A Rancilio Silvia home espresso machine. Photo: Jay Ritmista, Flickr

Erin Meister trains baristas for North Carolina-based Counter Culture Coffee and sporadically maintains the blog Meet the Press Pot from her home in New York City. This is part of a series of tips for the caffeine-addicted.

Hooked on espresso? Yeah, me too. But not because we need it, right? It's because we love it. It isn't just a caffeine fix -- it's an act of passion. It's a foodie's delight.

Brewing espresso at home is a luxury enjoyed by few but might be more accessible than you think: Decent equipment starts at a basic splurge level before moving into "coffee has taken control of my life" exorbitance -- I swear!

Here's a guide to finding a machine that fits your needs (and your bank account).

We chugged our way through more than two dozen different blends so you'll know which brands are worth sipping -- or skipping. After our jitters subsided, one clear winner emerged. Click on to see how your favorites fared.

Affogato al caffé. Photo: Erin Meister

Erin Meister trains baristas for North Carolina-based Counter Culture Coffee and sporadically maintains the blog Meet the Press Pot from her home in New York City. This is part of a series of tips for the caffeine-addicted.

Picture this: New York City, August, 2009. It's hot -- I mean really hot. Like, stick to the seats on the subway hot. You're feeling mighty low and mighty steamed, and all you want is a belt of something quick and cool to keep you moving. Something that'll put the spring back into your step.

You know what you need, buddy? A caffeinated dessert. An affogato al caffé.

When you finally get one and it does the trick, turn your re-energized self toward Italy and give 'em a salute: Not only did our friends on the boot give us both the espresso and gelato that make up this icy indulgence, but they did us one better by putting them together. The resulting dessert, often shortened to simply affogato -- literally "drowned" in Italian -- is heavenly in its traditional form (a scoop of vanilla gelato topped with freshly brewed espresso), so even tiny tweaks (chocolate ice cream) or additions (Frangelico) can make it sublime.

So, as a followup to my story on unsnobbycoffee.com, the new campaign by McDonald's, I hit a McDonald's on New York's Upper West Side to try out some unsnobby coffee. I intended to write this there, but unfortunately, the free McWifi was a McMyth.

If you've never been to a NYC McDonald's, well, it's an experience. The low prices really throw off the normal-person-to-crazy-person ratio. There was one man in a security guard uniform (not a McDonald's employee) camped out by the soda machine, drinking various sodas one inch at a time, and then refilling. Well, that's one way to kill your lunch break.

Unsnobbycoffee.com sounds like it might be something really good for your dad or uncle who still can't pronounce "grande" and thinks "frappuccino" is a made-up word (and to be fair, "frappuccino" is a made-up word, by Boston's The Coffee Connection chain which was bought by Starbucks).

Actually, unsnobbycoffee.com is the website for McDonalds' new ad campaign.

"McDonald's has made it simple and easy to get the delicious espresso drinks you crave. No crazy names or sizes. No second language required. So hang out and have some fun."

What? McDonald's wants to be a coffee house?

There are few corporations as polarizing as Starbucks. Even on this blog, it is the rare Slashbucks post that doesn't incite a ruthless comments war. Yet there is no denying that Starbucks is a fast food force and their products deserve coverage like everybody else, so simmer.

Today Starbucks is introducing yet another beverage to their liquid arsenal. Though frozen and blended, the new Vivanno isn't another tired variation on the -ccino theme. Nope, this is Starbucks' answer to Jamba Juice: A protein-packed smoothie.

Here's the scoop:

• One whole - real! - banana (seriously! it will be peeled and pulsed before your very eyes!)
• Whey protein (16 grams) and fiber powder (5 grams)
• Choice of milk (default is 2%)
• Ice
• Secret Starbucks-Proprietary Orange-Mango Naked Juice
• Portion controlled (default is Grande, and always has less than 270 calories)

Although I believe it is rather naive of the financially-woed coffee conglomerate to try and break into the oversaturated smoothie market with a mere four options, I decided to give 'em a go.

If you're a fan of flavored vodkas and can stand a little fun being poked at you, I recommend this post from the A.V.Club. They reviewed three new flavors of vodka from Three Olives brand, and it's pretty amusing.

The flavors in question are tomato, root beer, and triple shot espresso. Not being a huge vodka fan in the first place, I found this review ,um, not too helpful, but entertaining. In the name of humor, they were a little homophobic, but I tried to remember to take it with a grain of salt.

Apparently, the tomato flavor was the least popular, which sounds reasonable to me. Can anyone find a reason for tomato flavored vodka? It didn't even get great reviews with bloody mary mix. The root beer flavor was deemed "all right', but apparently it went well in a root beer float. The triple shot espresso was by far the favorite. A.V.club also tried it with a Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino to raves.

If you have your own personal review of these or any flavored vodkas I'd love to read it. Maybe it'd inspire me to try vodka more often.

Are you looking to get into making loose leaf tea blends, but don't want to spend the money buying large quantities of numerous teas and then blending everything on your own? There are a few companies these days that are willing to do the work for you.

Adagio.com and Design a Tea currently have the most well-know options for creating your own custom blends online. They arrive at your door already blended, labeled, and ready to steep, but you should keep in mind that while you're getting a custom blend without all of the work a custom tea blender has to do, you're sacrificing some of the advantages. These companies will offer a limited number of teas to choose from, you can only blend a certain number of teas, and you won't know until you've paid for and received the tea if it's a success or not (and tweaking the blend will involve an additional purchase each time a change is made).

