Live La Dolce Caffe Vita With the NESCAFE Dolce Gusto

I love coffee, no matter what. Even if my usual cup is full of instant, I am glad it is there. But once a week we go out for café lattes, and this is an amazing treat. Also expensive. Also full of the kind of caffeine that keeps me up all night, googly-eyed and cranky (such a great combination!). So we’ve been looking for a home coffee machine, my dear spouse and I. One that can make us special coffees, caffeine-calibrated and delicious. Ones that don’t get cold when you drive them home to drink on the back porch. Well, now I know just what I want. If you love coffeehouse coffee or cocoa on a cold crisp autumn day like today – or iced cappuccinos in the summer (I know I do) – I know just what we both need: the NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto.

Wikipedia

The NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto is a one-cup coffee machine that makes everything from Caffe Lungo (espresso with twice as much water as a regular espresso) to Latte Macchiato (espresso with milk) to Mochas and Chococino (otherwise known as frothy, amazing hot chocolate). You use special capsules of 100% Arabica coffee and you can adjust the froth levels, temperature and strength of your drink. I would always go for maximum froth to make a lovely crema layer. The Dolce Gusto’s 15 bar pressure pump will create this with no trouble. The 15 bar pump is crucial because a regular coffee machine only has 1 or 2 bars of pressure. And the temperature can be as hot or icy as you like. It is the only coffee machine around that will make hot or iced drinks, so you can enjoy it all year round.

Best of all, your coffee can be exactly as you like. This is perfect for me with regards to caffeine – as I said earlier, it affects me a lot. I would be able to enjoy fabulous lattes any time of day, yet still get to sleep at night. And I would want to try every coffee variant you can make with the Dolce Gusto, because I have only ever had lattes. What can I say, I find Starbucks et al very confusing. But I’d love to experiment at home and become a real expert.

The Dolce Gusto is sleek and modern looking, too – an asset to any kitchen counter. It comes in four designer colors: red, white, black and titanium (which is silvery). I’m thinking white or titanium would look best in our kitchen which is mostly white with wooden counters. I can dream, can’t I, as I slurp my instant and write this?

You can be your own professional barista with the NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto. I know that I want to be. If you go check out some of the reviews at Divine.ca, you will see that I am not alone in this. So the NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto is truly at the top of my wish list for the holiday season. And if I get one before Christmas, I promise to make Santa a nice big decaf cappuccino with a lovely Christmas tree drawn in the foam, and a homemade biscotti on the side. He won’t even have to leave a tip in my barista tip jar.

Jackie’s Jingle

Oh goody, a jingle contest! I don’t think that Mr. Gleason really wrote this, though. I think that his friends down at the ad agency did.

No one is going to win here, though – not really. Your taste buds will not win because that coffee is just a picture. And your eyes will not win because they are being harassed by Jackie’s eye-searing suit and beret. Mmm-boy! Those checks are really silly.

But let’s press on, since there are some cash prizes, apparently:

There’s no other coffee today
As good as the new Nescafé
Its flavor beats ground
Saves money per pound -

1. But doesn’t explain that beret.
2. Orange checks, though, are never OK.
3. And tastes better than Chesapeake Bay.
4. Not enough, though, to buy a Monet.

Please feel free to submit a last line in the comments! If only I had $35,000 in Nescafé prize money to award. But alas no.

Finally, here’s Jackie in The Honeymooners, playing golf with a pin cushion, wearing the pants he’s got on in the ad -  but a different silly beret. Address the ball, Ralph. Hellloooo, ball!

http://www.youtube.com/v/QNauilZRzHk&hl=en_US&fs=1?rel=0

Thank you to Retro Ads and Graphics for this one! And to MTV for the picture of the album cover. Mr. Gleason really, really liked checks, didn’t he? The album cover suit is made out of Alice’s old tablecloth, I think.

The Neverending Coffee

Old Shirt: Hey! Hey, lady!…Excuse me, do you think you could turn around for a minute?

Dirty Pot (stage whisper, from sink): Ahh, what’s the use, she ain’t listening to you. You’re a Banlon shirt flapping around on a hanger.

Old Shirt: Oh, like you’re a big expert, you with the Kraft Dinner mustache sitting on top of a frying pan.

Dirty Pot: Well, I’ve been around this kitchen a little bit longer than you, buddy boy. And I can tell you, when she’s slurping Folger’s, there’s no talking to her.

