Reasonably priced Espresso machines

I have a Gaggia bean-to-cup, not for the Barista but superb results every time
SJ

Try www.best-of-italy.com

A curious website, but a decent range of espresso machines.

Dan

At a good price too!

I assume you've looked at the FAQ section here gaggia uk

These complex machines are, to me, a waste of time, cash, worktop space and effort. You can't beat a stove top jobbie for about £10. Go into an Italian kitchen and that's what they'll be using.

Nigel

quote:

Originally posted by hungryhalibut:
These complex machines are, to me, a waste of time, cash, worktop space and effort. You can't beat a stove top jobbie for about £10.
Nigel

Not necessarily - they can heat the water to too high a temperature - giving the coffee an unwanted bitterness that pump machines avoid.

They are a good starting point.

quote:

Originally posted by hungryhalibut:
These complex machines are, to me, a waste of time, cash, worktop space and effort.

I agree, keep it simple. Go with the Gaggia Classic.

quote:

I agree, keep it simple. Go with the Gaggia Classic

But that's still £250. All you need to spend is a tenner.

Nigel

I use a Morphy Richards. It weighs a ton is built to last and does 15 bar pressure all for about £90. This is a great bit of kit for sensible money.

I can recommend the Saeco Incanto Deluxe...but I will say I've used no others to compare.

All my guests are quite impressed and most are not your instant coffee peasants.

It is automatic and very simple to use. I can't be bothered spending my valuble time fart arsing around doing the separate grind and cleaning just to get a cup of coffee.
Like most electronics set up is important, source first, make sure no cables are touching, separate spur and since getting a fraim....

Dave

It all depends on your definition of “reasonably priced”.
Gaggia is a good brand to consider because they are well built,spares are easy to get and fit your self if anything does go wrong.
A good site to browse is http://www.wholelattelove.com/ to check out various models and see why some are £50 and others £1000+
Gaggia Classics are often recommended but the unfortunately named Gaggia Baby is basicly the same machine housed in a polycarbonate? body rather than stainless steel.
Look at Gaggia.co.uk in the shop section ,they sell reconditioned machines and have a Baby for sale at the moment at £149

A couple of hundred quid isn't too bad a price. I don't need anything fancy though I've read that the pump versions are better than the steam pressured ones so I would hope to be looking for one of those.

As for the cost, with what we spend on hi-fi, cables and the like, £250 is cheap. Certainly much less than the Naim video cable I bought by some margin.

Still, with have to wait till I'm paid and sorted my finances a bit first!

Steve.

quote:

Originally posted by hungryhalibut:
All you need to spend is a tenner.

while you keep trying to convince yourself that a stove pot is the same as an espresso machine the rest of us will be enjoying our espressos.

quote:

Originally posted by John Sheridan:

quote:

Originally posted by hungryhalibut:
All you need to spend is a tenner.

while you keep trying to convince yourself that a stove pot is the same as an espresso machine the rest of us will be enjoying our espressos.

Every day with a Gaggia Classic vs once a month for the stove top job a mate brought back from Italy should convince you.

Jono

Steve, if you've decided pressure not steam that's good. Temperatures over 80 degree C spoil the coffee taste. That means you need a propper machine. The next thing is to decide whether you enjoy the preparation of the brew, grinding, tamping, adjusting the amount of coffee and the degree to which the beans are ground, etc. If you would enjoy spending time doing this get a manual 'propper machine'. If you want very good coffee on demand you need an automatic [bean to cup].

SJ

quote:

Originally posted by stephenjohn:
Steve, if you've decided pressure not steam that's good. Temperatures over 80 degree C spoil the coffee taste. That means you need a propper machine. The next thing is to decide whether you enjoy the preparation of the brew, grinding, tamping, adjusting the amount of coffee and the degree to which the beans are ground, etc. If you would enjoy spending time doing this get a manual 'propper machine'. If you want very good coffee on demand you need an automatic [bean to cup].

SJ

SJ,

Good post, I agree having gone down this upgrade route myself over a period of 20 years.

The Baby Gaggia's are great machines for the bench top especially if you leave them on permanently so that you do not have to warm them up first, otherwise you need to flush them through on a brew cycle without coffee in. I've also had a La Pavoni machine which was less powerful.

For sheer convenience and consistency the bean to cup variety is a great, my Miele version does it for me. It is not a budget item and I had to wait until our kitchen was done before eventually getting one.

The desk top ones are not ideal for offering large numbers of coffee, for instance at a dinner party, you will spend half the night preparing them.

Managed not to get excited this post!

Nic

How do you lot sleep at night?

No really, I love good coffee but the sleep thing is a problem.

In some ways I'm thinking that from the grinding to the actual manual act of making the coffee would bring a more enjoyable experience in that I had performed the actions from start to finish.

On average though, how long would it take to make the coffee from the grinding of the beans to making the coffee?

One company I worked for back in 1987 used to have the works, instant coffee, filter coffee, coffee grinder & manual espresso machine. You had to time it right when asking people if they wanted a drink otherwise you could spend 45 minutes dealing with everyone's order, especially when they asked for cappucino's! I just can't remember exactly how long it took to do - about 5 minutes I think?

Steve.

quote:

Originally posted by Rockingdoc:
How do you lot sleep at night?

No really, I love good coffee but the sleep thing is a problem.

Probably not the right person to admit this to, but alcohol works for me! A good game of five-a-side also helps.

You can get decaffeinated beans, but that would be like alcohol free wine/beer IMHO.

Regards

Nic

quote:

On average though, how long would it take to make the coffee from the grinding of the beans to making the coffee?

Grind time (a few seconds) + 25-30 seconds for the coffee + another minute for the milk frothing if you want that.

Cheers John, that's not too bad timewise.

Steve.

If you want a decent espresso machine look for one with an E61 group head.
After owning a string of home machines, I bit the bullet and bought an Isomac Rituale and I can tell you there is no comparison to the toys I was using before.
If you like your coffe then this is the type of machine you should be looking at.
You also need a good grinder (Mazzer make the best), again most cheap and cheerful machines simply can't grind the beans fine enough for true espresso.

Also buy freshly roasted beans I can heartily recommend this guy www.hasbean.co.uk
Store them properly, air is the real enemy of the roasted bean, do not buy pre-ground coffee unless you plan on using it very quickly.
If you get all these right, then a real espresso is fantastic and you will never set foot in a Starbucks again.
Check out these sites for serious information and some top tips.

http://www.coffeegeek.com/
http://www.espressovivace.com/intro.html
http://coffeefaq.com/coffaq.htm
http://www.toomuchcoffee.com/index.php
http://www.anothercoffee.co.uk/

Cheers

Jon

On the subject of the chains, they have rather fancy espresso machines, grind the beans pretty much when used, and have a quick turnover and presumably fresh beans. Why can't they compete with a home machine?

They seem to have differing qualities as well for the same chain.

One company I worked for had their own Starbucks (run by the same company that done the catering). The same people always worked in the Starbucks section.

Amazingly, the quality of the coffee was better than that of the ones outside and half the price.

Thanks Jon - I will investigate the brands you've stated.

Steve.

Check out the 'presso' product.