What super automatic espresso machine do you use?

[yobigd20]

On a related topic, we use Illy beans. Some of the shops have better tasting espresso but I've found mere mortals can not order the beans. Does anyone have suggestions for bulk (20lbs.. we drink a lot of coffee around here) bean supply for good quality coffee?

I used to buy 5lbs bags of 'Shock Coffee' (hypercaffinated), but lately it tastes awful. Shock Coffee (Caffeinated), Whole Bean Coffee, 5-Pound Bag: Amazon.com: Grocery Gourmet Food I've switched to buying individual smaller bags to keep the coffee more fresh. Though its more expensive.

So the last month I've switched to these two:

Café Britt Coffee

• 2 packs of Britt's Organic Gourmet Coffee
• 100% Costa Rican Arabica Coffee; Organic certified; Kosher; High-mountain grown
• Dark roasted; USDA Organic Certified; Kosher certified; High-mountain grown SHB (Strictly Hard Bean); Gluten Free
• Premium three layered aluminum packaging and a one-way freshness valve to guarantee maximum freshness
• We combine coffees from four key growing regions to craft this remarkable blend: The Central Valley, West Valley, Orosi valley and Brunca region
• Cafe Britt Costa Rica Organic Bajo Sombra Whole Bean Coffee, 12-Ounce Bags (Pack of 2): Amazon.com: Grocery Gourmet Food

That coffee is pretty good. But my new favorite is this one:

Blue Horse Farm-direct: 100% Kona Coffee, Dark Roast, Whole Beans,

• Rare hand picked, rain water fermented, sundried Kona coffee beans
• State inspected & certified
• Herbicide & pesticide free
• From authentic family farm with 120+ year old trees
• Farm-direct: 100% Kona Coffee, Dark Roast, Whole Beans, 1 Lb: Amazon.com: Grocery Gourmet Food

I think that Blue Horse Kona is the best coffee I've ever made using my machine. It's so good that others have also commented on how good my coffee tastes. I think one of the reasons for this is that it's shipping direct from the farm. This is as opposed to something that Amazon has stocked in a warehouse. They package it and ship it directly when they receive the order so it's REALLY fresh. After I've had this, I'm convinced now that I only want to order farm-direct beans from now on. It really makes a significant difference. But go figure, this one's going to be a drain on the budget @ TOTAL $34.95 shipped for 1lb. 1lb lasts about 2 weeks here so unless I figure out something different that's going to be ~$70 per month in coffee beans. Well at least that's still cheaper than going to starbucks everyday. (I'm good at rationalizing everything).

I can't help you with the 5lb bags though. I no longer recommend that Shock coffee.

 

[dsm363]

YBD,
Awesome thread!!!
We have used the living bageesus out of Capresso machines for the last 15 years and given many as gifts to friends and family. They refirb them quickly for reasonable money although their initial build quality has subsided over the years.

I love the other suggestions as our current machine is nearing its end of life.
Thanks!


On a related topic, we use Illy beans. Some of the shops have better tasting espresso but I've found mere mortals can not order the beans. Does anyone have suggestions for bulk (20lbs.. we drink a lot of coffee around here) bean supply for good quality coffee?

If you like the more manual process and have a very large coffee budget then probably the best home espresso machine you can buy (cost not an issue) is the La Marzocco GS/3

A great place to get coffee from too is
Intelligentsia Coffee

The most important thing to good coffee is really grinding it right before you brew so that means a good conical burr grinder like the Mazzer Mini E or something similar.

 

[Rodolfo Paiz]

Just to add another two bits here, I have a 7-year-old Gaggia Syncrony Compact that has seen over 10,000 espresso shots IIRC, and is still in mint condition, going strong. We bought a larger machine that steams the milk by itself recently, and due to our awesome experience with Gaggia went with the Gaggia Academia. Very happy with it as well, though of course we've "only" put 2,000 or so shots through it so I can't (yet) speak to its longevity.

 

[AudubonB]

My own experience:

We used a Saeco - unknown model - for about six years, in semiprofessional fashion (our lodge/cabin guests meant that it probably averaged 8-10 hits per day, every day). If Lolachampcar or someone else has a good lead on how it might be repaired or otherwise overhauled, I'd be quite happy.

But now, am not drinking espressos/cappuccinos, only regular drip coffee. For that, am using and very happy with our Dutch "Moccamaster". Extremely high quality.

I grind our beans with a Jura Capresso (another conical burr grinder); I think at its price point you'll never find anything to equal it (about $200, if I recall correctly).

What I'm looking for now is a source of green beans. Does anyone else roast his own?????

 

[dsm363]

Don't green coffee beans have a very long shelf life? If so, try calling intelligentsia. I have no affiliation with then just bought coffee from them for almost ten years. There are many great places to buy coffee from. 49th Parallel Roasters in Vancouver is good too.

 

[AudubonB]

Yes - virtually unlimited storage life is one of their biggest appeal for us. Thanks for those leads.

 

[Btrflyl8e]

I had a Capresso 1300 for several years, gave it to my niece last year and upgraded to a Gaggia Accademia. We absolutely love it. I've had automatic shipment of Illy coffee for years, they have several options and it comes via FedEx right to my door. I don't care what anyone says, my Gaggia milk frothing system delivers better micro foam than I ever got doing it myself. Was my machine under $1000? No. Was it worth what it cost? To me, yes! I get cranky without my daily cappuccino...

 

[RDoc]

We recently replaced our leaky Saeco Talea Giro with a refurbished Taelea Giro Plus. We put about 5000 shots per year through our machines, and the Giro lasted for just over 4 years, so something over 20000 shots, compared to our previous Capresso that started popping the circuit breaker at just over 14000 shots. The old Giro probably could be rebuilt, but the refurbished one was only about $360 and looks new, and the Giro Plus is a lot nicer, with better firmware for preheating and descaling and a bypass for ground coffee if anyone ever wanted de-caff for some purpose.

