We Made a Blog

We Made a Blog has acquired something life-changing. Specifically, the Keurig Café One-Touch milk frother. Believe us when we say it was never our intention to purchase such an item. Our lives had seemed relatively complete without it. Then one day last week we went to Bed Bath & Beyond to pick up some K-cups for the office Keurig coffeemaker at our day jobs.

Past an island of Keurigs and Keurig-related accessories lay a great sea of K-cups. We paced it stealthily, happily. Until we breached the edge and saw another island, another world. The land of Tassimo. We were gripped by envy. Sleeker, more Euro, available in three colors and boasting Starbucks pods, the Tassimo taunted us. Even its name suggested it was a zippy Ferrari to our gear-grinding Volkswagen.

We had chosen the Keurig ourselves out of an office supply catalog. We’d grown a bit disenchanted; the cup of coffee it dripped out was average, made even more so by the limited number of brands of K-cups that were office-authorized to order. So we’d taken to parting with our own cash to acquire a higher class of K-cup. But we’d just learned that none could achieve near-telepathic communion with the Keurig via bar code like the pods did with the Tassimo to calculate the perfect amount of water, brewing time and temperature for each beverage.

Four boxes of K-cups in hand but now sullen, we returned to the Keurig display for some sign that maybe we hadn’t made a second-rate choice in our daily coffee-brewing experience. That’s when we saw it. Barely bigger than a coffee mug, in the de rigueur brushed stainless of so many coffee-related products, was the true Keurig-branded product of our dreams. It promised two servings of hot or hot and frothed milk in 90 seconds with the touch of a button. Purchasing it was not even a question. Making peace with its necessity was. We engaged in mutually enabled rationalization. With darker roasts we could make near-lattes, macchiatos, cappuccinos. We’d save money by cutting down on our Starbucks visits. Our productivity would be higher. We’d be more creative. Possibly, we’d grow taller. Reader, we bought it.

For the record, yes, it’s pricey. So much so that the cashier initially thought there was an error when she rang it up. She asked us repeatedly if we knew that it was, in fact, only a milk frother. Her cautiousness just made us more resolute. We vowed to buy the best possible organic milk the neighboring Whole Foods had to test it out.

Back at the office we eagerly plugged it in below the coffee infographic we have posted up on the wall (are you sensing an obsession here?). Filled with milk and all lit up, it got to work. We peeked through the glass top to watch the milk softly whir to perfection. A bold K-cup that would have been merely an afternoon jolt was transformed into an experience by the creamy froth. Mornings are different. Afternoons are different. Life is better.

If you ask either of us for the dollar amount of the Café One-Touch, we’ll tell you that the cost was $40 and that we paid for only half of it. Neither statement, on its own, is a lie. But neither is the fact that, to us, it’s priceless.