On The Way Café is the leading office coffee delivery service in Toronto. Visit us today at http://www.onthewaycafe.ca to learn more about coffee machines available for your home or office.

1. Why Buying A
Coffee Machine For
The Home or Office
Makes Sense

2. Coffee Machine Basics
Coffee is that delectable black liquid
so essential to our morning rituals.
It's a brain solvent, clearing away
those sleepy cobwebs and bringing
us to full alert. For many of us, it's
also requires a stop at a cafe for a
coffee with lots of caffeine, calories,
and fat, or worse, a stop at a
convenience store for a less-than-
stellar cup of something resembling
coffee.

3. Coffee Machine Basics
Why go through all that when you
can make your own coffee at home
or in the office? When you consider
what it costs to purchase coffee from
a shop or a gas station, a month's
worth of purchases costs the same
as a decent coffee machine.
Granted, there are some high end
machines that cost nearly as much
as a car, but most people are not
that obsessed. It's just as easy to be
obsessed while spending much less.

4. Coffee Basics
Making a consistently good cup of
coffee requires attention to detail.
Some will insist that only the purest
water should be used, but in reality
most of us can't tell the difference
between bottled water and tap water
after it's brewed into coffee, so if you
local water tastes okay, go ahead
and use it. The water temperature is
more important. It should be just off
the boil for best results.

5. Coffee Basics
Purchase your coffee as beans. Grind them yourself or use a store
grinder to prepare them. If you choose the latter, buy small
quantities that you can use in a week because the aromatic oils
dissipate, causing the flavor to fade. Store coffee in an airtight
container at room temperature, not in the refrigerator. Coffee
beans differ in flavor depending on where they were grown and the
roasting method used, so experiment to find what you like best.

6. Drip Coffee Machines
These are the most popular because they're so easy to use. Put
water in the tank, fill the basket with ground coffee, and turn it on.
In a few minutes, the coffee is ready. A good drip coffee machine
will produce a consistently good cup of coffee if it's kept clean,
but since the carafe sits atop a heating element, the taste will
change quickly as aromatics and water evaporate. Some
machines use an insulated carafe rather than a heating element,
but even so, the coffee will cool in less than an hour.

7. French Press
The French press is easy to use also.
Simply put coarsely ground coffee in
the pot, add water, and stir briefly. Put
the top on and wait four or five minutes,
then slowly press the filter down
through the coffee mixture. It yields a
richer cup than a drip coffee machine,
with a bit of sediment on the bottom.
Experiment with grind, water
temperature, and brew time to vary the
finished coffee.

8. Espresso Machines
These are the most difficult to master as the inexpensive ones
offer little control, while the manual ones require experience and
skill. Finely ground coffee is tamped into a holder that fits onto the
coffee maker. Water is forced through the grounds either by
steam pressure or with a hand operated lever. The pressure
forms a light tan “crema” atop the coffee. Note that “espresso” is
a way to make coffee, not the kind of coffee, as any coffee beans
can be ground for espresso.

9. Summary
These are the most popular
coffee machines, though there
are others like the Turkish ibrik,
vacuum pots, and even the
humble percolator. If you have a
coffee obsession, you'll likely
collect a few in your kitchen
along with some sleepless
nights from sampling their
awesome goodness!

10. Further Reading…
On The Way Café is the leading office
coffee delivery service in Toronto. Visit us
today at http://www.onthewaycafe.ca to
learn more about coffee machines
available for your home or office.