PODcast Newsletter, Issue 6

Espresso Martinis
This month I should change the name of this section from Espresso Elucidation to Espresso Hallucination — which just might result if you drink too many Espresso Martinis. Never heard of it? Neither had I but there it is. There are dozens of variations on this theme, but the following recipe is a good example and fairly down the middle:

1 oz. (1 shot) cold espresso
1 oz. Godiva liquor
2 oz. your favorite vodka (chilled)

Preferably, this should be stirred and not shaken.

Ineedcoffee.com has done a good study of the subject and come up with a broad range of espresso martinis.

Still not enough recipes? The following search on Google will turn up lots more: Espresso Martini Recipes

I'd like to thank my good friend Sergio Panu at Hausbrandt USA for bringing espresso martinis to my attention. For making the martini, Sergio recommends the Hausbrandt Ethiopia or Kenya coffees for their bold favors which stand up well against the vodka.

As with alcoholic drinks mixed with Red Bull, please take care, as the stimulant can mask the brain impairing effects of the alcohol. Please don't drink and drive.
 

I must confess that I don't have a meaningful tip to give you this issue, and I'd rather not dilute the value of this section by passing along useless information. And lets face it — there's just not a whole lot of ways to do things wrong when you're using pods! So, my "tip" for this month is to check out the previous month's tips in our collected PODcast back issues.
 

We are now carrying Urnex® brand espresso machine cleaning products. While Urnex makes many different cleaners, most are appropriate to commercial equipment. We are carrying products specific to home and office machines. Currently, we are stocking Urnex Cleancaf Espresso Machine Cleaner and Descaler. Cleancaf is a maintenance product to be used periodically to keep your machine running like new. It is not meant to recover an abused machine from months of accumulated coffee resin and water scale. Urnex does make such product for commercial machines and will soon be marketing a home-machine version. PodMerchant will stock it as soon as it becomes available.

We are about to place a large order in Italy for sea shipment. In about two months, look for espresso pods from Izzo, as well as return of Lucaffé Colombia, which we have been out of since before Christmas 2005. We are also looking into carrying Lucaffé's Blucaffé coffee.
 

PodMerchant offers the following discounts only to our PODcast Newsletter subscribers. The discount is taken by redeeming one of the following coupon codes at checkout (Note: These coupons are only valid for PODcast subscribers. We check use of coupons against the subscriber list. Coupons expire 35 days after the newsletter is published, or when the next issue is published, whichever comes first):

$35 off Ascaso Dream espresso machines -- Enter code: XXXXXXXX (subscribers only)

$25 off all other espresso machines (Cafe Retro, Koala) -- Enter code: XXXXXXXX (subscribers only)

And just for being a PODcast subscriber, we're going to take...
$4 off your next order over $30. -- Enter code: XXXXXXXX (subscribers only)