Just got back from France and am always impressed with the quality of the coffee in the cafes; lovely and strong without being bitter, creamy without being milky and watery – if you get my drift…

So, what coffee machine for the house? don’t have a budget as I’m thinking out aloud, also I have no idea how much these things cost.

I’ll get the biscuits this time shall I?

mastiles; was it a stupid question? I mean will a war develop??

I bought a used Krups from ebay for £40 and it makes fantastic coffee. And that’s without a burr grinder and my sisters jeans.

decent coffee doesn’t need a biscuit 😉

and my sisters jeans.

!!!!!!!!?????????????

i have had a Gaggia evolution for about two years now and it has been ace, good coffe and the steam wand thingys is really gooy for frothing etc.

think it was about £250 which is fairly reasonable for a proper coffe machine.

matt

Just got back from France and am always impressed with the quality of the coffee in the cafes

There aren’t special machines available in France.

It’s the quality of the coffee that makes it good. Also, the French like a particular style of blend and roast which you may be appreciating.

Just don’t ask for a cappucino cos ime you get a black coffee with squirty cream on top.

I’ve just bought my second one of these:

Gaggia Titanium

I already have one at home and it has been good over the last 2 years, by next week I will also have one in my office.

You put beans and water in at one end, press a button and get coffee out at the other – what more could you want ?

Go with a bean to cup or a Nespresso depending on budget. ground coffee machines make such a mess that you have to be really keen to be bothered to do that in the morning, you will just end up with instant all the time.

My tuppence-worth – I have a Gaggia Classic and a Dualit burr grinder. It gets sparked up every Saturday morning and used all weekend. I never use it during the week but then I don’t have coffee at home before work anyway.

After quite a lot of experimenting I got to a grind that gets a lovely crema and I can make very good cappuccinos pretty much every time. I would go so far as to say if I had crap stale beans, got the grind wrong and made an almighty mess of the milk frothing it would still be better than a pod machine*

*Since I last posted on this subject I have had a Senseo coffee – awful. I have yet to try a Nespresso though and have heard they are the best pod machine if you don’t want the faff. For me – I LIKE the faff – the smell of freshly-ground beans, the pleasure of getting the proportions exactly right, the pride of a coffee that looks every bit like it came from a coffee shop.

Then not get to drink it because the kids want attention 🙁

That’s all good info, thanks for the responses. We’ve had the Senseo in the past and weren’t too impressed with it. I like the idea of the faff and probably save it for weekends or an evening coffee, rather than the morning one.

So Gaggia, Dualit, Krupps look like the ones to look at?

Mole, yeah I know what you’re saying; I suppose what I’m wanting to do is re-create those coffees at home and was thinking a machine is the way to go, got to be better than the bodum cafetiere thing we have.

We got a Delongi Magnifica from a place on Ebay ( a refurb company in Nottingham).

It is a bean to cup machie with the burr grinder.

Excellent coffee and a great price too.

I would go so far as to say if I had crap stale beans, got the grind wrong and made an almighty mess of the milk frothing it would still be better than a pod machine

I wouldn’t – Nespresso is good. Only problem is choice.

Nespresso, and the chance to charm the pants off (in your imagination at least) your wife’s sexiest best mate as you act all George Clooney-ish and make her a smooth-hint-of-dark-chocolate cappacino.

Its not what I do, no no, not at all….

And that’s without a burr grinder and my sisters jeans.

That’s because I’m wearing them. The jeans, that is.

Mol – I did say *Since I last posted on this subject I have had a Senseo coffee – awful. I have yet to try a Nespresso though and have heard they are the best pod machine if you don’t want the faff.

I read that yes 🙂

I’ve settled on an Aeropress – does me a treat and would recommend at £22 or there abouts
much nicer coffee than my old press anyday

bought mine from here where there’s a guide to using it

http://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/Aerobie-AeroPress-Coffee-%26-Espresso-Maker.html

The problem I find with being able to make really great coffee at home* is that it ruins you for most shop bought coffees. I end up having tea out now.

(* ubber geek with a La pavoni, a hand grinder and weekly hasbean.co.uk online bean order who gets up 10mins earlier than he used to go through a daily morning ritual that I love before having a wet shave with a merkur safety razor – a better definition of a middle aged middle class male has get to be concieved)

It’s all about good beans, correctly roasted and then freshly ground.

