[Closed] Coffee-which one am bestest?

Hot Lava Java. It'll put hairs on your chest.

I am guessing this is an espresso type machine. If so, and if you plan on buying pre-ground coffee, just make sure you buy stuff marked 'espresso'. It will be ground more finely, which is what you need for an espresso maker for various reasons.

Beyond that, it's a question of taste. Personally I don't like anything roasted too far on grounds of flavour. My favourite espresso is M&S espresso, and it's half the price of Illy.

if it's an espresso machine then it's got to be Lavazza coffee

if its any other type then shop around and see what you like.

Hell fire. Do you mean ESAM 5600?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Delonghi-Perfecta-ESAM5600-Graphic-Machine/dp/B003DPSPE2

That's a lot of machine.

*sits down with a nice cup of tea to await the niche-tastic one-upmanship that occurs with these coffee threads*

Well, you've opened the gates of needless arsiness early, which is as good a start as any.

That's a lot of machine.

That's what I thought...!

Just buy some stuff and try some stuff. Find a local roaster if you can and try fresher coffee. What is lovely to you may be poo to someone else. Obviously, if it is civet poo then accept it!

Find your local Italin/French deli. Get trying 'em out! My local does a lovely blend for me.

Lavazza is good. Illy is better (but stupidly expensive these days) - I couldn't afford to drink it as my daily tipple.

Is there a coffee shop somewhere in town whose coffee you like? Most of them will sell bags of their blend of coffee.

Nice piece of kit by the way. 🙂

(If you like something strong, I'd suggest trying a blend of Java & Mocha. Java as a single blend can be a bit of a kick but the Mocha smoothes it out. That's as anal as I'm going to get 🙂 )

Illy is better (but stupidly expensive these days) - I couldn't afford to drink it as my daily tipple.

Buy it once then keep the metal tin to keep subsequent inferior brands in and wow your guests with your seemingly opulent lifestyle. 8)

You'll want whole beans for that, since it grinds them itself within the machine. You can get some in most supermarkets, couldn't judge them as I've not tried any, but wasn't particularly impressed with any pre-ground stuff I've tried like Illy or Lavazza.

We've got an independant roaster who sells on Salisbury market who I use a lot. Have to say though, I've had beans from somewhere online ( maybe Happy Donkey?) and that was a cut above anything I've had before. You have to buy in reasonably quantities to make it cheaper though I'd say.

+1 for the lot in Salisbury market.

Illy is better (but stupidly expensive these days) - I couldn't afford to drink it as my daily tipple.

Buy it once then keep the metal tin to keep subsequent inferior brands in and wow your guests with your seemingly opulent lifestyle.

Damn 😛

With my limited knowledge and skill combined with a budget maker, Lavazza pre ground is the most consistent and tasty

Talk to him about sailing Flashie, and you'll be there until the market shuts!

With my limited knowledge and skill combined with a budget maker, Lavazza pre ground is the most consistent and tasty

also the no.1 seller in italy.

but i'm sure they know nothing about it.

He sails? Oh man, that sounds dangerous! Trips to town take an age these days! Just getting out of Stonehenge isa mission in itself! 🙂

the niche-tastic one-upmanship

And as night follows day...

i prefer coffee made from ground beans that have been shit out by a rhino then eaten by a pelican and then dried out and fine ground. if not lavvazza will do 🙂

Am besten? Lidl GranArom.

also the no.1 seller in italy.

Stella Artois is the best selling lager in the UK, but I'd not recommend it to anyone. Caffe Kimbo is the best selling coffee in the Naples area - I'd recommend that if you want a belting cup of espresso.

Personally I'd get Lavazza or Ily (in bean format) to get started. Its good middle of the road, its also widely available and consistent. Use that to get good at making coffee with your machine - then start buying other stuff and see how its different and use those differences to guide you towards what you prefer. Buy different new beans before the old ones have run out and then you've got better comparisons to make.

Buying beans from a local cafe you like is an idea - but don't get carried away, they'll have chosen the beans to suit their kit, what tastes great when they make it might not work out when you make stuff yourself with it. Fell for that recently when had a particularly nice cup from a local cafe - asked to buy some of the beans and they offered me about 50gms in a little paper bag. Wanted something bigger and as they didn't have any other paper bags ended up walking out the shop £20 lighter with a 2kg catering bag under my arm. Couldn't get a good cuppa out of the stuff to save my life, although trying to improved my coffee making a good bit.

Personally like Jamaican Blue Mountain beans, but I prefer ground to espresso.

Hot Lava Java. It'll put hairs on your chest.

It'll certainly make your pupils twitch and talk gibberish. First cup is 'interesting' 🙂

if it's an espresso machine then it's got to be Lavazza coffee

really? mass produced and past it's best by the time it gets to you.

