espresso coffee maker - advice needed

keithwjones

The Ebay link above seller also selling:

Rancilio Silva and Rocky Grinder £419 + £25 postage

Rancilio is highly rated but price is way above budget.

Keith

Janeyjaz

you need at least a machine with 15 bar pressure, I agree a good coffee grinder makes all the difference, and buying good coffee, we've had a morphy richards and it's really good - have a look at their website - they do a 15 bar model for £59.99 with a 2 year guarantee

belfastgirl23

TBH we've had several different types of coffee maker and nothing beats the little stove top pot for convenience and taste. The fancy ones are all very well but there's so much faffing about that you need to be making coffee in industrial quantities to make it worthwhile. I'd say spend the money on good quality beans instead...

ferret

WHICH? magazine best buy in September 2005 was BRIEL DUO VERSATILE (around £125)

I bought one last January and have used it daily for last 16 months - would recommend it without question

I do have a grinder but find that pre-ground illy (black band tins) is excellent (and chearper than buying beans in Whittards)

4nick8

ferret wrote: »

WHICH? magazine best buy in September 2005 was BRIEL DUO VERSATILE (around £125)

I bought one last January and have used it daily for last 16 months - would recommend it without question

I do have a grinder but find that pre-ground illy (black band tins) is excellent (and chearper than buying beans in Whittards)

Lucky you! Ours lasted all of 5 months. It cannot be repaired as Briel have apparantly gone bust!

ben_edwards2612

I have a gaggia classic; bought second hand from ebay for around £90, which I can highly recommend. Before that I had a budget £50 argos model which was very poor in comparison.

However, to get the best espresso out of your budget (£100) you should spend around £10-20 on a stove-top espresso maker, mentioned above, and most importantly spend the rest on a good grinder (I spent £75 on a Gaggia MDF on offer). Don't fall into the trap of thinking all grinders are the same and going for something cheap (e.g., gaggia ML, solis, dualit...). You will be disappointed, especially if you put the coffee grounds into a good machine at a later date.

Although this initially sounds silly to a lot of people you need to understand that what you get out is severely limited by the quality of the product you put in. The process is beans -> grinder -> espresso machine -> espresso. You will achieve poor results if you do not buy good beans, roasted very recently (at the very worst whittards. It is much better go online e.g., https://www.hasbean.co.uk or https://www.hillandvalleycoffee.co.uk) and if you do not properly grind the beans. This comes from personal experience. Once you have sorted out your 'ingredients' (i.e., the ground beans) you can save up for a proper 9 bar (often advertised as 15 bar - which is simply the maximum pump pressure not the desirable pressure for espresso) espresso machine. But in the meantime enjoy the stovepot espresso. If you insist on buying supermarket (this includes gaggia/illy...) beans (or woe behold pre-ground supermarket beans :eek: ) then you will end up with swill whatever expensiv e machinery you put it through.

Apologies for the rambling. But in summary, in order of importance: beans, grinder, espresso making device (machine or stove-top pot). You cannot go wrong. :beer: Also the people at https://www.toomuchcoffee.com are very helpful once you get addicted and want to buy the big shiny machines

durham05

Hi, Nespressos Have 20% Of In Binns (house Of Frazer)

italiastar

ben_edwards2612 wrote: »

I have a gaggia classic; bought second hand from ebay for around £90, which I can highly recommend. Before that I had a budget £50 argos model which was very poor in comparison.

However, to get the best espresso out of your budget (£100) you should spend around £10-20 on a stove-top espresso maker, mentioned above, and most importantly spend the rest on a good grinder (I spent £75 on a Gaggia MDF on offer). Don't fall into the trap of thinking all grinders are the same and going for something cheap (e.g., gaggia ML, solis, dualit...). You will be disappointed, especially if you put the coffee grounds into a good machine at a later date.

Although this initially sounds silly to a lot of people you need to understand that what you get out is severely limited by the quality of the product you put in. The process is beans -> grinder -> espresso machine -> espresso. You will achieve poor results if you do not buy good beans, roasted very recently (at the very worst whittards. It is much better go online e.g., https://www.hasbean.co.uk or https://www.hillandvalleycoffee.co.uk) and if you do not properly grind the beans. This comes from personal experience. Once you have sorted out your 'ingredients' (i.e., the ground beans) you can save up for a proper 9 bar (often advertised as 15 bar - which is simply the maximum pump pressure not the desirable pressure for espresso) espresso machine. But in the meantime enjoy the stovepot espresso. If you insist on buying supermarket (this includes gaggia/illy...) beans (or woe behold pre-ground supermarket beans :eek: ) then you will end up with swill whatever expensiv e machinery you put it through.

Apologies for the rambling. But in summary, in order of importance: beans, grinder, espresso making device (machine or stove-top pot). You cannot go wrong. :beer: Also the people at https://www.toomuchcoffee.com are very helpful once you get addicted and want to buy the big shiny machines

Very good post.

You should note that nearly every italian family regularly uses a stove top "Bialetti" http://www.bialetti.com/ moka expess type stove top maker. The cofee it makes in NOT the same as from a pumped machine, but equally as good, and a good introduction to espresso at minimal cost.

I personally use a brand of pre-packed bean from a company based on the Italian / Swiss border called Chico D'oro. it's 100% Arabica and being a northern italian roast is not as bitter as some. It's absolutly impossible to buy in the UK and can only be found in some Italian supermarkets such as the Auchan in Italy (not the french ones though).

penniesforme

Just to add to the coffee beans topic, if anyone of you is lucky enough to be able to get hold of some 'kopi luwak', do try it. The taste is just heavenly. Hard to come by and very expensive, but definitely worth it.

Jon_C

Cheeky bar(ista)-stewards...

As it says above:

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Post reported to mods.

Edit: ...and it's gone! Well done mods.