I'm about to upgrade from an Aeropress to a Breville Bambino Plus, but don't have a coffee grinder and I'm happy to use pre-ground coffee. I fully appreciate that freshly ground beans are better, but that may be an upgrade for another time.
For now, I'm wondering if any other OzBargainers have this machine or similar and use ground coffee? Any recommendations on ground coffee brands that have have given a good result for you?
I appreciate this, but for now I'd like to give ground coffee a go. Part of this is cost, but it's also because a benefit of the Bambino is that it takes up so little bench space. Getting a separate grinder kinda defeats that purpose. I may well end up there in the long run though!
I've got a hand grinder for those reasons - size and price
I've never used one. Does it take much effort to use?
@ozbloke2: It's all relative, I have 3 to 5 coffees a day, all hand ground.
You'd need to get used to thats for sure.
On a positive side - easy to dial, easy to change type of beans, almost no retention
We have the Bambino Plus machine. We started with a low end coffee grinder we had for a French press. We reasonably quickly migrated to a Breville Smartgrinder. My man wasn’t keen on buying this setup because of the cost but has since come around. Not only can he get a good coffee when he wants it but we can offer our guests a decent coffee as well. The Bambino does a good hot chocolate for me.
If you do want to go down the preground path maybe talk to a decent bean provider and see if they will grind a small amount for you.
Go to your local coffee shop or roaster and get them to grind it for you.
If you're not worried about freshness any ground coffee would do. Bambino comes with pressurised baskets.
If you go down the cafe buying route, make sure they don't grind too fine, or you're going to need to buy more baskets…
thanks, that's a good point. I'll probably just start with the ground coffee I already use and see how it goes.
Freshly roasted, freshly ground beans will always taste better than something that’s been sitting on the shelf for months. Unless you’re getting ground coffee directly from a fresh roaster, you may as well just get a $60 grinder, it will be better than nothing, in my opinion. In fact, sunbeam has a $30 grinder on Amazon at the moment.
thanks, I may end up there but for now I'm just trying to see if anyone out there has had some OK success with pre-ground coffee. maybe no one does this!
I used to buy espresso grind from a local coffee specialist. The first few shots are wonderful, but the leftovers go stale quite rapidly. Comes down to how many you pour per day. Suggest a low-cost next step is a hand grinder - which will be good for your Aeropress too.
try the aldi ground coffee, seems to sell quick
choice of medium/dark roast like their beans
I used to use Lavazza Oro and Aldi pre ground and were quite good.
Not sure why the majority of the comments here didn't even read your description. Frustrating as shit.
See post from @kiitos: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/671158
Pre-ground is usually intended for plunger or dripolator. I was never able to source espresso gind without purchasing from a torrefazione.
thanks, some good tips there
Fully understand the OP's post but using pre-ground coffee is likely the biggest limiter to what ends up in the cup. i.e for a superior result they'd have been better off 'upgrading' to even a basic grinder and staying with the Aeropress or a cheaper machine but with coffee ground on demand.
I do stovetop and use a Timemore Chestnut C2, but you'd want a more consistent grind for espresso (general rule is spend the same on the grinder as your espresso maker) - there's some great hand grinders on AX (1zpresso JX/JX-pro/JE - some knockoffs for well less).
Perhaps register over at CoffeeSnobs and pick up a 2nd hand one - very good buys regularly.
Hey OP, I have the Bambino Plus (amazing machine) with no grinder and I order ground coffee from some of the Ozbargain favourites such as Airjo or Lime Blue. I have them grind it Espresso Style for me, obviously it's not as good as fresh but for the novice espresso maker it's perfectly fine until you decide to get your hands on a grinder. Recommend ordering smaller bags for longer lasting freshness (avoid 1kg bags). Cheers
What size bag do they grind for you? How many days does it last?
500g. Tastes best in the first few days then flavour starts to diminish. Not sure how long it lasts, takes me 3-4 weeks to get through it.
Have you asked if they would do 250g?
Coffee should be ground to the machine you are using to make your coffee as it is time to ratio dependent
Small adjustments to the size of the grind will make a big difference to taste, time and quality I strongly recommend you buy a burr coffee grinder when the finances are available it will also help a lot with the freshness of the coffee