Time isn't on my side in some ways. A few months have passed since I mentioned I was going to save myself some money by buying a coffee maker. Frankly, I just haven't had the the desire to go out and look for one, haggle over the price and be done with it. Since my wife will be joining me in about a week, after more than a year-long separation, I think I'll just wait and let her do the haggling. In the meantime, I'm going to do some virtual shopping to see what the prices should be as opposed to what the vendors want to charge me.

I'm going to start with the Cuisinart models because it's one of the brands I'm most familiar with. Now, when it comes to virtual shopping, time IS on my side since I don't actually have to go anywhere.

The Cuisinart DCC-1150 Coffee Maker

I don't know about other people, but the first thing I look at is the price. Is it within my target price range? If it is, I'll continue to read. If it isn't, I'll move on to something else. My target price range is between $50 and $100 — anything lower is probably too cheaply made and anything higher is probably not worth the extra expense. I found this particular model, the DCC-1150, at Cuisinart's site for $79.95, so it's within my price range. Knowing that prices can vary greatly, I looked around and found the same model selling at other places for as low as $58.99 (a little more than $20 less than the manufacturer's suggested price). If you add the 12 percent VAT tax I have to pay locally, the lower price is still lower than the suggested price.

This particular model has a 10-cup stainless steel thermal carafe, a plus against the humidity and salt air of the Philippines. It comes in either black or white (I prefer black) and has all the features you'd expect from a coffee maker in this price range. One of the coffee maker accessories I can probably do without when it comes to this particular model is the charcoal water filter. I have bottled water brought in weekly, so any decent filter will probably do the trick to get some amazing mugs of coffee. I can probably get the rest of the accessories at the same place I buy the coffee maker.

Regardless of which Cuisinart model I choose, if I choose a Cuisinart model, I know I can find exactly what I'm looking for in terms of price and usability. I've been told by some of the local merchants that I can find that brand, among others, at any of the SM Malls. I hope I don't have to go that far, but with my wife around once again, it's a given that I'll be traveling more often and further from home than I have the desire to do.

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Since the current owners of the Postum trademark aren't showing any interest in bringing Postum back, you may be better off making your own. Some imaginative people have done just that. You'll find two different recipes to make something "like" Postum below, followed by recipes that call for it. In order to make the latter recipes, you will first either need to find a jar of Postum (if available) or make your own using one of the homemade Postum recipes. I found all of these recipes in various places on the net and I really can't tell you where. I supposed I could search for them again but even I found them, would the places I end up be the original sources? All I can say is that I am not the original source of any of this — I just compiled it into a single source.

Homemade Postum Recipe One

Ingredients:

• 1 quart fine ground wheat
• 1 pint coarse ground corn meal
• 1/2 cups molasses or dark syrup

Mix the wheat, corn-meal, and syrup. Rub them in the palms of the hand until it is well mixed. Put it into shallow baking pans and brown in a slow oven until it is a rich dark brown. It must be stirred often for even browning. Don't try to hurry the process or it will burn. When it is done, cool and store in a sealed jar or canister. Use like any cereal coffee. Use 2 tablespoons coffee for each cup and a half of water. It may be boiled or it can be made in an electric coffee-maker.

With hot milk this makes a nice evening drink.

If you can't buy ground wheat, you can sort whole grains of wheat and grind them in your blender. However, take them out before it grinds them into a flour.

Homemade Postum Recipe Two

Ingredients:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
• 4 cups wheat bran
• 2 cups cracked wheat
• 1 cup black strap molasses

The cracked wheat should be ground in a coffee grinder to corn meal consistency. Grind before mixing with molasses so it doesn't gum up the grinder.

Combine all of the above ingredients in a bowl and mix well with your hands. Make sure the grain and bran are well combined and that the molasses is thoroughly mixed into the grain/bran mix. This will take about 5-10 minutes to make sure there are no pockets of molasses and that it looks like dark, very damp sawdust. Spread this mixture on two baking sheets with rims and put it in the oven. Stir mixture every 20 minutes for about 5 hours, or until the mixture is a very deep dark mahogany. Don't try to toast this in a hotter oven because it will burn. This is a recipe that requires patience in order to caramelize the molasses, and not burn it. When you open the oven to stir it you will notice a very slight smokiness during the last hour and a half. This is normal.

Remove the baking sheets from the oven and cool on wire racks stirring occasionally to release heat faster.

To prepare: This is not instant and needs to be brewed the same as coffee, or steeped as you would tea. The ratio is 2 Tablespoons mix per cup of water.

If you need to make this for the Carob Postum Cooler (below), you should make a cup of this mix and put it into a sauce pan and reduce it on high to medium high heat until there are about 2 tablespoons left in the pan. Keep a close eye on it and be ready to put in an ice cube if you reduce it too far. It will bring it back to the amount you need and cool the mix at the same time. Swirl the cube around the pan a couple of times until you have the amount you need.

Carob Postum Cooler

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon carob powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Postum
• 2 tablespoons boiling water
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon dark molasses
• 4 ounces cold vanilla soymilk
• Ice cubes as needed to fill mug

Put the boiling water in the bottom of a large coffee mug. Stir in the carob powder and the Postum. Add the molasses and stir until dissolved. Add the soymilk and ice cubes to fill the mug. Add water if needed. Makes one serving.

Optional: Throw the ice cubes and soy milk in a blender to crush the ice and then mix it all together in a mug.

