Anything Coffee
Drinking Coffee...
When it comes to drinking coffee, the only cultural habits I have gathered along have been instant coffee (or the “children’s version” of it: Lots of milk, lots of sugar) and the Middle Eastern habit of cooking coffee, preferably Brazilian Arabica, dark roasted, spiced with Cardamom.
The Israeli brand that has the biggest share is Nahle and for a good reason, it is superior to anything other similar coffee brand I know, except some very local varieties I found in Israel.
Cooking coffee is done with very thin coffee powder and, if you don't have a pot, or a finjan (Arabic style small pot) to cook the coffee in, it suffices to just take a heaped teaspoon and a cup, boil some water and drink it without really cooking it, even if it tastes more intensive when cooked.
When it comes to instant coffee... People have been drinking it for ages in Israel. When I grew up, the local brand (perhaps the only one affordable) was the Elite brand (see photo), and now there are a few more. However, this is no tradition to me.
I normally stay around the cooked coffee, and buy exclusively the brand I like.
Espresso
After coming back from Nepal, at the beginning of 2010, I ordered our first espresso machine, a compact automatic Saeco espresso maker. The machine lasted a few months until it started leaking and was exchanged with a semi-automatic Gastroback (now “Sage”, I believe), a nicely designed machine with an integrated grinder. Not a very quiet machine but it did a good job.
But the Gastroback died after about 8 years (i.e. started leaking, not building enough pressure), and by then it felt like an overkill to have such a design wonder, but noisy and expensive.
So… Why not buy a cheap, simple espresso maker with a manual portafilter, a machine that cannot go wrong, and if it does, it can be tossed away to the bin, and another will take its place. Simple.
The fact of the matter is that the grinder is far more important than the espresso maker, which undoubtedly needs to hold some minimal requirements, but if money doesn’t grow on any tree around, then it’s better to invest in a good grinder, which gives the opportunity to brew coffee in various ways, from any beans (not just grinded coffee).
Hey, you might even attempt roasting coffee on your own. See here for a short guide.
The Middle-Eastern version of coffee
Old-School Israeli Instant Coffee
My own version of coffee on-the-go
My humble home espresso outfit
My Home Espresso Outfit
Our kitchen is not big by any means, so packing in a whole elaborated barista equipment takes precious space. But our outfit consists of a Wilfa Black grinder, less than optimal for espresso, and a DeLonghi Dedica espresso machine.
Espresso gets a little better if I grind with my Knock Aergrind manual grinder, with a slightly better tasting espresso (at least I pretend to feel a difference), hence, the Wilfa is definitely a grinder I am not entirely satisfied with.
Again, I am not pretending to be a coffee connoisseur, just because I like my coffee to be fresh, cheap and reliably delicious, without turning my wallet upside down.
Coffee needs to be good enough. Period.
A day will come and my aspirations to reach the next level will materialize.
Until then, Mediocre will do.