Recipe Blog

Cleaning Coffee Makers

2008-05-16T06:03:00.001-07:00

Cleaning your coffee maker is necessary to keep your machine producing great tasting coffee. Each machine type will require a different cleaning method.

Drip Filter

The Drip Filter brewer is very easy to clean. Just follow these 6 simply steps:

1. Dissolve 1 oz of citric acid in 4 cups of hot water.

2. Add 4 cups of cold water to the solution and pour the solution into the water chamber.

3. Turn on your coffee maker (without the filter) and let about half of the water solution run through the machine.

4. Stop the machine and let it sit for 15 minutes.

5. Start it up again, and let the rest of the cleaning solution run through the machine.

6. Rinse everything out by running 8 cups of cold fresh water through your machine at least 4 times.

French Press or Plunger

The French Press brewer is a snap to clean. Simply remove the plunger and empty the spent coffee into a rubbish bin. Use soapy water to clean the plunger and the glass jug. Make sure all parts are rinsed well (ensure no soapy residue remains). Then allow all the components to air dry.

Espresso Machines

To clean an Espresso machine just follow these steps:

1. Remove the group handle from the espresso machine and empty the coffee puck into a rubbish bin. Rinse the group handle with warm water.

2. Pour your chosen cleaning solution into the filter basket in the group handle. With your espresso machine ready to brew, put the group handle in the espresso machine just like you were going to brew some coffee.

3. With a bowl under the group handle, start the machine and begin pulling the 'shots'.

4. Leave the machine on for about five seconds. Then stop for ten seconds, then on again for five seconds. Repeat this process another six times.

5. Now remove the group handle from the machine and rinse with warm water.

6. Turn your machine on without the group handle in. This will fully rinse the group itself.

7. Now using the brush for your espresso machine, clean any residue from under the brewing group. Once complete, turn it on to give the group head another rinse.

Moka Pots

To clean a Moka pot is easy to clean. Just dismantle the Moka pot and rinse in warm water. Do not put the Moka pot in the dishwasher as it will discolor the pot.

So there you have it, the cleaning methods for the four brewing styles that are explored in our coffee brewing styles article.

Once you have your brewing style right and you now know how to care for your brewer, why not start to experiment with new coffee recipes.

The Java Cafe

The Original Irish Coffee

2008-05-10T04:52:00.001-07:00

There are a number of Irish Coffee recipes available on the web and elsewhere. Most of them are close to the original, but I have yet to see one that is truly authentic.

What makes me such an expert? A branch of my family invented this wonderful mix of black coffee, Irish whiskey and cream which was always intended to resemble a glass of Guinness.

It was created by my distant relative Joe Sheridan in the earlier part of the last century while he was employed as a steward at Shannon Airport, Ireland.

He would have been an uncle some four times removed.

These days there are special glasses made for serving it, and there is even a commercial version called Sheridan's which I like to think was named in his honour.

This is the original, traditional, mix as passed on to me through my part of the family:

Put one teaspoon of demerara sugar in the bottom of a stemmed glass that is large enough to hold a cup of coffee.

Add a measure of Irish whiskey, which could be Paddy, Bushmills or Jamesons. The original is believed to have been Paddy from the County Cork distillery.

Pour in one cup of hot coffee, over the back of a spoon to avoid ending up with a cracked glass, and stir.

Now cool the spoon (or use a fresh one) and pour enough very cold double (heavy) cream over the back of it to come to the top of the glass. Do this carefully and you will have crystal clear coffee topped with ice cool cream.

Do not whip the cream, simply stir it a little, or shake the carton before opening, to ensure it pours evenly.

The effect will be just as if you had Guinness in your glass. Serve it with pride, it has a long and honorable tradition behind it.

Michael Sheridan is an acknowledged authority and published writer on cooking matters. His website at http://thecoolcook.com contains a wealth of information, hints, tips and recipes for busy home cooks.

Coffee and Depression: Coffee as an Antidepressant?

2008-05-09T18:43:00.001-07:00

When you grab that morning cup of java, youre probably not thinking of it as an antidepressant. Youre just trying to get that morning pick me up to get your day going.

However, recent studies have shown that java really does function as an antidepressant, raising the spirits of people who regularly drink the stuff. It acts on the central nervous system and has mild antidepressant effects.

Coffee and depression studies have found that drinking coffee reduced the rate of suicide in the large demographic populations observed.

The first coffee and depression study that raised the topic of java as an antidepressant was done in 1993. In this study, a Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program study of 128,934 nurses found that java drinkers were significantly less likely to commit suicide than nondrinkers.

This Nurses Health Study on coffee and depression did not go so far as to establish a causal relationship between java drinking and the drop in the suicide rate. The study stated that it could be that the coffee itself had little to do with it, but that people who drink coffee share other characteristics that make them less likely to commit suicide.

A second study on coffee and depression, however, confirmed these controversial findings and went farther as to state that it was the coffee that dropped the suicide rate. This study was especially noteworthy, as it was large-scale and adjusted for a wide range of other factors.

Published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 1996, the study followed more than 86,000 registered nurses in the United States between 34 and 59 years of age for ten years. Dr. Ichiro Kawachi, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School who led this study, looked at the data from the Kaiser Permanente study hoping to discount their findings.

Instead of what he expected to find, he confirmed the original studys results with his own: using coffee as an antidepressant reduced the suicide rate in these nurses.

Dr. Kawachi discovered that the nurses he studied who drank two to three cups of coffee a day were one-third less likely to commit suicide as those who didn't drink any.

The nurses who drank more than four cups a day were 58% less likely to commit suicide than their colleagues who drank less. The coffee and depression study of female nurses found eleven suicides among those who drank two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day, compared with twenty-one cases of suicide among those who said they almost never drank coffee.

However, Dr. Kawachi and others arent ready yet to use coffee as an antidepressant for clinical depression. At the minimum, Dr. Kawachi says that his study shows that drinking lots of coffee cant be bad for your health.

Psychiatrists point out that people must understand that depression isnt simply a state of mind; it is a very serious medical issue that cannot be resolved simply by drinking coffee.

And cardiologists, while they recommend to their patients with heart and other health problems to steer clear of caffeine, know that its not good for a patients mental health to do so immediately in a cold turkey manner. Instead, they recommend bringing down the coffee consumption gradually in order to avoid a severe state of depression due to the drop in caffeine and other antidepressants in coffee.

Whether it is the caffeine or something else, coffee does seem to have at least a mild antidepressant effect. The caffeine in coffee may have mood-elevating actions through effects on neurotransmitters such as dopamine and acetylcholine.

It is also possible that coffee drinking has social effects, such as increasing personal contacts and time spent socializing, that might reduce thoughts of suicide.

You can find more articles on coffee such as Starbucks Coffee Company, Coffee and Health and Coffee Colonics.