£6 Filter Coffee Machines at Asda & Argos

bettyboo71

Can also get coffee frothers in most department stores, whittards, lakeland, etc, or have a look on the freebie forums as we all got them from Baileys last year and there's usually someone who has a spare!

LiveWrong

bettyboo71 wrote: »

Can also get coffee frothers in most department stores, whittards, lakeland, etc, or have a look on the freebie forums as we all got them from Baileys last year and there's usually someone who has a spare!

Good call, although the Baileys ones aside it's probably a little bit cheaper to buy a £1.99 one on Marketplace and cop the £4.50 delivery charge than hit the nearest department store.

Midnight_Tboy

I'm liking the idea of these french presses. Do these take the same coffee grounds that you would buy if were to be making filtered coffee from a regular coffee maker? As I was looking at the bodum ones and they seem to recommend a fairly course grind. Not sure I want (yet) to mess about with grinding my own coffee, but certainly would like to buy a better non-instant coffee to try in a french press (so long as not too much more than instant lol )

Midnight_Tboy

ok so I've decided on the Bodum Chambord 8 cup as that looks quite nice (unless can see a more decorative one for a little more too )

Just need to know what coffee I can buy with easy access to from most supermarkets and shops I read now it says not to use finely ground coffee, because it clogs up the mesh and increases pressure. I take it you can buy preground stuff fairly cheaply from most places (and not much more than instant ). Then I'll maybe look at getting a grinder etc in the not so distant future

papalazarou

MAGICIAN wrote: »

You should drink filter coffee within 20 minutes anyway...so no need to keep warm for hours..

Quite right too, i always try and drink the jugful inside an hour as the coffee just ends up stewed and tasting foul.

here's my tips, for coffee: since you have saved the money on a cheap filter machine you can afford to splash out a little on decent coffee. Carte Noir is fantastic and the smell of it while it is brewing makes your mouth water! if you drink instant the instant is pretty good too!

finally keep your fresh coffee in the fridge, it helps it to stay fresh and keep that aroma!

Midnight_Tboy

I bought the Bodum Chambard Chrome 8 cup for a good price last night

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=230245419421&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=013

While I was out at asda though, I did pick up a couple of packs of coffee which I hope is the right stuff . It's asdas own too so hope its not too rancid, just fancied having something there to get me started for when did pick up my french press. I wonder how they'll taste compared to my regular home fav or nescafe gold instant (lived a sheltered life I know ) I'll have to scout around for a few packets of the recommended stuff soon tho. the 2 I got were [URL="javascript:showProductDetailsPage('2290034','','/asda_shop/rc03_trolley/web_rc03_a_trolley_body.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0800570988.1209288720@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccceadedmfekekicfkfcfkjdgoodfgi.0','I','')"]ASDA Extra Special Colombian roast and ground coffee[/URL] and [URL="javascript:showProductDetailsPage('2290038','','/asda_shop/rc03_trolley/web_rc03_a_trolley_body.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0800570988.1209288720@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccceadedmfekekicfkfcfkjdgoodfgi.0','I','')"]Extra Special coffee - Zambian Kelaya[/URL]

LiveWrong

Midnight_Tboy wrote: »

I bought the Bodum Chambard Chrome 8 cup for a good price last night

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=230245419421&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=013

While I was out at asda though, I did pick up a couple of packs of coffee which I hope is the right stuff . It's asdas own too so hope its not too rancid, just fancied having something there to get me started for when did pick up my french press. I wonder how they'll taste compared to my regular home fav or nescafe gold instant (lived a sheltered life I know ) I'll have to scout around for a few packets of the recommended stuff soon tho. the 2 I got were ASDA Extra Special Colombian roast and ground coffee and Extra Special coffee - Zambian Kelaya

Welcome to the dark side

I'll have a crack at answering some of your questions from the last few days. Well done on snapping the Bodum up at that price, I paid around twice as much for an older-style one a few months back to replace one that had been in service for nearly 20 years If you look after it, you've got a decent bit of kit on your hands there.

As for coffee to use with it, the two bags that you have got will be suitable as will just about any ground coffee that you'll find in a supermarket. Avoid anything that says it's ground for espresso, though, it isn't and it wont make the best of cafetiere coffee either. It's a good starting point and you might find that you are so happy with the coffee you are making that you don't go any further than supermarket coffee. Many people don't and you'll save yourself a lot of money.

