You should hope Santa upgrades your office coffee machine this Christmas

The coffee maker is the one device that everyone in the office knows how to use even if they fail to do the decent thing and make a fresh pot when they finish one (we know it’s you, Ethel).
But the sad truth is that most office coffee is pretty awful relying, as it does, on average quality coffee brutally doused with boiling water using the drip method. I write “brutally” because drip coffee makers generally overheat the coffee by pouring water unevenly over the grounds which produces a bitter back-flavor at best or a rank, mud-like, cloying brew at worst. The problem, according to Breaking Bad is too much Quinic acid …
I have just tested what, outside of the totally impractical low pressure distillation system featured on Breaking Bad, may be the ultimate coffee maker. This miracle of modern technology is called the iCoffee; the “i”, somewhat deviously, is claimed to stand for “innovation”. But innovative the iCoffee is, being the end result of 7 years of development and 1,257 prototypes.
This machine makes a remarkable cup of coffee by using six jets inside the grounds basket to first steam the coffee grounds then stir them ensuring that the they are “opened up” then evenly heated. The liquor is then allowed to slowly filter into the carafe below (coffee making takes slightly longer than the drip method). The result is a remarkably smooth and creamy cup of coffee rather like you’d get from the French press method only better. It even uses less coffee then traditional filter or French press machines.
If Santa’s visiting your office this Christmas forget upgrading computers or replacing printers, keep your fingers crossed for an iCoffee (priced at $169.95). Just don’t expect Ethel to change her habits.
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