foam whiles the machine pours in a stream of liquid from those freshly ground beans. Getting ideal milk for your cappuccino at home has been an annoyance for decades. We had to fiddle and fuss and often had failure, not foam. Now, you just push a button.
There is nothing like a hot cup of coffee on a cold winter morning. Oh, golly, tomorrow is July 1st and the mornings are not cold at all, not even chilly. Many of us make the switch to iced coffee. And iced coffee poses a conundrum. We chill our coffee with ice cubes to get the temperature we want, but the melted ice dilutes the coffee. Some people accept that loss of flavor intensity. But others of us rebel.
The solution? The night before, make cappuccino and then freeze it. Yes, make cappuccino cubes so your flavor intensity actually increases. There are wonderful new shapes and sizes for ice cube trays you can experiment with. In the picture at the top of this post, that oblong cube comes from a tray making cubes to easily slip into exercise water bottles: long and slim. The cubes, here made with coffee and not ice, work perfectly in your morning beverage.
Once you experience , the Jenn-Air® Built-In Coffee System, you’ll be hooked. It’s a bit like caffeine.