Coffee Makers, 7-Eleven and Politics

I have so many thoughts to share!

First, I'd like to share a recent experience regarding morning coffee. I have the option of getting coffee from Starbucks or 7-Eleven. Starbucks is a few feet further away, but no big deal. One recent morning I was pretty tired. Jacob had a pretty long night of frequent mini-wakings which required my attention. On the way into work I decided to get a cup of Starbucks coffee instead of 7-Eleven. I usually don't like Starbucks coffee, but 7-Eleven coffee is kind of weak and gives me the jitters if I drink straight-up caffeinated. But I need a strong cup of coffee.

So I went to Starbucks and decided on the Pike Place Roast which is described as smooth and nutty. That's my favorite combination. But I was terribly disappointed. It was bitter, as is all Starbucks coffee in my opinion. It's all about the roasting. Every coffee I've ever had from Starbucks tastes like it's been burned. So it's decided for me. 7-Eleven will be my coffee haven while I'm at work. Unless, I need a latte. Then it's a different story.

Now onto coffee makers. Recently I had to purchase a new one. My old one died. How does that happen? Planned obsolescence is my partner's theory. But poor design is my theory. I had a good coffee maker. It was the Cuisinart Brew Central. They are everywhere. I've had mine for maybe 4 or 5 years. Something called calcification happens with these (and maybe every) coffee maker. When it happens, you have to clean it using vinegar and water through a brew cycle or two. When the coffee maker needs it, it will light up the self-clean light. For years and years it never lit that light. I actually did put it through self clean every once in a long while. But last month it finally gave me the light. That was the beginning of the end. It refused to brew coffee from that point. I ran the self-clean cycle 5 or 10 times. Still no luck. In the middle of a brew cycle, the self clean would activate and stop brewing coffee. The self-clean amenity was actually the design flaw. I should be able to brew coffee no matter how much calcification exists. It's coffee for goodness sake. I need it.

So I was pretty desperate about the lack of coffee maker. I took this opportunity to purchase a grind and brew coffee maker from Cuisinart. I know some of you may be thinking, Why go with Cuisinart again? Well, I still like Cuisinart so I just looked into the features to make sure the same problem wouldn't happen. I purchased the Grind & Brew. I love, love coffee made with fresh coffee grinds. Who doesn't? I read a lot of mixed reviews on the coffee maker. Most of the reviews had to do with the amount of cleaning required to prepare the coffee maker again and again. I wasn't dissuaded by that argument. Here's what I was attracted to: Unlike some grind & brews, I could put in as many beans as I wanted to determine how strong I want my coffee. Other makers have a setting for this and then determine the amount of beans necessary. I don't trust the coffee maker to do this for me. This, for me, was the selling point ... and the fact that there was no self-clean cycle on this machine.

What I got was a good coffee maker. But the grinder is too small. I can't put enough beans in to make the coffee as strong as I like it. Another design flaw. So even though there's a 12-cup capacity, I can never brew more than 10 cups. And even then it might be weaker than I like because I have to overfill the grinder anyway. However, the grind-to-brew function is great and you can definitely taste the difference. The coffee maker does require a lot of cleaning. The problem is that the grinder gets "dirty" because of its proximity to the brewing. The heat from the brewing creates condensation on the grinder and the grinds then stick to it. So it's not perfect but I can live with it.

Politics. It's less than 3 weeks now to this historic election. I'm so excited. I feel pretty confident that the Democrats are finally going to win it. It's going to feel as good and even better than it did in 1992 when Bill Clinton won. I've been falling asleep through the debates to be honest. But the truth is that right now, I'm just enjoying the McCain/Palin free-fall. I know the Republicans will be licking their wounds throughout the country on November 5th. I know this isn't very analytic or insightful, but I just don't think we have a real contest anymore. McCain doesn't have any new ideas or energy to fix the immediate problems with our economy and the economy is the issue. I mean, if he hadn't been hit over the head with the free-falling stock market, he would still be saying that the economy is a psychological problem we're having. Our country is finally waking up to the fact that the Democrats have a better grasp on how to help the economy and everyday middle class Americans. And we're finally going to have our day on November 4. Go Vote!