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If you love coffee, but are tired of paying the high prices for a Starbucks coffee, consider purchasing a machine to make great coffee at home. You can always purchase the beans from Starbucks and prepare the coffee in the comfort of your own home for less money.

The Philips Senseo coffee maker uses pods rather than separate coffee filters to make coffee. These machines are convenient and offer easy maintenance and clean up options. Some true coffee connoisseurs feel the senseo results in weak and sometimes bitter coffee. If you want the convenience of a pod coffee machine, the Senseo pod machine is a good choice.

The Brewmaster by Kenwood is an English product that can be used to brew either coffee or tea. All cup sizes fit in this machine and coffee can be dispensed while still in the brewing process. The removable filter eliminates the need for coffee filters. Clean up is easy with this model and the coffee tank is dishwasher-safe. The brewmaster is programmable and has a two-hour shut-off feature for safety and energy efficiency.

Krups Gourmet Coffee Maker

Saeco, Jura and Krups offer home espresso and cappuccino makers styles. Models are available for both home and commercial use. These manufacturers offer a variety of features and styles. The frothing mechanisms make good cappuccino and lattes as well as espresso. Some models come with built-in frothing features and in other models this is an optional feature, but well worth the money for making a variety of coffee beverages.

Gevalia and Delonghi has a variety of coffee makers for both home and commercial use. If you love regular coffee, but your spouse prefers decaf there is a Delonghi for you. The Café II duo allows you to brew two carafes simultaneously. Maintenance is easy with an automatic descaler indicator to tell you when it’s time to descale the machine.

Cappuccino makers can add a touch of class to any environment. At work, they can bring an air of relaxation and at home they can transport you to a café. Read More…

Posted under Featured Articles

The 9th of April was a day to remember for the lovers of fine Italian ice cream when Jak and Camila opened their new venture with the finest ice cream that I have ever tasted.  Although only open for a few hours, visitors to the Costa were quickly trying out the flavours and quality of the wide-ranging ices on show.

I thought I would be adventurous by trying out a vanilla, kiwi, cherry and lemon combination and busied myself  by slowly savouring the different flavours as I studiously worked my way down through the layers.

It was, put simply, fabulous!  It was pure self-indulgence par excellence.  As I sat there, more and more people came to try out the new ice cream experience and sat, as I was, savouring pure quality.

One of my criteria for a good stop is to try the coffee out.  I was not disappointed when I found out that the new proprietors had researched the coffee with the same painstaking thoroughness that they had used to get the best ingredients available for their ice cream.  The coffee was delicious.

So where is this ice cream palace?

If you enter the Paseo Maritimo from the lighthouse side of Torrox Costa you need to walk a little, but this will just give you a good appetite for what is in store for you.  Keep walking until you are just past the Restaurante Asiatico.  Approximately some 50 metres further you will see the small and very new Italian Ice cream parlour.

Feast your eyes on the available flavours and make your choice.  You will be pleased that you did.

Posted under Restaurant Reviews

Previous to recently enjoying an evening meal in this restaurant, I could only personally recommend one other Chinese restaurant in this immediate vicinity; that one being in the nearby town of Torre del Mar. It was quite by chance that I came to dine here; the restaurant is on a corner of a main street surrounded by shops.

We were greeted with a smile and sat at a table of our choice. Inside the décor is Chinese, quite luxurious but not overbearing. The only complaint was the consistent background muzak of pan pipes, which after 2 and a half hours was starting to grate on my nerves!

The menu was overly-extensive – a book in its own right – so our party of three decided to settle on the Set Menu for 4 Persons at 54 Euros. This set menu comprised of seven different starters, including Dim Sum, Peking duck and  spare ribs. The restaurant manager then came over to our table to ask if we would like to have a break and wait 15 minutes or so for the main courses. I replied that I thought I had already eaten the main courses! What followed was a struggle in the fact that the starters had been ample enough. The main courses consisted of delicacies such as chicken in oyster sauce, beef in a rich dark sweet sauce and king prawns – all accompanied by platters of special fried rice and separate vegetables. All the food was served piping hot, and we were given a change of silver cutlery for each course.

The food, service and atmosphere were faultless. However, the house red wine and coffee were inferior. The deserts were of the pre-packed frozen variety when I had expected fresh fruit, and something more in keeping quality-wise to the rest of the meal.

We did have an enjoyable evening, but be warned that if you are going to eat here all the portions are on the bulky side so wear something lose around the waist!

I shall definitely be eating here again, and it’s certainly an ideal place for a special occasion such as a birthday party.

Access and parking is not a problem, the entire restaurant is clean, comfortable and well-lit, and the staff speak many languages.

(Note: the photos were taken with a Nokia Navigator mobile phone, and therefore do not do the food justice).

C/Camino Viejo de Malaga 6, 29700 Velez Malaga
Tel: 952 506 966

Posted under Restaurant Reviews