New Coffee machine

[Oldddudders]

I recall that when we were building the skool model railway (OO gauge) in the early '60s, we used used coffee grounds as ballast. 

[Hroth]

53 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

I recall that when we were building the skool model railway (OO gauge) in the early '60s, we used used coffee grounds as ballast. 

 

Not coffee, but dried tealeaves from teabags make excellent rough ground cover for model railways, etc too.

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

17 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

By far the best milk for puddings. Drinking it is an acquired taste, unless of course you were brought up in Birmingham, in which case you were probably weaned on it. An opened bottle would stay useable for several days if kept in a bucket of cold water in the corner of the cabin away from the fire.

 

When I lived in Birmingham it was in a brick built house, how old are you?!!

 

Mike.

[Free At Last]

15 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

When I lived in Birmingham it was in a brick built house, how old are you?!!

 

Mike.

Brick!!! You were lucky... our 'ouse was a cardboard box.

[bradfordbuffer]

Just now, Free At Last said:

Brick!!! You were lucky... our 'ouse was a cardboard box.

Carbord box.....you where lucky....I lived in....

[newbryford]

4 minutes ago, bradfordbuffer said:

Carbord box.....you where lucky....I lived in....

 

You stole a house.......

[Tumut]

On 04/02/2023 at 06:28, Danemouth said:

 

A friend of mine is Italian - I won't let him make me coffee, I always ask for tea.

 

You could stand a spoon up in his coffee, only drank it once and ended up with an upset stomach 😒

 

Never have been a coffee lover.

 

Dave

 

Hello Danemouth and others, my late Mum went to the Mothers Committee for Cubs, which was usually held at Mrs Stewart's home, and Mum reckoned Mrs Stewart's tea was so strong that a spoon would stand up in it,  as it came out black, and even with the cup watered down to 90% it was still strong, and required some sugar to ease the bitterness, and Mum otherwise never had sugar in tea ! Personally a fan of Twinning's Lady Grey, preferably tea leaves, but currently stuck with tea bags 😧, and the fine print says packaged in Poland ! Regards from Australia.

[Tumut]

18 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

By far the best milk for puddings. Drinking it is an acquired taste, unless of course you were brought up in Birmingham, in which case you were probably weaned on it. An opened bottle would stay useable for several days if kept in a bucket of cold water in the corner of the cabin away from the fire.

 

Hello All, the mind boggles ! 

[Hroth]

23 minutes ago, Tumut said:

 

Hello All, the mind boggles ! 

 

Sterri was designed for communities where refrigeration was not an option.  A white milk-like appearance was the main design aim. Taste was of secondary importance...

 

[Tumut]

Hello All, 1 / we alternate between a plunger ( aka press coffee ), a dripolator, an Expresso machine, an Italian stovetop pressure coffee maker, or a percolator; and despite using the same coffee, for some reason all taste differently ! We tend to alternate between Lavazza, Vittorio, and Aldi, all of which are pre cut, though occasionally beans are used, due to having an electric grinder. The used coffee granules end up in the pot plants, none have died yet, so everyone is happy !

2 / my late father used take me to the flicks ( cinema ) and afterwards we would go to Quist's Danish Coffee House in Little Collins St, Melbourne, a lovely treat. Melbourne is still home to Pellegrini's on Bourke St, probably the most famous Italian coffee house in Melbourne, though nearby Carlton ( 'carn the Blues ) has a great collection of Italian coffee and food houses. 3 / the post WW2 Australia of my childhood were great tea drinkers, Griffiths, Liptons, Lan Choo, Tuckfields, and coffee beans were a specialty coffee house item. Grocery stores ( remember 4 Square, Nancarrows, Moran&Cato ) sold tea and chicory coffee syrup ( yuk ) , then came Nescafe Instant, and much later International Roast Instant ( also yuk ). Nowadays the supermarkets are long shelves of coffees, a short shelf of tea bags ( wot, no tea leaves ? 'fraid not ), and Melbourne has become the coffee capital of Australia ( and we saw of Starbucks first ! ). Apparently, Australian Coffee Houses ( run by Australians ) are all the rage in New York, USA, who'd have thought ? Enjoy your coffee, Regards from Oz

