[djmcmath]

Don't get started on the coffee slope. You thought owning an early 930 was slippery? Wait until you get into this. I asked some coffee questions a little while ago and ended up at CoffeeGeek.com. It's mostly focused around espresso, but that's clearly because espresso is the optimal coffee extraction method -- it's actually possible to produce a drink that is neither bitter nor sour, and actually tastes like the beans smell before you brew them.

The downside is that the process is fantastically precise. The serious types will spend $250 on a burr grinder like a Mazzer Mini or the like that can come up with unmatched grind consistency. The grinder, BTW, is absolutely critical to good coffee. Just as the driver is the most important thing to improve to make a car faster, having a good grinder makes more difference even than having a good brew-pot. The second most important thing is the freshness of beans. Beans are best brewed between 3 and 7 days after roasting. I can tell the difference between week-old beans and month-old beans when brewing, seriously.

But back to espresso -- you'll find that the grind and tamp go together as critical elements. The machine, then, is required to produce a precisely regulated temperature, pressure, and flow rate of water through the puck. My machine has two self-installed digital controllers, one for each boiler, and produces absolutely fantastic coffee. If I had spent another $100 on the grinder, I'd probably get more consistent results, too.

Is it all worth it? Your call. Some people can't tell the difference. My room-mate, when we started, couldn't tell if I fed him a shot of used Swepco. Now he makes comments like "Is this last week's beans, or did you pull it half a degree lower than usual?"

Dan