Your Cup of Joe and a Free MacBook Pro!

I love coffee, as a matter of fact, I drink a couple cups almost every day!  I did a little math and figured out that a coffee lover can have their favorite coffee and get a free Mac Pro Laptop or two iPads at the same time, as well as a new espresso machine - all while saving about 150 hours a year (that's almost a month at work!).  Not bad eh?

Which is better, Lavazza or Tony's?  I love them both, but give Tony's Espresso Roast the edge, and it costs less - try them both, and keep your Lavazza can for storage!

I drink Americano's - a shot of espresso with boiling water.  The flavor is richer than regular brewed coffee and I can make them one at a time faster than I can brew a pot - and I never waste a drop.  A single shot of Tony's Espresso costs about .16 cents - so if I have two shots a day, that's .32 cents - or about $117.00 a year - not bad at all!

My espresso machine has worked flawlessly for 5 plus years, it cost me less than $90 ($125 when I looked it up today).  Throw in the cost of a new machine and $25 a year for electricity (which doesn't count in my solar powered kitchen), that means the maximum cost would be about $267.00 a year on coffee - truly great coffee at that!

A great cup of espresso takes about 18 seconds to make as it's forced through the fine ground coffee under pressure - which produces a rich 'crema' top that is my favorite part!

If I bought two single shot Cafe Americano's at my local Starbucks each day, I'd pay $1.89 per cup - or $1380.00 a year.  Eek!  To make matters worse, the stops would that take me an extra 20-30 minutes per day (about 150 hours a year).  Not accounting for the driving time or gas - and including the cost of a new espresso machine and electricity, that's a difference of $1113.00 - or enough for a brand new MacBook Pro - or two iPads  Nothing against Starbucks, they brew a great cup and the workers are always a pleasure - but that's a lot of green!

Now if you drink cappuccino, latte, frappucino or a quadruple skinny soy caramel mocha-chino, your costs AND savings would be even greater - but I kept it simple and conservative for this comparison.

The perfect Cafe Americano in my good old commuter cup (circa 2005 - keeping many thousands of cups out of the landfills).  Sometimes I add sweetened condensed milk (Eagle Brand Milk, or La Lechera in a handy squeeze bottle) - a little trick I picked up in Asia.  Right: Harvest the coffee grinds for your compost pile or garden, it's a great soil amendment!

As for coffee, Tony's Espresso is my favorite, followed closely by Lavazza - but you can use any single origin or blend you like to make espresso; just be sure to have us grind it for espresso.  We can sell any coffee we want at Tony's and proudly offer locally roasted Elevation Coffees.  Elevation also custom roasts our coffee blends (Dark Milano and Half Caff Roma are my favorites).  For caffeine free espresso, I suggest Elevation's Decaf Guatemalan or Lavazza Dek.  Great coffee is a beautiful thing - I think it's time for a cup right now!

So I guess this means I can justify running out to buy a new computer or IPads for the fam?  Um, no.
Ciao ciao! - Chef Mick (Michaelangelo) Rosacci

About the author: Chef Mick (Michaelangelo) Rosacci is the Corporate Chef and co-owner of Tony’s Markets in the Denver Metro area. Mick also teaches cooking on Denver’s Channel 7 News and Dig In, a local gardening show on FOX. For more recipes, visit www.TonysMarket.com and/or subscribe to Tony’s Culinary Club by clicking here.