Decent Coffee!

Since going full time as a consultant this January, I have worked in a lot of Cafe's and drunk a lot of coffee! This is because much of my development is better done in environments which are stimulating, so there is the table by the lake in Nottingham University, the Garden centre near Wollaton and the non-smoking pub which has free wireless access. Sitting in a box produces boxy ideas... Of course, lugging a 5kg laptop and bag around means I do not have a lot of license to wander around while set-up... so hence my new interest in Expresso. Proper Espresso, as described to me in a book by a fanatical chef, is tiny, not bitter, and has a 'crema', the bit that's a little frothy on top, that supports a teaspoon of sugar for up to 10 seconds.

Temperature, water, cleanliness of the cup, pressure, type and amount of Coffee and the amount it is 'tamped' before being put in one of those gargantuan machines are all critical.

It also means you don't have to nip to the loo all the time to eject excess fluids, leaving your laptop behind!

So why talk about Coffee on a Technology Blog? Because many of the stages in making a decent cup of coffee are ideal for a cross curricular project... Maths does the costings, ICT records temperature and pressure, Science collates, DT produces the perfect measure and 'tamperer'.
Even better, it is a project with an easily assessed outcome, using relatively cheap ingredients which almost anybody can give a qualitative and quantitative judgement on.... I also think the various Coffee companies littering the high street would jump, if properly presented' at the chance to do such a project and reap the substantial PR!

And finally, think how much livelier the staff room would be with all those free espresso samples available!