SubJeff on 1/8/2020 at 23:33
Yeah, but what about Coke Zero, hmmm?
Pyrian on 1/8/2020 at 23:45
:eww:
Gryzemuis on 2/8/2020 at 11:17
I have a Nespresso Pixie machine.
I am absolutely not a "coffee snob".
8 Years ago I bought a Nespresso Pixie machine, made by Krups. (I was forced into doing that. :)) Since then I drink 1 or 2 lattes every morning. I used to drink tea. But making a latte is even easier. In my last job, I bought a Nespresso Magimix for the office, that was used by 5-10 colleagues of mine. TBH, I don't think there's much difference between the Pixie and the Magimix.
At first I used to buy official cups only. It's a pain, because nowadays they only get delivered by mail. They have their own package-delivery. Which half the time can't find my house. Or doesn't come at the promised times. When I had my last job, there was a Nespresso shop close to where we used to eat lunch. So during those years, I did buy the official cups. Nowadays I buy fake cups in the supermarket. Every supermarket in NL has their own brand of fake cups for Nespresso machines. As a non-coffee-snob, even I notice the difference between the official cups and the fake ones. The official cups do taste a lot better. A lot. And there is a lot of variety. But the fake ones are acceptable, so I buy those now, because it's easier. If I ever get close to a Nespresso shop, I'll probably buy another 3 months supply.
So my advice: buy a Nespresso machine. Try it. They are not cheap, but not really expensive. (A good real espresso machine, like used in a café, can cost thousands of euros). The machines are easy to use. Easy to keep clean. The quality of the coffee is steps above coffee from any coffee-drip-machine, imho. And there is lots of variety in cups. I wouldn't buy a Vertuo. I think those are just another trick by Nestlé to force customers to buy their cups. I don't believe there's any quality-improvement. And you can configure the size of a drink (length of time that water is being pressed through a cup), if you like larger (but slightly weaker) drinks.
catbarf on 3/8/2020 at 14:20
It's not as quick as any of the all-in-one devices, but my wife introduced me to pour-over coffee and it's pretty easy. We keep a scale, a grinder, the ceramic pour-over funnels, and a gooseneck electric kettle on the countertop. Fill the kettle, turn it on, and it heats up to a preset 205F (~38C). Weigh the appropriate amount of coffee beans, dump in the grinder. Put a filter in the funnel and set it over the coffee mug, dump the grounds in. When the water reaches temperature, pour it over the grounds, and when you're done just remove and throw out the filter. Simple, no cleaning required.
I never was a coffee snob, but going from frozen grounds and a coffeemaker to freshly ground and pour-over really makes a big difference. There's a sweetness and slightly oily body to freshly ground coffee that you don't get from the capsules, and using water that isn't quite boiling avoids the bitterness that drip coffeemakers normally have.
YMMV depending on how much effort you're looking to save. I tend to find that the more work a kitchen appliance does for you, the more maintenance and cleaning it requires. There's an enormous Miele at my workplace that, at the push of a button, measures a quantity of beans from an internal reservoir, grinds it fresh, and then boils and pumps water through it for a good cup of espresso in seconds. Problem is, nobody wants to follow the complex sequence to clean it, so every few months I open it up and find that damp remnants of coffee grounds have gone moldy, and the whole thing needs to be sanitized and scrubbed out. The capsule-based machines avoid most of that, but then you're beholden to buying the capsules, and IMO they don't compare to fresh.
Thirith on 3/8/2020 at 14:37
I'm by no means a coffee connoisseur, but I do like a nice coffee. I got myself a Nespresso machine about two years ago and I'm happy with it. The range of available capsules is pretty broad, added to which it's extremely easy in Switzerland to recycle capsules (the postal service picks up bags of capsules you put in your mailbox). It's quick and easy and the quality of the coffee is decent enough for my tastes. I've switched to drinking more espresso and less coffee with milk, and I've found a bunch of blends that I enjoy drinking. The only negative is that due to COVID-19 and us working from home for months, I've been drinking about twice as much coffee as I used to - which was the main reason why I didn't buy a machine earlier: I was afraid that my coffee intake would increase considerable. Ah well. :cheeky:
henke on 3/8/2020 at 14:47
I got one of these bean-to-cup machines a couple years back:
Inline Image:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hst549snvqp8dip/Melitta.jpg?raw=1It's a Melitta Caffeo Solo, not sure if they're sold outside of Europe. Anyway, I'm not a coffee snob or anything, I was mainly attracted to the ease of use and speed with this thing. Living by myself, making a pot of coffee usually takes too long AND it's difficult to make just 1 cup so a bit usually goes to waste. With this, it's a bit of whirring and grounding and I have a cup in a couple min. At 300€ it's pricier than a coffee maker, but I don't mind spending on a device I'll be using at least a couple times per day.
heywood on 3/8/2020 at 15:27
Thanks for all the replies.
The type of machine caffeinatedzombeh and henke suggested is exactly what I was looking for as an alternative to Nespresso. They're more expensive up front, but I'd save A LOT on the coffee. When I lived in Sydney, we had one of those machines in each kitchen area at work. Like caffeinatedzombeh said, they did seem very needy, which is not what I want, but they had a lot more users at work. At home, it will just be my wife and I most days, so it might be low maintenance enough. I've been spoiled by the Keurig machine, because even though it doesn't make good coffee, it is fantastically low effort and fast. That's what piqued my interested about Nespresso.
Aja's comment about the French press making oily coffee is exactly why I like it and why I don't care as much for paper-filter drip machines. And ironically, strong coffee doesn't bother my stomach, but drinking tea on an empty stomach will leave me lurched over and cramped.
howeird on 3/8/2020 at 16:35
I have a cheap knock off of Keurig machine that does the same thing - I've had my Farberware machine for at least 5 years. Mine came with a screen door mesh basket that i can just dump coffee in from any type of coffee i want to put in it. I don't buy the k cups because they major source of landfill garbage right next to plastic water bottles. I use can coffee + it's cheaper than the cups. I use it to heat water for tea if want that instead.
I thought guys from Australia only drank beer that was the size of car engine oil cans and ate Vegemite sandwiches all day. I never would have guessed coffee too.
Kolya on 3/8/2020 at 18:11
Quote Posted by catbarf
it heats up to a preset 205F (~38C). [...] using water that isn't quite boiling avoids the bitterness that drip coffeemakers normally have.
I'm surprised your barely above body temperature coffee has any taste at all.
I'm using freshly ground Arabica in a paper filter in a ceramic funnel. On the weekends a stovetop. Pads and pods are an environmental sin that isn't justified by it's taste or cost.