Metro Manila Community Quarantine - Day 151
Today the new combination grinder and coffee maker arrived after I had ordered it during Lazada's 8/8 sale. Our existing Krups coffee maker still technically works, however it has started to experience different complications. First, the coffee maker wouldn't consistently turn on when I'd switch it to the on position. And now it's permanently stuck in the "ON" position, where the only way to turn it off is to unplug it. And while we normally do unplug our appliances when not in use, it's still a cause for concern. But it's also a coffeemaker that has been with us pretty much for as long as we've been living together, so maybe it was time for a change.
I've been looking for a combination coffee grinder and coffee maker on and off for years but have generally held back due to cost. Most machines of this nature tend to cust upwards of PHP 12k, which is kind of a crazy amount to spend on a coffee maker. The higher-end automatic espresso machines are even worse with the really notable brands costing around PHP 100k a unit.
Enter this cute little Hanabishi machine. It got a fair amount of press for some reason, I guess for its novelty and more importantly, it's highly affordable price tag of well below PHP 4k. It only has a 3-4 cup capacity (versus the 10 cup capacity of our Krups machine), but given its price and the coffee grinding capability, it's a pretty good deal.
Funnily enough, we had a bit of a panic when I had finally gotten the new machine set up. Despite having read the manual, I initially had trouble getting it working. I thought it was a voltage problem since it stated it's rated for 230V while standard outlets are 220V because it would only light up upon me plugging it in but would not respond after that. After frantic testing at multiple power outlets and already getting in queue to speak to the service center, Tobie pointed out that the whole time I had been pressing the wrong button to turn it on. Sure, the button layout was counter-intuitive since it was the right-most button instead of the left-most, but that wasn't an excuse. Thankfully Tobie figured it out before I had gone full customer service attack mode with the phone rep.
The end result though was some pretty good coffee! The recommended amount of beans versus water may have been a bit high and I'll still run experiments on different coffee-to-water ratios, but on the whole, it was a great experience. It was distinctly stronger-tasting, which I give credit to the freshly ground nature of the beans as it's the same coffee that we've been drinking with the other coffee maker. The only less than ideal part is clean-up as the basket for the grounds is also the grinding chamber, so you need to empty the whole thing out carefully as you clean it. But that's not too big of an issue.
Also, Tobie and I finally started a proper Baduy Pride vlog! You'll get updates when we're live if we're friends on Facebook or if you're subscribed to my YouTube channel.
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