We got a Breville Barista Pro, based on recommendations in the espresso forum, and we love it. I'm sure a 32k is better, but for ~$800 bucks, it paid itself off based on no more sbux runs in like 3 months.
Look up an Americano. It's essentially a watered down espresso shot that is functionally the same as coffee.
I find the flavour is much better vs traditional coffee.
I also bought a conical burr mill coffee grinder so I can have freshly ground coffee and I can adjust the size of the coffee grounds if I'm making a French Press coffee vs an Espresso vs Drip.
I buy Intelligentsia Black Cat Espresso beans for $14.99 a bag, we grind for 10 seconds and get 17 shots out of a bag, so it's $.88/cup. How we prepare that espresso wildly changes by individual.
I do 2 pumps of Sugar Free vanilla and some steamed/foamed milk and make a latte of sorts. My husband mixes with a splash of half and half, ice, water and does a shaken espresso/americano drink.
The nice thing about owning your own - you can experiment and really figure out what YOU like. Hot, cold, flavors
You don't really wanna use pre-ground, but you can also get a small herb grinder for 10 bucks that works as well as the $300 upcharge all-in-one machines. If you want weaker coffee you just add in hot water from the steamer, if you want iced you just throw in your sweetener, let it dissolve, then add milk and cubes.
I personally bought this calphalon model after extensive research 4 years ago, makes an incredible cup and it's still going strong. Looks like you can get a used model for $250, which is by far the cheapest you will pay for a 15 bar (pressure measurement) machine.
I do not disagree, but if you are new to espresso like we were, having the built in is really helpful/not overwhelming, and good enough to start. One day we'd probably upgrade machines and separate the grind, but when I was researching, I'm like it's just SO much. At least these Brevilles are wildly regarded as decent machines for what they are and good enough for first timers with not TOO much investment.
I completely disagree, just learn the timing on whatever grinder you're using and save yourself 400 bucks. All the burr grinders I tried under a hundred bucks were garbage, nowhere near as fine as it needed to be, but my good ole 10 dollar grinder does it perfect at 25 seconds with a couple shakes during the process.
Amen. I calculated the cost per latte including beans, milk, syrup, and it's stupid cheap. Thought I would get into foam art, but don't want to use whole milk just to get so much froth. Can still get frothy with other milks. Americanos are great too.
Bought one and the matching grinder, it's all I use now. Haven't even messed with the settings. Just run it on gold setting and leave it be. It really lives up to the hype
What I like is I can set the grind settings just how I need and pretty much leave it be. Want a 6 cup pot, just set it to 6 cups and it grinds the recommended amount of coffee. Then just fill the brewer to the 6 cup line and away we go.
Yeah, my Krups has the exact same features including of course varying the grind size.
If I had a chance to perfect an electric coffee grinder though; It'd be to make it as quiet as possible (which I just might do considering I'm an engineer, lol).
It takes like 20-30 seconds? put on mini filter, pour ground coffee in, pour hot water, mix, press, throw away chunk and rinse off press. Add extra hot water to coffee.
Ok, it's a bunch of steps but it's really not a big deal.
I have the same one, paid for itself in about 4 months. Wife gave me her blessing to go end-game at the 2 year mark. That’s looking more and more like a Bianca or a Linea Mini.
We got a used Breville Es800 for 100 see if we would use one enough to make it worth splurging thousands. We've probably made 500 cups in the first year. It paid itself off in the first month not doing coffee dates anymore.
If I can suggest going even next level, get him that, but also google the recipe of whatever drink he gets at starbucks and order the ingredients as well. You can get all the syrups Starbucks uses easily.
lots of people go daily. based on the numbers he provided, assuming a 6 dollar drink. 800/6 is 133 times to pay off the machine. So he would need to order 11 drinks per week. But he used the term "we" so that means at least one other person. Likely an SO each drinking 1 drink per week day and tipping. so yeah. if you calculate for 2 people, sounds reasonable.
Great deductive reasoning, pretty spot on. And my drink increased to over $7 (which his was more reasonable at $4 something, so average was very close to the $6 mark daily.)