Keeping those things in mind, making your own custom blends can be a lot of fun. The differences between the two companies I've mentioned would be quantity, price, and options. Adagio allows you create a unique tea tin label with your own image, they award Adagio points if anyone else buys your custom blend (redeemable for a certain dollar amount toward tea!), they allow up to three teas in each blend (allowing you to choose the proportions), and you receive a 4 oz. tin of your tea. Design a Tea allows one choice of tea with up to two added flavorings, there is an option for customized label text, and they provide more options in terms of size and quantity (they will also package your blend in tea bags for you).

If tea isn't your thing, I also stumbled across JL Hufford Build-Your-Own Espresso. Looks like fun for coffee drinkers!

Last night, a friend offered me a taste of a Newman's Own Organic Sweet Dark Chocolate Espresso Bar. I've typically been quite happy with Newman's Own products and always feel good about buying them since Paul Newman and the Newman's Own Foundation donate all profits and royalties after taxes for educational and charitable purposes.

I've had many different chocolate bars that contain espresso. Before the Newman's, my most recent chocolate espresso bar experience was a Vere Chocolate Espresso Anise bar which was unbelievably good. I point this out so you know I'm not just an espresso hater.

Typically, espresso chocolate bars have a deep chocolate flavor with a small, lingering coffee flavor. In some cases, they have a slight crunch where there are pieces of coffee beans in the bar.

In Newman's case, however, the espresso flavor was so overpowering that it completely hid the flavor of the chocolate. I felt like I was having a full shot of espresso with one small chocolate square. Something was way off about the flavor proportions. I like to taste my chocolate.

I know it's a couple of days after St. Patrick's Day and spring is coming up and we're all supposed to be thinking about flowers and running through meadows and wearing shorts, but I hate spring and summer and I'm not quite ready to release winter from my cold hands yet. So, here's a hot chocolate recipe with a little kick.

It's the Bachelor Buzz, and besides hot chocolate it contains raspberry syrup, hazelnut syrup, and espresso. I'm not quite sure what makes this bachelor-ish, but pretend you're drinking it in some swingin' pad.

A group of scientists at Nestlé Research in Switzerland have come up with a machine that will rapidly taste and rate as many as eight different kinds of espresso. The ratings, they say, will be as accurate as if tasted by...well, actual people.

According to an article in Live Science, the machine analyzes the gases released by the espresso, and then interprets the data as "cocoa," "citrus," or "toffee," for example.

Sounds intriguing, and it could definitely save time. But do we really want to let a machine take the place of a task that people already perform well? It's not as if there is a sudden, increased demand in coffee taste testers, or that they are not adequately performing their jobs. ("Toffee?! No way. I distinctly detected citrus notes...you're fired.") I don't think that we're somehow missing out because our coffee isn't properly classified. Perhaps the machine is more discerning?

Cool invention, but for right now, I'm comfortable in the notion that my espresso has been categorized by humans, thanks.

You might think you're a caffeine fiend, but you aren't really until you have to take a portable espresso maker with you everywhere you go. Handpresso looks and works like a bicycle pump - you pump air to a pressure of 16 bar, fill the reservoir with hot water, drop in an espresso pod, and the Handpresso renders a steaming hot cup of espresso. There's no word on how well it works, nor how the coffee tastes, but we're pretty sure that it beats instant espresso powder mixed with hot water!

[via: notcot]

I have a friend who proudly states that she made her husband fall in love with her on their first date by serving him an espresso martini. I have had the opportunity to taste one of these love-inducing cocktails and can vouch for their potency.

I don't have the recipe for the drink she makes, but over at the Epi-Log, Michael Y. Park has posted five espresso-based cocktail recipes created by Illy's master barista Giorgios Milos that blend espresso with spirits, liqueurs and oftentimes, ice cream. Milos flew into New York City and demonstrated all the recipes at the Mobile Illy Cafe that is currently set up in the Time Warner Center until the end of the month. You can choose from a Coffee Mojito, a Tiramisu-inspired concoction, Jamaican Coffee, Light Coffee Cocoa or an American Wings (which uses two different kinds of ice cream, coffee liqueur and whiskey to appealing effect).

I'm not a coffee drinker, but the drinks you get at coffee shops seem really confusing to me. Espressos, Lattes, Macchiatos (which I thought was the guy from The Karate Kid), Caffe Mochas, Cafe Breves, Americanos. The terminology might be second hand to someone who works at such a shop (we hope) but I bet can be confusing even to someone who orders the drinks regularly.

Luckily, we have pictures! Lokesh Dhakar has a handy chart that explains what each drink looks like. I really need this to be done with other aspects of my life, so I can keep track of everything and know just what is in the food I eat, the books I read, and the movies I go to see.

[via Boing Boing]

What's the best way to celebrate the first day of summer? Going to the beach? Buying an air conditioner? Crying because you hate summer and can't wait til September rolls around?

I'm in the latter category, but you might want to head on over to Caribou Coffee for a free Northern Lite to celebrate the first day of summer. You can get it today at all locations nationwide between 2 and 3pm.

I'm not sure what a Northern Lite Cooler is (I don't think I've ever been to a Caribou Coffee) and I'm not sure what size drink you get, but there are worse ways to spend your afternoon today.

[thanks to Amy for the tip]