With regular descaling, backflushing, and sometimes repair or upgrades an espresso machine will easily last more than a decade.
To others, if you are not familiar with espresso, avoid manual espresso machines - even with consistent top quality semi-auto machines good espresso is not easy, let alone adding even more play into it with a lever machine.
I recommend not getting a home espresso machine at all unless you are really into it. Moka pots, pour over, aeropress are all far far easier, much cheaper, and far less finicky. Save the espresso for a trip to your neighborhood cafe instead - they'll make it far better without the hassle.
This simply hasn't been born out by my experience making espresso at home. By spending about $7-800 on a Rancilio Silvia and a Baratza Vario, and dialing in my process a bit, I'm able to consistently pull as-good or better shots than the premium coffee places around me (LAX). Granted, you have to be detail oriented to be consistently good, but once you've figured out the variables, it's just process.
This whole experience has taught me that a multi-thousand dollar HE machine is truly only as good as the person behind the portafilter.
> and dialing in my process a bit, I'm able to consistently pull as-good or better shots than the premium coffee places around me (LAX).
Man, that's sad. There are a lot of bad cafes out there - but there are many good ones around me, and I live in a midsized city.
> This whole experience has taught me that a multi-thousand dollar HE machine is truly only as good as the person behind the portafilter.
The consistency is what matters - a bad barista makes bad coffee no matter the machine. But expensive machines and grinders make more consistent coffee, period, and offer much more chance for variation with PIDs, pressure change, temperature change, etc.
Look, for us espresso afficionados, it may seem easy. But I remember my first machine - it took me a year to pull consistently good espresso shots. Perhaps our expectations are simply different.
They don't even pretend to be.
I think it's pretty easy to get a good, consistent espresso from something like a cheap home Breville/Sage/Solis machine.
You don't really need to be very "into it" for that. Just buy good beans and adjust the grinder as per the instructions and feedback either from the timer or pressure gauge.
They're just a few hundred bucks for a decent single boiler machine.
Too many cafes just service customers wanting milk based coffee these days to really care about espresso drinking customers. IMHO that's why they have these weird "espresso" roasts which are really just over-roasted or overly acidic (to my pallet) "green" roasts.
Just get a decent medium roast, a conical burr grinder (can be built into the machine) and you're good to go.
It isn't - but what most people want is coffee. They think they want espresso - until they realize how expensive and truly difficult it is to dial in.
> You don't really need to be very "into it" for that. Just buy good beans and adjust the grinder as per the instructions and feedback either from the timer or pressure gauge.
Which grinder? Most grinders don't properly grind for espresso - you need a solid burr grinder specifically for espresso to get consistent results. You're starting at $400.
Which Cafe's are you guys going to? So many great espresso options in my city (A mid-sized city). I highly doubt you can't find good espresso in any major city.
It’s fool proof, really.
1. https://www.seattlecoffeegear.com/breville-barista-express-e...
Either get a mocha pot at home, or get a real espresso machine and open a coffee shop.
On the positive side, capsule-based espresso machines do deliver consistent, good quality coffee at home, better than you would get with a consumer espresso machine using pre-ground coffee that you keep in a vat for a couple of weeks.
On the negative side, I am often disappointed by the quality of espresso in (Italian) coffee shops. It used to be that the quality of coffee was paramount for a coffee shop, and a good barista either learned how to get good coffee quickly or went home; now it seems this is perceived as a much less important part of the trade, and you regularly get restaurant-quality (as in very mediocre) coffee in coffee shops. Not sure if Nespresso played a role in this too, as less people are walking to a shop to get their coffee.
Or maybe it's just me, trying more and more different coffee places around europe.
There are some truly great coffee experiences in the US and Australia too - really stretching boundaries, or doing the classic style, much better than in Italy. It seems that Italy has been less innovative in this space - probably because it is "Just coffee" in the way drip is in the US - it is more functional, which is sad, because truly great espresso is a treat.
Italian cities used to be "large towns", where people lived and talked to each other - which meant a low-quality bar would whither and die while good ones thrived, since word of mouth and time availability would allow people to be selective.
These areas are now increasingly adopting suburban models, forced by growth and new ways of life. People commute to work, get coffee quickly from the closest bar or from vending machines inside their offices and capannoni, then go back to the 'burbs. There is rarely time to be selective and go "da quello che lo fa buono".
Also, in my experience, a lot of bars now make money (and their name) on the 7pm aperitivo rather than on espresso.
I haven't been there for, well more than a decade, but coming from Vienna, one of the greatest things when visiting Italy (and what I missed most when I was back home) was that you usually got good espresso even in the smallest shack in the middle of nowhere.
In general I agree. It seems that other areas have been doing much more in this space in the US, Australia, etc.
At home I like to do things more in the Italian style - but with higher quality beans, and the difference is remarkable.
I was always able to get something I enjoyed drinking out of an entry level, single boiler, home espresso machine. It was also fun and meditative learning the skill and doing the routine.
I'd take a less than perfect home espresso over just endless other brewed methods. I love an occasional pour-over, but not every day.
Everyone always says to avoid it, and that's true if you can't envisage doing it a couple of times a day (in which case, the cost and kitchen workspace requirements make it silly), but personally, I'd take an 80% espresso at home over not.
It might be more worth it to someone to enter at this price point than having to pay for semi-pro gear as the "you can't get good espresso at home" comments suggest.
I just don't want people who might want an alright drink at home to be put off, you can get ok results at home with cheap equipment. It won't be as good as what you can get with a GS/3 and a Sette, but won't be too bad.