Good French coffee IME is filter coffee – possibly with hot milk (the classic cafe au lait). You don’t need a machine for that – any cafetiere is fine. Just heat the milk in a pan. Any halfway decent (burr) grinder will do as you’re after a relatively coarse grind (Dualit is good vfm). You just need to find a source of beans that you like. It’s not going to be from the supermarket though.

Espresso is an italian thing. Cheap and simple is a stovetop Moka pot, (in conjunction with the same grinder above), but for “proper” espresso (and hence cappucino, cafe latte etc) you need a more specialist grinder that can grind much more finely (I have a second hand Mazzer) and then something like a Gaggia Classic or Rancilio Silvia are the default good “starter” espresso machines. You should be able to find them second hand and/or reconditioned for about the £100 mark. The machine is the least important part of the equation though – beans, grinder and technique are what makes the difference.

(oh and pod machines all seem to produce shite. Nespresso was terrible IMO)

You’ve made me want another coffee.

shuffles off to the grinder…..

http://www.uk.jura.com/home_uk_x/products_home_use.htm

Jura ena 5 machine at home. 😀

A good grinder makes more difference than a good machine.

But if you want to use ground coffee, Lavazza is good for its price, as is Taylors of Harrogate.

For years (until I had my epiphany) we used Lavazza Black, although all of them are nice.

An epipany is not a grinder.

Actually, and this is going to sound weird, but I keep going back to Starbucks coffee beans. They seem well suited to the machine and my tastes.

JonEdwards – Member
(oh and pod machines all seem to produce shite. Nespresso was terrible IMO)

…and as you can see, just like you could spend £6000 or £600 on a bike, someone will point at it and say “thats fugly” although you might like it, personal taste and what YOU like plays a part.

You can get free tasters at John Lewis stores on most Saturdays from Nespresso, or you could lookup this blokes qualifications as global master coffee taster before you trust his unqualified far right response.

I’d start with a good source of beans, a basic burr grinder like the krups and a French press. If you want to try out express making you only need to add the aeropress to that setup as a good and cheap place to start.

My personal setup has been enhanced only today by the rather fetching grinder cover shown below. My grinder aka cement mixer can now happily run at 6am without waking the street in new “muffled” guise. 🙂

Grinder cover

K.I.S.S.

You can get free tasters at John Lewis stores on most Saturdays from Nespresso

Which is exactly what myself and the SO did. We tried 4 different pod types. All were vile. Thin and watery, no mouthfeel, poor crema and ridiculously bitter. The impression I got was that there wasn’t enough coffee in the pod, and it was poorly packed/tamped so it was overextracting far too early (what crema there was, was pale cream, not a rich reddy brown).

Left me with quite an upset stomach.

But hey, if you like it – fine by me.

K.I.S.S.

Meh, my cat eats your poncy italian waiter for breakfast!

Hey, davidjones we used to have one of those, maybe I should start with that, presumably I should add a grinder… What does burr refer to?

I got a Gaggia Brera bean to cup machine. Great machine, great coffee.

All were vile. Thin and watery, no mouthfeel, poor crema and ridiculously bitter.

Find it hard to imagine that we are talking about the same machine tbh. I know coffee and the stuff I drank was definitely none of those things. Aside from taste there was definitely loads of crema. 4-5mm on an espresso.

Gaggia classic and a gaggia burr grinder , heavy duty tamper , bottomless filter and good fresh beans from an artisan roaster = hmmmmmmtastic loveliness

Personally I am not too keen on my Gaggia.. Cuisinart seems much better to me.

Gaggia Factory bought 2nd hand off ebay plus Ascaso grinder. Love the faff of making.

As others have said the important thing is the beans. I get mine from Hasbean. Lots of variety and very fresh. Usually delivered within a day of roasting.

For making the coffee I have a Gaggia Titanium. Perfect espresso at the touch of a button. Cappuccino is easy as well but I don’t drink that.

Seems to be a lot of differing opinions on nespresso, more than I’d probably expect from differing personal tastes. Is there wide variation in the quality of output from the different machines?

I’ve only had one cup of nespresso at a friend’s house – very unimpressive. If I was to go down that route I’d want to have a positive test drive at JL or the like first- I’m sure there is lots of choice out there. Whilst they are are expensive per shot, the machines are not too expensive and obviously no grinder to buy so if you are a very occasional user or this is just a fad you are going through and it’ll be at the back of the cupboard inside 3 months it probably makes sense.