Coffee machine for an occasional user?

[DanceswithUnix]

Hopefully I won't offend any coffee drinkers too much with this...

I'm more of a tea drinker frankly, but I should be working from home a lot soon and one of the few things I will miss of the office will be the big coffee machine that does all the bean grinding etc and produces a rather nice Americano at the press of a button.

I have a cafetiere which I might fire up once a week or two as it's a bit of a faff for the brewing and cleaning.

I also have £70 in Amazon vouchers that I was going to put towards an SSD, but I was wondering if something like a Tassimo might be worth getting instead?

I would quite like a 1TB SSD, but let's face it I don't *need* one. So are these things any good, or should I stick to storage and a cafetiere?

[DDY]

If you hang around Amazon for long enough you can find decent bean-to-cup espresso machines for £180, notably the Delonghi ESAM 2600 or ESAM 2600 - both the same machine but the latter with brushed aluminium face bits. As an espresso maker, it doesn't quite make an Americano in a single button press, but there's a hot water spout on the machine, and I'm sure you have a kettle.

I bought the Delonghi ESAM 2600 from AO, where it's still £180, just over a month ago to replace a faulty 5 year old Delonghi EC850 (which uses ground coffee) and I have to say I'm very happy with it.

[DanceswithUnix]

Well that's an option, the vouchers don't have an expiry on them apparently so I could wait.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

LOL,I used to be able to make a strong coffee and clean the cafetiere out daily within a few minutes whilst getting ready for work(switched to tea now). You do realise you also need to clean out the coffee machine too??

If you don't drink coffee that much surely a ground coffee bag,disposable coffee filter thingy(the french ones) or some of that ground coffee/instant coffee blends would probably a quicker and easier way to make coffee on and off?? Everyone I know who has a proper machine drinks a few coffees a day. If you don't its actually a relatively expensive appliance taking up space in the kitchen doing nothing.

Edit!!

Maybe something like a Dolce Gusto,etc would make more sense for £30:

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/househ...-criteria.html
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/househ...23994-pdt.html

If you drink loads of coffee it does get expensive,but they are actually made for more on and off drinkers of the stuff,and you can get deals on the capsules,and stock up on them for a few months.

48 Americano capsules cost around £12 off Amazon as a guide.

So if you budgeted £150 for a coffee machine,you could get that reduced price Dolce Gusto machine and 480 servings of Coffee for the same price!

[DDY]

The ESAM 2600 is dead easy to clean. Every week or two, pull the brewing module out, take it to the sink, give it a rinse and a shake, done.

An advantage of such a machine is the ability to adjust the:

- Coffee grind
- Amount of ground coffee
- Brewing time

And of course, you have the entire worlds worth of coffee beans to choose from.

With a capsule machine, you get none of that. Which for some is an advantage I suppose.

Capsule machines brew approximately 8g of coffee per capsule, going by Cat's numbers, that's £31.25 per kilo of coffee or 25p/serving. Compare that to a bag of beans - £10 per kilo of coffee or 8p/serving.

Break even point between these two options is about 880 no. of 8g servings:



8g per serving is more-or-less a single espresso, or half a mug of americano.

Then there's the environmental impact of coffee pods...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

maths

He said he was an on and off drinker of coffee and mostly a tea drinker. If you drink one cup a day,that's over two years to break even. If its a few times a week,even longer.

You also do need to clean out other parts too,like the water reservoir,etc.

Plus his main excuse that a french press is not viable is because he needs to clean it. Most of us tend to have very limited time to get ready for work,and yet I still made my coffee in one,cleaned it,made lunch,and did all the other stuff reasonably quickly. My mate had a coffee machine - it took longer than the French Press....! Now they use one of the instant coffee/ground coffee blends half the time since its just quicker.

Coffee machines are also technically not that great for the environment too since its another appliance you need to build and they take up space,so its all a toss-up really. The more you use it the more sense it makes basically!

I like coffee but I wouldn't buy a coffee machine myself as its simply not economical,and I would rather have a seperate grinder so I can do more than coffee.

On top of this coffee bags,disposable single cup coffee filters,and ground coffee/instant coffee mixes are even cheaper if you don't drink that much coffee compared to some of those capsule machines,but I assume he wants a push button machine and the capsule ones are very quick.

Also by doing the maths,I realised its simply cheaper to just use a French press or stovetop steamer,and be done with it.

If you are a coffee connoisseur and drink it mainly it makes more sense though.

[DDY]

Cat, I don't think either of us knows what DwU means exactly by occasional or on and off, so I laid out a graph so that anyone can make a rational decision based on their own predicted usage.