[PhilH]

The making of the cappuccino or latte is a bit of a calming ritual here because it takes a minute or two.  None of that encapsulated stuff….first grind coffee beans in the burr grinder. Then make however many shots of expresso you fancy in it, strong, not so strong, you choose. Then heat and froth the milk to preferred temperature, mix, with expresso, sit back, enjoy.

 

Just talked myself into another one…

Edited February 6, 2023 by PhilH

[woodenhead]

3 minutes ago, PhilH said:

The making of the cappuccino or latte is a bit of a calming ritual here because it takes a minute or two.  None of that encapsulated stuff….first grind coffee beans in the burr grinder. Then make however many shots of expresso you fancy in it, strong, not so strong, you choose. Then heat and froth the milk to preferred temperature, mix, with expresso, sit back, enjoy.

 

Just talked myself into another one…

I pay my barista to do that, £3.35 a drink...

[Danemouth]

32 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Sterri was designed for communities where refrigeration was not an option.  A white milk-like appearance was the main design aim. Taste was of secondary importance...

 

 

Sterri unlike other milk was the only milk bottle that had a crown cap, which needed a bottlle opener.

 

Dave

[Tumut]

11 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Sterri was designed for communities where refrigeration was not an option.  A white milk-like appearance was the main design aim. Taste was of secondary importance...

 

 

Hello Hroth and others,  1 / I was unaware of this, though it does make sense , even if the taste was lacking. 2 / We had an icebox, and the iceman used to carry a block in, and place it in the top compartment in the icebox for Mum, though at some point we were told that the ice run would be soon discontinued due to falling demand as people bought 'fridges. So   Dad bought a Frigidaire ( made by General Motors Holden ) which lasted 10 years, and was privately sold as Mum bought a larger 'fridge, this time a Kelvinator, which lasted for at least15 years. Many years later I went to  a workmates home, and lo and behold, a Frigidaire just like Mum's in the back garage, by which time it must have been 30+years old, and still humming along nicely, and it was his Mum's originally ! 3 / We used to have milk delivered, by horse and cart, none of those new fangled electric milk floats here, and once a fortnight a little elderly ( at least to an 8 year old ) dapper man with grey hair, short back and sides, RSL badge in his lapel, dark blue pin striped suit with matching waistcoat ( vest ), circular horn rimmed glasses ( NHS glasses in England ? ) , softly spoken, would write out the Invoice in a beautiful handwritten copperplate, same for the receipt.( He always reminded me of characters in B&W movies on the TV. ) Amazing what memories some discussions can conjure, Regards from Australia.

[Danemouth]

Talking of fridges my parents first fridge in 1959 ran on gas and lasted ten years. The second fridge was also gas, bought using my Wales Gas staff discount but was got rid of after natural gas conversion. - once converted there was a faint black mark up the wall from its flue.

 

Dave

[SM42]

We are currently runnig a Delonghi machine which uses ground coffee and has a milk frother.

 

A small machine but adequate for our needs.  Even though it can make two cups at once, Mrs SM42 just does one at a time.

 

Mrs SM42 tends to be quite hard on such machinery and we have had 4 over the last 15 years, so not too bad. Being in a hard water area doesn't help. Most of our machines have been Delonghi

 

We prefer this type of machine to pod type machines as we think you get more choice in coffee .

 

As we regularly travel to Poland we tend to buy our coffee on the way at a Dutch motorway service station of all places. Works out about half the price of buying in the UK. but I suppose it is just up the road from the factory.

If we do buy here, it tends to be when there is an offer on.

 

All this reminds me that at some point I am expected to carry out a descaling of said machine, although the warning light for such an activity hasn't lit up yet.