The problem with ground coffee is that no matter how its stored, it starts to go stale after 30 minutes or so and beans are best used within a month or so of roasting, or within about two weeks for making espresso. So everything you'll buy in a supermarket will be past its best, despite having use by dates months or years into the future.

Have you got a Whittards near to you? You'll be pleasantly surprised by the difference between the coffee they'll grind for you instore and the supermarket stuff and if you decide to buy a grinder they are a reliable source of OK beans.

As with a lot of things in life, the more money you throw at buying a grinder, the better your coffee will be. Unless you want to spend as little as possible, avoid blade 'grinders' They use a couple of blades to smash the beans to pieces, which isn't too clever. It's almost impossible to get grinds of exactly the same size, which is crucial for some methods of preparation, and it's quite punishing for the beans, heating them up a lot more than you really want to. http://www.ciao.co.uk/Krups_F20342__6493352 is OK if you do decide to go down the blade route. Instead look for a burr grinder. Pretty much any burr will do if you are only going to be making cafetiere coffee and you are looking at £40-50 for entry-level ones.

But the biggest difference you'll notice when making your own coffee is using fresh beans. Really fresh ones. Unless you live near to a roaster, you'll need the t'internet for this one.

https://www.hasbean.co.uk often get beans to me the day after they are roasted, http://www.monmouthcoffee.co.uk/ are awesome if you live or work in London and http://www.jamesgourmetcoffee.co.uk/ sell some lovely beans.

As this isn't really a place for coffee chat and I don't think I should be discouraging people from buying the machines mentioned in the email, bad LiveWrong, naughty LiveWrong, may I suggest you have a little look at https://www.toomuchcoffee.co.uk ? It's a community of mainly European coffee lovers and they are a really knowledgeable and welcoming bunch

foreign_correspondent

The cheapest option is actually one of these -
http://www.cookability.biz/cookability-cone-coffee-filter/b_1581.htm?SRC=GB1
placed on top of a jug (pot or glass), mug or coffee pot, and lined with a filter paper. It makes coffee in exactly the same way as the machine, except you boil the water and pour it onto the coffee grounds, instead of the machine doing it. These cones are rarely used in the UK but very popular on the continent.

They are simple, efficient, low tech (nothing to go wrong, no electrical bits - and presumably less resources used in their manafacture) so unlike a coffee machine will last for years. I have had 2 coffee macines in the last ten years, both are now sadly somewhere in landfill!

They are also much easier to store than a coffee machine and take up no worktop space when not in use! I prefer them to a cafetiere as I enjoy the coffee more - I always find there is a bit of fine coffee ground 'sludge' at the bottom of a cup of cafetiere coffee.

The down side is they are not so easy to find in the UK, although a few websites are selling them - however, if you travel on the continent you can pick them up even cheaper!

I would suggest, instead of buying another bit of cheap electronic gadgetry, which will probably end up binned in a couple of years, these are the real MSE solution!

andysuth

dc wrote: »

Thanks for the info, but the Argos and Asda ones have an inbuilt filter so save 1p a brew.


BTW my son's idea was to put the rotating circle of lights on the Sky+ box to replicate tape movement on a digital device, copied by Microsoft on the 360 and Nintendo on the Wii, now by Mozilla inFirefox to indicate page loading, and he is still poor!

-So's the Netto one, but I spend that extra penny so I don't waste time cleaning the built in filter.

Kudos to your son, it's nice, and it's NOT BLUE (my pet hate is the blue lights on everywhere - 10% of the population have an affliction to Blue light resulting in headaches, and yet architects and ubran planners put them everywhere right now),

"It was daddy's idea..." - Quote from a song, but it does raise questions about where these ubiquitous ideas come from. I know wherre the ones I like came from, do you know where the ones you like come from???

Peace and Love.

-Andy.

savagevixen

The Asda one is hideous! I bought one a few months ago, really pleased with myself, the awful plasticy taste was still so vile after a week, and more wasted coffee than te machine had cost, I returned it. The woman at the desk took one sniff, and said 'god that smells awful' and refunded. You do get what you pay for, and if you like instant coffee then maybe it's ok, but if you like 'proper' coffee... (and someone in my house is very very fussy about the taste of proper coffee!) But honestly it was gross.