Here's the Cheapest Way to Brew Your Own Amazing Coffee at Home

This neat little one-cup filter coffee brewer is similar to the one I talked about in the post below. It's the Melitta Black Coffee Filter Cone 1-3 Cup and it's really cheap and really effective. Here in Australia, these get added as 'bonus giveaways' with packs of preground coffee in the supermarket... incentives to buy. That's where I got mine from a few years back. Mine's not exactly the same as shown here, but does the same thing.

Anyway, for the cheapest home coffee:
1. Buy one of these brewers. Forget the machines and contraptions.
2. Buy some green beans... they're cheaper.
3. Buy a cheap popcorn popper.
4. Roast at home and brew in your little one-cup brewer.

Your coffee will taste amazing and save you money.

You can find info on how to do all the above on this blog and at the main site Coffee Makers Cafe. You can also do a search on Google or check out the Blogroll on the right for more info.

Tags: Food and Drink Coffee Espresso Coffee Brewer Single Cup One Cup Melitta

Home roasted drip coffee and my brave little laptop

Since buying my coffee grinder and espresso machine in early December 2005, I think I've only once brewed something other than espresso. I vaguley remember brewing a plunger... but I might have imagined that.

Anyway, today I felt like something a bit more thirst quenching than 25ml of espresso - but I still needed the caffeine hit. So, I brewed a single cup in my little pour-over drip filter brewer thingy.

Tasted great! Here 'tis! (Look how brave my laptop is.)
It's a great day for working on Coffee Makers Cafe. There's a lovely thunderstorm happening here in Perth, Western Australia. We've had such a mild Summer (Dec/Jan/Feb) and heading into Winter (Jun/Jul/Aug) we're starting to see a little more rain. I hope we get more rain than last year... so maybe we can have less water restriction next Summer. The only problem with colder weather is my popcorn popper takes a little too long to roast a batch of beans.

I'll be posting an article on the main site in a few days - coffee brewers - a little look at the types of brewers available for home use. The reason is that I notice a few more searches cropping up for the term 'coffee brewers'. Here's a sample of what people are looking for:
brewer coffee
brewer coffee cup single
brewer coffee commercial
brewer bunn coffee
brewer coffee grinder
brewer coffee pod
brewer coffee keurig
brewer coffee cup one
brewer coffee curtis
automatic brewer coffee
bloomfield brewer coffee
brewer bunn coffee commercial
brewer coffee newco
brewer coffee vacuum
brewer coffee office
10 brewer bunn coffee cup home white
4 brewer coffee cup
3 brewer coffee station

Tags: Food and Drink Coffee Espresso Coffee Brewers Perth Australia Australia Weather

9 reasons why roasting coffee is a better hobby than scrapbooking

All the women around me are into scrapbooking... and it's freaking me out. I just don't get it. I can't understand spending money on albums, craft-kits, storage boxes, blah, blah... just for an album that gets looked at every now and then.

Don't get me wrong, I do admire my friends' work. I think everything looks great - but I can't justify the cost. I've never been a craft kind of person. As far as I'm concerned, you can keep quilt-making, scrapbooking and dollmaking and for yourself!

So here's nine reasons you should stick the scrapbooking (p.t.p.) and take up home roasting. I can think of more, but 9 is a nice number.

• It actually saves you money


• You get a bonus aromatherapy session (no glue fumes!)


• There's less mess... the quantity of chaff doesn't even come close to the scrap paper clippings


• Your partner will appreciate it


• You can actually talk about it to other people and they're interested (unlike scrapbooking!).


• The result is consumable - so you get to enjoy it again and again


• It doesn't waste paper


• It doesn't waste hours upon hours of your time


• You get to meditate for 10-15 minutes... hypnotized by the whir of your roaster or popper... watching the beans change from green, to gold, to caramel, to brown... aaah. (Unless of course your two-year-old is awake: in which case you can spend 10-15 minutes jumping on the mini-tramp or drawing!).

Tags: Food and Drink Coffee Espresso Scrapbooking Coffee Roasting

The low-down on milk frothers and steaming milk for your coffee recipes

As always, this article focuses on helping you make great coffee at home! Check out the new article by clicking on the headline of this post.

Read about:

• Choosing a milk frother or milk steamer


• The good, the bad and the ugly results of frothing milk


• Notes on milk fat percentage, temperature and type of pitcher

Tags: Food and Drink Coffee Espresso

Six Steps Get You Making Great Coffee at Home

The more I immerse myself in the world of coffee, the more I forget what it's like to be a newbie.

I remember a time when I didn't even know the difference between espresso and filter coffee. I couldn't understand why my home made coffee didn't taste like cafe coffee.

That was the reason I set up my website in the first place. If you're stuck at the beginning... if you don't know what coffee maker or coffee machine to buy, take the time to walk through my Coffee Makers Cafe six-step guide to great coffee at home.

I'm loving home-roasting and gorgeous home-espressos. I'm exploring coffee culture through cafe experience, books, the wonderful internet and serious coffee podcasts. But I don't want to forget the reason I started this journey in the first place... to get more people like you making great coffee at home.

Get cracking!

Tags: Food and Drink Coffee Espresso