Help Me Make the Holidays Happy for My Son-in-Law
http://www.coffeebreak2day.com/images/cara-jordan.jpg" width="299" vspace="5" hspace="5" height="168" border="0" align="left" title="daughter and son-in-law" alt="daughter and son-in-law" />I'm looking for help making mother-in-law of the year, and the ROASTe community is ideally positioned to help me out. Two years ago, my beautiful daughter married a charming, very sweet Jewish man. I wouldn't mention it except that it introduced me to the delight of planning Hannukah gifts for the happy couple. I know, I know -- it's not about the presents, but really, gift-giving gives me pleasure, especially when I can work in a theme. Last year's theme was wine -- they're budding wine enthusiasts. I had a great deal of fun assembling a lineup of different wines paired with the proper glassware to best appreciate them, and finished off the gift with a wine refrigerator complete with variable temperature controls. They loved it and have had a great time filling the cooler with their favorite wines.
This year, the theme is coffee. Cara likes coffee, but Jordan is a kindred coffee-loving snob, so this one is really for him. They have a decent coffee grinder, a nice French press and a moka pot, but I'm looking to expand their coffee horizons and introduce Jordan to easy home coffee roasting and a few different methods of brewing. That means I need to assemble eight coffee gifts that all tie together. While I'd love to include a decent espresso machine, that's a bit outside my price range. I've got a few ideas, but I'm looking for suggestions for fun, unusual or beautiful coffee brewers and/or accessories in the under-$25 range that I can include in their gift. So far, the only definite in my list is a hot-air popcorn popper - probably a twin to the one I use to roast my own coffee beans at home.
http://www.coffeebreak2day.com/images/official-coffee-roaster.jpg" width="300" vspace="5" hspace="5" height="300" border="0" align="right" title="nostalgia corn popper and coffee roaster" alt="nostalgia corn popper and coffee roaster" />
I'm looking for suggestions for your favorite non-electric coffee brewing equipment. I'm considering a pair of nice ceramic or glass cup-top drippers, a Hario Buono kettle, a Vietnamese phin and a sock pot, but I'm totally open to suggestions. Demitasse sets, coffee drippers and brewers, tampers, moka pots -- what's your favorite inexpensive coffee accessory that I could include in their gift?
And while we're at it, I'm also taking suggestions for coffees to include. I'll be ordering two or three pounds of green beans from Dean's Beans (if you haven't tried Dean's offerings here, stop reading, check them out and order up a pound of Ring of Fire or Marakesh Express -- you won't be sorry), but I also want to include a couple of pounds of roasted coffee beans for them to enjoy. Jordan loves Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Jamaican coffee and Hawaiian Kona -- I'm taking suggestions for other coffees he might enjoy. I'm thinking of introducing him to something nice from Sumatra or thereabouts, a nice Caribbean coffee and possibly something lovely from South America. Suggestions?
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