Creating your own Espresso Bar At Home
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by: Kimberly Reason
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Date: Sun, 8 Nov 2009 Time: 9:07 PM
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Have you recently given in to your long standing desire to have your very own espresso machine at home? Congratulations! If you set yourself up with a few key accessories you should enjoy brewing your own delights for many years.
Priority number one is to get a good coffee grinder. There are two basic types: the blade grinder and the burr grinder. The burr grinder does a better job of grinding the beams to a fine grind. The blade grinders are less expensive and can do a find job when all you need is a course grind for drip coffee. You get what you pay for and a bur grinder is a good upgrade.
The tamper is a pretty simple tool that is used to press down on the coffee grinds prior to brewing. If you have a new espresso machine, a tamper probably came with your machine and it probably sucks too. If you upgrade your tamper make sure it fits will and that it feels and looks good to you.
A steamer or frothing pitcher makes you look like you know what you are doing. Many espresso drinks (lattes, mochas, cappuccinos, etc) call for either steamed or frothed milk so this will be a required item. You don't need to get a giant pitcher; one the size of a can of soda pop is good enough for home use.
Now we come to espresso and latte cups. There is a huge variety of designs and styles to choose from. One of my favorites is the simple espresso shot glass. These are made with special heat resistant glass and double walled construction to retain as much heat as possible. The other really cool avenue to explore with espresso cups are the porcelain designer cups. These are short production run cups with unique art from known designers (famous artists, architects, etc). These espresso cups can become very collectable once they are out of production.
To go along with your espresso cups you will want a set of espresso spoons. Espresso spoons are also known as demitasse spoons and they add a nice touch of class to your espresso cups. Latte spoons are larger and match your latte cups for your larger espresso drinks.
An espresso recipe book will keep you brewing for a long time. Some of the more popular recipe books have over 200 coffee recipes! Here are a couple of recipes to get you started. A latte is espresso with steamed milk. A mocha is a latte with chocolate syrup and a cappuccino is 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk and 1/3 frothed milk.
Flavor add-ons are another really fun area to experiment and add new flavors. You can get everything from powders (chocolate, nutmeg, mocha, etc) and syrups galore (caramel, cinnamon, chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, Swiss chocolate, hazelnut, pumpkin, peppermint, mint, raspberry, vanilla, almond, amaretto, Irish cream and many more).
Actually your options for accessorizing your new espresso machine are nearly endless. Add new items when they make sense to you and you will enjoy brewing your own home made espresso drinks for a long time.
Article Source :: Simply Articles
About the Author
If you are just starting down the path of collecting glass espresso cups, you will probably be very surprised at how popular it is to collect these types of expresso cups.
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