I am looking at buying a non-pod coffee machine. A Industry Beans advert popped up on FB …. $27/ week buys coffee and DeLonghi machine over a year.
Has anyone bought a good machine for under $700 using this method?
https://industrybeans.com/pages/espresso-club-subscription
Thanks
I have a Jura S8 for almost 2years, so far doing well and would recommend to others wanting a fully automatic machine. Parents have the Miele bench top, also great!
In any fully automatic, the daily milk cleaning can be time consuming, so after the espresso shot we just pour the milk in to the cup and stick in the microwave. Not professional, but we’re happy. Occasionally when we have visitors or making lots cups i pull out the milk jug.
At the end of the day, the beans, roast & grind are the key to good cup of coffee…machine only makes a marginal difference.
Maybe just me but I've never had a good coffee from any domestic automatic machine. Drinkable yes but good no. Then again maybe they've all been filled with crap beans, but considering the places I've tried and the money they've spent on the machine I expect not. I'd sooner something from a small $100 Breville / Sunbeam job.
Fully automatic machines simply cannot account for all of the variables which need to be controlled for great espresso. Go to a good specialty coffee shop and watch how often the barista adjusts the grind, dosing and brew head temperature through the day. For example, just a few percentage points movement in relative humidity can be enough to affect the extraction.
Even high-end automatic commercial machines costing $$$ do their best but, at the end of the day, they cannot assess (objectively or otherwise) the quality of what's hitting the cup.
When it comes to espresso at home, it's the old saying "High quality brew. Low user effort. Low machine cost. <— Choose two".
watch how often the barista adjusts the
Do they assess this visually (or some other sense) or do they taste every few cups, which could say add 20% cost to each cup if say they try every 6th cup.
@ihbh: Both. You will often stop them sipping from a demitasse cup every couple of hours. That's in addition to a visual on the extraction consistency/suspension, brew head temp etc.
100-150g of coffee for testing through a day is nothing for a coffee shop or cafe clearning upwards of 40-50kg of beans per week.
If you want a good coffee machine head to a specialist store and look at brands like ECM, Profitec and Rocket. And don't forget the grinder is just as important.
And then when you wake up in the morning and just want a damn coffee, you have to fiddle with grinding, tamping grinding again because your first shot didnt pull okay, etc etc. I honestly don't know how people have time for this when making a coffee.
grinding, tamping grinding again because your first shot didnt pull okay
100%
I honestly don't know how people have time for this when making a coffee
People who enjoy good coffee make time for it. I'm one of those people.
If you just want a cup of mediocre coffee, then buy a pod machine or a jar of insto. But don't kid yourself that there's a magical device that you can buy for $100 which sits on your bench and can rival what your local professional barista can produce.
Well I bought myself a a Thermoplan Black&White 4, and I'll tell you when you load some good beans in — the results are probably better than most run of the mill baristas can do. The only problem is it costs about as much as a car but the whole family uses it throughout the day. Lots of places dont really put the effort in to make a proper cup of coffee and you end up with terrible coffee, even at some of the nicer cafes.
You seem like you'd like to watch that Youtube hipster who does all the espresso reviews. He's fun to watch but I can never tell if he's old or young.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ
Not at all. Takes about 1.5-2 mins and I have my coffee.
At the end of the day, the beans, roast & grind are the key to good cup of coffee
You left out a really important variable and it's the number one ingredient (~90%) in a shot of espresso. WATER.
Regardless of the type of machine you use, get your water tested and implement appropriate filtration for the supply you have.
Going a bit overboard? Sure, if you can't get a good result, troubleshoot.
Going a bit overboard?
IMHO, no. From both a machine longevity and, more importantly, extraction quality perspective, the makeup of your water makes a huge difference to what lands in the cup.
I'm in Sydney and don't think twice about what comes out of the tap. It tastes just fine to me. But for espresso, it's not ideal, so I run the water for my machine through a HF15-MS filter to deal with the sediment and chlorine.
Depending on your machine manufacturer, feeding your machine with water which is outside of their specification can also void the machine warranty. Check the machine manual to know where you stand.
Any decent espresso machine has filtration nowadays, but good point on the water
Has anyone bought a good machine for under $700 using this method?
Nope but that machine got pretty bad reviews when it first came out as it use to leak water badly.
I assume its been fixed by now. but more of a FYI buyer beware.
I don't think OP is after $3,000 Rockets or $2,000 Jura super autos. The Delonghi la specialista looks to be an alternative to the Breville BES870.
I have the BES870 at home and its a pretty great entry level coffee machine which makes a damn good coffee once you find the beans you like. I have the Sunbeam Barista Max at work which retails at about $450 at Appliances online (I think I picked it up for about $360 a few years back). It's been absolutely thrashed and makes as good of a flat white as the Breville does. She's just not as pretty.
I'd recommend something like the Sunbeam and then you have the luxury of choosing your beans and not getting stuck with the old stale delonghi crap they send.
I don't think OP is after $3,000 Rockets or $2,000 Jura super autos
This.
not getting stuck with the old stale delonghi crap they send.
They deal OP links to includes supply of Industry (ASCA member) beans and NOT the crap you usually get as a "bonus" (punishment) for buying a Delonghi machine from a retailer. ;-)
I tried a quote and it was $33 a week including 1kg coffee per month.
Total cost for a year is $1716
I buy coffee from the deals posted here, usually $25 per kg. So included coffee value is $300.
That means you are paying $1416 for the machine. Very expensive since it seems to retail for $699.
Verdict: buy the machine outright and purchase your own coffee to save bucketloads of cash.
This is what I was about to write. Great comment!
For sub-$700, a secondhand Rancilio Silvia or Gaggia Classic Pro (new or secondhand) would be a much better bet than the plasticy Delonghi.
Just wear the up-front cost and then enjoy being able to buy fresher beans and a variety of SOs/blends throughout the year without being locked into a single supplier (not a problem, of course, if you love Industry's house blend).
I got a bambino plus on a 1kg 12 mth subscription pay upfront for $714.
pros get fresh beans monthly.
cons same company monthly.
1kg coffee is approx how many shots for you?
40-50
18 gm a shot
Which company did you subscribe too?
st. ali.
https://stali.com.au/products/orthodox-bambino-plus-subscrip…
$85 / month for a year with bambino plus expresso and 12 x 1 kg
Jbhifi have the machine for $599
St. Ali have their single origin subscription at $75 / month so if you are willing to pay $75/ kg it makes great sense.
@suchis: i got it on a black friday sale.
no way I would pay $75kg for beans.
and no way would i pay $599 for a bambino plus.
Unless you can’t afford outright it’s not exceptional value by OzB standards. I’d save up, buy a Breville Dynamic Duo and beans of your choice. The Breville has some of the best reviews for the price.
Seems it works out about the same. The difference is that you don’t have to spend the money upfront. It’s a shame they don’t offer fully automatic machines.
I am actually looking for an automatic machine with 2 grinders…