so if you’ve got a better grinder (that can dispense a measured shot) or happy with pre ground beans then it’s great.

I dont, but I’m happy to live with the occasional inconsistent cup.

I use scales with the portafilter on to weigh the dose (with a Eureka Mignon grinder and unpressurised basket) and it’s pretty consistent. I guess if you are using the type of grinder that grinds finer with more time it would be hard to be consistent.

The pressurised basket with preground lavazza makes for a pretty acceptable cappuccino TBH.

2-3 a day

pfft amateur. +1 to the Mokka if it’s just 2-3 a day

In the best STW “the car you need is a Unimog” fashion, the 9Barista stove top pot looks amazing, if frantically expensive.

(I have a Bialetti Brikka which made great coffee, if you can cope with brown water spewing all over the stove top if the threads aren’t clean enough)

BigJohn
Full Member
2 points to make from me:

A “dosing grinder” like the Iberital MC30 is a really useful thing to have. Just grind the beans for the cup, every time.
Coffee equipment is like a dishwasher: it takes ages to justify to yourself the large cost and space required but the moment it conks out it only takes a second to decide on a replacement.

ha ha – this is so true – We had a mini meltdown at home when the last coffee machine broke (or rather it wasn’t working properly, so i “fixed it” for good… stright to the interweb for a new one – no hesitation even though we didn’t want to spend any money that month… Im not sure this paints us in a good picture –

In the best STW “the car you need is a Unimog” fashion, the 9Barista stove top pot looks amazing, if frantically expensive.

Wow that looks massively over-built, overcomplicated and ludicrously expensive – I love it. 🙂

ratherbeintobago
Full Member

that’s bonkers complicated – i like it though. Would love one of those Ardulino’s, they’re mad though cant help feel it’s a bit 3rd reich..?

@grum Like I said, it’s fully in line with the forum answer to anything 😛

The 9barista looks amazing but I’m not sure I fancy cleaning one…

I use scales with the portafilter on to weigh the dose (with a Eureka Mignon grinder and unpressurised basket) and it’s pretty consistent.

Are you talking about coffee or shooting up some weird drug? 😂

Toe-may-toe / Toe-mah-toe
a-RAB-ick-a / ar-a-Beek-a

I’m not a coffee aficionado, but that 9Barista thing is amazing!

Ridiculously marketed (jet engineered; alright mate, whatever) but there looks to be a lot going on in that pot for your 295 sheets…..!

There is a bloke who reviews these things on the internets. Here is his only slightly pretentious review of the 9Barista one:

I’ve a Rok Espresso that’s lasted longer than they have been called Rok, its had a new piston and seals a few times but its going fine.

I have also got a Gaggia Classic, had it for 14 years as of next month, its used daily whenever I’m working at home (most days) it has had a couple of pump/boiler swaps in that time, but I guess it shows that parts are easily available.

In the best STW “the car you need is a Unimog” fashion, the 9Barista stove top pot looks amazing, if frantically expensive.

What they don’t show I that beautiful picture is the stupid plastic “chimney” on the side (you can see it in that video)…ruins it for me

Francis & Francis X1 👌

That’s not a ‘bloke on the internet’, that’s Sir James of the Square Mile! He’s not that pretentious really, just really really cares about coffee.

There’s always the Linea mini which is timeless looking, costs a bit though.

@toby1 I beg to differ. He may care a lot about coffee, but he is unutterably pretentious.

Rocket Espresso Appartamento is quite a looker also IMO

Not sure I’d call Hoffman pretentious but he is a massive hipster – I guess some people would say that’s the same thing 🙂

Fyi, I’m also a heathen and just use Lavazza preground from the co-op

Right – this was great advice thanks!

I dug out my Bialetti Venus stove top thing and watched a YouTube video on how to use it. 😂
I bought some Lavazza preground coffee and used it last night to make a coffee. I put milk in it (not a fan of black coffee) but it made it a bit cold so this morning I made the same thing but heated the milk up first in the microwave. Made a really nice drink – no idea what Italian word is relevant for the drink I made but I really liked it.

