But what if you don’t wear undies?
Already covered, dude.
[OK, I don’t own one because I’m too lazy to grind my own spices. But I would definitely go old-school if I did!]
You are correct in everything you’ve stated. The cheapest superautomatic I’ve had was ~$350 and they go up from there. However, if you don’t mind pressing your own and dumping the pucks in the trash, you can go much cheaper. Just ask Tom, I believe his is manual.
By nature, an espresso shot is -perfect- in size for people that want single serving coffee. Most machines will froth milk as well, so add cappuccino and latte to any benefits.
To answer your last question: besides the fact that many people don’t like Starbucks coffee due to it’s extremely dark roast (and charred flavor,) yes, you can easily match a great tasting espresso, latte, or cappuccino. As with any of your options it depends on two things: the quality of the coffee and the filtration of the water.
I have many friends who have K-Cup machines but once I started making espresso, I never looked back.
Aeropress + Cheap Blade Grinder + Trader Joe’s Coffee.
And yeah, after a week or two, your beans are done. Throw out whatever’s left and get new stuff. This is your best quality to cost option.
Many of us do. Swing by the coffee dork thread and say hi.
It’s what I prefer, but it is somewhat timeconsuming… especially if you get real dorky and began doing stuff like pre-infusion and a bunch of other stuff to ensure a perfect pull.
I bought mine used for $270 (originally $900… here, probably cheaper in the US). But I still need that proper burr grinder and they’re just as expensive. So getting both new for less than $350 seems like a stretch.
Also people don’t pick manuals because they’re cheaper, but because they’re better. If a coffee dork had the money for a big superautomatic he’d just spend it on an even greater manual - the holy grail of home use espresso machines on coffee forums here will set you (or rather a Dane) back $6000 and you still hear about people buying one.
I appreciate all the info here.
FWIW, the likelihood of me following the extreme freshness advocated by some here (Fly down to Columbia, pick some beans, roast them minutes before grinding and brewing, and throw away any extra beans 3 days after they come off the plant) is, umm, rather low.
The difference in quality between my current solution and the likely result of extreme fresh solutions does not come close to the cost and especially the convenience issues with such an approach. That’s me - I understand others may weigh things differently. My fallback for high quality coffee is a Starbucks that’s pretty close to my house.
I remain more interested in either a K-Cup solution, or a relatively cheap and easy to use espresso machine or the like that I can feed with coffee that is not particularly hard to manage (i.e. costly, requires time consuming/elaborate grinding, goes bad in 12.3 minutes). Oh well, I’ll probably just hold off altogether for now.
I can’t think of much easier than making coffee in the aeropress.
You could get a pod-based machine and use illy pods, those are pretty decent and certainly easy. Quality won’t be comparable and it’ll cost a lot more, but it sounds like it might fit your needs.
We just got a Keurig (K-Cup) machine at the office and I like it a lot. It’s fast and convenient, and markedly better than instant. Some of the cups aren’t as good as regular brewed coffee, but most have been fine. The flavored coffees have all been quite good, if you’re into that.
Grinding isn’t hard or time-consuming; it takes literally seconds. Okay, like 30 of them, maybe, but even so.
And as for the freshness, you go grocery shopping weekly, right? So the thing about buying beans from the bulk bins (where they’re not necessarily that expensive, particularly if you’re not drinking gallons of coffee a week) is that you can buy small amounts. If you only use 8 oz of beans a week, buy 8 oz now, 8 oz next week, etc. rather than buying 48 oz now and letting it sit around for 6 weeks. Your coffee will never get that old, and it’s no giant hassle or anything.
Buy your beans during your normal grocery shopping trip, grind them right before you use them, and you’ve got a huge, massive improvement for not much more effort or cost at all than what you’re doing now.
Gotta scoop the beans in there, gotta scrape out the grinds, what if you ground too much, what if you didn’t grind enough, it’s another thing to clean…It’s all minor but it adds up if you don’t have a deep emotional commitment to coffee.
Dump them straight from the grocery store bag into the hopper on the grinder (if you’re buying small amounts, you can do this easily). Don’t worry about cleaning, because the worst case “stale coffee grounds get in my fresh grounds” scenario is still better than using nothing but stale grounds. Once you’ve done it a couple of times, you’ll know how long to set the timer for, so that’s a non-issue – and besides, as long as you’re vaguely approximately in a ballpark, it’s not like grinding a little too much or a little too little is going to make a big difference.
That’s maybe not necessarily ideal, but don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the better.
I think you’re misunderstanding us, which makes sense with all the various advice and side discussions.
