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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There's one thing about coffee that doesn't sit well with people who don't make a lot of money. It's expensive. It's always going to be expensive. My wife told me about how she had rice coffee when she was young because her family was too poor to buy coffee. So I knew about rice coffee, but I didn't know there was also a corn coffee.

It's Not Coffee

I don't know why people insist on calling it rice coffee or corn coffee. Unlike teas that are called teas even when they're not make from tea plant, rice and corn coffee aren't even brewed like coffee.

Perhaps it's due to the way it looks as opposed to how it's made. Both rice coffee and corn coffee is as dark as black coffee after the ingredients are boiled. My wife swears the rice coffee tastes like regular coffee. I don't think so, but I can't argue the point since I've never tasted it.

Making Rice Coffee

My wife said all they did to make rice coffee was to take raw, white rice and roast it in a skillet until it was almost burnt. Then they would add it to water and boil it. After they poured the liquid into cups, they would discard the rice sediment at the bottom of the pot.

I read somewhere else that the rice was to be ground (with a mortar and pestle) before boiling, but my wife said it wasn't necessary.

Making Corn Coffee

I haven't read a description of how corn coffee is made, but it's supposed to taste like coffee too. From what I've read, though, Native Americans in the US and Canada were drinking corn coffee more than a century ago.

I'm not even going to consider it. It probably tastes worse than Postum did.

No Coffee Means No Coffee

My wife said she'd make rice coffee when she gets back to the Philippines, just so that I can taste it for myself. I'm sorry, but coffee is coffee and there isn't a substitute for me. If I can't get the real stuff then I don't want any kind of "make believe" coffee. I'd rather do without coffee than to try to fool my taste buds and my stomach into believing that something else could be just as good as real coffee.

(Image source: Corn Coffee at Pinoy Food & Other Cuisine :: Food PhotoBlog and Events)

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I don't hide the fact that Nescafé Classic is my favorite instant coffee product. I buy two or three jars of it every month (except this month because it was out of stock). A couple of months ago, I noticed an advertisement on one of the jars I'd purchased. It didn't say a whole lot — the new product mentioned wasn't on the shelves yet.

Nescafé Protect

The new product is called "Nescafé Protect". I must not have paid attention to the label I looked at, at the time, because I only remember the "body partner" phrase. Since the store (Royal Subic) was out of Nescafé Classic, I ended up getting two jars of Nescafé Gold and one jar of Nescafé Protect. The jar of Nescafé Protect was half the size of the Nescafé Gold (in milliliters). I bought it simply to give it my exclusive (ha!) taste test, being the coffee fanatic that I am.

Nescafé Protect combines green coffee beans with regular coffee beans and is purported to have three times the amount of antioxidants as green tea. I don't really like green tea (I prefer black), so I can't say anything about that. According to their promotional material, regular coffee has twice the amount of antioxidants as green tea while Nescafé Protect has three times the amount. Would I be any healthier by switching to Nescafé Protect as my regular coffee choice? I don't know and I don't care.

The Nescafé Protect Taste Test

According to the promotional information, Nescafé Protect tastes like high quality regular coffee, making a smooth, mild and balanced cup with a fruity note. I didn't detect the fruity note, thankfully, because I don't like the flavor of fruit with either my coffee or my tea. On a side note, I always buy unsweetened Nestea (not the decaffeinated evil twin) as my instant tea product. I couldn't even find tea bags in the store this time (out of stock as well).

Does the taste warrant a switch? No. In fact, I like the taste of Nescafé Classic better. I have yet to taste the Nescafé Gold that I bought, but I suspect it will taste almost exactly like Nescafé Classic.

All Things Nestlé

I may sound like the poster child for the Nestlé Corporation based in the US, but I'm really not. It's just that Nestlé makes so many products used by consumers around the world. The Nestlé Corporation has subsidiaries in several countries, including the Philippines and Switzerland. The Nescafé coffees that I buy are manufactured by Nestlé Philippines while the Nestea jars that I buy say Nestlé Switzerland.

Nestlé makes other products you may be familiar with, but may not readily associate with them. In fact the old "Qwik" was change to "Nesquik" in order to emphasize the Nestlé brand. Heck, even the rabbit got a makeover.

Chances are, if you do the grocery shopping on a regular basis, you'll spot Nestlé products all over the place. I'm not even talking about the coffee and tea products. You can see breakfast cereals, dairy products, ice cream and a whole lot more.

It's no wonder I have a bunch of Nestlé products in my house. The products are everywhere.

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Out of nothing more than curiosity, I decided to search for both "Christmas Coffee" and "Christmas Tea". I was astounded by number of results; more than 7 million for "Christmas Coffee" and more than a million for "Christmas Tea". I never would have thought about either had I not been thinking about getting a late-night cup of coffee and that's it's nearly Christmas day (within the hour).

Christmas Coffee Recipes

No, I'm not going to repeat the recipes I saw. You can see some hot Christmas coffee recipes for yourself. As I examined the recipes, I realized I would never be able to use any of them here in the Philippines without alteration.

Some ingredients I probably wouldn't be able to find: Apple-flavored syrup, cinnamon-flavored syrup, and Sterling Moon coffee (I've never even heard of it). Of the ingredients I probably could find, they wouldn't be exactly the same as the recipes called for. It's kind of irritating to know this without going into any of the local markets. I could probably find most of exact ingredients in Manila, but I'm not taking a trip like that for something like this. I value what's left of my hair.

[Update: I found some spiked coffee recipes that I think I'm going to try by replacing ingredients I can't get with something else.]

Christmas Tea Recipes

I actually found some Christmas tea recipes, but I couldn't read them without feeling ill. The recipes called for cinnamon sticks, cloves, juices, wine and fruit. I can only take my tea with a little sugar and that's about it. I don't like it real sweet when it's iced tea and I don't like any sugar at all in hot tea.

So, what I'm finding are either recipes or specialty gift items. Maybe I shouldn't have wasted my time. I like my coffee hot and black, with a little sugar when it's strong and without sugar when it's weak and as I just said, I like my tea pretty much the same way.

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