I found out today as my home office is not connected to the house and is not shared as a domestic dwelling or some other accountancy nonsense (it’s a very big insulated shed with a bike workshop on one side and my office in the other), I can legitimately buy a new coffee machine as company fixtures and fittings. Result.

I’ve had my eye on this one for a while and now it’s come down in price. Can find a bad review of it on the web.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001EOMZ5E/ref=pe_102011_42318521_em_1p_0_ti

I have a six year old Gaggia Classic currently. Love my coffee, really can’t be faffing with all the bean grinding/cleaning up after I saw a mates bean to cup which made a brilliant cup of coffee.

£300 seems a stupid amount for a coffee machine. Can’t see me paying anymore. But always happy to hear other options. We do have a great coffee roaster in Ross so I’m good for fresh roasted beans.

go for it Alex!

I’d love an office with the space to put something like that in – a kettle on the floor is as far as it goes for me 🙁
Is your office / bike shed my office / bike shed? insulated large outbuilding with dividing wall ???

However bean to cup – I sometimes visit likes of BP at Dyce and weep when some monster device cranks into action and delivers something rather tasty..

— Callum

Cheers Callum. I don’t use my home office much at the moment but it’s exactly that config. Wooden building, divided about down the centre (bike workshop obviously is bigger), fully insulated (floor and walls by the fellas that built it, roof by me and a few mates during the now famous ‘herefordshire kingspan explosion), power, heat, no water and I had to remove the beer fridge for medicinal reasons.

Right then. Where’s the company credit card… 🙂

I have this machine. Had it for 18 months, and used everyday. Can’t say anything bad about it, but I never use the steam wand so not sure what that is like.

I paid about £240 from currys a 18 months ago I seem to remember.

Alex can we take this one step further, I think you really need a micro brewery attached for entertaining clients!

Thanks Dom, cheapest I could find was £299 with 3.5% back with Quidco. Think my old Gaggia was £200 ish. It’s given me fine service but it’s pretty knackered now. Still must have done 2000+ cups.

H – it’s a good idea. Maybe we can make whiskey as well. You and I can ‘test’ the beer and Matt can fix my bikes next door. There are no losers in this 🙂

ah, old wash-house / coal storage conversion here, ended up as just four (2′ thick) stone walls for a while, insulated floor, walls, ceiling, power, heat (wood burner in corner using old wash-house ‘dolly’ boiler)..

mmm, brewery..

I’d love a wood burner. But knowing my slapdashery the entire shed’d be a one-use wood burner… we built the workshop/office before we started on the house. And the house had no heating! That’s priorities for you,

Nice Door Mister by Alex Leigh, on Flickr

It isn’t that orange anymore. Needs a bit of TLC with a paintbrush some varnish inside and out. I think I might have to get a man in to do that. My paintbrush boredom threshold is about 7 seconds.

Alex, how big is that? Need to build my office/workshop in the back yard after Xmas to set up a materials lab in.

Hi Alex
I had a Jura machine in our office for years but it kept playing up and costing £200 a time to have it fixed, I looked at buying another but couldn’t really justify the cost.

Looked in at John Lewis and decided to buy this ONE

Being using it now for around 6months and it’s great, just as good a cup of coffee as the Jura but a bit easier to clean and maintain

Can’t get my link to work 🙁

Search John Lewis bean to cup machines

De’Longhi Magnifica ECAM22.110.B

ahh, it’s the ‘ in de’longhi

here you go: http://goo.gl/uU9gjV

7M x 5M I think. I wanted to go to the end of the concrete. But we ran out of money before we ran out of slab! The slab was already laid and a local firm built the big shed, insulated and plaster boarded it, put the electrics in, etc for about 5k. We had to do the roof insulation and the fit out.

That’s the one

Ta – yeah looks similar. I’ll be happy with a machine that doesn’t look like it’s on the point of exploding. Probably should have cleaned mine a few more times!

We’ve got the one in the op. It is pretty good, but there are a couple of niggles. It takes up a lot of space, the steam wand is noisy and the descaling cycle is a pain in the backside. I’d give it 7/10 and if you can get it for a decent price it’s worth it.

if you can get a cheap gaggia brera, it’s out lasted all of our company’s previous gaggias and juras (not got on with the jura at all)

We have this one also, it is pretty good 7/10 is about right. You must read the instructions and keep them close at hand, descaling is a pain but only needed every 3 months or so depending on use, there is no ignoring it when the light comes on it literally stops working until you run the 30 min program.

I would say £300 is at the cheap end for a bean to cup machine,

£300 might be cheap indeed. But for a man brought up with a kettle, a pint of milk, a chipped mug and some nescafe, it feels profligate! I did look at some of the super posh ones but honestly you could buy a decent pair of forks for that 😉

I was introduced to the joys of ‘back flushing’ with my current gaggia. I didn’t dare google it at first. Thought it might be a rude sexual practice.

Anyway it arrives Monday, so I’ll take the advice and read the instructions before diving in with the desperate need for a caffeine hit.

We are on our third Saeco Royale at work. Get them second hand ex serviced apartments & they are great. The current one has been pumping out at least 20 coffees a day for the last 3 years with only a few smacks with a spanner.