So. The search to enable one excellent cup of coffee a day, at my house, continues. Let me ramble on about progress so far. I own a cafetiere, but if I use this, I make Too Much Coffee. This, I either drink, and find myself bouncing Tigger-esque around the room, or waste. I hate waste. Also, apparently cafetieres let too many coffee particles through, so a filter is better for you. So I got a filter machine. This worked pretty well, but was a complicated process, possibly made so by me. The coffee it produced was not hot enough for my tastes, so I developed a ritual that involved warming both the jug and the milk. The maker of this machine was Krups. There was then a period of confusion (for me) about the ethics of the company during the Second World War. This turned out to be incorrect, and Krups coffeemakers are not the same makers just a very similar name, but I retired the machine during this time. Then I decided my life would be complete if only I had a machine that would grind beans also. So, next Christmas Santa brought me just such a machine. Yes, it produces good coffee, but at the time the local availability of beans was limited, and the machine is fairly high maintenance, and requires charcoal filters, and fiddly cleaning. After a while of researching and anticipation, all this came as one of life’s minor disappointments. Also, whilst the coffee is undoubtedly good, I believe that the quality of available ground coffee is pretty good, and in a blind taste test could not tell you which was pre-ground and which wasn’t. A real coffee-buff probably could. Maybe I just don’t have a discerning palate.
Then I thought that I had solved my, admittedly very minor First World Problem. I found an insulated cup and cafetiere combined. Great, one cup, no waste. Do not put it in the dishwasher, the instructions said. So, tilting at windmills, I did just that… Unsurprisingly, it has absorbed some water through the minuscule gap where the two parts of the cup are assembled. Over time, I have allowed my mind to dwell unnecessarily on the probably green and unsavoury state of this imprisoned water. This is not a good idea, and don’t try this at home, folks… Also, the push in part of the cafetiere has become distorted through age, and now maliciously burns me every morning, with the resulting spurting hot coffee.
I just want a coffee-device that does not require ongoing, only obtainable by mail-order consumables. This does not seem to be possible.*
It may be a metaphor for my life, that I want something that does not, in actual fact, exist.
The search for one perfect cup of coffee continues.
* Unless you, dear Reader, know different….?
parsleythelioness 
QVC had a great looking machine from Illy coffee and it looked easy to use too. Might be worth investigating. It keeps the cups warm, has a water reservoir and uses one thing per cup for about 49p per cup approx and it had a milk frother. The ad was good on tv. Well there were 2 machines actually, one had a split level for using mugs too, but separate milk frother. About a couple of hundred quid though 😦
I might end up with one of those ‘coffee dog’ nespresso machines at some point. I think it works out a bit cheaper, as long as you can get the pod things locally without having to get them mail order. Thanks for the tip though Carol!