As an experiment, and feeling somewhat precious, I descaled my coffee maker yesterday. This involved pouring 3 cups of vinegar through and processing it, then running a few cycles of clear water to clean out the vinegar. I had to do something. My coffee was beginning to taste bitter, no matter what kind of beans I used from which retailer.
As always, when desiring coffee information, I turned to alt.coffee, my favorite Usenet group. There's a small amount of bickering about arcane matters such as robusta versus arabica, home roasting, the benefits of using distilled water, and so on, but most of the time it's chock full of really useful info. Skimming lightly through the debates on where to find a pound of realio trulio 100% Kona coffee at less cost than your entire yearly income, I found a thread on how to clean your coffee maker.
Some people favored citric acid, but most voted for plain old vinegar followed by repeated flushings with regular water. I found some vinegar at the back of the cupboard and commenced descaling, then returned to the newsreader. A huge number of threads debated the current strike by Starbucks (aka *$) in Canada. Apparently, the baristas are paid $7 (about US$5.15) an hour which is not much above minimum wage. In places like Vancouver, one of the most expensive cities in Canada, this is hardly a living wage. The *$ employees are unionizing and striking. I mused through a lot of press releases on the subject. *$ are thoroughly despised by the denizens of alt.coffee.
I ran the clear water through my machine and went back to reading. I discovered that a company called Second Cup in Canada is known as Gloria Jean's in the US. Good to know; I find Gloria Jean's, a staple in many malls, doesn't do a very good espresso. I read up on the various atrociously expensive espresso machines which meet the true coffee gourmet's requirements for the perfect cup. I enjoyed a thread on the exact chemical properties of various roasts, even though I understood virtually none of it. Altogether, I spent about 30 minutes reading about coffee while I cleaned my machine.
Afterwards, I made a pot of coffee and carefully sniffed everything for the scent of vinegar. None could be detected. I sipped my coffee with anticipation. Voila! No longer bitter. Same beans as yesterday, but vastly improved by a proper cleaning of the machine. I'm very happy. And I don't think I'll go into *$ anytime soon.
