Everything to do with Coffee

[Refoogee]

It's overpriced. They hype themselves up to a certain crowd, and that's the most important part for them. You can get better coffee, for a cheaper price.

[flyweightnate]

Yeah, I could get behind quiet. If it means coffee before the kids wake up, instead of waking up the kids to make coffee...

[Tracker]

flyweightnate i have their V1 Ode grinder with upgraded burrs and am very happy with it. they are very different from one another, BUT, it will be seriously quiet which is a rarity in a lot on nice grinders, and, the opus have a much better range than mine, 4 big steps with like 11 indexes per step (mine is just 11, and the spinal tap reference was intentional) so thats where the 40+ grind settings number comes from

[flyweightnate]

Tracker I have not... gonna have to Google it

[Tracker]

have you checked out the opus from fellow?

[Spider!]

yeah, grinders r crazy

[flyweightnate]

Hmm. That's an interesting point on the grinder, going to have to check the price of a Bambino plus grinder vs the Pro.

[flyweightnate]

So I ignored you all and got a Gaggia Brera super automatic - a lot like Siress's, with a simple interface and a little door to let you remove and clean the brew unit. It's refurbished, but was a hair under $300. Given my current pod habit, ROI was under 8 months.

It's disappointing. Good coffee, but it's supposed to be espresso. Great bloom, a nice dry puck, low maintenance, but the nuances of flavor aren't there. Very drinkable caffeine, but not something that makes me excited to go get a cup.

Now to see if the wife will go for the return, and upgrade to a Breville Express. A friend has one, and for $560, it's quite good. Can't seem to find a well-priced grinder to accompany the Gaggia Classic.

[CrowsFeast]

I'm quite happy with my breville. My girlfriends brother has a higher end breville and it's been working for years. Do the occasional flush, even more occasional descale, and all should be good for a long time. I would avoid the barrista express though unless you plan on an additional grinder. The grind size steps on my barrista pro are just small enough, but the steps on the express are twice as big.

[Spider!]

Yes. My son was telling me about the way their grinder evolved with some open source community parts. I think he plans on modding it as well.

[BLachance75]

The Mii Coffee machine looks nice but I’d wait for the second or third version. Everything try make takes a few versions to get all the kinks worked out.

[flyweightnate]

That's high on the list...

[Spider!]

My son has used this modded gaggia heavily for years. He's looking at the new Mi coffee and the breville bambino plus.

[minimag03]

for regular coffee i like a French press, heard its better because filters take some of the oils out of the coffee.

I also have an embarrassingly cheap espresso machine, but it works for me lol

[flyweightnate]

... I didn't find any other with a removable brew group - which is absolutely necessary.

That's shocking... even my old office's nice Meile took a ton of work to keep clean, and that whole brew unit came out to go in the dishwasher. But as you said, $3k.

I'm gonna have to dig through some of the Gaggia and Breville specs to see if there's a way to maintain, or if they're just a time bomb.