I’m in the market for an espresso machine.
Anything I should know?
They go from 50$ to 1000$. How do they differ? What do the more expensive machines do that the cheaper ones don’t?
What types of coffee work best in espressos?
How do you like to drink espressos? Myself, I’ve taken a liking to having 3 espressos in a glass then twice as much milk. The taste of the espresso is still present and combines with the milk’s quite well.
The best coffee is a French (dark) roast, but not too dark or it will be bitter. For an espresso machine, it should be ground fairly fine. The critical measures for an espresso maker are pressure and temperature. I’m sure that a search will tell you what the ideal ranges for both are.
I bought this DeLonghi ($299) for the above metrics, because it gets consistently high marks from reviewers, and it’s only 6" wide, which fits perfectly into a slot on my counter where the drip maker and the bean grinder sit. It works as advertised and makes great coffee.
I like my espresso black with a twist of lemon peel.
Actually, here’s everything you need to know about making the stuff.
Amazon likes this one.
As a daily espresso consumer (up to 3 or 4 double shots a day), I burned thru a lot of machines that did NOT stand up to the wear and tear of regular use before I invested in a decent one that puts out a superior product.
After research, I opted for the Rancilio Silvia and had a precise temperature control monitor installed so I could adjust the temps at the top of the boiler.
That was in 2009 and it’s still serving me faithfully, while most other machines didn’t last longer than a year.
It is pricey but to me it’s worth it because with the proper fussy fiddling with it (along with my Rocky bean grinder) I can make a damn fine espresso or ristretto, and even an occasional godshot.
you need the right grind of dark roast coffee.
if you do your own then you need a burr grinder.
32 one-star reviews doesn’t bode well for me, although it probably has the usual knuckleheads saying things like “I don’t drink coffee, so this product sucks.”
I have one, really good. Nothing fancy about it but I’ve had it over a decade and apart from a new frother nozzle a couple of weeks ago and the occasional de-scaling it works a treat.
It does need finely ground espresso beans and you may need to shop around to find a brand that works but if it were stolen tomorrow I’d be buying another one.
Took a quick look through. Mostly product failures in the first few weeks to 6 months but it looks like customer service from the manufacturer is poor.
ETA: pretty even spread of 1,2,3 and 4 star reviews and a big jump to 5 star. Maybe QC is poor.
Seems to be the norm for small appliances these days. Toasters don’t toast, coffee pots leak, blenders bog down, motors burn out. I hate it when one of my appliances quits or wears out, because I know that the search for a decent new one will be a royal PITA.
That’s why I bit the bullet and laid out big bux for my espresso maker.
I’d also burned thru 2 burr grinders over the years, that couldn’t handle the task of grinding 4 or 5 times a day, every day. So I got Rocky, and it’s been super reliable over the last 3 years.
Since I’m a tea drinker at heart, everything I know about coffee I learned from my wife. I don’t know what your budget is but you will not find a good espresso machine for under $1,000. Maintaining correct and constant pressure and heat during brewing is the most important job of the machine and this calls for precision machinery which doesn’t come cheap.
More importantly, according to my wife, the number one mistake people make when buying an espresso machine is that they don’t pay enough attention to the grinder. It’s more important than the espresso machine itself because without the proper grind, you cannot make proper espresso. Just as you cannot make espresso with a coffee machine, you cannot make espresso grinds with a regular coffee grinder. They can’t produce the consistent fine grind needed for espresso, and this alone goes for upwards of $1,000 or more. The one we use is made by Mazzer and had it imported from the USA about four years ago when the dollar/yen exchange rate was favourable. But even back then it cost about $700 and I believe this was on the lower spectrum of their product line.
The initial outlay to set up an espresso machine is high at first, but if you like coffee and learn to make it properly, the enjoyment you get from it is worthwhile, just like buying fine wine or gourmet foods.
Aside: I often read the one-star reviews, for books and other stuff, both before and after I buy. And sometimes I just shake my head. Thirty-two one-star reviews is a pretty sizeable number, although this espresso machine has over 200 4-5-star reviews.
But, for instance, I was looking at something on Amazon the other day, some kind of appliance, and it had over 1,200 five-star reviews. And maybe a dozen one-star reviews. I read some of those one-stars, and I remember one in particular that said to the effect, “This thing is crap! Waste of money! Don’t buy it!” Ooooo-kay. That was helpful. :smack: You wonder if they’re even reviewing the same product.
I wrote a comment to that reviewer, something like, “Does it strike you as odd that over 1,200 people gave this five stars and you think it is worthless crap?”
Sorry for the digression. That’s been on my chest for a while. I feel better.
<Thelma wanders off in search of coffee.>
Yeah, I like to read them, too. I’m particularly fond of the ones that have nothing to do with the product. “I don’t like science fiction, so didn’t read the book.” :smack:
So, if I’m not getting crema, that means me or my machine aren’t doing it right, right?
Pretty much. The flaw can come in a lot of steps in the process though. Old beans, improper grind, bad tamp, water that’s set too long and lost oxygen, wrong temperatures, etc.
There are just so many ways to make bad espresso. 
Lots of variables come into play, but assuming you have the tamping and brewing temperature right, the easiest thing to do to get good crema is to buy good Arabica beans from Africa, (possible to mix some robusta as well) that have been roasted fresh.
All those machines sound like they make terrific espresso. However, they also sound like they involve a lot of work. My Nespresso Inissiamerely makes very, very good espresso, but the entire process takes maybe 15 seconds, and you literally cannot screw it up. Oh, and it costs under $100 (although I admit the capsules do add up).
[espresso snob hat]If it takes 15 seconds to brew, it’s by definition not espresso.[/espresso snob hat]
This is kind of a left-field suggestion, but have you tried an Aeropress? It’s certainly not espresso (although you can sometimes finesse some crema out of it) but it does make really strong flavorful coffee. For most typical coffee shop type heavily blended drinks you’d probably be hard-pressed to tell the difference. I love espresso straight out of a good machine, but I think the $25 Aeropress makes better coffee than most budget home espresso machines.