Homer Vs. Kidd

This is what I got for christmas this year.

It’s a cona coffee maker, and it’s the coolest thing ever. You put medium ground coffee in the top, water in the vessel below that, and denatured alcohol in the very bottom (methylated spirits, for you brits). You light the thing up, and when the water gets warm enough the pressure inside the lower vessel increases to the point where the hot water is forced through a glass tube into the upper vessel. After most of the water is out of the lower chamber, you let the thing brew for about 3 minutes, and then kill the flame. The resulting coffee falls back down the same tube, and into the pot. It makes some damn good coffee, and by some miracle of science you don’t get any grounds in the pot, and there’s no filter. Amazing.

The first time I tried it was on christmas eve, in front of my entire family. I must have goofed on the directions because I put the top piece on too late (water was already at a boil) and the thing exploded everywhere, shooting coffee all over the house and throwing scalding water all over my hands. I’m fine now, and no one got hurt, and now everyone wants to come back next year to see me and my christmas bomb.

I got the hang of it now. No more explosions. Honest.

(note: in order to get the flame into the picture and not get reflection off the glass, I had to take the picture in extremely low light with no flash. I ended up with a nice sepia tone for free.)