[nancya]

okay, here's a chance for me to feel really stupid. I recently bought a cheap stovetop espresso maker - I learned what I was doing wrong that made the coffee cloudy - but the instructions say "as with any coffee maker, don't wash with dishsoap..."

???this is not something I had ever heard before, comments?

[Svadhisthana]

I don't know about cleaning stovetop coffeemakers. Try www.ehow.com or www.about.com and see if they have some useful information. Good Luck.

[mudbug]

From my favorite: "The Queen of Clean"

"And I know you have a dirty coffeepot. Today we're going to clean it up the easy way.

We're going to fill up water reservoir with white vinegar, and it should not be diluted. Fill it up. And then, don't forget to put in a coffee filter because it will catch the residue that runs through with the vinegar.

Turn it on, run it half the vinegar through, then shut it off. Wait thirty minutes, at the end of that time, turn it on again, and run the rest of the vinegar through.

Then, don't forget, after you run out the vinegar to fill up your pot with cold water. Run two pots of cold water through so you won't have any vinegar taste in your coffee.

While you're at it, let's not forget to clean the pot. We want to take lemon or lemon juice, it doesn't matter and some salt, put it on it. Wipe out those stubborn stains, and when you're done all you have to do is rinse the pot and dry, and you're ready for coffee."

[lynne]

Nancya,

When you go through Starbucks training, they tell you that soap affects the flavour of the coffee due to a breakdown of the essential oils.

The theory behind not using soap in your coffee pot is because it's very difficult to really get no soap residue left in your pot, airpots, whatever.

I just use lemon or vinegar -- if it gets a soapy bath, then I rinse it out with lemon or vinegar which really helps get rid of soap residue.

I know many wine enthusiasts don't use soap for cleaning their wine glasses either because of the residue -- they reliy on superhot sanitizing cycles instead.

[Pastachef]

I am sure glad that I wandered into this area. I can't wait to get out the vinegar and lemon juice tomorrow morning.