Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Mel
The g/f's parents have a Nespresso machine. It's nice. It's convenient. It makes decent coffee. But... a proper pressurised espresso machine makes better coffee, creates less waste, and gives you a world of options for the kind of coffee.
You don't need to spend a pile on something fancy, I use a $200 Sunbeam with a 15 bar pressure pump and a steamer hanging off the side. Add a nice little coffee grinder with a feeder and a timer, so with the push of a button there's enough fresh grounds for a double espresso. The machine heats up fast, I have my morning coffee in about 2 minutes.
I am well and truly a coffee snob these days. I didn't realise how bad brewed coffee was until I moved somewhere that you can't get it. Now when I go back to Canada, it's hard to stomach the swill. Thank god for all the Italians that moved here years ago and converted the masses to decent coffee.
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15 bars eh? thats ridiculous if its actually spitting that out.
Just picked this bad boy up as my xmas gift to myself
http://gizmodo.com/5707531/mypressi-...spresso-dynamo
Its been reviewed as the best espresso maker for less than $500. Use N02/C02 cartridges and a fancy mechanism to deliver a consistent 9 bars, freshly boiled water in the preheated unit delivers the optimal brew temp (195-205') Any other cheapo machines just can't get you consistent temperatures and pressure (9bars, not 15) needed for espresso. This bad boy lets you virtually eliminate those variables that cheaper machines fail on and lets me fool around with the grind, temp, and extraction of the beans.
Best part is you can rock it without the base so you end up with a naked portafilter, allowing me to watch the extraction. Its mui bueno
The hardest part of the whole thing is keeping freshly roasted beans on hand, I have fresh 49th parallel beans shipped from Van every couple weeks, and by coffee snob standards, that's already too old once they've been in my cupboard for 2 weeks.