I like a coffee. But being ignorant with close horizons, I have never had a "proper cup" - it's always just what you get in a café, or at home, we have a drip filter into which we place Taylor's pre-ground coffee. This is nice enough, and better than instant.
For irrelevant reasons, my sister has given me her old bean-to-cup Delonghi Magnifica with the caveat that it wasn't working. I took it for the "fun" of trying to fix it.
I have failed to fix it. And it turns out the cost to get it fixed back at Delonghi is nearly the price of new one.
I've read about oh, you need 28g of coffee that's only two days since roasting with no oily beans and then add 32g of water and then you want a pressure of fifteen bar for 19 seconds which you can only get with a hand grinder of a particular type and make sure the blades are...etc etc. And that fiddly stuff interests me not one jot.
So my question is - assuming that coffee, like everything, is one of those "diminishing returns the more you spend and faff" things, should I just stick with my fifteen quid drip filter, or blow a few hundred on a bean to cup machine (or something else)? Or would I in fact not really notice it anyway unless I'm trying to fool myself, not having a very sophisticated palate?
Last edited by: Crankcase on Sat 27 Nov 21 at 15:08
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Or would I in fact not really notice it anyway unless I'm trying
>> to fool myself, not having a very sophisticated palate?
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I think you've answered you're own question.
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Cafetiere works for us and for our son who actually appreciates the stuff.
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I haven't drunk instant coffee for many years. I love real coffee
I started with an electric percolator, which was messy to keep clean, then on to a cafetiere, which didn't taste quite so good.
My next favorite was a stove top espresso jug, withLavazza Qualita Rosso.
All of these presented me with the messy problem of getting rid of the grounds.
Our brothers and sisters bought us a Nespresso coffee maker for Christmas three or four years ago, and I love it. We bought a Nespresso milk frother/heater to make capuchinos.
Nespresso sell many different coffees, in capsules, at strengths up to 12 on their scale.
Works out at 30p per shot - but I use two for a double espresso and Mrs Too has two in her americano, with frothed milk.
I don't remember having a better coffee outside Italy, Germany or Spain.
8o)
Last edited by: neiltoo on Sat 27 Nov 21 at 15:27
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Thanks Neil, useful. I'd forgotten about the pod based machines. But I do recall Mrs C shuddering at the thought of all the plastic pods.
Has life moved on and they can now be recycled?
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Nespresso pick up the pods for recycling, or you can take them back to the shop.
They have a membership system for mail order. The deliveryman can pick them up, or sometimes it's a dedicated collection.
If you're a member, you get free coffee in the shop. ( you probably do if you look like buying!)
They are very posh looking shops, though our nearest is the Trafford Centre (ugh!)
John Lewis is more our style!
The difficulty for general recycling is that they are a plastic cup, with a foil top, so they have to be separated, whic is impossible in general recycling.
By the way, there are machines at many different price levels. Ours was one of the cheapest at the time, but I don't think it's still available - they all do the same thing!
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Interesting. Thanks, gives me something to explore.
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I have, and have had for a number of years now, a Dolce Gusto pod machine.
We only use three types of pod, Americano, Cafe au Lait, and A hot chocolate from a supplier who's name escapes me.
The Americano is perfect, being a pressurised pod at about 15 bar it produces perfect crema at a perfect temperature. In a small cup it makes a great expresso, in a larger cup with milk makes great regular coffee.
The Cafe au Lait makes a great Spanish style cafe con leche / cortado
The chocolate is as it says, creamy frothy rich chocolate.
At under 4 quid for 16 pods, its about 25p a cup.
Pods are not recyclable.
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I have an Aeropress coffee maker and have used it daily for years. It’s about £30 and is like a large syringe that you prime with a spoonful of ground coffee and operate manually. It rinses under the tap for cleaning. Despite its low tech and cost it makes a good cup that sits between filter and electric espresso but is much less faff than either.
Its unique in my experience as supposed wonder gadget that has actually stood the test of time rather than being consigned to a cupboard.
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That's definitely worth an explore, the Aeropress as described. Ta.
