An old saying...

Is this dust on this blog? ;-) Never mind.

An old kiwi saying says that if the customer cannot come to Revel cafe, Revel cafe has to come to its customer. In our case this meant that we bought ourselves a proper espresso machine. It was the result of long and tedious discussions, about, well, I have to give you a little bit more background to make you aware of how complicated the whole process was.

It starts, like so many good stories, with a Swiss company. Nestle. Yes, its Swiss. Very much indeed. And its reputation is not the best. As is often the case with companies that have grown to the size of an average country on this planet. Lately, Nestle came up with an ingenious coffee system, aptly named Nespresso, which is simple and addictive: you buy their machine, you buy their coffee capsules, you stick to them forever. For two reasons: the coffee is extremely good and no other capsule fits in your machine. End of story. One capsule (i.e. one cup of coffee) costs about 60 cent.That's quite something. Plus, the capsules are made of thick aluminium, and although Nestle promises that they recycle them completely, that doesn't make it much better. Do you have any idea how much energy it takes to recycle aluminium? Here you go. By the way, if one replaces the word "coffee" with "mp3", "machine" with "iPod" and "Nestle" with "Apple", you get a similar story. Anyway. Back to what I wanted to tell you. We were seriously considering buying something to prepare ourselves a proper coffee. But what? Mama said "Nespresso" (she loves her machine, especially the fact that you have to push a single button to get a delicious latte macchiato (and I assure you, it is divine). The other Mama said "A fully automatic machine, which grinds your beans freshly". And right she is as well. Although more expensive in the beginning, the running costs are low and the coffee great.

This was followed by long searches on the internet and in-depth discussions with people that turned into fanatical coffee afficionados as soon as you asked them about their opinion. Interestingly, everybody sweared that his/her system is the perfect solution. Which should proof that they are all ok and that whatever you buy, you will be happy. Interestingly, it had the opposite effect: we became extremely unsure and picky.

It all ended with a visit of my brother who told us that there is only one real solution: a semi-automaic espresso machine. You fill it either with ground coffee or with pads (which are considerably cheaper than the Nespresso capsules and about equally simple to handle) and you get the real feeling. You stay independent. You treat not only your taste buds but also your soul and and and. But, and here my brother held up his index finger and became very serious, but, it must be heavy. So heavy that you can fit in the portafilter without moving the machine. Or you srew the whole damn thing onto the kitchen table. Which, funnily enough, is never considered as an option. And so there it is, the Solis Espresso Design Pro (what a cheesy name!), full metal body, a whopping 12 kg (that's what they told us, seems lighter thought) and a coffee to die for. Revel cafe just entered through the door. The Flat White is back. Thank goodness!