Quote:
Originally Posted by miguel
According to my experience
You will pay more money and waste more coffee by buying a nice machine and nice grinder than if you went down to the shop and paid $2 every time. On top of that, if your shop is good, they will have their pulls dialed before you enter and you won't have to worry about relative humidity, temperature of the machine/water, and provenance of the beans - that is already taken care of. Stop worrying about status and drink good coffee. Pourover/French press is for the home.
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Miguel. You live in Portland. It would almost be accurate to use the old cliche about not being able to throw a stone and not hit a good coffee shop. From my friends who lived in DC, that is not the case there.
$2 for an espresso? Around here, it is $2.50 to 2.75 and throw in a tip. You've just dropped $3. 3 x 365 = over $1000 a year, not including time and travel. Now what if you want a second spro?
I'm a coffee fiend. Between my wife and daughter, we are at 5 espresso drinks a morning before I leave for work at 0700. Weekends...more.
So, ya, for me a super nice quality machine and grinder is a huge money saver and makes great coffee possible for me at my convenience.
Sure, can espresso be frustrating? Absolutely. It is both and art and science. You need to figure out how to be predictable in your technique so that you can isolate individual variables. This allows you to locate a change or problem in your technique quickly. It is absolutely impossible without a precise machine and grinder.
Does everyone need a LM Linea? No. The baseline machine is a PID Silvia if you are only doing espresso. If you want to make the jump to milk drinks, then you need to jump to a heat exchanger or double boiler. But, with the number of nice PID double boilers on the market, it's hard to recommend the heat exchanger. Easy to get a nice PID double boiler for 2-2500.
Baseline grinder is Mazzer Mini. Maybe a Baratza Vario. Go up from there.
Jon