Gear reviews on this blog normally involve boat related gear but I have to give a shout out to our 6 year old All-Clad manual espresso machine. No corrosion, no breakage, no reduction in quality – it just keeps working. Not only for our coffees but for those we make for friends in what we have affectionately been calling “Café Estrellita”.
We really enjoy having people over impromptu, in the middle of the day and it is nice to have something fancy, non alcoholic and relatively inexpensive to offer people who come aboard. With a stash of raw sugar and some UHT milk in a small glass jar, it is a small social production, a fragrant ritual that for this former Western Washingtonian, feels like home turf.
While buddy boating with some of our favorite people it got to the point where we would go on our shared VHF channel and simply say “Café Estrellita is open” and soon enough people would start stopping by. We even started keeping a stash of decaf for one friend who would come over with his own soy milk. If you don’t use it daily it would probably be annoying to store but we are happy to make room for it.
There are many pieces of actual boat gear aboard that I love, and a lot of toys as well, but if I had to go with my favorite piece of “home” it would be a tie between our thick memory foam mattress and this fancy but reliable piece of kitchen gear*.
*We paid about $100 which as coffee addicted working people felt reasonable. Unfortunately, it appears not to be manufactured anymore by All-Clad and the replacement mark is $178!
We really enjoy having people over impromptu, in the middle of the day and it is nice to have something fancy, non alcoholic and relatively inexpensive to offer people who come aboard. With a stash of raw sugar and some UHT milk in a small glass jar, it is a small social production, a fragrant ritual that for this former Western Washingtonian, feels like home turf.While buddy boating with some of our favorite people it got to the point where we would go on our shared VHF channel and simply say “Café Estrellita is open” and soon enough people would start stopping by. We even started keeping a stash of decaf for one friend who would come over with his own soy milk. If you don’t use it daily it would probably be annoying to store but we are happy to make room for it.
There are many pieces of actual boat gear aboard that I love, and a lot of toys as well, but if I had to go with my favorite piece of “home” it would be a tie between our thick memory foam mattress and this fancy but reliable piece of kitchen gear*.
*We paid about $100 which as coffee addicted working people felt reasonable. Unfortunately, it appears not to be manufactured anymore by All-Clad and the replacement mark is $178!
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