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Recommend me an all-in-one espresso maker
Heir
Ausitn, TXRegistered User regular
Ausitn, TXRegistered User regular
I like coffee, espresso, americanos.
Currently I've got a Keurig currently, but those pods are really expensive (not to mention bad for the environment).
I've been looking at some espresso makers that store and grind the beans, tamp the grounds and store the leftover grounds all in one. Does anyone have any recommendations? The ones I've found are a bit pricey, but that's ok.
Currently I've got a Keurig currently, but those pods are really expensive (not to mention bad for the environment).
I've been looking at some espresso makers that store and grind the beans, tamp the grounds and store the leftover grounds all in one. Does anyone have any recommendations? The ones I've found are a bit pricey, but that's ok.
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http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000F49XXG/
Decent reviews, reasonable price.
Small grinder (~$20)
http://www.amazon.com/KRUPS-Electric-Grinder-Stainless-3-Ounce/dp/B00004SPEU/ref=lp_289750_1_1/186-9691165-6950054?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1461001747&sr=1-1
French Press (~$20)
http://www.amazon.com/Procizion-Espresso-Stainless-Resistant-Tempered/dp/B00PD81VFM/ref=sr_1_12?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1461001972&sr=1-12&keywords=french+press
Electric Kettle (~$15) - Your grocery probably has one for half this.
Never have to worry about any of them breaking or needing total dismantling for decalcification, because cleanup is quick and simpler, and making better cups of coffee than anything else is super easy and cheap. It takes about 4 minutes, most of that non-action waiting.
-Start kettle with fresh water boiling.
-Grind beans (5-10 seconds depending upon taste)
-our grinds into french press
-Wait for kettle o finish (~3-4 minutes)
-Pour coffee into french press.
Enjoy the best coffee you've made at home. Cleanup: rinse out the french press once done. You do need to handwash it regularly, but it takes about the same amount of time as handwashing two coffee cups. When its time to clean your french press, you simply put the grinds down your disposal or, if you have a garden, pour them directly into your soil.
French Presses are awesome, but we're talking about two completely different things.
Yeah (I note that at the beginning of my post), but there are plenty of people that associate any whole bean grinding coffee makers with expresso machine and given the leap from Kuereg-> Expresso machine I don't think It is out of the possibility to assume that here. Especially given that cost is part of the driving factor. A solid expresso machine is a 1k+ investment and not something one does without experience or a sudden explosion of disposable income.
Get an aeropress. Great for single serving and easier to clear clean than a french press. There is the regular cost of getting filters though.
If you want a coffee robot though my father-in-law has used Saeco machines for more than a decade. Expect to pay 500-1K. I'd never buy one myself, but man is it awesome when we visit, and I just push buttons and coffee appears. I never had to clean it though. Edit: And you can get crema out of it especially with the smaller cups.
I have one of the mesh replacement filters and it's lasted me a few years so far with no problems.
+1 to the French press or an aeropress, combined with an inexpensive burr grinder.
The only time I'd recommend an all-in-one machine is if you're outfitting a company kitchen and can afford to pay exorbitant amounts for a simple, no-mess solution to employees getting a caffeine kick without leaving the building (and you don't particularly care if their coffee is drinkable). For your own personal use, it's basically paying thousands to say "I'm lazy and I don't give a damn about quality".
... I think that may be a bit of hyperbole.
I've conceded all-in-ones have their place, and if you can justify spending the kind of money to get a decent one they'll probably be serviceable. But you'll get much better results for a fraction of the price by buying the machine, grinder etc separately and getting a setup you can properly control and maintain.
(Also the machine you linked doesn't look to be an all-in-one machine?)
Yeah, they generally suck. For regular coffee, French Press is the way to go. A good drip machine if you need to make coffee for multiple people regularly.
For espresso, get a good pump espresso maker if you want to be on a budget, or a good semi or fully-automatic if not.
Also, from experience, there's no such thing as a cheap espresso maker that lasts more than a year of use. Cheap as in, anything less than $500 will last a year, at most, and you don't get into really durable models until you reach about $1000.
I love this one. The only problem is that its base is weak plastic. The original one I purchased last year was cracked down the middle, but they sent me a replacement and its been my true love for a year.
But I have a PSA: My teeth have been slightly stained since then. You should gently brush your teeth after coffee. I tried to switch to tea because of it, but I drank English Breakfast and almost puked a few minutes later. Its that high in caffeine. I didn't know the Brits drank such powerful shit.
I'm terrible, and didn't check this link earlier. It turns out superautomatics are a lot smaller and cheaper than I remember. That said: the cheapest "staff pick" there is $799. For that kind of money, you could pick up a Gaggia Classic ($399 on Amazon) and a Baratza Virtuoso grinder ($239 on Amazon, recommended by Sweet Home) and have enough left for a lot of beans.
I'm recommending a Gaggia Classic because sourcing parts and service will be easier from a well-known brand, and also because I've used the same one for the past ten years. @hsu is right that cheaper machines don't last as long, but the Gaggia is surprisingly user-serviceable, and regular cleaning and upkeep will get you a long way.
As far as superautomatics go, you'll be paying more for the convenience of having an all-in-one kit, as well as the added complexity of having one machine that can do everything. They won't be any cleaner inside than a regular coffee machine, but upkeep will probably be more difficult and service costs will probably be higher as a result. For your efforts, you won't be getting best-in-class performance from any part of your machine, and the most you can hope for is something easily emulated by a kit costing far less both initially and over time.
Also: making espresso is hard! Of all the methods to make coffee, espresso is the harshest and most unforgiving, and if you like your coffee black you'll probably get a much nicer cup out of either a french press, aeropress, or any of the filter options out there today.
Get you closer to "espresso" than a French Press, but they are kind of fiddly. I do find it tastes better out of a pretentiously small cup.
It's also 19$
Edit: No espresso ever came out of a k-cup.
Yeah, at home I'm lazy. I work from home and am incredibly busy, so K-cups are nice for the convenience factor...but they're certainly not espresso.
My last company I worked for in an office had a nice actual espresso maker. Learned how to adjust the grind coarseness and amount, how to get just the right tamp, etc etc. Loved it. But yeah, I don't really have time for things like a french press and I really dislike drip coffee for the most part. K-cups are basically just tolerable at best.
My brother has this that he got on sale and loves it: http://www.shopjura.com/super-fully-automatics/impressa-c65.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwi9K4BRCQzq7d1c6A_XASJABueAO2PvdVycfpQo4WG7QpoBPk3t405Ua5rFgPxM7uOFo7fRoCYevw_wcB
My budget would preferably be around $750-1000 so some of the recommendations I've seen are doable. Thankfully I've got a shit ton of credit card points saved up and I can use them on Amazon so this won't actually cost me too much out of pocket. Hooray.
And to those of you suggesting I buy a reusable k-cup. Everyone I've tried leaves a bunch of fine powdered grounds in my cup...no thanks.
You're grinding the coffee too much if the particles are small enough to make it through the filter. It may be worth exploring the multi-use k-cups again. I know it would seem like having the coffee beans ground to dust is a good idea, but even an espresso ground isn't quite powder.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CNY6UK/ref=s9_top_hd_bw_bxQd7_g79_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-2&pf_rd_r=1ZM4WVNHNKB5BJE5NP1X&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=2b6c2f1a-0679-4853-8c43-bb9fe13a6137&pf_rd_i=14163721
I have something like this and it takes 1 minute to prepare and another to clean it up. And I swear it tastes so much better than all the fully and semi-automatic machine made espressos I have tasted before. Plus it makes a gurgling sound which is extremely relaxing
anyway i can recommend a phillips/Saeco minuto if budget is tight. I have one myself and it's perfectly servicable.
http://www.amazon.com/HD8775-48-Philips-Automatic-Espresso/dp/B00ETLNSQ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1461062646&sr=8-1&keywords=phillips+saeco+minuto
i grind up 500 grams of beans each week.
i decalcify about once every 1.5 months
i de-crud and de-oil every 3 months
This is bullshit imho.
Unless you buy too cheap or are making 500 cups a day, a decent machine will not break down on you. Cleaning and maintenance is required but as stated it's not even a monthly job.
You will 100% spend more time making coffee using an expresso machine than you will with a French press. The coffee options expand considerably though with a full espresso machine! That said, bwanie's experience has not been my own re: maintenance. Our office machines have never lasted more than a year and a half each time and that is with someone caring for them on a regular cycle. I imagine we have much more wear and tear, but even with regular maintenance the more moving parts the more likely something will break. For the cost I've never seen a point when you generally wouldn't pay for itself in cost under several years of regular use.
I did state mine was for personal use, which I assume is the OP's case as well. Me and my wife make between 4-10 cups a day.
What it boils down to is: I press a button, servicable espresso/coffee comes out.
I can do this about 200 -300 times then i have to decalcify.
For making espresso.
To make an americano, boil a kettle and add hot water to top up the espresso shot?
Or have I been cocking this up the whole time?
That's not real espresso though, as espresso requires forcing hot water under high pressure through the coffee.
It is good coffee though.
You can also get a reusable metal filter for it that takes care of the replacing filters part - if thats an issue to you.
I know everyone is going to recommend a grinder and grinding your own coffee (and I recommend it as well), but if you really want ease of use buying pre-ground espresso (keep it in air tight container) and using an aeropress is ridiculously damn easy to use and clean*. And its going to be way better than a Keurig. And waaay cheaper than an all in one espresso machine.
*cleaning an aeropress is actually kind of satisfying. That *pop* noise when you push the coffee puck out.... mmm
Couple things:
1. I really have very little time between meetings, which I'm in most of the day. So I need something that I can literally hit a button, go pee real quick, come back and see it's ready. Sure I could put some water on a kettle to boil, but since I don't take calls in the kitchen I'd have to walk out of the middle of my meeting to take it off the burner. Again, I want something that's just very quick and I can do by the push of a button.
2. I'm not asking for recommendations for an actual espresso machine where I have to grind the beans, tamp the grounds and clean up afterwards. I'm looking for a super fully automatic that does it all at the push of a button.
Thanks for this recommendation @bwanie. I actually found that one on Amazon a bit back, and am torn between it and the Jura Impressa C60. I think I might go with the C60 based on reviews I've read...seems to be a bit sturdier, and maintenance is fairly painless.
Since philips is a dutch brand, the Saecos are actually a lot cheaper than Juras over here. So to me the price difference was too much (over 300 euro's!).
But it's not even 100 dollars more in the US so....
I just use the yellow bricks of pre- ground since it needs to be a little more precise.
Have the nice burr grinder mentioned above for drip or press as well.
Honestly, I'd put my vote in for an Aeropress. It makes a hell of a cup of coffee - but it's not espresso.
Isn't this the same principle?
Same basic idea, but the details are very different; this page lists moka pot pressure as 1.5 bar and espresso maker as 9 bar; espresso makers run at just-below-boiling, moka pots are sending boiling water and potentially mixed-in steam through there, and the extraction time is different; espresso makers want 20-25 seconds, moka pot is actually doing the extraction time for significantly longer (on the order of a few minutes, if I remember correctly).
But for the OP i believe convenience is key. And while i won't argue about quality, anyone trying to sell a french press or mokapot or what have you is clearly not picking up on that.
Edit: mokapots take a few minutes to get boiling (on a portable single canister stove). One cup takes about 40 seconds of actual extraction.
Don't espresso makers have a warm up time to generate hot water? It seems like you'd need an on-demand boiling water line. In which case a Moka Pot, French Press or aeropress may actually be as quick and occupy less space.
Does the OP have inline boiling water? Some people do.
and even then, you still have to clean out/refill the other devices after each use.