The Best Home Espresso Machines For Sale Right Now

De CidesaWiki

Andrew Hoyle/CNET Further down the road, I passed this tiny cottage. By climbing up a small hill nearby, I captured not only the cottage, but also the car as it faced the road curving away into the distance. The foreboding clouds certainly lend a sense drama and atmosphere that was absent on the first day when I had empty blue skies. 

Whenever possible, I brew double shots of espresso for all my test runs. I make sure to record the weight of the grounds I use, plus the weight of espresso for each shot I pull. This data, along with readings from a portable refractometer, allows me to calculate two important percentages: TDS (total dissolved solids) and extraction percentage.

Chris Monroe/CNET Oxo Cold Brew Coffee Maker
A breeze to operate, the $49 Oxo Good Grips Cold Brew Coffee Maker offers an easy way to steep and strain grounds at room temperature. The cold brew the Oxo Good Grips makes is consistently strong, sweet and with deliciously low acidity. To add an additional layer of filtration, Oxo Good Grips bundles paper filters that can aid the brewer's stainless-steel mesh reusable filter. If you want to make hot tea, the Good Grips can also be used as a tea infuser.

To pull shots, I start with the suggested method outlined in a given machine's product manual. Usually that covers the amount of coffee grounds expected per shot, along with any guidelines regarding coarseness level. Likewise, I follow tamping instructions (light, medium or hard tamp) if the manual provides them.

These shots I pulled were balanced though, with an extraction of 18.6%. The test beans I use are the same variety I employ for standard coffee makers -- Costco Kirkland Colombian. It's a medium dark roast, suitable for brewing espresso as well.    

Tyler Lizenby/CNET Takeya Cold Brew Coffee Maker
Outside of an old-school Mason jar, it's hard to beat the low $25 price of this Takeya cold coffee brewer. The BPA free dishwasher safe plastic pitcher comes with an airtight seal and has a slim profile made to slide into fridge door shelves. With its fine mesh reusable filter, It's also easy to clean and makes solidly satisfying cold brew. If you want strong, concentrated coffee though, the Takeya Cold Brew isn't your cup of tea. It brews a weaker drink than other similar products. 

Getty Images It turns out that the reported effects of hard water on your skin are backed up by science. The specific minerals in hard water make it hard for soaps and shampoos to lather and do their  job, so that icky feeling on your skin might actually be that it's not getting quite as clean. 

This shot was taken halfway into my climb up Stac Pollaidh using the iPhone's panorama mode. Despite using the 2x telephoto mode for a closer look on the mountains and lochs, I still captured a wide scene. 

$44 at Mahaton on Kickstarter Which self-cleaning water bottle is best? 
Truthfully, all three of these water bottles did a great job at keeping themselves clean. After three days of constant refills and no hand-washing, none of these bottles smelled musty or had any sort of film on the inside, two things my normal stainless steel bottle often produces.

Espro Press P5
One tried-and-true cold brew method for making cold brew is to use a French press, with the coffee steeping overnight. One drawback to these simple contraptions though is they tend to have poor filters. The result is often a gritty drink -- solid coffee grounds suspended in a liquid solution, especially if you don't have a coarse grind for your beans. The $60 Espro Press P5 tackles the gritty coffee grounds problem by using two stainless steel mesh filter baskets. The extra level of filtration helps the P5 create cold brew (or hot) that's wonderfully smooth and flavorful. However, the beverage the Espro brews isn't as concentrated as what other products make. Another detractor is the Espro's price. It costs twice as much as an ordinary French press. 

What to look for in a self-cleaning water bottle
You should consider five important factors when choosing a UV-powered water bottle like these: Purification, taste, design, ease of use, capacity and battery life. If you decide to purchase a self-cleaning water bottle, you'll want one that kills as many microbes as possible, produces a good taste, is easy to hold and transport, and lasts for a decent period of time on one charge. 

Although it's technically safe for consumption, you can easily find plenty of people who say that hard water wrecks their skin and hair, and that buying a shower filter alleviated acne, frizzy hair and even eye irritation. Even more people say that a shower filter helped with itchy and dull skin, and flaky scalps.

Brita's smart pitcher is $20 more than an identical Brita pitcher with no smarts to speak of, so the question here is whether or not that Amazon Dash integration is worth the extra 20 bucks. In theory, it's a useful bit of automation -- especially if you already buy replacement filters on the regular. In practice, it isn't all that precise, and more than anything seems designed to get people to buy new filters more often than they would out of habit alone. It certainly isn't something that anyone needs, but it might make a decent gift for a friend who's picky about filtered water.