I had a stove top one before a few years ago and never managed to make something nice so I binned it. From watching the YouTube video I am sure I was using it wrongly – I didn’t hear the water beforehand. Doing that made it a lot quicker and tasted nicer I reckon.

Waiting for the unit to cool and blowing out the grounds from the basket thing was a revelation in cleaning it too! Saved a load of time.

Thinking I might want a milk steamer at some point but I’m happy with what I’ve made so far.

As long as you enjoy then that’s all the justification you need. Getting too into coffee can be a slippery slope…

I’ve gone full Hario since lockdown. V60, V60 stand and scales, Hario hand grinder. Pact coffee bean subscription. Drink about 2 black coffee’s a day, 20g fine grind to 300ml water
It’s a great setup for home use.

Get the olive wood stand if you want to look funcy

I’ve owned 3 gaggia machines, (gaggia classic/gaggia baby etc) and the Kitchenaid artisan which has gaggia internals, all suffered from the usual gaggia issues such as poor temp control (swings of +/-10 degrees), solenoid valve blocking issues, steam wand seals and boiler leaks.

Had sage duo temp plus for the previous 5 years and pulled more than 5000 shots through it without a single issue/problem, give the grouphead and screen a clean when I remember and that’s all the maintenance its needed, sage grinder pro is excellent as well.

Bought my bro a sage creatista pod machine as a gift when he managed to buy his first house and it makes perfectly decent/drinkable espresso’s and all forms of espresso based drinks, quite stylish and very well built (bought him a pod machine as he’s not fussed about grinding beans/faff involved).

Or if its simple coffee you want, the sage precision brew coffee maker makes a very good normal coffee (bought this for mum last year, 3 of her friends have since bought the same machine) and if its good enough for James Hoffman then it must be decent.

Guess I should be working for the sage marketing department………

Getting too into coffee can be a slippery slope…

Yes I think some people on here have slipped down the slope, wedged themselves at the bottom and are now trying to dig through to the other side.

Hoffman hams the hipster thing up, he’s quite self deprecating at times. I’d love one of these machines but it’d be a waste as I don’t like milk with my coffee. I like to taste the actual coffee 😳

Getting too into coffee anything can be a slippery slope…

Yes I think some people on here have slipped down the slope, wedged themselves at the bottom and are now trying to dig through to the other side

*Waves*

Totally accept that I’m one of those people, in my defence though the coffee is lovely on this side of the hole 😉

Cafelat robot (as suggested prevously), is a good call – I think they look great and make a really good cup of coffee, as long as you are drinking it black.

The new Gaggia classics come in a variety of colours and are quite understated – the white in particular.

My initial thought was the Rocket Apartmento as posted above – which has great styling, but I chose the Lelit MaraX instead as it’s smaller/better and retro styling wasn’t a priority. Paired with a Niche Zero grinder (itself quite retro looking) probably the best bang/buck/footprint setup you can get for semi-automatic machine.

On balance I’d reccomend the Ascaso. Not used one myself, but have a good reputation.

Ascaso website

Looks the part, is decent….. not 10,000 pounds. Winner.

Thinking I might want a milk steamer at some point but I’m happy with what I’ve made so far.

Get the Dualit electric milk frother. It’s £50 just to froth milk, but if you drink a lot then is worth it imo. Hearts the milk to the right temp without risk of burning it and the froth is pretty good.

I use a bialetti brikka and the milk frother. It makes a perfectly acceptable approximation of a flat white style coffee.

The milk frother can also do cold milk so this week I’ve been doing iced coffees which has been 👌

I’ve been experimenting with a sweet Kyoto-style cold brew using my Aeropress. It takes somewhere between 3 and 12 hours. Is that hipster enough?

Very.