Wednesday, December 02, 2020

Braun Reason to Live -- In Which: My On My Grind Gets Its Glow-Up

Official Sound Accompaniment:

About a year ago, Noodles AKA TWBGITW bestowed upon me a much beloved coffee implement, a Bialetti Moka Pot. (Read more about moka pots at Atlas Obscura.)

It quickly entered the coffee-making-technology rotation, particularly on weekend mornings, when we would call it "fancy coffee". Some mornings, tho, usually work days, I'd fall back on my ancient Braun drip maker, for a more set-it-and-forget-it experience, usually grinding some beans and hitting the GO button and letting it do its thing while I was in the shower. (Read more about Braun drip coffee makers at Super! Hero! Shared! Housing!)

(Loomy Braun.)

A minor iceberg in my ocean of caffeine happiness appeared a couple weeks ago: the light inside that GO button ceased to ... light. Water and grounds still goes in, heat still applies, coffee still comes out, but without the little visual reminder that the Braun is on, I worry that I'll leave the carafe on the burner, burn the coffee, leave it on when I leave the house, burn the place down, etc.

Then, a couple days ago, Noodles gave me an incredible update, a fancy burr grinder for my beans! (Usually Bicycle Coffee's medium roast.) This is one burr that isn't under my saddle!

(Behold Big Burr, aka Barnaby Jones aka my new best friend.)

Counter space being at a premium in my humble abode, I had some thinking to do. And so it has come to pass that Big Braun last night got a thorough cleaning, soap, a vinegar cycle, rinsing, the whole nine, and is now stored on a shelf in my pantry. Big Burr and Big Bialetti stand tall and proud and more than ready to flow freely forth with my brown bean fix.

(The...chamber...comes out. This changes everything.)

Along the way, my old grinder, used daily for coffee for some years, also needed a cleaning for storing. While doing so, I discovered a fascinating feature: the tub where beans go in and are bladed into grounds ... the tub is removable. It comes out, it can be removed. Daily use for probably five years, and I just now discover this as I prepare to retire it from coffee duty to spice detail, where I can think of exactly one recipe I ever need to grind spices for (confidential to Yotam Ottolenghi: black peppercorns don't exactly grow on TREES you know, sheesh, five tablespoons for a dish that feeds two people!? I get that the book is called Plenty, but it still seems a little overkilly.). Some might suggest I had some reason to expect that the tub comes out, but I don't know what those people are talking about, or could be.

(I never peel stickers off. Apparently neither do I read them, however.)

No comments: