Coffee

Coffee With Cortana

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I did not goto the office from March 2020 through August 2021. Since August i have mainly worked from home with periodic days in the office. I’ve said it before that my walking to and from the train on my commute was the bulk of my exercise.I was lucky in the sense that walk give me about 80% of my daily activity and step count needed for at least a basic level of movement. While at the office I would deliberately walk further when doing things to get more movement in throughout the day.

I’ve written about some of my exercise routine during the lockdown so I won’t rehash most of it. Since April 2021 and the restrictions on lockdown easing I have been trying to get out more and more for coffee. It is one way I try to offset the lack of my commute and the exercise that comes with it.

I had been typically meeting up with friends in the morning for coffee. The way my schedule works is early morning is really the only consistent time I could get away. The challenge was catching up after taking a 30 minute break or getting peoples availability on a consistent basis.

On a separate thread that becomes related later I’ve been playing around with Microsoft outlook on my iPhone. For several months now Microsoft has had an option that it will read you your mail and allow you to audibly take actions on it. at first it was a novelty. Then they kept adding features and I figured out a workflow that was useful for me. I found that if I had a lot of messages I could listen to them and flag the ones that I wanted to look at in more detail or respond to, or take any action on later. Things that weren’t important or I didn’t need to do anything with I could simply archive. I also could except or decline meeting invites. In essence I wasn’t able to completely control my inbox using Cortana reading to me however I can organize it in such a way that when I sat at my desk I could focus on specific things to do.

One day when no one was around to have coffee I figured why don’t I just go anyway since it was a lovely day. before that point I was not really using the Cortana read to me functions that much so it did not dawn on me to just go to coffee and sit and listen to my mail. On one faithful day in June that’s just what I did.

Once the males done being read to me I typically have a list of flagged mail that I need to either file away or take actions on. usually I break out my iPad and write responses to things. Anything that requires further research or dedicated time on a bigger display I’ve created to do task from that. From there I generally have a good feel for what immediate work I need to do today beyond my longer-term project and task list.

The coffee shop I have been going to is near my house and after the school drop off appears pretty empty most of the time. The staff is always super lovely and I can sit out in the back garden when it’s not cold or raining. Actually I think they even have heaters when it’s cold however I’ve only done that once or twice. i’m pretty pleased with my routine and hope to continue doing it weather permitting.

I originally wrote this article over the summer of 2021. Sadly the coffee shop i wrote about is gone. Now a days I go to other ones and generlaly am using Cortana more on my walk to and from the school runs with the kids.

First Cold Brew of The Season

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It’s warmer out. Much warmer than it should be in April however that’s a different story. With warmer weather i ran out earlier to grab my first Nitro Cold Brew of the season before my next meeting. Of course i shouldn’t have done that prior to a big call. I could feel the caffeine at work as i got on the phone!

That Story Where I Write A lot About Tea Kettles

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Since way before I met her M has had an old-school metal tea kettle. She uses it to heat up tea and hot water for her coffee funnel. It’s as basic a solution as you can get. It also works surprisingly well. In the past year or so I’ve started to use it to heat water for my French press.

The thing with boiling water on a stove is that it can take a few minutes. I never thought anything of it. It was just how long it took to heat water. When we got to England we needed to heat water for coffee. I can’t remember if we brought our kettle in our luggage and the stove didn’t work. Or we simply did not have our kettle. In any event our stove was not working when we first moved in. We needed coffee. That meant we needed to buy something.

I knew about existence of electric kettles. I even remember my friend “A” who came from England to the US talking about how bad they were in the states. At the time I didn’t quite understand what he was complaining about. American electric kettles if I recall take around the same amount of time to make hot water then boiling it on a stove. If I’m wrong on that that is my recollection. I don’t really have direct knowledge on it. Going into this situation however that was what I was thinking. Electric kettles are slow.

