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Home Coffee Roasters
A Simple Cup of Coffee
A simple cup of coffee is a powerful thing! It can mend fences and save friendships. They say that the pen is mightier than the sword, but it could be that a simple cup of coffee is more powerful than both of them put together.
It had been a tough week in the neighborhood. It was cold, and the kids had been underfoot indoors at one house or the other all week. My neighbor and I had been close friends for several years, but our relationship had gotten seriously strained over this past week. She had called me twice to complain about how my Bobby was tormenting her Shawn. She had sent him home, too, more than twice.
Now, the boys played at my house as often as they played at her house, and I was fully aware of the fact that her Shawn wasn't the little darling that she thought he was. Our relationship and our friendship were nearing the breaking point; there really wasn't much doubt about it.
On Thursday morning, I took the boys to the "Mother's Day Out" program at a nearby local church for the morning. It was my neighbor's turn to drive, but I offered to run the "taxi" service and she accepted.
When I returned from dropping the boys off, I looked across the street at my neighbor's house, and it had the deserted look that most homes have during midwinter. In fact, it looked sad. I looked at the pile of laundry that was waiting for my attention. I looked at the as-yet-unmade beds. Then I looked at my coffee maker and made the decision. I picked up the phone and called my neighbor.
I said, "I know we both have a long list of things that we need to do while the little darlings are gone, but how about coming over for a cup of coffee?" She was there almost before I had time to hang up the phone. We drank a cup of coffee, and we talked about how we were both so tired of being cooped up with rowdy kids. We laughed and we cried, and we mended our broken fences and saved our friendship -- all over one simple cup of coffee.
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Espresso Coffee Machines
Coffee Shop Charm
Coffee shops that are very uniquely American can be found all over this great country of ours. There are coffee shops in big American cities and coffee shops in dusty little off-the-beaten-path towns that you have probably never heard of. Now I am not talking about big chain coffee shops like Starbucks here. I'm talking about the locally famous coffee shop that are the gathering places for friends or an escape hatch for those who can't stand being chained to a desk for even one more minute.
In many of the large American cities, locally famous coffee shops offer wi-fi Internet service, sometimes even for free. In those small, out-of-the-way towns, there is rarely a wi-fi connection offered, but you can find out who is getting married, divorced, having a baby, or the going price of cows and hogs.
There is one thing that coffee shops all over America have in common, though. They all smell the same. There is a particular smell of an American coffee shop that you will find in no other place on earth. It is impossible to describe this unique smell accurately. There is, of course, the smell of coffee, and maybe that is the predominate smell; but it certainly isn't the only one. Underlying the smell of the coffee is the smell that cannot be described, but that you recognize immediately when you walk into an American coffee shop. The smell is clean, warm, and welcoming and like no other.
The local coffee shop is where life happens, whether the "local" is in a big city or in a small town. People arrange to meet at the local coffee shop…lovers, business associates, friends, etc. Everybody knows where the local coffee shop is, and that it is "neutral" territory and a natural gathering and meeting place. |
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Espresso Coffee Machines
Those who love espresso coffee also love their espresso coffee makers. When you happen to overhear them discussing their espresso coffee makers, you would think they were debating the advantage one sports car has over another rather than coffee makers.
There are espresso coffee machine owners who believe that nothing can possibly compare to the coffee that a manual espresso coffee maker brews. There are those who swear that only the semiautomatic variety will make really, REALLY good coffee. Then there are those who wouldn't dream of owning anything other than a fully automatic espresso coffee maker. According to them, only the fully automatic espresso coffee maker can make perfect coffee every time. And so, the debate rages on!
The manual espresso coffee machine owners tell you (and anybody else who will listen) that their manual machines give them full control of the coffee-making process, and they wouldn't want it any other way. They add the water so they have control of quantity to the drop. They add the coffee grounds so they have control to the grain. They have control down to the split second of when to start the frother.
The semiautomatic espresso coffee maker owner will tell you that their machines do everything but turn themselves on and off, which is true. The only thing that the owner of a semiautomatic espresso coffee maker must do is flip the switch on and off, but according to them that is all that is necessary to obtain the perfect cup of espresso.
Those who own fully automatic espresso coffee makers don't have to do anything at all, and that is precisely how they want it. Full automation, they say, is simply the only way to go. Set it and forget it!
And the espresso coffee maker owners haven't even started to debate the advantage one brand might have over all others.
Related Topics: Types of Coffee Makers,
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