Dainty Lady Cake

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs, separated
• 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar, divided
• 4 tablespoons of water
• 1 1/2 cups of cake flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt
• 3 tablespoons of Postum
• 1 can of prepared cream cheese frosting

Preparation:

Beat the egg yolks until they're very thick. Add half of the sugar and continue beating until mixed. Add the water and all the dry ingredients that have been sifted together three times. Fold gently. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites combined with the remaining sugar.

Bake the mixture in two greased 9-inch cake pans at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 to 35 minutes. Let it cool completely before frosting the cake with the cream cheese frosting.

Total Time: 1 hour
Makes: 10 slices of cake
Serves: 8-10 people

Russian Black Bread

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
• 1 cup rye flour
• 1 1/2 cups of unbleached white flour
• 1/2 cup of oat bran
• 1 teaspoon of brown rice syrup
• 1 teaspoon pf salt
• 1 teaspoon of Postum
• 1 teaspoon of minced dried onion or 1/2 small raw onion, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa
• 1 tablespoon of vinegar
• 1 cup of water
• 2 tablespoons of caraway seeds

Place all ingredients in a bread machine. Use dough setting. At the end of the dough cycle, remove the dough to a non-stick bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set the dough in a warm, draft-free place to rise until nearly doubled in bulk. This may take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours.

Prepare a baking sheet or loaf pan, sprinkle with cornmeal. Punch down the dough and on a floured board, shape it into either a loaf or dome. Let the bread rise once again until almost doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees F and then lower the oven to 350 degrees F and bake an additional 30 minutes, or until the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.

Healthy Drinking and Healthy Eating

Now that you've read about some healthy drinking recipes (if you consider Postum healthy), you need to take a look at some healthy eating recipes to complement them.

After all, healthy drinking and healthy eating is what this is all about, right?

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A couple of weeks ago, I was having trouble sleeping. I have never had any sleeping disorders to speak of, so I thought that maybe switching to decaffeinated coffee would help me get back to sleeping the way I normally do, like a log.

Like many things in my life, I was wrong. The difference between regular coffee and decaffeinated coffee has had absolutely no effect on my sleep pattern.

Caffeine Fears

As I've previously mentioned, the caffeine in coffee has never had an effect on me. Drinking decaffeinated coffee for the past couple of weeks has proven it to me. I'm still having trouble sleeping, but I think it has a lot more to do with the fact that I have the head cold from hell, picked up from one of my nieces who picked it up at school. Unfortunately, the only way to avoid something like that is to become a hermit (not a bad idea).

You might think the real reason for my switch would be to avoid the caffeine curve. Sorry, but I don't believe that crap for a moment. The real reason is exactly as I stated. I needed to prove to myself that caffeine really doesn't have any effect on me and I did.

The only fear I had when I switched is that I would have caffeine withdrawals (headaches or freaking out) like the coffee withdrawals I had when I was forced to stop drinking coffee (I was deployed and we just didn't have any. I freaked out.). Anyway, I didn't have any withdrawals at all.

Discriminating Taste

Although I don't own a coffee maker, I drink a lot of coffee. It's all instant coffee. Even though both the regular and decaffeinated coffees I've been drinking are both instant, they are of the same brand. I can tell the difference in the taste. The decaffeinated version doesn't taste as good as the regular. With me and coffee, it's all about the taste, not the caffeine.

I like brewed coffee so much more than instant and I plan to buy a coffee maker of some kind in the near future. I have no idea what kind I'll be able to find here in the Philippines, so I may have to get one shipped in. In the meantime, and when I go grocery shopping again, I'll be buying regular instant coffee.

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If Kona coffee isn't considered a gourmet coffee, it should be. An arabica variety of coffee, it has a rich, full taste sought after by coffee connoisseurs like myself. I once spotted a bag of Kona coffee at the Royal Subic store, Subic Bay Freeport Zone (adjacent to Olongapo City, Philippines) and I wanted to buy it, but it was just too expensive for my budget at the time. I haven't seen any there since.

The Kona Coffee Bean Process

A lot of people are unaware that a coffee bean is actually the seed of the fruit from a coffee plant. The very same people that say coffee isn't healthy will go on an on about eating more fruit to stay healthy. Coffee is a fruit! Specifically, it's part of a berry, a form of fruit.

I watched something on TV once about the Kona coffee bean selection process and how they dry them and prepare them for shipping. I think it was either on the Discovery Channel or the History Channel, I can't remember.

I really don't remember the complete process. I do remember that they're sun-dried for a period of time. The Wikipedia article on Kona coffee goes into detail.

Maui Wowi

While I was searching the net for places that sell Kona Coffee, I stumbled across the "Maui Wowi Hawaiian Coffees & Smoothies" blog, which supports their main website, and simply had to laugh out loud.

I hadn't heard "Maui Wowi" since watching "Up in Smoke" back in 1979. In the movie, Tommy Chong described a marijuana joint that was composed of mostly Maui Wowi and some Labrador (a dog ate the marijuana and pooped it out and he and Richard "Cheech" Marin smoked it).

The amazing part of finding that blog is that the store is located not far from where I used to live in Phoenix, Arizona (59th Ave and Peoria in Glendale, to be exact). The next time I'm in Phoenix, I plan to stop by there and get me a cup of something. I didn't see any prices at their website, but their coffee can't be any more expensive than Starbucks or Seattle's Best.

I need a coffee maker!

What good does it do to buy a bag of gourmet coffee like Kona coffee if I don't have a coffee maker to brew it in? Most people here in the Philippines drink instant coffee, like Nescafé, and don't have anything to brew coffee in and I haven't seen a coffee maker in any of the stores.

I guess I'm going to have to go on a search and find mission to get me something like a "Mr. Coffee" coffee maker or something.

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