I made one of our several trips to the local Sainsbury’s those first few days and picked up a cheap electric kettle. Once I got home I set it up and started to make enough water for 2 cups of coffee. I remember turning on the kettle and preparing to go do something while it heated the water. I got distracted talking to M for a moment. By the time I got back to realizing what I wanted to do the kettle clicked off indicating the water was done. At the time I thought something was wrong with it because it took maybe 1 to 2 minutes at most. I poured the water into the filter and sure enough it was the perfect temperature.

For what I am told the high-power quick teakettle is thanks to a more powerful power grid in England. I know everyone talks about the fact that the US is 110v and England is 220v however to see it in action was pretty interesting.

The electric kettle was so effective that M even agreed to get rid of her vintage stovetop one. That was a major development in our house.

The lesson here (if there is a lesson to learn) is even if someone explain something to you sometimes it doesn’t fully click until you experience it yourself.

A Regular

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I achieved a major milestone today. I officially became a regular at the Canary Wharf Starbucks I goto when going to the office in Canary Wharf. The lady taking orders remembered my name. You could see her struggle a bit trying to guess my order but then she knew my name. Another lady taking orders has been almost remembering for a week or two. You could tell by her facial expressions that she is trying and then is like a ha when i tell her what i want to order.

I guess we have been here long enough that I earned this nonsensical milestone. I am still proud.

Drinking Americano

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I started drinking more Americano’s in the morning on the weekends. I usually drink French press since it’s significantly cheaper and tastes pretty good. With our upcoming move I’m not sure (almost positive it can’t) if the Nespresso machine will work so it is on the list of what has to go.

The delicious challenge I have is that I have a bunch of pods remaining I need to drink before we move in December.  I will either drink a single Lungo shot on its own or make an Americano using the single shot pods.  I am running low on the Lungo shots so it will be Americano’s for a while. The delicious challenge was accepted.

The less delicious challenge to finish the decaf will happen later.

The Story of My Slow Road to a Coffee Habit

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I never drank coffee in college. I was never into hot beverages or coffee specifically. I used to say that even know I didn’t eat very well I didn’t smoke, drink very much, or drink coffee. I’m not sure if it was the flavor or just hot liquid that turned me off to coffee. By the time I was out of college I didn’t mind that I wasn’t drinking it since I knew it could be back for you. I figured I had enough things wrong with my diet that I didn’t need to add anything else to it that was not good.

The history of me and coffee I think started on a flight from New York to Los Angeles while working at Datastream. I got an upgrade to business elite on the Delta flight I was taking and the flight attendant convinced me to try and Irish coffee. It might have been several years after that before I had my next cup.

Starting around my early 30s when I decided to get serious about dating I would have cappuccino here and there after dinner with dessert. I remember one dessert place in Little Italy that I found with friends that was good. I would always get some sort of dessert and a cappuccino. It was nice. That segued into going back to the same place sometimes with a date. That in turn evolved into having a cappuccino here and there after dinner.

It wasn’t until I started working at Thomson Reuters that I started drinking coffee a little more regularly however not all the time. By that time around late 2008 I knew I liked the cappuccino. I would sweeten it up a little and the milk sugar mixed with the coffee was pretty good for me. I wasn’t that into regular drip coffee. That’s why I was intrigued when the coffee machine at the office was in had cappuccino. What I knew at the time but didn’t care was it really wasn’t a true cappuccino. It was espresso roast coffee with a peppered milk and water combination that was sort of a cappuccino. For me a coffee newbie was perfect. At that time didn’t go to the office all the time and work remote for at least part of my week. When I would go to the time square office I would treat myself with the Flavia cappuccino. I remember distinctly the first time I had 2 cups in a row. I was in a long meeting and thought the extra caffeine would help. I was amazed at crazy I felt after the 2nd cup. I didn’t understand how people did that regularly. To this day I rarely have 2 cups in a row.

