It seems that all of the coffee drinks in US coffee shops start with espresso as the base. It may not be true for all coffee shops, but it's certainly true for Starbucks and Seattle's Best.

Unlike most people who come and go and pay little attention to anything but what they're doing at the time, I observe everything that goes on around me. I have seen how both of these companies make coffee drinks — I purposely observed every facet from start to finish.

What Exactly is Espresso?

Espresso is sometimes referred to as espresso coffee and it's often mispronounced and misspelled as "expresso". Invented in Italy, as were most coffee beverages, it's a concentrated form of coffee, up to three times as strong as a regular cup of coffee.

You can't make espresso with ordinary automatic drip coffee makers. You need an espresso machine which brews the coffee under extreme pressure. Most people don't have one at home.

When served as espresso, the coffee is normally served in espresso cups of one kind or another. In most coffee shops, they use cheap containers that can be thrown away. Restaurants use fancy cups designed specifically for espresso. The cheapest espresso cup is usually more expensive than expensive coffee mugs.

Observations

I don't normally buy coffee at Starbucks or Seattle's Best (which has been owned by Starbucks since 2003). It's good coffee (at least in the US), but it's just too damned expensive. Of course, I won't buy coffee from fast-food joints either and that's because it usually tastes like they made it with my dirty socks.

On rare occasions, when I really needed my coffee fix, I bought coffee at both Starbucks and Seattle's Best. In March of 2008, while I was picking out books at a Border's bookstore, I succumbed to the smell of the coffee brewing nearby (within the bookstore). The aroma is what caused me to buy coffee at Starbucks on previous occasions.

I always ordered cappuccino. I like cappuccino a whole lot more than the other coffee drinks. Whenever I ordered a regular-sized cup, I noticed they used one shot of espresso. Whenever I ordered a large-sized cup, they used two shots of espresso. No wonder I always got a quick caffeine buzz after drinking the cappuccino (I never really thought about it until now).

Espresso Experience?

Other than being used for the cappuccino I drank, I have never tried espresso as a stand-alone coffee drink. With cappuccino, it's diluted by the added milk. I picture acid reflux coming back to haunt me if I try espresso straight from the cup, therefore I will probably never try it.

I know a few people that only drink espresso. It's not for me. I love the smell and flavor of coffee as it's normally brewed at home. I don't need a caffeine buzz every time I drink coffee, thank you very much.

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It may not be the best automatic drip coffee maker available, but the Mr. Coffee coffee maker was the first brand to hit the market in 1972. In business, you either have to be the first or the best if you want to have guaranteed success. Okay, so you can get away with being second best and still succeed, but it's not guaranteed.

Mr. Coffee and Joe DiMaggio

When the commercials started appearing on television in 1972, Joe DiMaggio was the celebrity spokesman pitching it for the company. Joe DiMaggio was a famous baseball player who played exclusively for the New York Yankees from 1936 to 1951. He died in 1999 at the age of 84, the age my own father is right now. Anyway, automatic drip coffee makers, like Mr. Coffee, suddenly started appearing in kitchens across America.

I don't know if it was the product or Joe that convinced my mother to buy a Mr. Coffee, but she bought one nevertheless. I don't remember exactly when she bought it; I know she bought before we moved to Hawaii in 1974.

Automatic Drip Coffee Makers versus Coffee Percolators

When the automatic drip coffee makers first came out, the coffee didn't taste as good after brewing as it did with percolators. The trouble was that the grind available in most stores was still designed for percolators. After the grind specifically made for automatic drip coffee hit the market, I couldn't tell the difference anymore.

There are some that lament to obsolescence of the percolators, saying they were more "green" than the automatic drip coffee makers are. They cite the paper being used for the filters and water evaporation as being "non-green".

They obviously haven't heard that certain fast-growing trees are being used solely for the paper and yet it's still recyclable. The new trees reach maturity before they're even needed. I don't buy the water evaporation part. A percolator put out as much steam as an automatic drip coffee maker. I only had to put my hand above a spout one time to find that out.

In this day and age, the best coffee makers for home use are automatic drip coffee makers because they're more widely supported by the coffee industry. As with any technology, that may change and something better may come along.

Popular Culture

Unlike other brands, the Mr. Coffee has become a cultural icon. It was parodied as "Mr. Fusion" in the Back to the Future movie trilogy and as "Mr. Radar" and "Mr. Rental" in the Spaceballs movie. The actual coffee maker made cameo appearances in TV shows and other movies, playing itself and has been included in the lyrics to songs and gets referenced in short stories.

I don't know what the Mr. Coffee automatic drip coffee maker did to be such a popular cultural icon. Oh yeah, it was first.

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