*sits down with a nice cup of tea to await the niche-tastic one-upmanship that occurs with these coffee threads*

nothing wrong with using recently roasted (in small batches) beans from a coffee retailer like hasbean, monmouth etc that tastes better than old
lavazza monmouth/hasbean/square mile house blend expresso is much better (imho) and the same price or cheaper.

illy smells great when you open the packet but stale after a few hours because it's old coffee.

[url= http://www.happydonkey.co.uk/home.php?cat=525 ]Happy Donkey[/url] sell very good beans, low cost if you buy about £30 worth and the postage gets split between the 10 packs.

Otherwise www.azorieblue.com/ and http://www.hasbean.co.uk/ do good beans too but the advantage with happy donkey is the courier they use gives very accurate delivery times.

Brans are 100 times better thabn pre ground.

+1 to what MrSmith said.

Beans from the decent roasters are about 20 quid a kilo, cheaper than Illy & loads fresher. You'll notice the difference.

If you're in that London, pay a trip to one of Monmouth's shops. Their organic espresso blend is my personal favourite.

It's getting nichier by the post.

Whats the big deal with illy - only ever had it at illy coffee shops in france and i must say bitter - very bitter !

Hot java lava is what kept me alert when i worked in africa - 14 hour shifts wired !!!!

I like taylors cafe brazilla in my cafetiere - but tastes different when done at pressure 🙁

home roasting green beans and modifying your machine is 'niche'.
picking up some fresh roasted beans on the way home or ordering them over the internet is just good coffee.

home roasting green beans and modifying your machine is 'niche'.

Am considering machining the bottom off my filter to save £27 🙂 And the mate who gave me the beans from the net has roasted before and considering doing it again, which I'm encouraging.

And finally, the bloke who runs the coffee stall on the market used to work for Monmouth Coffee, just to complete the circle of nicheness.

I'd recommend [url= http://www.hasbean.co.uk/ ]Hasbean[/url].

Massive variety of beans and fast delivery.

You generally get the beans within a day or two of roasting.

trailmonkey - Member
Illy is better (but stupidly expensive these days) - I couldn't afford to drink it as my daily tipple.
Buy it once then keep the metal tin to keep subsequent inferior brands in and wow your guests with your seemingly opulent lifestyle.

Oh ****, busted!

Anyway, the first beans I bought were the cheapest M&S beans I could get, TBH they were nicer than the rest of the supermarket available stuff I can find, well bar Illy, but that's expensive 😉

I've been getting my Coffee beans from [url= http://www.smallbatchcoffee.co.uk/ ]Small Batch Coffee[/url] recently and I really like both blends I've tried so far. Great service and quick delivery from them every time.

Lavazza is good. Illy is better (but stupidly expensive these days) - I couldn't afford to drink it as my daily tipple.

it works out about 25p for a double shot, i think i spend about £4-6 on coffee a week (for home espresso's) hardly excessive and way cheaper than starbucks.

either you are a tightwad or have a serious caffeine addiction.

Try the coffee subscription from [url= http://www.hasbean.co.uk/ ]hasbean[/url]. A different coffee every month and there are some damn good coffees.

+ 1 Big john
+ 1 matthewjb
+ 1 nielsonwheels
I have a weekly subscription to hasbean called "in my mug". A good way to try different coffees every week.
Have tried all of thier espresso blends and can reccomend.

Also liked
http://shop.squaremilecoffee.com/
They have some pretty intense coffees and usually always delivered close to roasting.

Finally I like Red Roaster in Brighton if you happen to be in that neck of the woods...
Try before you buy as you can get a cafeterirerrerererer made up
http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/red-roaster-coffee-house-brighton

either you are a tightwad or have a serious caffeine addiction.

Are you normally this thick or are you just getting a bit sandy fannied about coffee.

sorry, i didn't allow for being unemployed or on the minimum wage and not being able to afford 25p to make a coffee, everyone on this forum seems to ride around on £2.5k bikes so i wrongly assumed everyone was rolling in it.

I find lavazza is easy to make espresso w crema - I seem to struggle with other supremarket in-house stuff.

Does grinding beans to get fresh really taste lots different then? I have a feeling I've got a bit of a blender I could bodge...

A BLENDER?!?!?!?!?!?! OMG 😯

*sits down with a nice cup of tea to await the niche-tastic one-upmanship that occurs with these coffee threads*

Hi [IMG] [/IMG]

[img] [/img]

*savours the coffee*

Get my beans from local shop [url= http://www.facebook.com/MacBeans?created ]Macbeans[/url]

Blender 😯 Mmmm are you trolling

[img] http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSpquN9WHnYJezp9tXPdjNOQg5KCecyJ2Fd4TTO6QKYEVfkXuMsJw&t=1 [/img]

oli - step away from the bodge!

I find lavazza is easy to make espresso w crema - I seem to struggle with other supremarket in-house stuff.

