On the same day (the day I’m writing this as I doze off in my office at home, barely able to keep my eyes open), both my coffee grinder and my kettle briefly met their end. I was able to get my coffee grinder working again by slapping it, but the fact that it failed three times in the few seconds I used it this morning means that I’m on the hunt for a new one [and have already picked one, by the time you’re reading this]. Then, later that evening, I went to de-scale my stovetop kettle and the handle broke right off. There didn’t appear to be much holding it on, in the first place, so I’m kind of surprised it lasted almost a decade. I was able to get it in usable condition, but I’ll need to be very careful with it since the handle is only holding on to one side now, and that’s the side that allows you to detach it from the metal for the purpose of cleaning the spout. I can’t help but imagine myself dropping it or having the kettle, full of boiling water, slip off the handle somehow while I’m moving it from the stove to where my French press is set up. It’s nightmarish, which means I’ll be ordering a new one tomorrow, no matter what. I don’t want to have to use this disaster waiting to happen any longer than I absolutely must in order to get the caffeine I require to survive each and every day right now. All in all, it has not been a great time for my ability to make my daily coffee and quart of iced tea (I got a PERFECT mason jar for the iced tea and the self-sealing nature of it means that loading it up with ice to chill out seals it perfectly for the trip from my apartment to my workplace) and I’m looking to improve my setup now that the appliances I’ve been using have both broken.

Which means I’ve spent a bunch of time doing research on various kettles. I’ve used a stovetop kettle for most of my life, but I’ve been thinking about switching to an electric one. They’re generally more power efficient and don’t require heating up one of the coils on my stovetop. They’re usually faster, too, which is always helpful in the mornings when I’m rushing to get to work. That said, the water I get is very hard–positively chock full of minerals–and descaling a stovetop kettle feels less hazardous than descaling an electric one. There’s less potential for disaster involved when you can’t accidentally short out your base and render the whole thing unusable if you’re not careful enough. Plus, I can more easily clean the inside of a stovetop kettle since my hand can more easily fit inside it. Not actually easily, though. Just more easily. At least for my old one, it was actually quite difficult to get my hand in there these past few years, and that effort definitely contributed to my kettle’s death. My research had me quickly settle on Kitchen Aid, thanks to them being an established brand with a plentiful supply of options up and down my price range, but I was unable to find the options I wanted anywhere other than Amazon, which sucked. So now I’ve got a new stovetop kettle being delivered at some point [it is already here, as you’re reading this] and am left wondering what it takes to actually get a new kettle from anywhere that isn’t Amazon these days. Everywhere else I looked had only one or two options for me to pick from. It was ridiculous.

For my coffee grinder, instead of starting online, I turned to my friends who have strong coffee opinions (or at least strong coffee setups) and collected recommendations. After all, I know almost nothing about what makes a good coffee grinder and the one I’d gotten from a friend was super well rated, except that it was failing after only a few years of use (about three) and had already given me a few scares by the end of its first year of use. That friend also had the same model and it entirely failed her in less than a year, which made me unwilling to trust the brand again. A coffee grinder needs to be able to stand up to years of daily use, as should any common household appliance. It needs to be able to keep running after more than a handful of years. Thankfully, my friends came through for me and while the model I wound up picking was beyond my initial budget, I was able to move what I’d set aside for a decent electric kettle into my coffee maker budget and by the one I wanted. I’m excited to have consistently ground coffee for my French press once it arrives. I’ve done my best with my cylindrical, two-whirling-blades model, but it never really gets the right consistency across the board. This new one, though, will surely get it. My friend recommended it for that exact reason! I’m not that excited about having another moderately-large countertop appliance, but I think the improvement in my morning coffee experience will be more than worth the sacrifice.

I don’t mind spending a bit of money on this stuff. After all, carefully managing my higher-than-usual caffeine intake is all that is keeping me going these days, as I’m still struggling to get enough sleep most nights. I’d love to get back to my normal amounts and maybe even reduce it from there, but right now I’m pretty sure I’d fall apart if I didn’t keep myself steadily caffeinated. Either the depression I’m miraculously holding at bay or the sheer exhaustion would get me and then I don’t know what I’d do. I’m not really in a state where I can do any kind of proper recovery from something like that. All I can do right now is keep stumbling down the hill I’m on until things even out a bit. I can’t afford to risk tripping and falling by trying to stop right now. All that can happen once I’ve gotten things back under some kind of control. Which might be soon! I mean, I’ve slept over five hours each night in the last seven, save one, and that one is entirely on me for not going to bed at a decent time. It’s still too soon to uncork the champagne, though. The mount of writing errors I’m still catching myself making is proof enough that I still need more rest. Not that I would deny it. I’m exhausted! At least I’ll be having nicer morning coffee by the time you’re reading this.