OT Coffee Machines

[Herb]

Who are you and what do you want?

I don't know who he is, but he wants to share his spammy link with you, modifying Cliffs original post. Is it really worth the effort!

FYI, I bought my wife a highly recommended Dualit machine and made a rod for my own back, because it was far too complicated for her to use. I dread the words 'can you make me a coffee'.

[Blackal]

I've had a Gaggia Syncrony Digital for 12yrs now - bought for £500 in 2004.



Had one repair carried out to it (£130 app), but other than that - it's been brilliant!

Best addition to it is a Nespresso milk frother - makes white coffee taste like best Italian cafe style.



"Bean to cup" machines have come down in price quite a lot in the past years, so you can get one for under £300 now.

Don't bother with a manual espresso machine -after 3months - you'll have confined it to the utility room cupboard.

Al

[barnstormer]

We've got an original old Gaggia Classic - the old chrome plated one, on one hand it makes brilliant coffee if you can be bothered with all the faffing about and it can be stripped down and cleaned because it's all cast metal and copper pipes inside - but our €13 Lidl filter coffee maker gets more use.
Making decent coffee is more about what beans you use and how fine you grind them than the the machine IMHO.

I used the froggy smiley 'cos I live in France!

[Blackal]

I know what you mean about the beans. I must admit to being a bit jaded with some of the beans I bought - and thought that I preferred an oily, dark-roasted bean, but after starting to use the milk-frother - found that the mid-brown, "dry-look" beans were good too.

Generally buy bulk bags from Costco, but must admit that Starbucks' small bags of beans are good.

Valvona & Crolla in Edinburgh do some good varieties:

http://www.valvonacrolla.co.uk/valvona- ... -beans-1kg

Also used the Hampshire Coffee Co:
http://www.hampshirecoffee.co/house-blend-1/

Spiller & Tait (from Amazon)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spiller-Tait-S ... ffee+beans

Al

[barnstormer]

These are the beans we use over here which we can get in most supermarkets-having said that the shelves are 75-80% full of coffee pod refills nowadays.

https://livraison.simplymarket.fr/achet ... 41,181.htm

We also have a Bialetti stove-top coffee pot -the one with the motif of the little man on the side - wife prefers that one as her mother was Italian!

[Blackal]

That is cheap coffee!

Everyone wants the "instant" aspect of the capsule machines, together with the very low capital outlay - but they pay dearly for it in the long run.

Most of the time - the coffee is shit, too.


But- for £250-£300 you get a pretty good bean-cup machine, and it's just bags of beans from that point on.

Al

[BlackBox12]

Most of the time - the coffee is shit, too.

Correct Al

Good I've stumbled on this topic here.

Been looking for a bean loading machine as well. Been paying for the crap pods long enough.

As both the wife and I are coffee drinkers, the machine will be a good invest.
Now, knowing the missus, I'll probaly will have to go through about 6345 reviews...

[barnstormer]

"Now, knowing the missus, I'll probably will have to go through about 6345 reviews..."

And if yours is anything like mine, you'll walk around every store in town and look at every available machine and then she'll decide to buy the first machine in the first store you went to - because the colour matches the kitchen.

Blackal - I wouldn't know about the price of coffee beans in the UK - I haven't been back for years except for flying visits.

[Blackal]

Most of the time - the coffee is shit, too.

Correct Al

Good I've stumbled on this topic here.

Been looking for a bean loading machine as well. Been paying for the crap pods long enough.

As both the wife and I are coffee drinkers, the machine will be a good invest.
Now, knowing the missus, I'll probaly will have to go through about 6345 reviews...

The machine I have - used to be supported by Gaggia UK, who were very good, and were quite happy to send me the odd part rather than me sending the machine (no fault with machine - just heavy-handedness). But they closed their UK operation, so would still recommend the Gaggia, but buy at John Lewis perhaps?

Mine is fairly noisy (grinding) compared to new models from other makers, but 12 yrs of use is testament to the build quality, I feel. The basic machine within the body is used by a few of the major players (Saeko, etc), so the parts are easily got.

I had a search going in Ebay, for a pal who was after a similar machine, and found an identical unit to mine - with low cup-count (they log all the cups made), and supposedly only used for pre-ground coffee. I bought it for £170, which I saw as a good price for a source of parts.

The repair I needed on my own machine was £130, for a new PCB, so the purchase of a complete machine for £170 seemed like a good idea.

So - look at reviews, and I would recommend getting one with programable quantities (mine - you can set for 3 different cup-sizes) so that you get the amount required for your espresso, medium cup and Mug-sizes.

I'd also recommend forgetting about the milk steamer - more trouble than they are worth, as cleaning the nozzle is a bitch.

Get yourself a Nespresso milk frother (you can get them cheap on eBay from people who buy the Nespresso package, but look to recoup some money - by selling the frother.)

In summary - get a good bean-cup machine, and get a decent warranty on it.

(oh! - when you clean the brewing unit.... be gentle.)


Al

[Blackal]

As an aside:


My ritual nowadays:

1) run some cold water into my coffee cup and bang in the microwave for 1:20 to heat the cup.
2) pour some milk into the milk-frother.
3) make the coffee into the hot cup, and at the same time:
4) Switch on the milk brother.

Presto-hey! it's all ready at the same time (45 secs for coffee) !

(Boxerscott simplifies the process somewhat)

1) Don't bother getting dressed - go down to the kitchen naked
2) Make the coffee in the machine
3) Take the cup back to bed, apologising to any guests he passes......

Al

[BlackBox12]

Thanks for the tips, Al

Been looking at some prices and for about 500 - 600€, I can get myself a nice piece of machinery. I think.

Good you mention the steamer. We both take our coffee as black as my 1200S
A cow frother on the side for the occasional guest might be handy.

Peter

[BlackBox12]

And if yours is anything like mine, you'll walk around every store in town and look at every available machine and then she'll decide to buy the first machine in the first store you went to - because the colour matches the kitchen.

Thank God... I thought I was the only one !!!

Anyone else wanna join? Meeting's next Tuesday.

[Mitch1100]

Coffee..love the whole ritual, have a Breville machine with inbuilt grinder, fully programable produces a nice shot. Dream machine would be an ECM MECHANIKA Also have a collection of Zassenhaus, PE DE, hand grinders, an Italian Atomic and Alessi Cupola stovetops.