Et tu, Brewtus?

Walked downstairs to work this morning — I love home office — and discovered to my dismay that the espresso machine hadn’t switched on. Because it takes a while to warm up, I keep it on a timer switch. The timer had worked, but investigation revealed that the main power switch had failed due to about 7 years of thermal stress. Fortunately, I was prepared. When the switch started to feel “soft” a couple of weeks ago, I logged on to eBay and found a random company in China selling identical replacement neon-lit 240V/15A rated panel switches.

Serious about coffee

Now that I’m married to a professional barista, it became time to upgrade our coffee machine. Our Starbucks pump espressio machine had offered loyal service for several years, but rothko wanted something with a full size brewhead, like you’d find on a professional machine in an Italian espresso bar. Fortunately her job, plus a tax refund and bonus from work, meant we could afford to spend a bit. After a ton of research, we settled on the Expobar Brewtus II.

Starbucks, the crack cocaine of gourmet coffee

Needed to grab coffee between meetings this morning. Starbucks was closest, so… For those who don’t know: Starbucks coffee has around 3x the caffeine of filter coffee you’d make at home. That’s one reason why I generally only have espresso drinks there. (And given other options, I generally don’t go there at all.) Except today. So by 11:00, my ears were ringing. And that was the mild blend.