Old Shirt: Too bad we don’t get Folger’s down at the office. Then maybe Biff would shut up once in awhile. He complains all day about his stupid In drawer. You oughta hear him whine! And he’s wearing me. No getting away for a little nap in a dark cupboard, like some folks.

Dirty Pot: Aw, forget it. Just shut up. She’ll be done in a minute. I know that cup and lemme tell you, it’s a lot smaller than it looks.

Old Shirt: No such luck, she’s got twelve jars of Folger’s on the counter over there. Looks like we’ll be here awhile.

[Many thanks to David Middlecamp at Photos From the Vault (fabulous photos from the archives of the San Luis Obispo Tribune) for this 1958 gem.]

Coffee Talk

Chase and Sanborn coffee appears to contain a little too much caffeine. Or maybe they put some rocket fuel into their special blend.

What exactly is happening here?

(a) A lady’s head was in the can, like a genie in a bottle. And when you open it – whoosh! Out she comes to grant you three wishes (first wish: make that head go away, it’s freaking me out!)

(b) Some perky housewife opened the can and in so doing, her head popped off. That must have been a bit of a shock. And yet – she’s still really perky, in a bemused, almost ironic way. She really wants that coffee, I guess – disembodied or not.

Or could it be

(c) The head and hands come with the can – and they open it for you. After all, the tagline says that the coffee “tells you it’s fresher.” Maybe the head is the spokesperson. “Yep,” she is saying, “this stuff is really, really fresh. I know, I’ve been babysitting this thing since we left the factory. Whew, I’m glad it’s open now and I can get out of here.”

That would wake a person up in a hurry, definitely. No caffeine needed after all.

Many thanks to Retro Ads and Graphics for this 1956 ad.

Desdemona Buns

Here is a recipe for sweet rolls with a name I do not understand, from a 1930s Ri-Temp cookbook. Ri-Temp was a special kind of oven control made by the English Electric Company Ltd in Preston, Lancashire. They wanted nothing more than to make your life easier with the “English Electric” cooker, which the lady in the picture is gazing at. Doesn’t the door handle she is holding seem a little high? As does the window. Perhaps they have got the cooker in the basement. We had a basement apartment long ago that looked a bit like that room. Minus the cooker, of course (we had a gas stove from the 1970s, as I recall, that did nothing to alleviate my life).

The introduction to the book says that “in these days of rush and bustle and servant problems, it is essential that all household duties should be completed quickly and with the least possible expenditure of energy.” Ah yes, the days of rush and bustle and servant problems. My main servant problem of course is that I don’t want to do housework, I would rather be writing or going for a long walk or researching something. The servant is too busy rushing and bustling around in the library or at the computer, you see!

So what I really need is an “English Electric” cooker, so that I will have “every advantage required to produce well-cooked, well-balanced meals with very little effort on her part to obtain perfect results.” Oh, I like the sound of that! But…I still have to cook, right? I do have to make a “very little effort.” OK, I can do that. I guess.

You see, I adore old cookbooks but except for the odd mood (usually around Christmas, but not always even then) I do not really like spending hours in a kitchen doing things to and with food. I like quick, mostly vegetarian, very simple meals. And boy do I like the weekly takeout! I will gladly eat any tofu teriyaki that is sent in, but it never works out when I make it. I am not sure that the Ri-Temp cooker could really cope with tofu though.

My favorite kind of cooking is baking. I enjoy it when I do it, but it doesn’t always work into the old health regime. So I cope by reading recipes and making them in my head, except at Christmas or birthdays. Or I make low fat muffins, they’re pretty good. You just replace the butter with applesauce, and freeze them if you think you will eat them all at once (ahem).

Anyway – on with the Desdemona Buns, whoever they were named after – the lady in the picture? Othello’s wife? Did she even have time to make buns, though? Not to mention not having an English Electric cooker with Ri-Temp control.

Desdemona Buns

4 oz. flour
3 oz. butter
3 oz. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder

Filling:1/2 lb. icing sugar
2 oz. melted butter
1 Tb milk
vanilla essence

Cream the butter and sugar together; add the eggs and flour, and place in greased tins. Set the oven dial to 450 F (oven will be ready in 25 minutes), and bake at this temperature for 10 minutes. When cool, cut off the tops of the buns, scoop out a little of the sponge and fill with cream filling; replace tops, sprinkle with icing sugar and decorate with cherries.

Actually a sugar glaze would work better, if you want the cherries to stick. Otherwise this sounds very nice. Maybe I’ll make them next Christmas.