A tiny cup of Joe

Recently purchasing a tiny $3.00 expresso making pot, I had my doubts about it's longevity and whether it could, in fact, make a decent cup of coffee. I do not own a coffee maker, but from time to time, do enjoy a strong cup, even if it's robustness is then minimized with cream and sugar.

In coming up with the name for this post, I began to wonder where the name 'Joe' came from and as writing these blogs tends to do, I came up with more questions and being who I am, just need to have the answer. Well... it appears that during World War I, the Secretary of the Navy, a certain Joseph Daniels, sought to cleanse the sailors in his fleet of some less upstanding moral practices (think woman and wine, etc...) and in their place, he vastly increased the purchases of coffee for them to drink. I am not sure of how this odd substitutionary connection actually worked or if his grand plan succeeded, but in my findings, it seems that a "cup of Joe' was not really a endearing term during his tenure of Government service. One thing I do imagine though, is that there were allot of awake sailors with time on their hands and that he single handedly was responsible for a huge increase coffee drinking. Interesting.

So...Setting up this little brewing device was quite simple enough, fill the inside strainer with coffee, put some water in the bottom and set it on the burner, allowing the water to steam up throught the grounds, then a little pipe into the reservoir on the top and voila'...expresso!

It was quite good, but needed more, to where my research then led me to 'how to make a latte' and further onto to steaming and whisking some milk. A bit more effort than I anticipated to have a cup of coffee (Joe), but after really enjoying it, I would gladly do it all again. I did...adding cocoa powder. Remember...it's a process and as my small coffee plant that is happily growning on the windowsill next to my range seems to approve, perhaps someday will even provide me with a bean or two.