The number one complaint I get from new hobbyists is "some shots are amazing and some aren't, why?" It's almost always using a stepped burr grinder, like the Baratza encore, for espresso. It just doesn't produce consistent enough grinds and because it's stepped sometimes it will be impossible to dial in.
> I just don't want people who might want an alright drink at home to be put off, you can get ok results at home with cheap equipment. It won't be as good as what you can get with a GS/3 and a Sette, but won't be too bad.
The problem is the consistency - you'll have more bad shots than good. I always tell people get a cheaper machine and a better grinder and you'll be better of for it.
I don't want to turn anyone off either. But I know quite a few people who have went down the rabbit whole to be upset.
> you'll have more bad shots than good
For me, using a basic machine and a stepped burr grinder I had substantially more "ok" and "good" shots than "bad" ones. I guess it depends on your tolerance, but whilst it might not have been absolutely consistent, it was well within an acceptable percentage of good.
We still swear by our Moka pot for home coffee. It's so much less finicky and combined with a hand-grinder is ridiculously portable. Easy to throw into a backpack when you're travelling!
Hmmmm I think I'll go make a coffee now...
What grind setting? Temperature fluctuations matter - too hot and the coffee tastes burnt. Pressure changes the profile. The key to good espresso is consistency - for someone who is using a manual, typically they have experience with espresso. They think surely it is easy, the way a math PHD thinks calculus is easy.
But it isn't that easy - and once you realize you need a good grinder and not a baratza encore, you'll see the cost further increase.
Also, manuals lack a steam wand which is a real downside.
you'll see the cost further increase
Of course. But making consistent espresso without a decent grinder, now that's hard, so you know on beforehand it's in the price. And a grinder lasts years or decades and it's pretty likely a decent manual machine does so as well.
Also, manuals lack a steam wand which is a real downside.
Only if you want it, which I don't.
> but: have you ever tried a manual machine yourself and got a decent espresso out of it?
Oh I have. This is my manual, well, the older version: https://www.cerinicoffee.com/products/olympia-cremina-sl. I like to experiment a lot with it and have a pressure gauge attachment on the top.
You can certainly get good espresso out of it - that isn't my point. my point is, it isn't as easy as people think - and you far overestimate based on hobbyists on coffee forums (of course they produce good shots, they're hobbyists) and people who just want coffee.
> Only if you want it, which I don't.
Well of course - but that is a downside that would turn off a lot of people.
Those are not my words though, I was merely giving some alternative view because your posts make it sound (to me) like it's not easy at all.
olympia-cremina
Would have to compare irl, but from the looks and manual that does actually look a bit harder than the Robot which is the most basic it can get.
Anyway, I agree it's tricky and not for everyone ... just came here to tell others it might be worth a try. I'm really glad I went for it.
It truly is worth it if you really value good espresso and like espresso based drinks. But if you're not going to use it every day, it probably isn't worth it.
I think this, from his book, The World Atlas of Coffee, is very telling:
> "Making espresso is both incredibly frustrating and also very rewarding. I must offer a word of caution here: don't invest in an espresso machine unless you want a new hobby. The fantasy of whipping up a couple of delicious cappuccinos...is a very long way away from the work involved in preparing the drinks."
This thing doesn't even boil the water for you.
It absolutely is a lil messier and more work, but there's something to the ritual of it.
The grind is the problem that has not been solved yet. You need uniform and adjustable grind size and there is no cheap way to make a mill for that. Entry level espresso grinders are starting with hand-cranked ones at $200+, a decent electric one will be at least $500 and the good one will be $1000+. Just the replacement burrs for mine are $250 and these are not some one-off hipster burrs, they are mass-produced for commercial machines. Making precise shapes out of hard steel is very expensive.
So there are essentially two solutions for at home espresso-like drink: various pods (ESE is apparently from 70s and was designed for commercial use, I imagine very light one) and machines with a pressure valve on the exit from the portafilter (essentially all machines you can buy in department stores), those take pre-ground coffee and use the exit valve to create espresso-like "crema". It's not espresso because there is no noticeable pressure difference over and under the grounds and espresso needs the layer of coffee to provide enough resistance to get to 7-9 bars on top of it. I think some pod systems could be more like espresso, at least in principle.
I don't know how much coffee you grind, but unless you run a coffee shop, replacing burrs shouldn't really happen until after several decades.
Great taste, effortless, no waste, cheap. What else?
A real espresso machine produces 8-9 bars of pressure for extraction, and a Bialetti is about 2 bars, so it's not technically espresso.
It's also very quick, you can have your cup of coffee within a couple dozen of seconds. Not very hot in this case, but still very tasteful.
Were you unable to recycle your pods?
Despite their claims of how green they are, only 30% of their pods are recycled [0]
[0] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-16/most-nespresso-coffee...
Cardboard is biodegradable, but waxed cardboard is lined with plastic meaning it needs to be handled separately, and if your recycling center doesn't handle it, it goes in the trash where it doesn't biodegrade because it's coated in plastic.
The reason the plastic lined pods are important is because it means you can't just chuck them in your household recycling, they have to be sent back to Nespresso. Anyone who doesn't send them back to Nespresso is throwing them in the trash, or throwing them in household recycling, where they're separated from and put in regular waste.
What does it mean?
Also, can you tell us more about Flair? Very curious.
It makes professional grade shots, has no unnecessary waste, and has nothing to really break.