My coffee habit evolved further when I started dating someone who thought it would be fun to get me to drink more of it. That was her take on the situation. The reality was by simply regularly dating somebody I hadn’t done in a while I had more opportunity to be out and have more coffee. After we stopped eating however I still like the idea of a cup more frequently than I previously had. One of the people I work with at the time had mentioned they had a Flavian machine at their house and that it was pretty decent. I didn’t need anything fancy and its research. I found that could indeed by personal machine for around $100. I decided to go with the Flavia instead of a Kurig because Flavia offered the cappuccino pouches. It was at this point that I started drinking at least one cup a day on most workdays. At the time the Flavia machine was a easy low-cost option for me.

It wasn’t until I met MC in the summer of 2010 that I started learning and getting schooled in what good coffee is. Back then to me good coffee was Starbucks. MC is not a fan of Starbucks. I’m still okay with it however grown to learn that there’s much better options out there if you know where to look. When MC eventually so my apartment she rightfully scorned my Flavia machine and called it hot brown water. Let’s face it looking back she was right. We moved in together or around that time we decided to go and get an Nespresso machine. MC knew I liked cappuccinos and thought if I wanted to have cappuccinos we should do it right. I had been researching machines on my own and when she encouraged me to look for a better one I decided to take the plunge. We opted for an Nespresso machine without the milk frothing option. We bought a separate milk frothing device from Nespresso. I figured if something went wrong with one of the pieces of the multifunction device (IE espresso machine or milk frother) the other half would be useless. I have not been a fan of all-in-one devices in a while. The price was comparable to get the two devices versus the all-in-one. With the milk frothing device and true espresso machine I was able to experience much better cappuccinos at home cheaper than going to the store. The cost is still high per unit however it was cheaper than my other options at the time.

For years I enjoyed that espresso machine. When I was losing weight I would have a skim cappuccino almost as a snack substitute since it’s only 80 cal. I found that when I was losing weight I actually started drinking more coffee. It wasn’t a surprise that I was doing that. It was almost deliberate knowing that it could offset my hunger a little. I was still only having about 2 cups a day.

At some point I was concerned about the total cost of owning the Nespresso machine. Each pod is around $.65-$.80. If I do double shots once or twice a day it adds up. I had researched alternative espresso machines and didn’t want to deal with the expensive costs associated. I stumbled across the old-school European idea of the mocha pot. I picked up a small one on Amazon for about $25. I was able to use the same Lavazza or Illy coffee that MC used in her drink coffee since she always buys espresso roast. The mocha pot coffee was not quite the same as espresso but it was pretty potent and I like it. The problem with the mocha pot is its pain in the butt to clean.

At this point with my espresso machine and new mocha pot we had four different coffee delivery mechanisms in our house. In addition to those two MC has her ceramic filter she uses for making old-school drip coffee with a teakettle. That is what she uses when she’s just make coffee for herself or one or two people. We also have a full-size 12 cup coffee maker for drip coffee that we keep in a closet for when we have company.

After I lost weight and was able to eat more calories in a day I was less concerned about staying full. At that point cappuccino was counterproductive since I didn’t need the 80 cal of milk. It was around then that someone at work who was also relative, sore on the subject suggested I try Americano’s. I didn’t realize that the flavor profile of the Americano was that much different than drip coffee. I decided to try it out and was surprised that I actually liked it. Over a few months I slowly moved from having cappuccinos most of the time to having Americanos with some cappuccinos here and there. At home I would boil hot water with her teakettle and poured into a double shot of espresso I would make with the Nespresso machine. It was a good solution although it was $1.25 per cup.

