Cappucino one of my daughters favourites. Whenever we are out and about shopping she can’t resist the little tea shop in the village square, with its comfortable leather sofas and mock farmhouse setting, to enjoy a gigantic piece of the cake of the day and a large cup of cappucino. Its her little treat she loves it! Besides browsing through the handcrafted jewellry on display within.

I know with her love of cappucino I knew the perfect gift for her would be the La Cafetiere Mukka Express - silver edition. Why because its easy, simple and it does it all for you in one, no mess spread everywhere and then it serves a cappucino as you would get in the finest coffee house.

The Mukka Express, by Bialetti, is the first stove top cappuccino maker of it`s kind. The Lucida is a stylish all silver design that will look good in any kitchen. The new Mukka Express is the first, fully patented ‘Stove-Top Cappuccino’ maker. It combines the traditional stove-top style of coffee maker with a large size pot for holding the milk. Place the water in the bottom section, coffee in the middle and fill the top section to the maker with milk. Then place on the stove-top and as the water boils to make the coffee, the resulting steam is passed through the milk to froth it. Ideal for 2 mugs of cappuccino or caf latte.

Find some great recipes in my previous blog taking the biscuit, or even classic recipe for victoria samdwich blog, oh and not forgetting the blog on quick homemade teatime treats.

Whats your favourite tea, coffee or are your a expresso person? Whats your favourite side with your coffee or tea, is it a cake or biscuit and do you know the difference?

These zesty little citrus fruits are the epitome of refreshing summer tastes, bringing a fruity zing to all manner of beverages, from soft drinks and squashes to classic seasonal drinks such as my personal favourite gine & tonic or the more exotic mojitos.

Serve up a mojitos which is a fabulous cocktail made with white rum, mint, crushed ice and limes, and don’t forget the hunk to shake your cocktail and serve it up for you of course! Bring the cuban spirit to your party or evening serving mexican dishes, great rythmic salsa music and your delicious cocktails. Don’t forget the garden lanterns and tea lights to really set the mood for your guests and enjoy and fun dining experience alround.

Make sure you have the glassware to serve up your special cocktails in with these great connoisseur cocktail glasses. There stylish & versatile, this premium glassware has a simplistic classical design, which is ideal for everyday use, aswell as for your dinner parties. So make sure you serve your cocktails in Style!

Versatile limes though are not only the domain of delicious drinks as their delicate aroma adds another dimension to many dishes like thai and your barbecue marinades for example.

Look at my previous blogs sweet tender yellow sweetcorn, edible sunshine, bbq grills for the sunshine, and the big dipper for more ideas and many recipes to help you plan for your guests no matter what your planning!.

Well have you a coffee fanatic in the house? We all have our likes and dislikes. Traditionally speaking we usually enjoy coffee morning and tea in the afternoon. I have family members who only drink coffee and compete with each other on the lastest gadget, gismo and machine.

So finding this all intriging we set a challenge to blindfold 4 of us to see if we could taste the difference between the coffee’s with 4 non advid coffee fans as such and well the results are interesting.

We took 4 people 2 men and 2 women, all drink coffee, tea and water on a regular basis daily. Being logical my brother in law Mark and me made up a coffee pot on the stove with ground beans, we put on a cheaper range coffee perculator, we made a cup of instant coffee from a popular brand and we used 2 different coffee machines. This gave us 5 different black coffee’s.

Whats surprised us all was how the, not so coffee drinkers all picked out the coffee machine coffees has the best in flavour and richness. So Mark was over joyed as a avid coffee drinker that his gismo won top marks in our dedicated testing.

Marks best gismo is the Krups Compact Espresseria EA8080 Bean to Cup Coffee Machine. Some how Krups have managed to shrink the coffee shop down to a small shiny black cube of coffee making genius. The Compact Espresseria EA8080 has all the convenience of a capsule coffee maker, but the skills to turn whole beans into fresh espresso.

Bean-to-cup coffee machines usually tower over your sideboard because they have to incorporate a grinder as well as storage for the beans and water, but the German engineers at Krups have managed to miniaturise the whole process with the dinky Espresseria machine. Although small, it can generate 15 bar of pump pressure and hold 1.8 litres of water, while the blue LCD display lets you choose between Esspresso, Lungo, Cappuccino or Latte. There’s even room to warm two cups on top.

The EA8080 is also supplied with a Krups welcome pack which contains a Claris water filter, two sachets of descaling crystals, two cleaning tablets, a water hardness test strip and of course, the instruction manual.

So to sum up its features are:

• Bean to Cup
• LCD Display
• 1.8 Litre water tank capacity
• 15 Bar Pressure
• Metallic Conical Burr grinder for precise and uniform grinding
• 1450W
• Stainless Steel Milk jug and XS6000 Auto Cappuccino Maker
• New easy ‘Touch and Turn’ dial
• New piano black finish
• Compact Thermoblock System for optimum temperature at the very first cup
• Temperature adjuster for perfect bitterness and aroma result
• Automatic Rinsing/Cleaning/Descaling programmes
• Includes Claris water filter, 2 cleaning tablets, descaling crystals, water hardness test strip
• 275g Bean hopper capacity
• Cup Warming Tray
• Height 365mm x Length 330mm x Width 245mm
• 2 Year Manufacturer Warranty 

Why not tell us about your favourite coffee bean for the perfect coffee? Send in your argument for tea versus coffee.

See my blogs take your drinks outside in style, tea leaf or tea bag there is one teapot for every mum, and home made sweets make a great gift to name but a few for you to read over.

With all the fantastic weather we have been enjoying including the Tennis why not prepare this delicious summer drink.

Its easy to make and ideal for serving at a barbeque, or while eatting alfresco, or just after playing in the park or a nice long walk with the dog!

If you store this fruit barley in a fridge it will keep for around 5 days, but do remember to shake the bottle and dilute the barley water before drinking.

For our Fruit Barley Water you are going to need: 50g pearl barley, 50g sugar, juice of 2 oranges and juice of 1 lemon (all this makes a pint).

First put the barley in a large pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, empty into a sieve and rinse the barley under cold water. Return the barley to the pan and add 600ml water ( use filtered but you can use tap or bottled as you prefer), cover the pan with a lid and simmer gently for 1 hour. Then strain the liquid into a bowl stir in the sugar and leave to cool. When cold stir in the orange and lemon juice and then pour into a clean sterilised bottle of your choice, using a funnel and store in the fridge. To serve your fruit barley water, add  some fruit barley water & fresh cold water or sparkling mineral water and ice (to dilute) into a tall tumbler glass, for a long, thirst quenching drink.

For serving your Fruit Barley Water your going to need some stylish Tall Tumbler glasses and I love these Dartington Glassware Laurence Llewelyn Bowen Ember Pair of Tall Tumbler Glasses with a superb design and at a great price, they are  145 mm heigh to to really serve your long drinks to your guest in style.

Have you any recipe for homemade summer drinks or even cocktails send in your ideas.

Why not get yourself a drinks fountain as in my previous blog the big dipper their great to parties and get togethers! Have a look at previous blog take your drinks outside in style for some great melanine ware for your summer parties too. Finally make sure you take a look at my previous blog edible sunshine for a great juicer idea and drink to go with it.

Watch out for future blogs to cover some great party cocktail ideas where my friends and I put together our favourite cocktails!