Monday, October 10, 2011

Monday Morning Coffee Needed!

Monday morning seems like a good time to write about coffee. Because I don't know about you, but I could use a boost right about now. This weekend was glorious, and Monday is particularly hard this week!

About a month ago, a small group of bloggers was invited to a Nescafe Dolce Gusto "Foodie Feedup" at The Greenhouse Tavern. The event included complimentary appetizers, a cooking demo from Chef Sawyer himself, and coffee service with dessert.

After catching up with friends old and new, we headed down to the Greenhouse kitchen for a cooking demo on their famous hand-ground beef tartare.It was delicious!Afterwards, it was time for the coffee demo and tasting. I sampled the Vanilla Latte Macchiato, and it was very good. I usually need cream and two sugars for a cup of coffee, but I only added one sugar to this and it was perfect for me.According to their website, they have 15 different flavor capsules, so there is something for everyone. Including Peach Ice Tea, Chai Tea Latte, Espresso, and a Dark Roast- because the machines can do both hot and cold beverages.

We were surprised that night with the promise of our own (Piccolo) machine. It arrived a couple of weeks later, and I wanted to let it settle in my house before writing about it. I wanted to use it several times, and go out shopping for capsules before sharing this with you.

The long story short is that the machine works well, with a quick heat-up time and clean brewing process. The Piccolo holds enough water to do about two full cups of coffee, so keep that in mind. It is a small machine that tucked away nicely in our kitchen that has minimal storage or counter space. Now finding the coffee capsules has proved to be a little difficult locally. They do have a store locator on their website, as well as an online retail shop. But the only store that I have found them in so far is the nearby Walmart, and they only carry two flavors. I"ll have to keep poking around or order them online. The only other comment that I have is that the packaging on the capsules is designed for the newer models of the machines. Instead of telling us how long to manually flip the brewing switch, the package instructs you on how many "bars" to set the machine for. This is not helpful for the Piccolo, and reading the final fl. oz. for each type has been the best tip. I've gotten the hang of this now, but it does mean that our first attempt at the 4 oz. Espresso did not go so well.

Alright, now it's time for me to go grab a cup before work because I need to brush off the weekend haze! What did you do this weekend? Mine included dinner at Deagan's with friends, pumpkin picking, a picnic in the park, and cleaning out our garage and basement. This weather is amazing!

Thank you again to Nescafe Dolce Gusto for the wonderful time at The Greenhouse Tavern, and the complimentary machine to review. As always, my opinion are honest and 100% my own.

2 comments:

Sarah said...

They have almost the complete line of coffees at the Sur la Table in Woodmere next to Trader Joes. I also found that if you order them from Amazon on auto-replenish some flavors are as little as $7 per box.

Bite Buff said...

That's good to know, thanks Sarah!