Maximum Bob

I’ve got two pieces of news for coffee gadget fans.

First of all, I’ve by now actually tried the Melitta roll-your-own coffee pod filters. These do of course defeat the object of the Senseo pod system, which is designed to consistently make a decent cup of coffee with the minimum of fuss and mess. Start trying to fill your own pods, and you immediately start spreading ground coffee all over the place. On the other hand, you can (a) cut down costs considerably by filling your own pods and (b) use varieties of coffee you can’t find in Senseo pod form (Illy).

I’ve tried so far with Sainsbury’s own-brand espresso blend coffee. I’ve got some Illy beans in an unopened tin, but I can’t be bothered to grind them. (It’s a bit of a grind.) The verdict? If you put the right amount of coffee in (the pod is almost too full to close properly), it works. But if you underfill, you get a watery brew.

The second bit of news comes via BoingBoing, which is one of those Überblogs that moves so fast that the link to this particular item came and went and disappeared from the front page of BoingBoing quite rapidly. Still, this item made me sit up and take notice: the Handpresso, which is a manual pump system that allows you to make a cup of espresso in the field. Of course, you either need a Thermos of hot water or a camping stove and kettle, but what you don’t need is electricity. I really like the look of it (looks beautifully made), but at €99, plus extra for accessories, it’s a but steep.