The coffee maker that ate my kitchen
wsj.com
wsj.com
I hate these annoying articles about coffee which imply you need to be a rich snob to enjoy it.
I'm thinking of a pour over in a chemex like the poster I'm replying to mentions.
I think you're speaking of an espresso?
A serviceable hand grinder(I used a Hario until I got a motorized grinder) can be bought for the price of a couple bags of good coffee. If you're interested it's not a huge investment.
As for beans, I'd look for a local roaster and talk with them about recommendations. I roast my own coffee and buy from Happy Mug, who also sell roasted beans. You might also look at Stumptown and Intelligentsia.
But I also don't have the space for it and couldn't imagine having to pay that kind of money - like you, I'd rather spend it on beans. :)
Well, it is a WSJ article. I used to be a regular reader of NYT, and this very much reminds me of NYT "lifestyle" reporting. Wealthy New Yorkers, amiright?
I completely disagree on what I see as your main point. I'm very far from being a coffee snob or even aficionado, but even to me my morning coffee (with tons of milk) and a decent espresso are so far from each other... saying that it doesn't matter is a bit like "all beers taste the same". I don't drink espresso when I get up and I wouldn't make real cappuccino anyway either, and I drink my espresso usually after lunch. They just happen to both be labeled coffee. (Also for reference, I've been using a Hario for about a year now and I buy beans from local roasters and have no intention to ever roast myself)
Who is we? And on top of this being an absurd rich-journalist problem, you really don't need an espresso machine at all. A pour-over coffee filter and a bag of pre-ground beans is like $10 total and makes totally decent coffee. Espresso should be a treat for occasions like sitting in a cafe, and an espresso machine is like a pasta roller or ice-cream machine. Totally fine for hobbyists, but most people should just leave it to the pros.
Starbucks got people hooked on lattes and cappuccinos, wanting to make your own at home instead of spending $7+ a day on Starbucks isn't unreasonable.
Starbucks maybe gets credit for hooking a segment of population on double caf skinny unicorn frappes.
I hit Starbucks way too much now because food and convenience (w/app + drive thru).
maybe there's a bit of yuppie in all of us?
But to each their own, of course!
(The rest of the time, it's grinder + scale + pour-over + electric kettle, and the grinder/kettle do have permanent places on the counter!)
So spend $500-$1000 on an espresso machine instead when, as OP points out, there are perfectly fine, affordable options that will for most people be indistinguishable (and are certainly superior to Starbucks, just read anything written by the coffee afficionados)?
Journalist is a stretch here. OP is a fiction author, a blogger and columnist at best.
I drink matcha lattes, they make these magic things called "milk frothers" for like $30. In my case I add Oat milk up to the line, add a tablespoon of matcha powder, then push the button. Then it heats and froths the milk and provides a nice little beep when it's ready.
I personally don't really like any coffee other than an espresso and for money and time and satisfaction we'd rather make them at home. It's not that hard, there's plenty of info online.
"Now"? Newspapers and magazines were supported by advertising from day one, pretty much.
I'm in the burbs now, with much more space, but I've kept the setup because the other nice benefit is the simplicity of it -- though I am considering buying a coffee machine to keep in storage and bring out for when I have guests and need to make larger amounts of coffee regularly.
I've gone through a few grinders over the years, but currently I am using a grinder from [1]handground, which I've been happy with. Gone through a few french presses as sometimes they break, but they're also easy to buy at home stores or coffee shops -- I currently have one by bodum that's been working well for a few years.
The actual coffee depends on how much I want to splurge. I'm not a huge coffee snob so I can get away with the medium-priced beans, eg Wholefoods store brand rather than, say, Intelligentsia or La Colombe (though I will sometimes splurge on those). I find _freshness_ matters a lot more than brand.
Not a big espresso drinker, but one of my sisters uses those little stovetop espresso makers and has been happy with it.
A friend of mine has that but then... He used to own a restaurant.
For the rest of use a $350 Delonghi full-automatic will do just fine without all the fuss / ceremony. If you've got the means you can't go wrong with a swiss coffee machine from the Jura brand.
I put whole grains in, press a button and the machine does everything.
And I didn't have to built the kitchen around it.
I recommend a $350 full auto coffee machine anytime over a Nespresso for the coffee is simply better and cheaper than with capsules. And you'll make the additional money the full auto costs back in no time.
My Setup:
Breville Dual Boiler $1000
Baratza Sette Grinder $500
Various accessories $100
20 bags of beans per year (drinking a coffee a day) $300
= $1900 first year
= $2200 cumulative second year
= $2500 cumulative third year
365*3 = 1460 every year + the time to get to the shop
= $2920 by second year (i.e. $720 more expensive)
= $4380 by third year (i.e. $1880 more expensive)
And yeah, I've tried other variations like aeropress, pour over, french press, etc. A proper espresso made well beats them all
Best setup I've ever had. Coffee is at least as good as from the high quality brands I used to use in office when I was working for a big corporate.
On the other hand, sometimes in the afternoon I will break out the scale, grinder, kettle, Chemex, locally roasted coffee, and take a few minutes.
Neither setup is expensive, just different takes on the same thing.
I have used it most every day since then, and even made my wife a coffee lover.
It was pricy, but I think for the form factor (it is really just marginally bigger than the Crossland), capability, and price - it was everything I could have wanted out of a machine. It takes up some space - maybe 20” with grinder, but because the machine is shallow compared to most, you don’t lose as much space as you think.
I think the Breville Dual Boiler is probably closest in spirit, though usually not much cheaper (and a bit bigger)
The breville bambino is popular partially because of the size.
The future will be smaller machines with smaller boilers and more electronics - I just think that the lelit gets it all right.
This. The Decent DE1Pro is leading this charge, it doesn't even have a traditional boiler at all, and is quite diminutive on the counter.
First I got it on sale. Second I opened a new credit card so I could take advantage of the cashback offer, further "lowering" the price. Third every latte I make is a medium starbucks latte I didn't have to pay for, further making this machine more worth it.
I've owned it for a year and made latte's for me, my wife and mother-in-law everyday. I estimate the coffee machine has saved me more than I paid for it. At this rate I'm considering upgrading my grinder so I can get that much more flavor out of the variety of coffee beans I'm buying.
I am still using a Baratza Vario - I usually weigh out 15.5g and basically single dose with it. Maybe someday I will upgrade but I don’t fill the burning need.
I replaced it with a narrow one, and then later had to open it up to change the power cord. There's quite a bit of electronics in it.
I can't, however, claim to be a minimalist about this since I am also one of those rubes with an espresso maker taking up space on his kitchen counter--and a whole cabinet still devoted to the coffee apparatus that has fallen out of my rotation.