 

I also find the ultrasonic cleaner is good for the periodic cleaning of all the other bits that get clogged with coffee grounds over time.

 

 

As for sterlised milk, I dont think I had pastuerised in  tea till I was about 18,  that was for your cornflakes. Sterilised was for dumping in tea.

 

 

Andy

 

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

36 minutes ago, Danemouth said:

Talking of fridges my parents first fridge in 1959 ran on gas and lasted ten years. The second fridge was also gas, bought using my Wales Gas staff discount but was got rid of after natural gas conversion. - once converted there was a faint black mark up the wall from its flue.

 

Dave

 

Baffle not set correctly.

There was even a fridge freezer powered by gas in the latter days of them, any fault above basics was a new set of innards done by sliding the outer case off!

 

Mike.

[TheSignalEngineer]

59 minutes ago, Danemouth said:

 

Sterri unlike other milk was the only milk bottle that had a crown cap, which needed a bottlle opener.

 

Dave

Nah! I could open one using the catch handle on a Midland Tumbler or LMS lever frame.

[TheSignalEngineer]

2 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

When I lived in Birmingham it was in a brick built house, how old are you?!!

 

Mike.

The bucket cold storage was in Charlie's Cabin at Curzon Street, which I later modelled for the shunters cabin on Black Country Blues. In those days a mess room with a cooker and fridge was a distant mirage for most railwaymen. A single gas light, gas ring and coal fired oven for hot food.

[bradfordbuffer]

3 hours ago, PhilH said:

The making of the cappuccino or latte is a bit of a calming ritual here because it takes a minute or two.  None of that encapsulated stuff….first grind coffee beans in the burr grinder. Then make however many shots of expresso you fancy in it, strong, not so strong, you choose. Then heat and froth the milk to preferred temperature, mix, with expresso, sit back, enjoy.

 

Just talked myself into another one…

For them who like a bit of coffee exotica! Ohhhh the grind....I make my coffee like my love making....pop in a pod.... leaves bitter taste in the mouth....and loads of clean up!

 

[Hroth]

3 hours ago, Danemouth said:

 

Sterri unlike other milk was the only milk bottle that had a crown cap, which needed a bottlle opener.

 

Dave

 

We had relatives in London that we visited when I was very young.  I only rmember two things clearly, they had a TV that had a remote control, connected to the box by a couple of yards of cable, thick stuff at that!  The other thing was they had "milk" that came out of a bottle that had a red crown cap.

 

For years I convinced myself that I'd imagined it. As far as I knew, milk only came in bottles with gold or silver foil caps....

[bradfordbuffer]

24 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

We had relatives in London that we visited when I was very young.  I only rmember two things clearly, they had a TV that had a remote control, connected to the box by a couple of yards of cable, thick stuff at that!  The other thing was they had "milk" that came out of a bottle that had a red crown cap.

 

For years I convinced myself that I'd imagined it. As far as I knew, milk only came in bottles with gold or silver foil caps....

Narrower neck and slightly taller than proper milk

 

Not my pic

 

 

[bradfordbuffer]

2 minutes ago, bradfordbuffer said:

Narrower neck and slightly taller than proper milk

 

Not my pic

 

 

Slogan on bottle should read....once tasted never forgotten 

[Enterprisingwestern]

3 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

The bucket cold storage was in Charlie's Cabin at Curzon Street, which I later modelled for the shunters cabin on Black Country Blues. In those days a mess room with a cooker and fridge was a distant mirage for most railwaymen. A single gas light, gas ring and coal fired oven for hot food.

 

Luxury!!!

 

Mike.

[big jim]

20 minutes ago, bradfordbuffer said:

Slogan on bottle should read....once tasted never forgotten 

Sterry milk, I can taste it now, ‘Nana Hoye’s milk’ as I used to call it as a kid as she always had it when we visited her in Stoke on Trent from wales, I thought it was the only milk you could get in Stoke!

 

every so often I hanker for a cup of tea with it in, love the taste of it