Gourmet Coffee Bean

Gourmet Coffee Bean is about coffee recipes, iced cappuccino recipes, coffee maker reviews, coffee beans, Starbucks’ coffee recipes, roast coffee beans, best espresso machines, coffee smoothie recipes… All you wanted to find about coffee should go in this Gourmet Coffee Bean site.

Here 2 great Skinny Cook sites about chocolates and smoothies:

• Belgian Chocolate Truffles
• Fruit Smoothie Recipes

If you love the feeling of traveling in your own house, Vietnamese coffee made with an authentic Vietnamese coffee maker can bring you in the mood of being in Vietnam. The coffee takes about 10 minutes to drip through… it’s great if you just want to relax and enjoy some peace and quietness from a slowly dripping coffee.

If you want things fast, make Vietnamese Iced Coffee using a cup of espresso.

Vietnamese Iced Coffee ingredients

• 3 tablespoons dark roast coffee
• 3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
• a few ice cubes

Vietnamese Iced Coffee Preparation

1. Put the sweetened condensed milk in a cup and add ice.
2. Put the dark roast coffee in a Vietnamese coffee press. You don’t need to go all the way to Vietnam to get these stainless steel looking Vietnamese coffee presses. They do sell copy-cat single cup coffee makers in glass-plastic in your decent household shop. (In Malaysia these single cup coffee makers can be found e.g. in the Isetan malls)
3. Add water that just comes off the boil (for half a cup if you don’t want to monitor when your cup will overflow due to the extra ice in your cup.) If you have a real Vietnamese coffee maker, screw to adjust the lid over the coffee until you see bubbles appearing through the water. At this point your coffee starts drips very, very slow in your cup, which for me is still the charm of Vietnamese coffee!
4. When your cup is filled with dripped coffee, give it a stir and drink your Vietnamese iced coffee!

Fast Vietnamese Iced Coffee

You can also make Vietnamese iced coffee with a cup of espresso:

• Put the sweetened condensed milk in a cup,
• add ice and
• poor your cup of espresso over it! 

A simple coffee recipe with the extra sweetness of cardamom! If you really want to drink this Thai coffee like it is served in Thailand, then add much more sugar and cream! I especially like the extra added sweetness of the cardamoms in order to add less sugar and cream…

Thai Iced Coffee Ingredients

• 5 fluid ounce (150 ml) strong coffee (2 teaspoons Nescafe)
• 5 + 1/4th ounce (150 gr) ice-cubes
• 3 cardamom pods with seeds
• 1.5 fluid ounce (45 ml) evaporated milk
• 0.175 ounce (5 gr) (1 full heaped teaspoon) brown sugar

Thai Iced Coffee Preparation

1. With the mortar, open the cardamom pods. Add cardamom with Nescafe or brew a strong cup of coffee. Leave the cardamom at 15 minutes in the coffee and add the sugar: stir until the sugar is diluted.
2. Put ice in a glass, poor over the coffee and add the evaporated milk. (I don’t bother to discard the cardamom)
3. Your Thai iced coffee is ready to serve

Technorati Tags: Iced coffee recipe | Coffee | Thai iced coffee recipe

Why this Saeco Espresso Machine?

I bought this Saeco Espresso Machine : Saeco Namo Deluxe BBS as a present for my parents. My parents have a lot of guests coming over, most of them love coffee, so what better to buy them than:

• an Espresso Machine that makes espresso when a guest arrives: just push a button and "tadaa" : hot Espresso!
• an Espresso Machine that makes 2 cups in 1 go (again you can drink your espresso together with your guest)
• an Espresso Machine that makes both strong and mild coffees

What I love about this Saeco Espresso Machine?

What I like about this Saeco Espresso Machine is :  

• entertaining your visitors to a cup of espresso is fast and effortless, as all the work of putting in coffee, water… is done way beforehand: when suddenly a visitor arrives, all you have to do is start the machine, and a bit later a cup is ready for you AND your visitor. Not like the Delonghi Espresso machine reviewed later, you can easily clean up AFTER your visitors leave. (The Saeco Espresso Machine takes about 4 pints (2 liters) of water and 1 package of un-grinded beans (Coffee bean packet of 8 3/4 ounce - 250 gr)
• the coffee is really hot!
• you can make strong or mild coffee by the turn of 1 button: BBS stands for Saeco Brewing System… The Saeco Brewing System lets you master the flow of the water over the beans: a slow flow for a strong espresso and a fast flow for a normal cup of coffee (or a "cafe lungo" as Saeco calls it)
• machine part is taken out and easily rinsed with hot water

What I "hate" about this Saeco Espresso Machine?

This Saeco Espresso machine does make some noise grinding the coffee beans, due to a very durable long lasting ceramic grinder. And my mother always has to remind my father to be careful with the door, which looks a bit fragile, yet is still working perfectly.

The Saeco Namo Deluxe BBS has a compartment for the coffee grit and tells you when the coffee grit compartment is full…Or it tries to tell you: actually it only counts the amount of cups made and after 12 or 13 cups the compartment is for sure full. Depending on your coffee consuming habits, just remember to empty and clean the coffee grit compartment every 2 or 3 days, and don’t get too upset when the Saeco Namo Deluxe BBS tells you the grit compartment is full and when you open it, actually the grit compartment is not full yet.. Just take
it out and clean it, because once the compartment is really too full, coffee grit will fall in the machine, no matter how carefully you are taking it out.

Another minus of this Saeco Namo Deluxe BBS espresso machine for a big cup coffee drinker like me, who loves his big cup of coffee black, black, black… : this is again an espresso machine, and a big cup doesn’t fit under the Saeco Namo Deluxe BBS. But like I said before: it just takes another press of the button to let the Saeco Namo Deluxe BBS make you another cup of hot, hot, very hot coffee!

Price of this Saeco Espresso Machine?

I purchased this Saeco Espresso Machine in Belgium for 599 Euro, which is about 750 American dollar.

Conclusion Saeco Espresso Machine: Saeco Namo Deluxe BBS

This Saeco Espresso Machine (15 bar) is value for money for a "luxurious" Espresso Machine. It makes 2 hot espressos at once and you have your hands and mind free to entertain guests and visitors when the espressos are made.

This Saeco Espresso Machine is an ideal gift idea if you are family or friends and want to buy a present together for somebody else. In the category of luxurious Espresso machines, this Saeco Espresso Machine is in the low price category and real value for money.

Gourmet coffee bean gathers coffee recipes, iced cappuccino recipes, coffee maker reviews, coffee beans, Starbucks’ coffee recipes, roast coffee beans, best espresso machines, coffee smoothie recipes… All you wanted to know about coffee can go in this Gourmet Coffee Bean