Coffee Anaesthetic found in Cowes!!

I hold my head in my hands. I should slap the back of my hand on my palm and shout in an American accent 'Work with me people!!' The reason for my depression was during a short trip over to Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

Whether I was succumbing to the Pavlov Dog conditioning of realising the end result before I tasted this coffee may have contributed to my conclusion. A nice shiny espresso machine raised an eyebrow of interest and the situation tempted me into asking for an Americano.

Aside from doing everything wrong, and I mean everything, including cold portafilters, insufficient tamping, not wiping the filter basket rims, using boiling water etc etc. Although not an exhaustive list, the coffee was to my surprise not bitter tasting. At least the machine may have been kept clean.

However, aside from not being bitter, it was not anything else either. I sipped, I sucked, I closed my eyes, waiting in anticipation of the sparks that would fly around my mouth. Instead I am sure than I have found a coffee anaesthetic, acting as an anti-taste drink. When I was trying to identify any of the taste groups, it was somewhat suprising that there was no sensation other than heat - not a particularly good feature on its own from a £3000 piece of equipment. Could it be true that my taste buds were actually being numbed by the black liquid, surely not. So another sip was needed to confirm. Yup, a coffee anaesthetic has been truly found and it lies in a restaurant in Cowes. Now then where's my Patent Lawyer, I'm going to make a fortune.


Incidently, the best coffee cleaning advice I have come across on Espresso machines can be found here