The Talea Giro Plus is pretty basic, but IMHO makes very good coffee once you tune up the manual controls but, being manual, they're really only practical if you don't need to change them once they're dialed in. The machines use a ceramic grinder which, with occasional cleaning, works very well, although the bean bin is a bit flat bottomed, so you need to make sure the beans are flowing into the grinder if they're oily. Also, the brew group really does need frequent flushing, I just do it every day or so when I empty the dregs bin and it only adds a few seconds to the process.

For coffee I highly recommend Armeno, we use Sumatra Mandheling, half Italian, half French roast.

 

[Hillary]

Yes I am using the la marzocco espresso machines from Tace Espresso Systems and now also it keeps it's standard. Especially it's dual boilers was amazing La Marzocco machines are the star attraction of almost all starbucks location for many years.

 

[Electric1]

why yes, yes it does.

View attachment 29109

The wings are so appropriate to the way you drive, Dennis. Enjoy.

 

[wycolo]

Bag of ground coffee - zero energy to grind
soak 12 to 24 hours - zero energy to brew
store in cool place - zero energy to store
heat cup on woodstove - 'zero' energy to heat

Oh, this thread is not about saving energy, sorry.
--

 

[damienvu]

We also just bought the Jura Ena Micro 1. It's been awesome! I don't drink many milk-based drinks so it serves its purpose very well. My only wish is that it had an automatic top-of for the water. Guess I'll have to engineer a solution.

We also got a little Jura frother.

 

[techMology]

Coffee roast freshness is the number one factor in a tasty cup. I buy from Tonx.

They single source and buy themselves, roast it, and then ship it to you right after the roast, so you're always assured a freshly roasted product (typically within a few days of the roast which is optimal). I get a shipment every two weeks. It's always different (you don't choose, they "follow the sun"), and it's always tasty. They include a little story about the grower and some tasting notes about that week's release.

The only complaint I've heard from people is that they roast a little on the lighter side (however, this actually lets you taste more of the bean and less of the burnt roast).

Link here: You've Been Invited to Try Tonx

...if anyone is interested in trying it. They have a free trial.

 

[hiroshiy]

@yobigd20 Hi, I'm also interested in XS90. Here the same machine costs $6K. But I think it can be used at my office. One question - how frequent do you do maintenance? Cleaning tablets etc? I've heard that cleaning tablet once a day according to the operation manual?

 

[yobigd20]

@yobigd20 Hi, I'm also interested in XS90. Here the same machine costs $6K. But I think it can be used at my office. One question - how frequent do you do maintenance? Cleaning tablets etc? I've heard that cleaning tablet once a day according to the operation manual?

Well I use mine for home use, not commercial. It's probably only used 3-4 times a day. In exactly 5 months, I've replaced the water filter twice and used the cleaning tablets twice. I would imagine in a commercial setting yes your going to want to do this at least every week. I don't think you need to use it daily but that depends on how heavily it's used.

 

[hiroshiy]

@yobigd20: thank you for the info! I'll use milk all the time with milk cooler so I would need to clean at least milk lines daily, but for other parts I'll do less maintenance.
It seems Superautomatics are very popular in the States - I envy you! We have only three models of Jura machines imported here. XS90 One Touch is one of the "latest" model here.

 

[yobigd20]

@yobigd20: thank you for the info! I'll use milk all the time with milk cooler so I would need to clean at least milk lines daily, but for other parts I'll do less maintenance.
It seems Superautomatics are very popular in the States - I envy you! We have only three models of Jura machines imported here. XS90 One Touch is one of the "latest" model here.

I got mine off ebay for $700. it was labled as 'used' on the site (but the pictures were taken with a home camera and it looked brand new). I seriously doubt it was used as absolutely everything was mint condition and original sealed packaging. well, aside from the Department of Homeland Security ripping the box apart to inspect my suspicious order of a coffee related item from who knows where and then resealing it with their green tape. I would never pay full price for these things...I got lucky I guess. But if you hunt around you might be able to do the same.

 

[hiroshiy]

@yobigd20: That must be a great deal! I found one of the cheaper XS90 One Touch brand new but it's still over $3300. Anyway everything imported here is expensive so I have to accept. I asked the dealer to search for a milk cooler that accepts paper milk cartons so I don't have to clean the milk container at least.

 

[wycolo]

> Bag of ground coffee - zero energy to grind
> soak 12 to 24 hours - zero energy to brew
> store in cool place - zero energy to store
> heat cup on woodstove - 'zero' energy to heat

COLD BREWED COFFEE

Ok, I've finally gone and done this. Bought a new '2L' iced-tea twist-top plastic pitcher which is fine for ONE HALF (!) bag of ground coffee (~7oz). Then stir with a long handled spoon and stow in fridge overnight or longer. Doesn't seem to matter as all the roughness stays in the grinds. Then filter thru a 3 inch diameter plastic mesh tea strainer into juice jugs which can be stored indefinitely in the fridge. Mix 50/50 with fresh water into coffee mug according to taste.

Smooth and strong without the rough edges, like comparing your new Tesla to your old grindy clunky daily driver. Plus it is instantly available at all times.
--

 

[halinacolley]

I got the Gaggia Brera espresso machine - makes a wicked cup of coffee every time. And it's well within your budget for about $650. We've had this machine for more than 4 months. Some features you'll love - you can customize your cup by adjusting the water volume and coffee dosage. It has a ceramic grinder with burr blades. Pre-infusion cycle - self-rinse cycle are some great functions.