Are you using finely ground stuff (marked espresso) or coffee intended for cafetiéres? I have no problems getting crema from supermarket coffee, which is odd.

where is Dr P and his cat shit coffee?

the blender claims to have an attachment for doing breadcrumbs - similar right? 😛

just use a plastic bag and a rolling pin instead of a proper grinder.

trailmonkey - Member
if it's an espresso machine then it's got to be Lavazza coffee

+1 for Lavazza.

Try some and see if you like it.

I do like Illy though but have not compared the 2 back to back, normally have Illy when out and Lavazza at home to keep things different.

I keep trying other makes with fancy names and claims but something is just right about Lavazza and Illy.

PS nice choice of machine. Quite depressing how the capsule machines have taken over the shelves in the shops these days.

Lavazza all the way here! Lavazza Rossa (in the red packet)

Used to be an Illy but its just too expensive since Costco stopped stocking it...

[img] [/img]

Grabbed some Lavazza preground from the shop across the road last night as I had to use the machine.It seems a nice coffee but a little 'weak'. Mind you on the machine there's only one setting for strength with preground as opposed to 5 or 6 for beans. (It is ESAM 5600 btw. WIfe has a friend who works for manufacturer, I saw the price online and nearly spat out my newly made coffee!)
I'm off to hunt out various beans this afternoon, any recommendations for shops in Portsmouth area? Looking forward to feeding a new 'addiction'.....

If anybody is thinking of getting a grinder (and I staunchly maintained for years that Lavazza ground was good enough until I bit the bullet and realised I was plain wrong) may I recommend the [url= http://www.happydonkey.co.uk/mc2review/mc2review.htm ]Iberital MC2[/url]from Happy Donkey.

It's good because it grinds the beans directly into your filter in a measured dose so it's even less faff than using ground out of a tin. And at £114 it's a steal for a proper burr grinder.

you have to add vat to that (and maybe shipping?)still a good price.
if you are short on space the ascaso i-mini is good too in either stainless or black.

I buy from Whittards of Chelsea coffee beans of different choice, wouldn't recommend buying bigger packs over week's suply as beans have to be fresh. Also, for extra ooomph consider adding a bit of syrup instead of brown sugar ( caramel, hazelnut, amaretto etc ).

Syrup's great for coffee. I like hazelnut.

Syrup???!?!?!?! 🙄

syrup? like adding coca-cola to single malt.

If you haven't tried it ... there saying goes. Not suggesting adding Rybeena squash am I ? Well if you go far into niche of drinking fine coffee, one must experiment. High street coffee brands off supermarkets shelf? You must be joking me!

Amaretto is lovely added to a good espresso.

or grappa if it's not good enough to drink on it's own.

Vanilla syrup and a small spoon of double cream really brings out the flavour of a single estate arabica.

squirty cream, hundreds and thousands and chocolate sauce helps bring out the subtle flavours of a freshly ground single estate Yirgacheffe.

Like makeup on a beautiful lady, or barbeque sauce on asparagus.

MrSmith, I bet you are a fine coffee connoisseur!

Caramel syrup.

Also perfect for adding into Oreo cookie milkshakes 🙂

Machines that grind or can take pre-ground are the best. We have a Jura machine at Uni which is great. But it takes a beating (lots of coffee addicted academics and post grads/docs).

Nice place round the corner that roasts beans too so you can go in and have a chat about what you like and let him recommend something to try.

After reading this thread I decided to get some better coffee. I went to a Deli in town and asked for espresso beans ground for an espresso machine. The coffee had next to no smell, and I could of ground better with that suggestion of a rolling pin and plastic bag.

I decided to order some decent stuff, so I ordered a couple of packs of coffee from [url= http://www.highlandcoffees.co.uk/ ]Highland Coffees[/url].

I have had some of their coffee before and it was really good. I made a mistake in my order so I phoned up, they were very helpful and sorted it out and said they were roasting tomorrow and would send it out tomorrow afternoon, so it should be nice and fresh.

Innes

I tried buying beans from a local roaster, but prefer Sainsbury's espresso beans. This may make me a philistine, but it shows that personal preference is what counts. I do find a grinder to be essential though - unless you drink a fair amount, pre-ground will have gone stale before you finish the packet.

if you are short on space the ascaso i-mini is good too in either stainless or black.

I have an 250W I-Mini. If all you're grinding for is espresso & shelf space is tight then it's an excellent machine. (It needed a minor bit of work with the Dremmel. The grinds back up the chute partly due to a burr on the bottom of the chute & partly because the basket is too close to the chute. It seems to be a known problem with them, but was easily fixed. 😀

said they were roasting tomorrow and would send it out tomorrow afternoon, so it should be nice and fresh.

i prefer to let the beans finish de-gassing before grinding, 3-4 days is usually enough.