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>> I have, and have had for a number of years now, a Dolce Gusto pod
>> machine.
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All sounds good until
>> Pods are not recyclable.
Never be able to sell that to swmbo. Having said that, she was twirling her plaits in girlish excitement at all the Chinese Christmas Tat in the garden centre today as if COP 26 had never happened, so maybe...
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>> >> Pods are not recyclable.
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>> Never be able to sell that to swmbo.
I care not now. Having screwed the world up for the last 67 years, nothing I can do in the next 13 will fix it.
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>>All of these presented me with the messy problem of getting rid of the grounds.
I sprinkle them around my Hostas, seems slugs and snails detest the stuff.
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I have a Delonghi Dedica which takes ground coffee not bean-to-cup. It's 15cm wide and is the only one I found which would fit in the space I was allocated. b***** marvelous thing and I couldn't do without it.
Tried loads of different blends of coffee but none of them come close to Lavazza Espresso for me. I don't use the milk frother. If I want it with milk I just stick half a mug of semi-skimmed in the microwave for 1min20 and add two double shots of espresso.
My only complaint is that you need to push a button to make the thing produce coffee. If I could pre-load it when I went to bed and then set it off remotely when I staggered out of the shower next morning it would be absolutely perfect.
PS. I was doing some work for Ferrero in Italy a while ago and the (free) dept. coffee machine was one of those huge double wardrobe vending things. It actually used Lavazza beans and produced damn good coffee. Why does every vending machine I've used in the UK dispense dishwater?
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>> I have a Delonghi Dedica
Ach, another good sounding option.
So many choices. I think I need a cup of tea.
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>> PS. I was doing some work for Ferrero in Italy a while ago and the
>> (free) dept. coffee machine was one of those huge double wardrobe vending things. It actually
>> used Lavazza beans and produced damn good coffee.
Similar to what you find in 'spoons?
I've found coffee to be the province of coffee snobs and suspect that in a blind taste test most would never differentiate between one and another. I used to use a percolator, but since being told to avoid caffeine, find Gold Blend de-caffeinated does the job.
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>> I've found coffee to be the province of coffee snobs and suspect that in a
>> blind taste test most would never differentiate between one and another.
carp.
>>I used to use
>> a percolator, but since being told to avoid caffeine, find Gold Blend de-caffeinated does the
>> job.
figures
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Nearly five years ago we splashed out on a Melitta Varianza machine costing nearly £500 - bean-to-cup, foamed milk etc. Totally automatic.
It does all espresso-based coffees very well indeed. However, it won't be with us for much longer, I think. It went back for repair/reprogramming once under guarantee and has since developed intermittent faults, like grinding the coffee and then dumping it before use, and producing foamed milk that consists mainly of steam. Intermittent, as I say, but at the moment it's working OK. It also leaks water, so sits in a permanent puddle on the breakfast bar.
I managed to improve the wasted coffee situation a few months ago by obtaining a new brewing unit for about £60.
Considering it's made mostly two cups of coffee a day for over four years I'm not impressed with its reliability nor its value for money. I wouldn't recommend it. I shan't be getting a direct replacement and am considering separate machines: grinder, coffee maker and milk foamer/steamer (possibly combining the last two).
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I recently bought this, currently £400, a good price.
www.delonghi.com/en-gb//ecam22-360-b-magnifica-s-automatic-coffee-maker/p/ECAM22.360.B
to replace a similar one we lost in the house fire. The Magnifica series don't generally do milk but this is the exception and with the milk "carafe" attached it will produce a cappuccino on a button press.
I don't usually bother with the milk tank unless we have visitors but it's not ridiculously hard to clean and it works OK. We usually make long coffees, or double longs, and just add milk.
I like this one because it has a little LCD display, I like the feedback.
The old one was a Magnifica without a tank, just a frothing wand.This is a bit better designed in that the inside of the machine stays almost completely free of spilt grounds, the few there are land on the removable tray.
It has adjustments for temperature, strength, grind, and quantities of all the pre-sets. It can dispense frothed milk, hot water. I run it with the temperature and strength up one notch.