At this point I was curious about coffee alternatives for the house that were not drip coffee. By now I’d have drip coffee here and there when I couldn’t get an espresso-based drink. There were plenty of times before then when I simply would not have coffee if I couldn’t get an Americana or cappuccino. As I started drinking more coffee if they didn’t have an espresso-based drink I would just “suck it up” and have drip coffee. I still wasn’t a big fan of it however I was curious what alternatives I had two espressos or Americanos. Talking to friends and researching lead me to want to try a French press. It was relatively low-cost and from what I read relatively high quality coffee. I bought one on Amazon for under $30. The hardest part for me was finding coffee I wanted to get that was ground course for French presses. I ended up going to Gregory’s coffee where I get my daily mid-day work coffee and picked up a pound and had them grind it for me. I was very impressed by how the French press coffee came out at home. On the weekends that’s what I make today. I’ve been continuing to buy the Gregory’s coffee since I like it. The other day I picked up some Café grumpy ground coffee to try. The sales lady was very helpful for me to find the right flavor I like. More recently I’ve been going to grumpy’s this summer for my coffee. Nothing wrong with Gregory’s however I like the cold brew at grumpy’s better even though it’s a little bit further of a walk for me. The French press turns out to be the fifth coffee delivery mechanism I own at home.

Last summer were the summer before that high had tried cold brewed iced coffee. For someone they never drank coffee a lot 10 years ago cold brew is literally an eye-opening experience. Wow it is potent. I liked it however it was strong and rough on my stomach. This summer I realized that was I think due to the Gregory’s coffee specifically. The Starbucks cold brew or the grumpy’s cold brew work much better for me. I afternoon coffee break at work now consists of going to get cold brew since it’s so hot out. I’ve evolved from Flavia cappuccino in the morning to and Americana in the morning with a decaf Americano or a cold brew in the afternoon. I’ve had friends talk about brewing the cold brew at home. at the time of the discussions with them I wasn’t as interested. A few weeks ago I came across an article mentioning that sale on a cold brewing pitcher on Amazon. I researched it and it turned out to be one of the top two best-selling. For the price I figured to give it a try. It came this weekend while we were away at my sister-in-law’s. At the time of this writing but likely not by the time this gets posted I haven’t used it yet. Hopeful it’s not that much of a hassle to clean.

The cold brew making pitcher now makes six separate coffee preparation devices I have in my house. If six sounds excessive you are most likely correct. On a day-to-day basis I only use two of them. MC uses one other one. The coffee maker is only for company and we use it a few times a year however when we do use it it’s invaluable so it’s not something it’s going away. I don’t use the mocha pop often because it’s cumbersome to clean. I like the coffee but it’s not worth the effort. Was also very cheap to get so unlikely I’m going to get rid of it since it doesn’t take up much space. I do use the Nespresso machine several times a week however not usually for morning coffee on the weekends. I’m curious to see if I’ll actually use the cold blue pitcher however I have a feeling it might be very useful for summer months.

One interesting thing that I noticed was as much as I like a cappuccino I find that one of the most basic coffee preparation methods the French press is one of my go to options. I thought of that since I’m reminded of the most basic form of shaving options also seem to be the best. And am loving my new old-school mechanical keyboard. So even though I like high tech stuff I’m fascinated that for some things I’m drawn to old school stuff.

There you have it high 10 to 12 year evolution from not having any coffee to my twice a day fix. Nowadays I do try to have decaf in the afternoon except for when I’m doing colder since let’s face it half the point of cold brew coffee is the caffeine.

The Coffee Making Equivalent of Pandora’s Box

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I finally got around to making some cold brew iced coffee using the Brewer I bought the other week. In retrospect I should never have bought it. I should never of learned how easy it is to make cold brew concentrate. I had my 1st cup of it yesterday. It was fantastic. I put too much sweetener in it but it was still really good. The next cup I made I put less sweeter and it was perfect.

By the time we put the girls to bed last night it was late for them at 8:30 PM. I had to fight the urge t make another cop since I wouldn’t sleep with that much caffeine at 8:30 PM.

This morning I got the swinger to coffee to water ratio perfect at breakfast.
Now that I have this knowledge I cannot unlearn it. It’s like I opened Pandora’s box and it was delicious crack.  Mmmm so delicious.

