• Home Espresso Machines

    From Kurt Weiske@1:218/700 to All on Mon Mar 13 07:47:41 2023

    (Yes, I know the coffee in the echo title refers to chatting, not drinking coffee...)

    I've been working from home since 2020, and adjusting to not paying as much for gas, working earlier hours without needing to commute into an office, and paying much more for home utilities as I keep a house warm that used to sit empty during the day.

    I had an old manual espresso maker that I'd bought at a sample sale back in 2001 that finally died, and decided to splurge on a new espresso machine. I bought a Gaggia Brera in December and love it.

    You put fresh beans in the top and push a button to make espresso, double espresso or lungo shots. The frothing wand makes a ton of steamed milk. There's no measuring, tamping, or messy cleaning portafilters - it just dumps the used pucks into a bin that you clean out once every day or so.

    The best part? Since I work from home, I don't spend money on buying coffee out anymore - and I can make my wife a latte for the road in about 5 minutes. It's easily paid for itself in a couple of months.
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  • From August Abolins@2:221/1.58 to Kurt Weiske on Mon Mar 13 11:16:00 2023
    Hello Kurt!

    (Yes, I know the coffee in the echo title refers to
    chatting, not drinking coffee...)

    The echo name SEEMS to imply coffee as the topic. There is no
    moderator stepping in to illuminate otherwise.

    I've been working from home since 2020, and adjusting to
    not paying as much for gas, working earlier hours without
    needing to commute into an office, and paying much more
    for home utilities as I keep a house warm that used to sit
    empty during the day.

    You could still control the temperature of the rooms you are
    not using during the day no? I live in a rather large 2-level
    home, 1200sqft per level, and simply close off the rooms that I
    do not frequent.


    I had an old manual espresso maker that I'd bought at a
    sample sale back in 2001 that finally died, and decided to
    splurge on a new espresso machine. I bought a Gaggia Brera
    in December and love it.

    The Brera seems huge to feed a single cup! Why does it have to
    be so big?

    The best part? Since I work from home, I don't spend money
    on buying coffee out anymore - and I can make my wife a
    latte for the road in about 5 minutes. It's easily paid
    for itself in a couple of months.

    For me, the best part was to get off coffee entirely. It's just
    the occassional decaf for me now. A simpe herbal chocolatey
    chai (no actual tea, just chicory root, carob pod, cinnamon,
    cocoa shells, cardamon, ginger root and licorice root) ..is
    quite fine with or without a bit of cream. I've also
    discovered that I can sweeten it up by adding a fruit-based
    herbal tea bag.
    --
    ../|ug

    --- OpenXP 5.0.57
    * Origin: Mobile? COFFEE_KLATSCH = https://tinyurl.com/y56r9f2o (2:221/1.58)
  • From Kurt Weiske@1:218/700 to August Abolins on Mon Mar 13 08:38:26 2023
    Re: Home Espresso Machines
    By: August Abolins to Kurt Weiske on Mon Mar 13 2023 11:16 am

    You could still control the temperature of the rooms you are
    not using during the day no? I live in a rather large 2-level
    home, 1200sqft per level, and simply close off the rooms that I
    do not frequent.

    I do the same, but we don't have a heating system that heats the whole house. My home office has french doors leading to a deck, and the only way to get heat into there is with a space heater.

    The Brera seems huge to feed a single cup! Why does it have to
    be so big?

    It's got a decent sized-boiler - you can pull two expresso shots then immediately go about steaming milk or pulling boiling water for an americano.

    Two things that make it larger than some others are the system for disposing of coffee pucks and the front-mounted water reservoir. That makes it easy to maintain the unit if it's under a counter, like mine is.
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  • From August Abolins@2:221/1.58 to Kurt Weiske on Sun Mar 19 12:27:00 2023
    Hello Kurt!

    ** On Monday 13.03.23 - 08:38, you wrote:

    It's got a decent sized-boiler - you can pull two expresso
    shots then immediately go about steaming milk or pulling
    boiling water for an americano.

    Two things that make it larger than some others are the
    system for disposing of coffee pucks and the front-mounted
    water reservoir. That makes it easy to maintain the unit
    if it's under a counter, like mine is.

    The last machine that I had in use was a Bosch/Tassimo unit.
    The coffee/tea pucks are very compact and thin. It was in use
    for about 12 years. The quick/automated way of having a coffee
    started and ready (walk off and do something else) was
    addictive in of itself.

    I was even contemplating offering "fresh" coffee at my shop
    with a couple of units like that.

    I did NOT appreciate having to take the system offline for the
    descaler process every 6 months or so. However, I persisted
    until I simply got fed up with paying the premium for the pre-
    packaged pucks. Instead, I repurposed the machine to act as my
    inline hotwater heater and just made my coffees with a
    cone+filter that sits on top of the cup - and I used the much
    less expensive loose-ground coffee - I did that for about 5
    years.

    Then, one day (after 10 years total) the machine reported a
    fault light indicating that the water reservoir was empty,
    although it was NOT. As a result, a simple descaler process
    wasn't going to cooperate! I was already drinking decaf by
    that time, so I wasn't really missing having a coffee. But the
    machine is toast as far am I am concerned and will simply go to
    landfill.

    The machine only made at the most 4 to 6 beverages per day.
    With those numbers it seems that 10 years of service, including
    the recommended descaling, for a mchine like that seems
    underperforming.

    Anyway.. boiling water the simple way in a kettle, and letting
    gravity and a paper cone do its magic is quite good and fast
    enough.

    I would imagine that your espresso machine would need far more
    maintenance and cleaning than a simple water-only Bosch/Tassimo
    system. I know you said that the machine "has already paid for
    itself" in a few months (keeping in mind that the cost of
    bistro coffees are overpriced to begin with), but I hope the
    machine doesn't create maintenance headaches and added cost
    down the road.
    --
    ../|ug

    --- OpenXP 5.0.57
    * Origin: Mobile? COFFEE_KLATSCH = https://tinyurl.com/y56r9f2o (2:221/1.58)
  • From Kurt Weiske@1:218/700 to August Abolins on Sun Mar 19 12:31:07 2023
    Re: Home Espresso Machines
    By: August Abolins to Kurt Weiske on Sun Mar 19 2023 12:27 pm

    Anyway.. boiling water the simple way in a kettle, and letting
    gravity and a paper cone do its magic is quite good and fast
    enough.

    We did most of our coffee drinking at home with 2 cone filters. My wife drinks hers with cream and sugar, and that really cools down the coffee. Making it with water out of a kettle is the best way to keep it warm in the cup.

    I would imagine that your espresso machine would need far more maintenance and cleaning than a simple water-only Bosch/Tassimo
    system. I know you said that the machine "has already paid for
    itself" in a few months (keeping in mind that the cost of
    bistro coffees are overpriced to begin with), but I hope the
    machine doesn't create maintenance headaches and added cost
    down the road.

    We have a reverse osmosis water filter system. Internal scale is the biggest problem for espresso machines, so I'd hope I'm going to do OK. The mechanism is easy to clean, open a door on the side and the hopper mechanism comes out and you can rinse it out in a sink. Getting coffee oils out of the grinder might be a challenge.
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