I am celebrating two anniversaries in the next month. My daughter will be 2 years old on June 17th. Who’d of thought we’d make it to this milestone!

I probably would not have made it though if it wasn’t for this other anniversary I will be celebrating on the 10th of June.

That my friends, is two years to the day that I bought my Krups Orchestro Automatic Espresso Maker

I had a regular espresso maker for a couple of years, the kind that cost about $70 and you think you are a serious coffee drinker when you buy it. I used that thing faithfully every day for years until, a week before my daughter was born, I saw the Orchestro for sale in the Base Exchange. Somebody had put it on layaway and decided not to get it. It was a one time buy for the store so they discounted it bigtime and put it on the shelf with other return merchandise for sale at bargain prices.

Now this machine normaly is in the $600-$900 dollar range, but I was able to get mine for $299.

Now, you guys might be thinking “300Bucks is a lot to pay for a freakin’ coffee machine”.

But to that I say, Hell, if this one broke on me, I would replace it in a HEARTBEAT with the same, or a more expensive model! I no longer buy coffee at any Starbucks (or starbucks like coffee chain) becuase my home brew is as good or better.

Espresso/Cappaccino machines are really one of those things that, the more you spend, the better the results. Most inexpensive (read under $300) use steam to brew the coffe. More expensive machines use pressure to force the water through the grinds. Steam scalds the coffee and affects the taste.

Now of course, the water and brand of coffee are important too but I will save that for another post.

I will conclude with 2 things.

1)If you are a coffee/espresso/cappaccino drinker, do yourself a favor and get one of these things… I can make myself my own cappaccino in about 1 minute 30 seconds YIKES. (did i mention that my coffee intake has quadroupled in the last two years?)

2) A Cappaccino is 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk, and 1/3 milk foam

Back to the trenches….