Continuing to Instill a Coffee Ritual in Toddlers But Not Really Because That Would Be Bad

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As far back as Teagan being able to hold her head up and able to be held by me upright we have been making coffee together. At first it was just me holding her and her watching me. Then it was Teagan pressing the button on the Nespresso machine for me. Next evolved into her helping me put the cartridge in the machine and press the button to make the espresso.

Nowadays Teagan and Amelia both can put the cartridge in by themselves. The only help the need is closing the container. It’s pretty cute to see both of them bring over their chairs to stand up tall enough by the counter help make my coffee.

I’ve blogged about it before since it is something so simple yet something that makes me smile every time I think about the coffee ritual we do together.

I don’t use the espresso maker very often anymore. Maybe once or twice a week I’ll have a shot or two of decaf after work. I rarely make it on the weekends. Instead I have moved on to a French press cup of coffee. I will use the Nespresso machine when I want to make an Americano. The price of the pods are significantly more than the price of coffee for the French press.

After I have lost my weight a few years ago I do not make cappuccino’s as often as I used to. Because of that the lore of the espresso machine is diminished. I still like Americano probably more than the French press however the cost just makes it prohibitive in the French press is not that bad.

I do however have used for the milk frother. That is because Teagan always asks me to make her coffee. What she really means is that I froth her up some milk. Since I used to take spoonfuls of my cappuccino milk that wasn’t touched by coffee and feed it to her as a baby I find it cute she likes to do that. She’s been asking me rather consistently in recent weeks to make it for her. Usually she asks when I get home from work and it’s late. I tell her to remind me on the weekends when I’m up to make her and Amelia breakfast. Then when she asks the three of us will make a batch of milk together and the girls will share.

I find it adorable that they sit on their chairs with the mug of frothed milk and eat it like yogurt or ice cream.

T and Our Coffee Ritual

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When T was about 4 or 5 months old she was big enough to fit into the Exosaucer and bob around.  She loved it.  On the weekends MC and I would (and still do) rotation who would get up with T and later both girls.  Some days it was great bonding time.  When T was that little there was little to do with her after her bottle.  We would put her in the Exosaucer so she wasn’t lying down right after her bottle.  After doing that I would make myself some coffee.  I like Cappuccino so I would make a cup with our Nespresso machine and then sit with T.  She would follow my coffee no matter were it was in my hand.  I thought it was just any beverage but when I moved a glass of water around the same way i would move the coffee she was less interested.  It was very funny.

Once T got a little older I would hold T in one hand and make the coffee in the other.  She was always facinated.  Once she was crawling or walking and saw that I was going to make some coffee she would come over and in he own way demand to be picked up.

Sometime after T was a year old (the exact time eludes me and I wish I kept track better) after she would keep trying to drink my coffee I had the idea to take an espresso spoon and give her a little of the frothed milk from the Cappuccino.  It was the stuff right on top that was not touched by coffee so it was just foamed milk.  It was an instant hit for T.  I didn’t do it all the time but she often wanted spoons of milk.  A few times I just made T a cup of frothy milk for her to spoon up.  That could get messy so I didn’t do it often.

Over the past several months T has gotten old enough to be good enough to help with our ritual.  When I go to make Epsresso or Cappuccino she runs over to the kitchen and demands to be picked up (uppie).  T puts the cartredge into the machine.  She has trouble closing the door but does most of the work.  She then presses the button to make the coffee.  Afterward if I do a Cappuccino she will expect some or go get heself a spoon.

A few weeks ago I was working at my computer with a Cappuccino in hand.  I heard T demand a spoon to MC but didn’t think anything of it until she shows up at my desk with it.  It was clearly implied that I was to provide her some milk.

Amelia on the otherhand has not been as interested in the same ritual.  I am wondering what she will get into when she gets a little bit older.

Amelia and Coffee

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Amelia loves coffee. That is the only explanation I have for her taking the can of Illy coffee and dumping it on her and the kitchen floor. yup only conclusion I have.