The Unquestionable Advantages of Pod Based Coffee Makers |
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| By Stephen Tern |
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| It used to be the case that if you wished to make proper
coffee at home, the choice of machines open to you was very
restricted. Home coffee makers were similar to those found in coffee bars and bistros and used loose coffee, either beans or ground. You had to follow a set procedure:- 1. The coffee had to be ground to the perfect grade. Not fine enough and the coffee was insipid - and you didn´t get the characteristic crema that is so important on a decent espresso. Overground coffee meant that the water would not flow easily through the grounds. Additionally the grain size had to be very uniform for the best results. To get the best results, you had to buy a good quality coffee grinder, preferably of the burr-grinder type. 2. The right quantity of coffee then had to be added to the holder and tamped down very accurately and evenly. If you didn´t do this correctly, the water would run through any loosely-tamped areas and give you a tasteless brew. 3. Water, heated to just the right temperature was forced at high pressure through the plug of coffee to give you your espresso. 4. There was more often than not a steam wand to froth milk for cappuccino. 5. Cleaning was essential, as coffee can easily be tainted by old grounds or other residue left in the machine. Nevertheless, there´s little question that once you had learned to do the process properly, you ended up with excellent, authentic espresso. Some of the inconvenience can be got around with a bean-to-cup coffee maker. Here the machine measures out and grinds the beans for you - all you have to do is add beans to the hopper. The right amount of coffee was automatically added to the container, tamped down and the coffee brewed as before. These machines work well, but a good quality one will be pretty high-priced and take up a lot of room on the counter. Against this, the advantages of a pod-based machine are apparent:- 1. The coffee is supplied ready ground, in the exact quantities in sealed pods. 2. As a result you just put the pod into the machine - no grinding and measuring. 3. Press a button and the machine does the rest - the right amount of water is forced through the coffee in the pod and the coffee flows out of the outlet. 4. When finished, you just throw away the pod, thus removing the need for difficult cleaning. 5. You can usually buy a wide variety of different coffee pods - and you are not limited to coffee of course. So you can make hot chocolate or tea with the one machine. Traditionalists may contend that the espresso from one of these machines is not as fine as from a conventional espresso maker, and they may have a point. These machines do not have steam wands either - they produce a form of foamed milk from the pods, which many think does not taste so good. But the ease is remarkable. I think that many espresso makers lie unused due to the trouble of operating and cleaning them - a pod machine will be used regularly. Along with the versatility they offer, their appeal is clear. |
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| Article Source: http://interpret.zar.vg | ||||
| About The Author You can read more about the Bosch Tassimo pod-based coffee machines and compare them with say, the Gaggia Brera at Tern Kitchen Reviews. |
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