A manual espresso machine especially in the hands of an uber coffee dork is timeconsuming… but it isn’t the grinding part.
Look at unbongwah’s very good advice in post #14.
Buy fresh beans - unless you don’t have any decent stores nearby that will be faster than Starbucks. Hell, you can even buy the beans Starbucks use.
Don’t buy too many. Grind them when you need them. And use an Aeropress or a small French press.
30 seconds of grinding plus 5 minutes of coffee making where the four minutes is just waiting… that’s not time consuming.
For the record, assuming you have hot water ready (airpot, etc), an aeropress takes approximately 90 seconds from whole beans to beverage. Each step of the aeropress (grind, mix, press) is recommended to take about 20 seconds, so I’m even giving about 30 seconds to fumble those little filters into place.
We used to go the complicated coffee route, with a subscription from Peet’s, burr grinder, yadda yadda yadda. I eventually decided I didn’t care that much about coffee flavor, since I’m either distractedly drinking it in the car or simply using it as a caffeine delivery system. So, we switched to a Keurig and have been very happy. If you’re used to mainly a diet of office and supermarket coffee, you won’t even notice a difference, your wasted coffee will plummet, and you will save a bunch of time in the morning fussing with gadgets.
The cheapest way to get K-cups is to use the 40% off coupons from Bath Body & Beyond. My LATimes subscription pays for itself with those alone.
I agree completely that manuals will give the greater taste, all things being equal, or in my case, done while not groggy early in the morning. Coffee dorks sometimes hit middle age and sometimes realize that extra 5-10 minutes in the morning can be used to take the dog out and/or the snooze button. :)
My first single shot manual was a $60 Gaggia special in Italy that made perfectly great espresso and cappuccino, though I did have a cheesy blade grinder at the time. I think my first superauto though was a $350 Saeco that included a burr grinder with it. Wholelattelove.com even has some that are sub $250 now, and I would consider them a premium price vendor, so you could probably find the models cheaper.
Well, I guess you better figure out where in the convenience-to-cost-to-quality continuum you’d be most comfortable. I mean, if cheap convenience is all you care about, just stick to instant - doesn’t get any easier than that, amirite? :-)
Personally I think the first best thing you can do is buy whole beans in small-ish quantities (those 12-oz bags are just right for me) and grind them just before brewing. Yes, it adds like 30 seconds to the coffee prep process over dumping pre-ground coffee in your brewer - big whup. Honestly, is that actually more time than it takes you to stop at S-Bucks and wait in line for a (overpriced overroasted) cuppa joe? A cheap blade grinder is under 20 bucks; a small burr grinder can apparently be had for under 40; that’s not an awful lot of SB lattes in cost. And I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much of a taste difference it will make, even with a basic drip coffee maker and run-of-the-mill beans.
I’ve actually never tried or tasted Aeropress, so I was just quoting the timing on the French press and trusting you guys (and others) on the Aeropress delivering great results.
Yeah, but I hate dogs.
I agree. I’m middle aged and only now entering do it yourself dorkdom because it’s now that I can afford it (let me tell you about water filtering… now there’s an expense I didn’t see coming). Which is why most of the time I go the French press route (and every second day a funky Italian three wheeled scooter with a big ass espresso maker rolls into the yard where I work and sell us overpriced delicious coffee).
The slow dorky experimentation is mostly kept to the weekends and when I’m working home - thinking about a story you’re writing while going through the whole ritual is just another way of working.
Let me throw in an alternate solution, that only takes a few minutes a week.
The toddy process is a method where coffee is cold brewed. It takes about 10 minutes to set up a batch, which then brews at room temp for 12 or so hours. You then filter concentrated results out, and put them in the fridge. Mix 1 part coffee, 1-2 parts water, heat in microwave to desired temp, add milk/suger, and drink.
What’s nice about this is that you only “make” coffee once every week or two, but it’s always available on demand. It’s higher quality than the Keurig machines in my view (we have them at work, I think they make pretty weak stuff), has low acid content (not harsh on the stomach), and the equipment you need is inexpensive - I think they go for $37 + the cheap coffee grinder.
I’m one of those people that owns a $600 dollar grinder, and semi commercial espresso maker, so I’m pretty crazy about my coffee. This isn’t really the same thing as a well made espresso (espresso is completely different than any of the brew systems mentioned by others here!), but I think it’s pretty high quality, especially for the price.
The freshness thing isn’t that big a deal if you’re in a city, you must pass ten coffee places every day going to work. Stop in and see which one knows when their coffee is roasted, and buy some. The difference is profound, somewhere on the level of Budweiser vs. trappist ale.
H.
A coffee dork thread with no tom chick? gasp!