Latte With Love

My husband, Dan, and I finally bought an espresso machine. After realizing how many punch cards we had at every coffee shop in Boise, we decided it was time. In other words, we were spending way too much money on four-dollar lattes.

We have been researching machines around Christmas. That's how long it took us to make a choice . . . just shy of one year. And by "we" and "us," I actually mean "Dan."

Dan was originally going to surprise me with a new espresso machine when I got home from Chess rehearsal one night. But he kept telling me about research findings, and in the end, it wasn't much of a surprise.

"I thought maybe we should get the [insert any coffee/espresso machine here because we considered all of them], but then I watched a video, and the [again, insert any machine] has a built-in frother."

This was the conversation every night until a machine magically appeared on the kitchen counter upon my return home.

We (mostly Dan) settled on the Mr. Coffee Café Barista. He had also picked up a package of Dawson Taylor coffee. But he was worried that the drip grounds he had bought wouldn't be fine enough for an espresso machine, and we were holding off on purchasing whole beans until our grinder, also an extensively researched piece of equipment, arrived in mail.

The other evening, I found Dan watching an infomercial about another coffee maker, "The Ninja Coffee Bar."

"What if that's a better machine?" Dan said. "And it's called 'Ninja!'"

"It's not better."

"What if it is?"

"It isn't."

Of course, despite all of my husband-teasing ways, our machine (and Dan) makes very good coffee every morning. Since Dan is the only one who knows how to use it, and I haven't bothered to learn yet, he has my mug waiting for me every morning.

"Here is your 'Latte With Love,'" he says as he hands it to me on my way out the door.

One day, I asked if I could try a cappuccino.

"But I don't have an alliterative name for it," he said.

"How about a 'Cappuccino With Care?'"

"That doesn't sound as cool."

But I've noticed he has started using it anyway.

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