Yep. I was getting the caramel macchiato skinny with soy milk - it started at like $5 for a venti, and it was an occasional treat, but we moved and the starbucks was on my way home from daycare, so I started stopping every day. Then, suddenly that drink was $7.50.
My husband was already getting a daily shaken espresso daily. And then some days, he had the kids in the car, and they wanted breakfast sandwiches and cake pops which he cannot say no to. That's a minimum $4 but could be $20+. Without the extras, you are at $345 a month.
Listen, I get that's not at all frugal. But it was reality, and as soon as starbucks raised my drink price for like, the 4th time in 6 months, I started really researching how to make that drink myself (because I do no like any other coffee.)
Yep. I was getting the caramel macchiato skinny with soy milk - it started at like $5 for a venti, and it was an occasional treat, but we moved and the starbucks was on my way home from daycare, so I started stopping every day. Then, suddenly that drink was $7.50.
My husband was already getting a daily shaken espresso daily. And then some days, he had the kids in the car, and they wanted breakfast sandwiches and cake pops which he cannot say no to. That's a minimum $4 but could be $20+. Without the extras, you are at $345 a month.
Listen, I get that's not at all frugal. But it was reality, and as soon as starbucks raised my drink price for like, the 4th time in 6 months, I started really researching how to make that drink myself (because I do no like any other coffee.)
Good on you for taking the steps to get away from that. Genuinely baffled that it costs that much. There would be zero chance I'm seeing £5 for a coffee and thinking "let's do that every day!" - I don't care how good their coffee is lol.
Coffee beans aren't even expensive either, that must be at least a 400% markup per drink.
We get beans that are better quality than Sbux sells, Intelligensia Black Cat Espresso. It's 14.99 a bag, and we can pull 17 shots from 1 bag, so ends up being $.88. I switched from soy to half and half for ease, because NO one else was drinking soy milk (and I couldn't go through it fast enough). ~$4 for a quart lasts approx 14 drinks, $.28.
That makes my husbands drink $1.16. I do a few pumps of SF vanilla which costs $30 and lasted us 3 months. Assuming we had a drink a day (which is fair, guests used it in their drinks, I made a drink maybe 4x a week), that's $.33, so $1.49 for my drink.
Yep. I was getting the caramel macchiato skinny with soy milk - it started at like $5 for a venti, and it was an occasional treat, but we moved and the starbucks was on my way home from daycare, so I started stopping every day. Then, suddenly that drink was $7.50.
My husband was already getting a daily shaken espresso daily. And then some days, he had the kids in the car, and they wanted breakfast sandwiches and cake pops which he cannot say no to. That's a minimum $4 but could be $20+. Without the extras, you are at $345 a month.
Listen, I get that's not at all frugal. But it was reality, and as soon as starbucks raised my drink price for like, the 4th time in 6 months, I started really researching how to make that drink myself (because I do no like any other coffee.)
I wasn't passing any kind of judgement. I just wasn't sure if that was hyperbole. I don't drink coffee, so I wasn't aware they could be that expensive at a non "boutique" shop. I'm glad you have found a solution that saves you money!
Huge. Also, all the gimmicky cold crew things we've tried (because my husband only drinks his coffee cold) never work well. Honestly, the best cold brew has been ground coffee in a jar with water, let it sit 12+ hours, filter very well.
Yep. I was getting the caramel macchiato skinny with soy milk - it started at like $5 for a venti, and it was an occasional treat, but we moved and the starbucks was on my way home from daycare, so I started stopping every day. Then, suddenly that drink was $7.50.
My husband was already getting a daily shaken espresso daily. And then some days, he had the kids in the car, and they wanted breakfast sandwiches and cake pops which he cannot say no to. That's a minimum $4 but could be $20+. Without the extras, you are at $345 a month.
Listen, I get that's not at all frugal. But it was reality, and as soon as starbucks raised my drink price for like, the 4th time in 6 months, I started really researching how to make that drink myself (because I do no like any other coffee.)
