Overwhelmed - Just want Espresso

[BBdude]

Hi all,

Tons of great info here. I did some searching but what I'm seeing is all over the place - perhaps its everyone's personal preference that's getting in my way :decaf:

Long story short. I started drinking coffee this January. I don't much care for coffee (I have a Bonavita and a small (cheap) Krup grinder), but really enjoy espresso. A shot or two of espresso in the AM or putting it into an Americano is perfect for me. To give you an idea, an espresso shot or americano from Starbucks tastes totally acceptable to be. I've seen a lot of different espresso options out there:

Nespresso - Good reviews, but I don't want to buy the cups.
AeroPress - Good reviews, but some feedback that the taste is not like an "espresso" and uses the same amount of beans as a carafe of coffee.
Super Automatic (e.g, Jura, DeLonghi, etc.) - Love these, but most are ~$500.

What's the route I should go? Should I just save up for a Super Automatic or do you think I can get by with an AeroPress? Trying to get the most "value" out of my purchase. Thanks in advance.

 

[peterjschmidt]

Aeropress is $25. It's a cheap experiment, and based on your tastes, I'd say you'll really like it.

"and uses the same amount of beans as a carafe of coffee." Not true.

 

[Surfer]

If you've only had Starbucks, sorry to tell you that's not espresso, their using superautos + stale beans = gusher watered down nasty shots of whatever you want to call it, anything but espresso lol (if anything their the weakest coffee around as they roast, more like burn, their beans so dark they reduce caffeine) . Find a real shop in your area and try the espresso from a commercial grinder and semi-auto, night and day difference vs Charbucks. Superautomatics don't make espresso no matter what anyone or the companies say, I have a friend that had a Jura C9, and another I know that has a Monza which is a $3k-3500 machine. I only have a CC1 and Preciso, nothing special, and yet the Monza isn't remotely close to it for espresso. Superautos have poor temps/temp control, and very poor internal grinders, internal tamping is poor and generally their "dosage" is way off what normal people do with a semi-auto and separate grinder, Monza is built better internally then your average Superauto at home. The cheaper superautos are hit or miss for reliability, once out of warranty your basically left with a paper weight if something goes wrong as it's all proprietary inside so you can't really fix for the most part yourself, and companies will charge damn near close to the price of a new machine to repair depending on what went wrong lol. But my buddy just wants convenience so he sticks with the Monza, makes cup/milk drinks though, only uses it for shots maybe once in a blue moon.

Aeropress like mentioned isn't espresso, but makes a damn good cup, still going to need a good grinder for it though. It definitely doesn't use the same amount of beans as a drip machine, not sure where you heard that? Moka Pot is another option too.

No matter what though, your going to want/need fresh roasted beans, nothing store bought or chain (charbucks) bought, unless you want beans that are burnt, old and nasty stale. If it has a "best by" or "use by" date on it, run lol