I've never had a cup of coffee in my life. It has saved me countless amounts of time, money, and headaches! 

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-h … ption.html

Looks like a nice machine. How many espressos will one "top off beans" will do?

I only drink espresso (the only coffee I drink I should have said) and we use the Nespresso systems. Totally love it. Real nice quality coffee (don't know it compares to a $1500 machine).  Their capsule service is super quick too (delivery), and a super easy to make, takes me literally 3 secs.

Yes I agree, it looks complex, but it COULD be more confusing to ward off lesser employee's. You considering a Cobb stage 2 foamer?

On a serious note, I love espresso. My old office had a machine and Id have one every morning. All the coffee buzz without having to piss as much in the am 

Congrats with the machine, macberry.  Seems like a good deal.

mkaz wrote:

Interesting.  My office recently got a Silvia that I've been working on my technique with. 

I had never thought to look for a refurb machine.  Does the Silvia ever come up at a "lower" price?  I'm happy with the one at the office, I just have to worry about the idiots that leave it on all night... the boiler isn't going to take many more 3 day weekend boil me dry episodes.

You could see if someone has them used here: http://www.home-barista.com/marketplace/ or here: http://www.coffeegeek.com/forums/members/buysell

The last generation Silvia has a more sturdy steam wand and some other improvements if you'll be looking for used ones. Parts are fairly easy to come by too.

A coffee friend who sells Rancilio over here, (temperato.no) wrote this for coffeegeek.com:

    * Cold pitcher (from the fridge) and cold milk (3,9% fat in my case, but 1.5 % or 2% is fine too)
    * Fill pitcher about 40% full
    * Open steam valve and give a quick burst to get out any water in the wand.
    * Close valve
    * Submerge wand deep in the pitcher
    * Open valve fully
    * Quickly move to the surface and to one of the sides. Moving to one of the sides enhances the whirlwind motion/circulation of the milk. Be very careful to place tip so it barely breaks the surface. You'll hear a slurping sound or tssst tsst. Keep this placement and sound while the milk expands in volume. This means you'll have to lower the pitcher slowly, but you'll do that automatically to keep the placement. If you place the tip too high you'll get soap bubbles, too low and the milk will only heat and not expand. Keep one hand on the pitcher all the time to feel the temperature. When you feel it is about body temp, move the tip deeper so the milk only circulates. Close the valve when you can no longer touch the pitcher because it is too warm, or maybe do some extra seconds without touching it if you like your milk warmer. Wipe the wand let out a short burst to get milk out of the wand
    * Bang the pitcher on the counter and swirl the milk a bit.

That is about it.

You can find tons of more on extracting, if that's what you're working on at the office. 

kap_x wrote:

It seems to have quite a few buttons and an LCD screen. This is good.
It could definitely benefit from some switches. Have you considered one that has more switches?

kap_x find the lack of weapons here disappointing.

Last edited by Joyride (2011-02-03 09:07:30)

Avmaviator wrote:

Looks like a nice machine. How many espressos will one "top off beans" will do?

According to the manual, coffee bean dispenser holds 300 grams of beans.  Dosage is 6-10 grams depending on whether you want your coffee weak, normal, or strong.  I don't know if grams of whole beans translates directly to grams of ground beans, but maybe 30 shots?

It looks like you have a choice between one with a lot of buttons, or one with some switches.
I don't drink coffee, but I will look around and see if I can find a model incorporating both buttons and switches, as well as an LCD screen and hopefully some red lights.
I imagine with all of those doodads, it should make a good cup of espresso or at least go HAL9000 on your other kitchen appliances.

I'm sorry; I can't do that, can-opener.

tlow98 wrote:

NICE F'ing machine.  i can only dream.  I bought my first Breville last month...aka...the 150 dollar variety, bc I didn't want to suck at it and spend a whole lot.  I love espresso and think i'm finally getting the hang of what I like and what I can produce on command. 

I'll say making hot Chai tea for the girl is like  's every night.....give it a shot.

The little Breville Cafe Modena (that I'm selling for $50!  ) is a great starter espresso machine to cut your teeth on.  You'll learn the basics without having to spend beaucoup bucks.  Your next decision will be which step up to take.  The next level of machine is something like a Gaggia Classic which can be had for less than $500 if you shop around.  Or you can go ahead and move up to something like a Rancilio Silvia to learn the art of temperature surfing and become a true barista artiste.  But a Silvia plus a high quality grinder will set you back at least $1,000 ($1,200 if you PID the Silvia).  Or better yet, you could go the full monty to a prosumer like one of the Rocket Espresso machines (we're talking ~$2K) with a professional E-61 brew group, heat exchanger boiler, rotary pump, and you can connect directly to a water line.  Definitely the bling if you can afford and have room for one in your kitchen.



The only reason to go superautomatic like I did is convenience.  The tradeoff is that you'll never get that ever elusive perfect shot out of a superautomatic.  What you get instead is consistently good to very good shots with a whole lot less hassle.

Last edited by macberry (2011-02-03 18:39:21)

We finally bought an espresso machine - krupp or kolieg or one of those for $150.  Only make espresso with it so far, maybe 1 capiccino.  I love it.  Still drink coffee in the morning but absolutely love a cup of espresso the rest of the time.  I'm pretty impressed by those $1000+ machines....is the straight cup of espresso that much better?  What kind of coffee do you use - do you buy it online or ??

IMHO, "Playing Barista " is part of the fun of owning a good machine, however, I can appreciate your reasons for an auto. 

I picked up an Ascaso Dream and a decent burr grinder two years ago and love making every cup.  I usually have a double ristretto before I leave the house in the morning - so it is a bit faster than making a cap / latte.

Besides a good grinder (which you mention above), get the *freshest* beans you can find.  This means avoiding anything in the store - even the commercial coffeehouses.  I get my beans from a local place that usually has beans that have been roasted one or two days prior.  Also, to those interested in a good, affordable burr grinder, I recommend the Capresso Infinity. 

It took Seattle Coffee Gear two tries (the door to the brew unit on the first machine they sent me wouldn't latch shut), but I'm now in possession of my Saeco Incanto Deluxe superautomatic espresso machine.  One word ... wow!  This thing rocks.    Super easy/fast to use and makes good shots with nice crema.  And the steam wand froths milk up to 140 degrees in a jiffy.  This is exactly the kind of machine I needed/wanted for an everyday-make-a-couple-of-lattes-before-work espresso machine.

Abie 2 wrote:

Hi there!

I saw that you owned a Gaggia, I am planning to buy a coffee machine but I can't decide between the Gaggia and the Rancilio. I googled to see comparisons, I only found a website which shows the pros and cons of both. Which one would you advise me to buy? Thank you

Holy Mother of bumping an old thread! 

This thread is so old many of the original posters probably don't even frequent the site anymore.

That being said, I currently use a Gaggia Baby Gaggia.  I've had it for ~ 10 years.  It has performed well making 1 -2 double espressos/day.  Prior to this one, I had an automatic espresso maker (can't remember the brand).  It was a pain in the ass to keep clean.  It finally quit working and I returned it to Costco and bought the Gaggia from them.

Either of the machines that you linked would be fine.  Just make certain to get a good (burr) grinder.

So some newb to a car fan site, with zero posts before this, uses his maiden post to ask about a coffee machine?