It's cheaper to run than pods. I just checked its 'stats' and it produced 180 cups from the first kilo of beans. That would actually be about 90 drinks for us as we each drink double lunghos. I pay about £18 for a kilo of beans so that's about 20p a mug.
I get beans from here www.redber.co.uk/ I'm on Guatemalan swiss water decaff at the moment - I basically don't have caffeine these days.
Last edited by: Manatee on Sat 27 Nov 21 at 20:45
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Interesting coincidence: I obtained the Melitta brewing unit mentioned above from Redber.
Out of interest, I priced up their coffee. (I buy about 5 x 250g packs of beans at a time, in an effort to keep the beans fresh and not have opened stuff lying around for too long, and also to have some variation in flavour from different blends.) For the stuff I like (strong roasts) they were a bit more expensive than my usual supplier - Rave Coffee.
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My sister has this and when we visited I used it daily and loved it.
Now is back on offer and I am tempted.
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Thought I'd update.
I took the Magnifica apart three times. At the third attempt, I fixed it. I can now have it do the whole process, bean to cup. The grinder needed complete disassembly to fix it.
Verdict. Well, jury out. There are a few variables to play with and it's only worked since yesterday. Time will tell.
I think it seems to produce something very vaguely different to the fifteen quid Tesco drip thing. Very vaguely.
Mrs C says at first pass she prefers the Tesco drip stuff.
Hmmm. Glad I didn't spend hundreds (or indeed anything) on it so far!
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and the problem / fix was?
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We have a Melitta Aromafresh. A bean to cup machine which can also take ground coffee if you prefer. No milk frother (surely these are too much faff to clean out after every use?) but it has an insulated jug into which the coffee percolates through the traditional Melitta paper filter, so no need for a hot plate to keep the coffee warm.
The real benefit of this type of machine over a pod machine is the control over the strength of the brew. £180.
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>>and the problem / fix was?
The grinder was turning but no coffee was being ground. The beans were bouncing in the hopper, not feeding down.
Youtubed it, took it apart, removed top of grinding unit, disassembled, cleaned thoroughly. YouTube video told me I wouldn't need to do lower half of grinder, so didn't. Reassembled, but it all failed same way. Took me about an hour, being super careful, labelling every screw and its position, and not knowing what I was doing.
Second go round, this time I went further and took out the lower half of the grinder. Bit more scary but not too bad in reality. Now needed a torx bit for one screw, which astonishingly I had. Cleaned everything completely, and was also able now to clean the chute where the coffee drops (which did have a little bit of a plug of coffee in it). Again reassembled, again failed same way. Now down to half an hour as I knew most of it, but also now grumpy and disappointed.
Third time, it was on the verge of going to the tip, but took it apart just one more time, again whole grinder removed. Then saw a different YouTube video where replacing the lower half of the grinder was different - a hard push to really lock it home - and also doing up the weird left hand thread screw had to be way tighter than I had done before, so that the whole mechanism was turning with the screwdriver. Did those things, reassembled, knew immediately it was now better as everything meshed and turned by hand beautifully. Put it together, voila, it grinds coffee nicely. Took about twenty minutes.
Rest of the unit works ok, always did, though the pucks of coffee sometimes go adrift, so it's not perfect. The machine is about four or five years old, so maybe other bits are on their last legs.
De Longhi asked for about £100 to look at it, then bits on top depending. New grinder alone is about £65, etc etc.
So I'm pleased with myself for achieving it, as I am not at all practical on any level, but I'm not that thrilled with the end product yet. But there are knobs to press and dials to twiddle and different beans to try before giving up on it and knocking up a Gold Blend in ten seconds instead.
I will as well be looking at some of the suggestions above, so thanks to all.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Thu 9 Dec 21 at 17:25
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SWM bought me a coffee maker many years ago, it didn't produce very hot coffee so it was binned eventually.
I use a kettle and a cafetiere with Farrers No 1 blend, posted from Farrers of Kendal.
Tasty and simple, just like SWMBO, in fact !
Ted
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Coffee machines - sooty123
