Coffee...

Savvy_Sue

Rosa_Damascena said:

My preference, which will make those mortgage payments that much easier:


Plus:


Plus:

I am CERTAIN those pink appliances make all the difference! 

Savvy_Sue

What we've tried:
DH usually drinks instant decaff at home during the day, and I generally only drink coffee when I'm out, but I decided I 'need' a proper coffee once a day, if I haven't been out. 

We have a cone which is probably the least messy way, you compost the filter papers and coffee and there's nothing left to worry about. BUT it only does one cup at a time, so you need to be watching it if you're making two cups or it gets cold. We did have a filter machine which would make several cups and keep them hot, but it broke and we don't have a sensible place to keep it.

And we have a cafetiere, which makes 2-3 cups but you need to keep an eye on it and plunge at the right time, and then you are left with grounds. 

One of my siblings has an aeropress. They really enjoy the 'ritual / performance': I think it's a lot of hassle. It's not nearly as messy as the cafetiere, but you can only make one cup at a time. If you like 'ritual', I'd recommend trying one.

I spotted a Tassimo half-price in Sainsbury's and bought that. I pre-warm the cups with boiling water, then make the coffee, then for one cup I add milk and heat it briefly in the microwave. For two cups I've got a milk frother / heater which I don't really rate: I get a very solid froth, most of which refuses to leave the body of the beast (and yes I've tried all the settings!) We've tried the latte / cappucino pods but find the basic ones acceptable. 

A colleague also bought a Tassimo, and one day she had problems getting the pod in. Her boyfriend rang: he'd had an email saying "you seem to be putting the pod in incorrectly." Yes, they'd got one of these internet connected monstrosities, and it had ratted her out. 

Don't know if this is widespread, but we can now recycle our pods at the tip. 

A final comment, but some 'instant' coffees have some grounds included, and they may be worth trying. They definitely taste more 'coffee shop' coffee than 'normal' instant. 

bouicca21

Coffee grounds go in my wormery.  I think you can put them straight into the ground too.

LightFlare

Aeropress for work and bean to cup machine at home for me

Also I have Costco membership where you can get a pretty decent selection of beans for approx 10-15 a kilo.

(recommend either grumpy mule or the Kirkland brand ones)

twopenny

Has anyone worked out the cost of running a coffee machine for one person?
That's what put me off and a previous thread no one had thought of that and I still hope for an answer 😉
That's on top of the pods or coffee.

Bit I often see them, including a de longi , in charity shops.

I cut my coffees out when I realised how many times I did it. Now it's a treat. However I,ve found recently most are not as good as they were.

I use the one cup filters. Rombouts at the mo. Works out 40p or less per cup.
Italian blend is stronger than the original.
My preferred was Douwe Egberts and if you like it strong number 4 was good but 3 for every day.

Did you know you can get a portable espresso maker that works off usb? Size of a small thermos.

I also use tinned coffee for days out as it can take forever in tourist areas and expensive. When on offer it's £1 a go.

DiamondLil

For those who have a Nespresso machine; I buy my pods from here: 

https://www.kaffekapslen.co.uk/

They also do pods for Tassimo.

I'm possibly not a coffee connoisseur, but in my opinion the coffees are every bit as good as any of the branded pods.

-taff

'2p do you mean how much the electric costs to use it and the water etc? If you have a display smart meter, that'd be a starting point, if not, there's this

https://smartmoneytools.co.uk/tools/energy-cost-calculator/

Then add in the water, the coffee, the sugar [ or not] , any other addtives [ syrups etc] and you should have your answer

flaneurs_lobster

-taff said:

'2p do you mean how much the electric costs to use it and the water etc? If you have a display smart meter, that'd be a starting point, if not, there's this

https://smartmoneytools.co.uk/tools/energy-cost-calculator/

Then add in the water, the coffee, the sugar [ or not] , any other addtives [ syrups etc] and you should have your answer

Then there's how long you depreciate the cost of the machine for. My last BtC lasted 9 years but it was £700, so that's ~21p/day.

Exodi

I've used a variety of different setups and we ended up with a Nespresso pod machine, which we're very happy with (a Creatista Pro).

Personally, I dislike the flavour of instant coffee and find drip coffee too watery so I knew I needed some form of espresso machine and originally I had one with a detachable milk container that goes in the fridge and used a separate burr grinder. This really did highlight to me just how much humans are wired to seek convenience... I resented getting the milk compartment out the fridge, inevitably changing the milk and cleaning it (because these containers are not airtight so go funky quick) grinding the beans, loading the portafilla, tamping, load the shot, brew, discard the puck, clean the portafilla, wipe down the brew head, wipe the steam wand, put milk back in the fridge... I found myself just drinking less coffee because I could not be bothered with the whole ordeal.

This was night and day compared to a pod machine - pod in, press go. The machine has a steam wand (much better), wipe down when done and you're good to go. It is a much more pleasant experience.

Of course, there are bean to cup machines that automate a lot of the stuff I mentioned earlier (e.g. the Oracle Jet). My wife also drinks coffee now (whereas there was no way she'd bother before).

Actually since you mention flat whites, it's important to mention you should consider the milk - it's just as important if not more important than the espresso (it makes up most of the drink)! You should really consider something like an aeroccino or an espresso machine with a steam wand - you can't just pour milk out of the fridge into an espresso to make a latte (it will just create a cold coffee).

My wife particularly loves the pod machine because it means she gets to take advantage of seasonal variants, like pumpkin spice pods, for example. Of course you can also achieve this with syrups, but this gets expensive quick and isn't practical to have 20 different syrup pumps. Likewise I can have Colombian for breakfast and a Nicaraguan blend for lunch - using a bean to cup effectively means committing to the same blend for weeks.

While it is undeniably more expensive, the pods can be picked up for cheap. Nespresso generally sells them for around ~50p a pod, but supermarkets sell their own brand ones (or 'Starbucks' ones) for about half that. Alternatively you can pick them up for even cheaper online (such as Kaffekapslen as someone said ealier) for half that.

FWIW I got my machine off FB marketplace 2 years ago for £150 and probably drink on average 3 drinks a day so ~1000 drinks and still going with no issues. Working out a price per drink gets you somewhere around 30p-40p - as you say, 10% off what you'd pay from a coffee shop.

ButterCheese said:

Pods (we have them at work) are insanely strong unless you add half a pint of milk which doesn't fit in the cup.  They take nearly as long as my coffee machine to filter through.  They are noisy, and you need to buy a more expensive machine to use them

I don't want to get into a debate as everyone in this thread clearly has their biases (myself included) but this is not true at all. Most of my drinks I have as a slightly larger espresso (50ml) to 150ml steamed milk and they're mostly quite mellow.

It is worth noting that while I like espresso on it's own, there are definitely some pods that I avoid as they absolutely blow my head off... Kazaar, Scuro, etc. It would be fair to describe these as 'insanely strong unless you add half a pint of milk' but generally 95% of them are normal pods.

I can't comment on how long it takes, the machine I use has double boilers so it's done before you can blink. I've no doubt there are some slow machines out there though.

Noisy I'm not too sure on as the noise mostly comes from steaming milk - which is independent of the bean 2 cup v pod discussion.

EDIT: sorry above I'm specifically referring to Nespresso. From what I've seen, the other pod machines are significantly more expensive.

[Deleted User]

I am also considering leaving coffee for outdoor only, as it gives me a reason to go out.
Each week I get 5 cafe nero vouchers for £1 coffee so even if I go every day add a couple of full price espressos at 2.50 and that's £10 per week.