Making Coffee at Work

Peter wrote a while back about saving money on takeaway coffee, which does seem to have reached ridiculous costs in Ireland at the moment.  I decided last week to get an espresso maker for my office, so I could cut back on expensive takeaway coffee and sugary powdered cappuccinos (or ‘crappuccinos’).

I was a bit taken aback by the cost of espresso makers in Dublin’s department stores – I just wanted one of the very simple hexagonal steel ones that go on your stovetop. I bought one for my house about four years ago for a mere tenner in Arnotts, and it’s given me years of faithful service.

I went to a few department stores and the cheapest espresso maker to be found was around €25 – and this was for an extremely tiny one-cup pot.  The standard two-cup pots were all about €30.  I balked at spending €30 on what is, after all, an extremely simple piece of equipment.

I did a bit more searching around, and finally found one for a reasonable price in Kitchen Complements on Chatham Street.   I was quite surprised to find it there; Kitchen Complements is a specialist shop and like most specialist shops is pretty expensive. But their unbranded espresso maker was €12.50, reduced from €13.85 in their 10% off sale.

I got a bag of delicious Fair Trade espresso roast in the Oxfam Fair Trade Shop for €4.50, so for €17 I’m all set up.  The nice lady in Kitchen Complements told me that they had a few more of those espresso makers in stock, in case any of you feel like putting an end to the “€3.50 for a latte” madness.