This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you make a purchase after clicking on the link, we will receive a small commission at absolutely no extra cost to you.
Coffee, Coffee, Coffee
If you’re a coffee lover like I am, you may not remember your very first cup, but you most likely have fond memories of when you really started to enjoy drinking it.
I was a college freshman at a small university in the Texas panhandle, living my best life with four gorgeous roommates and one beloved guy named Mr. Coffee. Yep. That’s when I started loving the smell, the taste and even the sounds that came from a smallish, inexpensive contraption that lived on our apartment’s kitchen counter.
Whether someone brought Mr. C from home, or whether we all pitched in to buy him, I don’t recall. But once Mr. Coffee claimed his spot, he was there to stay. We could always depend on the guy to be there for us, especially during finals. Kind of like the steady stream of cute guys who always seemed to be propped up on our apartment’s couch. (Sure wish we would have had iPhone cameras back in the day!)
Starbucks Changed Everything
By the time we all got married and started driving carpool, Starbucks had changed everything in the world of coffee. No one really knew what to order at first, but everyone was eager to figure it out. We also predicted that paying $4 for coffee probably would be a passing trend.
Little did we know, right?
On the contrary, coffee has gotten to be a bigger and bigger thang (1,042 Starbucks locations in Texas!), and we’re all so conditioned to sipping specialties that it’s hard to make ourselves be satisfied with that old guy on the counter.
A bunch of my favorite people enjoying a morning mocha at Starbucks in Dallas.
The Cost, Tho
Still. It’s just plain hard to justify the cost of a daily mocha, frap or latte. We all grew up being reminded of the starving kids in Africa, and it’s hard not to think about them when we’re standing inside a beautiful coffee shop ordering large whatevers-with-whip.
Starbucks changed the way the world drinks coffee.
Nespresso, Nespresso, Nespresso
However, one thing has totally revolutionized my coffee-world.
A new guy is in my kitchen. Never fear – he’s approved by the old guy in my bed.
His name is Nespresso. I think he’s Italian.
This is the machine that makes making outrageously good coffee at home as easy as 1-2-3, dear friends.
Instead of a pot of heated water dripping through ground coffee beans into a 10-cup carafe, the Nespresso makes it possible to craft one luxurious cup at a time.
Frothing the Milk
The kind of outrageously good coffee that we make at home includes milk that’s been frothed and stays a little foamy in the cup. This Nespresso frother requires absolutely no guesswork. Put in the milk, put on the lid, press a button. Done.
It’s perfect every time.
How to Make Outrageously Good Coffee
Okay, so here’s how to do it.
First, you’ll need buy the espresso machine, the frother, (or a bundle of the two) and the Nespresso coffee pods.
Once we go through the directions, we’ll also discuss a few different cup choices for serving this outrageously good coffee.
1. Fill the plastic tank with distilled water.
2. Place the pod of your choice into the Nespresso machine and allow the magic to begin. If your favorite cup is too big to fit under the spot where the espresso comes out, you can use a one-cup glass measuring cup and then pour it into your own mug.
3. For an outrageously good coffee large enough to fill a 20 oz. Yeti, you can brew two separate pods, or just run the cycle twice with the same pod. That’s what I do. I’m a slow sipper when it comes to outrageously good coffee, so I like using my big Yeti to keep it hot a little longer.
4. While the brewing takes place, pour milk into the frother until it’s slightly under the fill line, put on the lid and press the button. Feel free to experiment with different amounts of whole milk, half-and-half, and chocolate milk. Most high-fat content milk choices work well, but Promised Land is the best-tasting/highest frothing brand I’ve found so far.
5. Pour the hot espresso into your mug, stir in that warmed frothiness, and go to town. Sip away. Close your eyes. Say mmmmmmmm. Or ahhhhhhhh.
Enjoy.
This is outrageously good coffee, my friends. And, just think. You made it right in your own kitchen in your jammies. At about one-fourth of the cost you’ve been feeling guilty about paying.
My daughter loves drinking her outrageously good coffee in a glass mug.
Cuppa Cup Choices
Really, we could talk cup choices all day. But the fact is, outrageously good coffee is especially special in a favorite mug.
Here’s mine. Like American Express – I don’t leave home without it. My Grammie-Yeti has been on lots of intentional adventures, for sure.
And the coffee contraptions? Same.
I’m telling you, we have grown so accustomed (spoiled) to this outrageously good coffee that we have even taken the equipment with us (twice) out of town.
Our romantic weekend in the backwoods of East Texas started off with coffee just like we like it.
Now that it’s feeling more like fall, I might also consider adding one of these fun mugs to my morning menagerie.
Thanks to Mr. Coffee
If it hadn’t been for Mr. Coffee, I wouldn’t be enjoying all this outrageously good coffee, so I do want to give honor where it’s due.
So, thank you, Mr. Vincent Marotta, whose invention totally changed the world and helped turn you and me into the outrageously good coffee lovers we are today.
Vincent Marotta and Joe DiMaggio, the face of Mr. Coffee, in 1979.
What’s Your Coffee Story?
Did you start drinking coffee in college like I did? Maybe your love of the brew began even earlier, at Grandma’s house?
Feel free to drop a few lines of your own coffee story in the comments below.
Encouraging a life filled with everyday intentional adventure, starting with a smooth and creamy cup of outrageously good coffee,