I've got quite an arsenal of coffee making equipment to include:

Bean-to-cup espresso
Ground coffee espresso (automatic)
Tassimo
French press
Moka pot
Disposable filters

The taste of the coffee produced by the two automatic espresso machines are of course comparable, but they're quite distinct from the French press, moka pot and filter coffee.

I prefer the espresso based Americano over the equivalent drinks made by other methods by some margin, so my advice is not completely impartial, but I have a French press stashed in my locker at work which as with my espresso machine gets used every day. I bring the French press home every week for a good scrub in the sink, in addition to the rinse after every use.

The Tassimo I leave at my parents house which I use when I'm around.

In terms of cleaning, a capsule machine requires the same cleaning regime as a ground coffee machine or bean-to-cup machine. For me, I descale the machines every three months or so, this also serves to clean the res. and the nozzles, it's a 15 min job and all automatic machines, including the capsule machine have automated descaling programmes.

Based on my experience, I would say that a bean-to-cup machine requires less cleaning than a French press, and the same level of cleaning as a capsule machine.

[Unique]

i'm more of a tea drinker too, but like a cappachino or latte or other fancy milky coffee, and i got a tassimo and unlike almost every other kitchen gadget, i'm still using it. i don't drink enough coffee to want all the fancy machines and bother with all the hassle, so sticking a pod or two in and pressing a button and having a drink ready in a minute, and being able to choose a load of different types was perfect for me. i use the kettle for tea and use teabags as it's much cheaper

of course the coffee is dearer, but you can sometimes get 3 for £10 or even better bulk deals on amazon, but you aren't paying a load of money for expensive machines. a decent tassimo is about £40ish and has all you need apart from the pods, and you can get them in tesco etc

[jimbouk]

How about an AeroPress? Small and easy to clean.

[kalniel]

I'm a french press fan, but if that's too much faff then I think only a capsule type machine will be less. Of those, everyone I know has switched to nespresso, and I admit, with the right capsules (there's a stupid amount of choice) you can get an enjoyable coffee out of them. It's different from french press coffee, and different from real espresso again, but more like the latter. I don't like them from an environmental perspective, but again, occasional use might mitigate that a little.

[Spud1]

If you are going for a pod machine, and particularly if you prefer black coffee..just get a Nespresso. You can find one for about your £70, they are very quick and easy to use, and are the best out there for the pod based systems. I typically have an espresso every morning before work (and sometimes an americano/latte if time to drink it!) and it takes seconds with no washing up.

You can save a little by going for a Dolce Gusto - I used to have one - but the coffee isn't as good, there is less choice on type of coffee and its very much geared towards making sugary coffee based drinks. The Tassimo is even worse - easily the worst of the branded pod machines that is 100% focussed on sweet sugary milky drinks. Worst of all it just doesn't make good coffee...

Of course a french/press or moka pot is going to be even cheaper (and makes better coffee imo) but they are more effort for sure, and coffee does go off if you don't drink it often enough (hence B2C is important)

A "real" machine will always be better but every time I consider "upgrading" I am put off by the cleaning/maintenance/hassle when I can press a button and get a very acceptable espresso without any effort

[peterb]

I'm a french press fan, but if that's too much faff then I think only a capsule type machine will be less. Of those, everyone I know has switched to nespresso, and I admit, with the right capsules (there's a stupid amount of choice) you can get an enjoyable coffee out of them. It's different from french press coffee, and different from real espresso again, but more like the latter. I don't like them from an environmental perspective, but again, occasional use might mitigate that a little.

I thought there was a collection service where they are recycled?

[Spud1]

I thought there was a collection service where they are recycled?

There is if you buy from their website - but its an exchange service so when they deliver your new pods, they will take away the old. Or you can take them to a nespresso shop. Some councils do offer drop offs at the local tip but its only a trial as I understand it.

[kalniel]

I thought there was a collection service where they are recycled?

Yes, but even recycling doesn't really mitigate the high energy cost of capsule production and extra bean miles.

[DanceswithUnix]

Lots to think about there, and love the graph!

By occasional, I can see me doing 5 cups per week. But that's just me and I don't live in isolation, I can imagine my wife will use it but my son would probably use it more than me. So 10 cups per week is probably a conservative guess on usage. That puts the ESAM 2600 on a 2 year payback period before it becomes the cheap option, which isn't bad tbh.

[Zak33]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Toruiwa-Cof...=coffee+funnel



pour coffee in..place over cup...pour on water from kettle

drink coffee

remove grinds from funnel ... dishwash