I've been a caffeine addict for years now, which is what happens when you spend any amount of time living in either Seattle or San Francisco (and I've done both in the last decade).
It started out when I was living in Seattle and working at the University of Washington.
You can't swing a towel in Seattle without hitting a coffee shop, and half the people I worked with were into lattes and cappuccinos, so naturally I ended up going on coffee breaks to the University Ave.
My regular poison was a statuesque single latte, though that eventually became double, and after that even triple.
If you've ever nursed a big-time gourmet coffee habit, you realize exactly how much money it costs.
I figured out that over the last 7 years, I probably spent minimum 12,000 dollars on coffee drinking.
When you're hitting a Starbucks once or twice a day, 5 to 7 days a week, you are going to drop at least 150 bucks a month on your coffee habit.
Well, work has slowed down during the last year, and I don't have as much money to spend on my habit, so I started looking around for other options.
I knew I wanted to be able to make lattes, espressos and cappuccinos, but I thought it might be pleasant to start mixing it up with some tea and chai drinks, too, especially to try to drop back on the caffeine intake.
I just don't handle the dosage the way I used to.
I'm living at a small place now, and the kitchen is really small, so I didn't have room for a big bulky full-on espresso machine.
Which I couldn't afford anyway, those things cost a BUNDLE! You're looking at half a grand to buy anything even halfway decent.
I spent enough time snooping around the net, and didn't really find anything I liked, but about 3 months ago, a lady I did some market research for invited me to a party at her place, and she had just about the coolest little automated coffee maker I've ever seen.
I walked in the door early, and she asked me what I wanted to drink.
I asked what she had, and she rattled off half a dozen hot drinks that she could give me.
I told her she didn't have to put herself to that kind of trouble, but she said it was no trouble at all.
So I asked for a latte, and before I got back from washing my hands, it was waiting for me on the dining room table.
So I spent the next 10 minutes quizzing her about this great little machine, and what it could do, where she got it, how much it cost, the works.
It was made by Bosch, a brand I knew about, and the official model number is the T20, I think; you can easily find it online.
This thing was completely automated, you didn't even have to push different buttons or dial knobs around to make totally different kinds of drinks.
The drinks come in these little packages called "t-discs" and you just pop one into the machine and hit the button.
The machine reads a barcode on the disc, and knows exactly how much water to push through the disc, how fast, what pressure, what temperature, everything automatic.
By the end of that, I knew I was going to buy one.
It was just what I was hunting for! The machine was marketed by Bosch, and they were running a special online promotion so that if you buy Tassimo coffee makers, you could get a discount, a few free packages of t-discs, and even have a full guarantee to get the cash back if you weren't satisfied; what was there to lose? Needless to say, I pulled up my laptop and found the deal online as soon as I got home, and a few days later, I had it in my hot little hands.
This thing is great! There's at least 40 or 50 different brands and varieties of t-discs, and it can make 7 different types of drink.
If you want a tea, it makes tea; you want hot chocolate, you're set; you want an espresso, latte, cafe crema, you're good to go; cappuccinos, check; and it even makes plain old coffee to boot.
I've got three cabinet shelves full of t-discs, everything from chai to Suchard hot cocoa and Starbucks too.
The drinks are great, I can make one whenever I want, and they also cost one fifth or less what I would spend at a Starbucks or SBC.
I easily saved the cost of the machine within the first two months.
Plus, the thing is actually a breeze to take care of; all the parts you would plan to wash it is easy to detach and set in the dishwasher! So when you're a coffee addict like me and you intend to cut back on the cost of the habit, I strongly advise you to look into the Tassimo Brewbot.
The last time I checked, you may still get the deal online, but even when you didn't, it's more than worth their full price (I think it's $130).
You can then try it out for a full month and send it back if you don't like it.
But I really doubt you will; they'd have to take mine at gunpoint!