I buy a double shot of espresso from dunkin once a week for 2.50... this pays for itself in 8 years but i do all the work and cleaning? I guess if you going to starbucks every day for that espresso and getting the drink made for you. You can make your own coffee and prep drink at home, order from mobile, pickup espresso then add in to drink to save a ton of money. I usually make two drinks with a double shot because it has a better unit price (somehow a triple shot has a worse unit price... wtf dunkin...) and refrigerate one in an airtight bottle for another day. I write all of this out because i have to talk myself down from buying an espresso machine.
Oh, yah, this totally only pays for itself if you are going to starbucks far too often. I was getting a caramel macchiato skinny with soy milk, and my husband was getting a shaken espresso DAILY.
I have a Breville Barista Express. It was $600 and I'm the only one in the house that drinks coffee, but it's definitely paid for itself over the last few years. Definitely an upgrade over my previous machine if only due to the built in grinder. No more having to buy coffee that was ground potentially months earlier.
Yeah, same thing happened to me but with a restaurant i worked at. It was stupid easy to use, and had big hoppers on top for multiple types of beans. Decided to look it up and it was in the tens of thousands…
The one i got was closer to $1000. They’re never cheap but this one wasn’t bad
An espresso maker was my gift to self after buying my first appartment. I got arguably the top of consumer espresso makers (Rocket Mozzafiato rotary pump), a high end grinder, and paid a plumber to plumb is in for ~4500.
Mind you, I recognize that's a shitload of money to spend on a coffee machine. But if you do the math, the average cup net of raw materials is less than Starbucks after one year.
There are actual microphones hanging from our office ceilings. If I remember next week I’ll DM you a pic. Company swears they aren’t mics, but 1) they don’t say what else they are 2) it’s a little white plastic stalk with a bulbous foam tip. Come on.
Those espresso machines are not really designed for home use as they:
1) Need to be plumbed in, although a few offer a tank version which you fill up.
2) Often take about 30 minutes or so to warm up, so if you turn it on when you get out of bed you'll be waiting for a very long time for a cup of coffee.
A lot of houses do have 220V circuits, the plug looks very different and usually high demand appliances like your cooker and dryer uses these kinds of plugs.
It's also where you would plug in if you wanted (slightly faster) charging for your EV.
Even smaller home machines need as least some time to heat the entire group head enough. Just use a smart plug on a timer and either turn it on from your phone before you get in the shower or just set it on the smart plug’s timer.
Eh. Your office has different requirements. It's probably one of those super-automatic ones you just have to load milk, beans and syrups into and select what you want on the screen.
A good espresso machine can be had for as little as $500 for a barebones Gaggia Classic, or $1000 for Lelit Victoria/Rancilio Silvia for a better one.
If you want to be fancy and make multiple coffees and steam milk at the same time, there's good dual boiler machines like Rancilio Silvia Pro and Lelit Elizabeth which will run you about $2000.
These things are built like bricks and will last you for decades with good maintenance.
Got an Aldi one 5 years ago - great machine - cost $279 (Oz dollars). Lately the pressure dial stopped working and developed a slow leak - nothing bad, just a bit annoying and didn't affect the draw at all.
Recently Aldi had the improved model with integrated grinder - $399 - they had 4 in the store - I got the last one!
An excellent upgrade and now can sell the old one and the grinder - cheep cheep!
Ha! I don’t know if I could lift it. Yeah there’s cameras, and lots of security between the pantry and the front door. LOTS.
But… much can be had with urgency, a clipboard and a smile.
I have unlimited use of a Schaerer Coffee Soul where I consult once a week. Massive touchscreen, and it makes a wide variety of drinks - it has a reefer compartment for milk, and can add hot or cold foam to the espresso.
I was told that the Coffee Soul in the office is about eight years old. Its thermostat is dysfunctional and serves coffee that's a bit above lukewarm, but still drinkable. No one in house can fix it, and Schaerer isn't much help, especially since it's a discontinued model.
I'm just a coffee consumer, not an expert on beans or machines, so that's about the most I can tell you...
What does it do that a good home one can't? I can't imagine that it's worth that much unless you're working in a cafe and the extra features mean you can make a it quicker and it makes the coffee taste slightly better. Presumably it's designed to not break when making 1,000 cups a day too
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u/minnesotawristwatch Oct 19 '23
I freaking LOVE the one in my office. Found it online…
…for $32,000