Tuesday 6 February 2018

Making Coffee


Our drip filter coffee maker died the other day. History repeated itself, with the switch breaking.

So the next day we went to Loches to buy a new one. To our surprise, there was nothing we liked at a price we liked. So we bought a cafetiere for €6.50.

Our new French press and our Moka coffee maker, from our camping kit.

The object on the left is something I would call a cafetiere. That name reflects my time in the UK because that is what they are called there. In Australia they are called coffee plungers, and I notice that Americans call them French presses. In France they tend to be called cafetières italiennes, or sometimes a cafetière à piston.

The object on the right is what I would have called a Turkish coffee maker, but it turns out it isn't. It's a Moka coffee maker, also known as a cafetière italienne in France.

Both are Italian inventions but in my experience Italians actually use the stovetop Moka pot. Brits and Australians used French presses and northern Europeans used filter coffee machines. But nowadays everybody except us and the Italians uses capsules (and landfill be damned).

14 comments:

Colin and Elizabeth said...

Guilty as charged for the capsules but in fairness the manufacturers could do a lot more to make them recyclable. Love the French 'cafetière à piston' not heard that one before...

chm said...

What are the capsules made of? If its paper, it could be buried in the vegetable garden where it will decompose?

chm said...

If it's paper...Sorry

The Beaver said...

Bonjour Cousin,
It is a combination of Aluminum, plastic and paper ( in that order)

chm said...

Merci, Cousine.

Autolycus said...

Can't be doing with the capsules and being bound to someone else's idea of coffee, or with espresso, but I do use a filter machine (incidentally, I'm sure Raymond Chandler has Philip Marlowe refer to one as "French drip", which sounds rather unpleasant).

Simon Leather said...

I use the Moka or as I call it the Volcano!

Susan said...

The manufacturers have no incentive to make the capsules recycleable. You've invested in the machine. You are trapped into using their capsules whatever they are made of.

Susan said...

LOL.

Susan said...

They are rather alarming to use, aren't they?!

Colin and Elizabeth said...

Very True. It is good coffee to my liking though.

Ken Broadhurst said...

A late comment: My mother has a Bodum brand "French press" (so described on the packaging) coffee maker in her kitchen cabinet. It's never been used, but it's too bulky for me to take back to France (where I have three of them already). On the packaging, the Bodum cafetière says "make taste not waste" by using the French press method of brewing coffee.

Susan said...

I like it. Nicely pointed.

Ian Fraser said...

Yes, a liitle, but we have each always regarded them as our coffee maker of choice - and regard ourselves as entirely Australian.

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