# A freakishly expensive coffee maker **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 2, 2004, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484 "2004-11-02T02:57:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/1 "2004-11-02T02:57:41Z")
Behold, [The ultimate Swiss coffee maker](http://www.stonewallkitchen.com/prdsell.aspx?Search=coffee&L0=EspressoMakerImpressaS90) And it costs a mere $2,199.00. For that kind of dough, it had better do a lot more than make coffee! ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/2 "2004-11-02T03:57:25Z")
I’d buy it if I had the stash. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/3 "2004-11-02T04:08:07Z")
You can hire a starbucks person to steal coffee for you for that kind of money. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/4 "2004-11-02T04:14:17Z")
Oh yea, that’ll be going on my Christmas list. :rolleyes: Don’t you wonder who buys that stuff. I was in a ritzy store recently and saw a $400 toaster. A _toaster_ for cryin’ out loud. It toasts. It certainly makes me wonder about the idle rich. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/5 "2004-11-02T04:28:46Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > Behold, > > [The ultimate Swiss coffee maker](http://www.stonewallkitchen.com/prdsell.aspx?Search=coffee&L0=EspressoMakerImpressaS90) > > And it costs a mere $2,199.00. > > For that kind of dough, it had better do a lot more than make coffee! Look closer at the picture. It has TWO streams of coffee coming out! That’s why it’s so expensive, it makes it so much faster that way. Just like those cars that look sporty and want you to think they’re cooler becuase they have a ‘dual’ exhaust that’s split about three feet from the back of the car. ---
**Author:** ![smartini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@smartini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smartini)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/6 "2004-11-02T04:40:16Z")
Wait. I’m considering it. After it has ground your coffee beans, adjusted the hardness level of your water and brewed your coffee…does it go to work for you? ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/7 "2004-11-02T08:03:42Z")
I stayed in a friend’s apartment equipped with a coffee maker very similar to that one. I fell in love with it. I just sat around all day drinking coffee. The coffee maker would tell me when it needed something. I learned some German from that machine. I miss her. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/8 "2004-11-02T08:30:47Z")
We had a coffee maker that did it all, it ground the beans, filtered the water, started before we did, woke us up when it was ready. Sure, but when it steals the car and runs off with the vacuum cleaner, leaving the door open , letting the cats out. Don’t do it, they’ll break your heart. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/9 "2004-11-02T11:22:34Z")
Is this the Jura? It does make pretty fine expresso. Had it many times at friends places but myself I could never part with the cash. I just go for a decent home machine rather than one of these beans to froth jobbers ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/10 "2004-11-02T12:17:45Z")
> [@China Guy](#): > > Is this the Jura? It does make pretty fine expresso. Had it many times at friends places but myself I could never part with the cash. I just go for a decent home machine rather than one of these beans to froth jobbers eSpresso! eSSSSS! Presso! No “X”! \*/collapses with aneurism from final straw on already high-stress day \* ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/11 "2004-11-02T12:39:10Z")
When I see things like this, one of the things I wonder is: what kind of yearly salary would my husband need to be bringing home before I could bring myself to spend this kind of money on a product like this? I mean, I have a coffee maker, very nifty, too, as it dispenses the coffee straight into a thermal carafe. I could buy 65 more just like it without spending more than this one machine costs. I also have a coffee grinder; takes me about 60 seconds to grind fresh beans. I forked over $15.00 for it. To me, some things are a justifiable luxury (1200 thread count sheets for $200.00? Yeah, I’d do that). And some things are not (a coffee maker that costs as much as the second-hand minivan I have my eye on? Nope). ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/12 "2004-11-02T13:10:08Z")
We actually have that one at work, never realized it was _that_ expensive… even after all the fancy preperation, the coffee still tastes like bitter swill, and we use the good coffee as well (Green Mountain, only the best) i can take the same coffee beans, grind them in my $25 burr grinder, pop them into my $20 4 cup Mr. Coffee machine, and they taste much better more expensive doesn’t always mean better, however i will say this, the coffee machine in the OP does make a lot more cool grindy noises than my coffee machine… 😉 just not $2100 worth of cool grindy noises, heck, i could get a decent used motorcycle for that… ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/13 "2004-11-02T20:11:02Z")
> [@norinew](#): > > To me, some things are a justifiable luxury (1200 thread count sheets for $200.00? Yeah, I’d do that). And some things are not (a coffee maker that costs as much as the second-hand minivan I have my eye on? Nope). Well, there _is_ a happy medium. We all have our justifiable luxuries. I have a Solis coffee machine (the Master 5000) that cost about $600. We bought it about two years ago. It has the grinder, etc. and makes damned good cappuccino and espresso. Justifiable? You bet. Every morning. I would much rather spend the bucks on something I have researched then dump three or four dollars at Starbucks five days a week. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/14 "2004-11-02T20:46:29Z")
> [@Caprese](#): > > We all have our justifiable luxuries. Oh, I absolutely agree, and didn’t mean to imply otherwise. It’s nothing to _me_ if your coffee maker cost $600.00 or $2,000.00 or $10.00. It’s all about what something is worth to _you_. In the name of “justifiable luxury”, I order a pound of pure Kona beans once or twice a year. They cost about four times what Folger’s does, but there’s an appreciable difference in taste, and to me, when money’s not too terribly tight, it’s worth it. All I’m saying is that, to _me_, I’m not sure what it would take for me to think a coffee maker was worth $2,000.00. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/15 "2004-11-02T20:53:38Z")
> [@norinew](#): > > . All I’m saying is that, to _me_, I’m not sure what it would take for me to think a coffee maker was worth $2,000.00. Agreed. I don’t think we’d ever spend that much. But I think that shiny chrome would indeed tempt my spouse. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/16 "2004-11-02T22:50:59Z")
I’m quite content with my Farberware coffee pot. But the Folgers sure tastes a lot better if I mix in some Zabar’s house blend. ---
**Author:** ![Mame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/858c86/32.png) [@Mame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mame)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/17 "2004-11-03T02:02:14Z")
OK, I’ll front up here. We’ve had one at home for 3 or 4 years. And we’ve agreed that if it breaks down irreparably, we’ll replace it. Why? 'Cos the coffee is great. Even with low-market beans, the coffee is very, very good. Mr Mame bought one for his office (not a Jura, a Saeco) but it isn’t as good, in his opinion. We’ve tried others over the years - Atomic, stove-top percolators, plungers, Krups espresso machine. This wins totally - though we do miss the Atomic!. We actually drink less coffee now, 'cos the stuff we drink is more satisfying, and there is no incentive to drink coffee when we are out, unless it is for sociability. The Jura keeps a tally of how many cups it has dispensed - from memory it was about 3,500 in the first 2 years. Break it down on a per-cup basis, and the cost comes into focus a bit better. Oh yes, the cost. Allowing for the exchange rate between Aus and US, the quoted price is WAY more than we paid. **MacTech** , maybe yours isn’t adjusted for the beans etc you use? ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/18 "2004-11-03T11:36:03Z")
> [@Joey P](#): > > Just like those cars that look sporty and want you to think they’re cooler becuase they have a ‘dual’ exhaust that’s split about three feet from the back of the car. They’re called wheelbarrows, aren’t they? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-freakishly-expensive-coffee-maker/272484/19 "2004-11-03T11:40:53Z")
I have a $500 Elektra espresso maker (a housewarming gift - I’m way too much of a cheapskate), and it does make a fantastic cup of coffee. I doubt it’s any better than, say, that made by a $400 coffee maker, but it’s defintely better than a $50 coffee maker.