DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Coffee / Espresso makers?

We have been looking to get a more expensive Coffee maker looking at the Philips 4300 with latte go
Looks right for us. Anyone have opinions on others? I see Saeco coffee makers that are similar but way more expensive ... not sure why

I have a Gaggia Classic Pro which I like a lot. It isn't perfect and it really doesn't do any of the work for you, but I am fine with that. It is a pretty simple machine. I did do the spring mod to lower the pressure to 9bar and I have a 3D printed drip tray that is lower.

I couple this with a Baratza Sette 270Wi (which I got for a really good deal as Amazon had it priced like a Sette 270). We have a small kitchen so counter space is premium and I like the fit of these on the counter.

The pair have been used practically every day. I believe I have missed 2 days and both of those were long travel days. I have taken it on vacation and the family gatherings have been great with lots of fresh espresso drinks.

My current goto is a cortado/piccolo latte (30g espresso:60g steamed milk). I do these as doubles (pull 2 x 30g espresso shots) and nominally fill a 8oz glass when it is all done.

We've got a Keruig... don't love it... but since I don't drink coffee it's perfect for my wife... I bought her something fancy a few years ago that made amazing coffee... but she didn't like how much work it was...

the one I'm looking at is a super automatic. A push a button. Grind coffee and steamed milk.

A Keurig Espresso maker? I have one and I love it. Pop in a pod, steam the milk with the attached steamer wand, perfect every time. I'm not a coffee snob, but I know my espresso and cappuccino... this matches up with anything I get from any expensive coffee shop.

I'm out of the loop I guess. I just drink coffee. Black, From a plain old coffee maker.

Not that I have anything against those that drink lattes, espresso, and what all. Just not for me.

We have a Keurig. One of the nicer models, but I don't make espresso and I am not even sure if this one does. I've been told Keurigs don't make good coffee. Tastes good to me, but I'm not very sophisticated. Hell, I drink Budweiser and often drink wine out of box.

Not only does Miele make outstanding appliances (and a wonderful vacuum!) but their coffee and espresso machines are top notch.

https://www.mieleusa.com/e/countertop-coffee-machine-cm-6160-milkperfection-lotus-white-11648170-p

Wow those are more expensive than the Saecos

That is what we use. I just drink it black. I don't want any cream or sugar anywhere near my coffee. My wife likes cream and sugar.

Keurigs make a good cup of coffee. People who say anything else don't know anything about coffee. If you are using good coffee and good water in combination with keeping your brewing system clean, they make great coffee. My water is filtered through my refrigerator. I use Starbucks French Roast pods...I like it strong. I brew a 8 oz cup, then add a oz of water from the fridge to mellow it out and cool it off just a bit. I clean the removable parts and wash off every few days and descale with a 50/50 mix of water and vinegar once a month. When done, obviously run through as much water as necessary to remove any trace of the vinegar smell. Today is SS check day, so that is my day to descale which I will a little later today.

I have been through the grinding deal. I think the pods have done a good job of making that unnecessary. They do a good job of sealing things up to help prevent the oils in the grind from drying up. It's not like the days of buying a big tin of Maxwell House where after a few days the coffee started to lose luster...not that Maxwell House had a whole lot of luster to begin with..lol

Good water, good coffee is what makes the brew. The method used doesn't make a big difference, at least since the days when your Mom put the percolator on the stove top. Well, I am old enough to remember that.

I use the French Roast, too. Sometimes the Italian Roast. Both are really strong. I don't dilute it w/the water, but I add a touch of Amaretto Cream.

Pro-tip w/ Keurigs....

Buy one of those reusable k-cups (make sure it works with your Keurig... this isn't as straightforward as it should be), and pack it with your own coffee.

Pros
-You can dial in your cup way better than those useless 'light', 'normal', 'bold' settings on the coffeemaker by adding more/less coffee to the thingy and even messing with fineness of the grind
-WAY better for the environment... there are VERY few disposable k-cups that are recyclable. I've only seen those pods at Costco.
-You can buy a cheaper Keurig (which, for me, are FAR more reliable than the newer/fancier ones) and still dial in a good cup of coffee


OR

Go the other direction and get your own pour-over setup. This might be WAY too manual for some (I have no time for this during the week), but I enjoy the ritual on the weekend if I happen to wake up without a kiddo hanging off of me.

Not sure what you mean by a pour over method.

I used to have a French Press that I used for years but the glass on it cracked and I never replaced.

It was somewhat similar to steeping tea. You put your grounds in the bottom of the glass, then poured boiling water in the glass and let the coffee steep. Maybe stir it up a bit from time to time.

The longer you waited, the stronger the brew. When ready, you inserted a fine mesh SS plunger and slowly pushed it to the bottom to press all the grounds to the bottom.

Pour and drink.

Pour over is just the standard perk... fill the pot with water, pour into reservoir, grounds in the basket, press the magic button.

OK...I usually think of that as drip. Bun-O-Matic in the restaurants. Mr. Coffee at home.

Wow. I just realized my rush to define "pour over" was actually based on my years in the restaurant biz -- In restaurants we call it pour over if there is no hard water line to the Bunn machine -- although it's really the drip method. Maybe he's talking about a french press type situation?

I see. I understand you sometimes pour the water in to the back of the machine if it isn't a auto machine. I don't see many of those anymore. Even so, it is still a drip method. At least that is what I thought.

Yeah, they're pretty much a thing of the past. I had one in my banquet room for small parties. It was also good for off premise gigs and as a backup if the workhorse took a poop and you had to wait a couple hours for the repair guy.

I actually didn't even know pour over also included drip, so that's my bad.

In my house we have a regular ol' Mr. Coffee. That cranks out a standard pot of coffee (water drips onto the grounds and through the filter).

I also have a manual setup with the glass container with a cone on top to hold the filter (this is what I was referring to when I initially mentioned pour over). I weigh the right amount of coffee, grind it, boil the water and pour the water through. There's a method to the pouring though (initial pour is just to wet the grounds so they "bloom", wait, then second pour sinks those grounds back down, wait, then third and fourth pours goes through the "prepped" coffee and where most of the finished coffee comes from). All of this is done on a kitchen scale so you get the right water/coffee ratio. I could control the water/coffee ratio on the auto-pot, but not the pouring method. I'm still a super-noob with this method, but I can still put out a cup that blows my Mr. Coffee out of the water every time. Tastes completely different (MUCH smoother (I don't put anything in my coffee, just black), and the taste is just... more).

Nope. You're right and I'm wrong here. The Mr. Coffee is drip and your other method would be pour over. I was just applying old-school restaurant lingo to the consumer market, which is false.

Sounds pretty intense, that's some mad science and sounds like it would get the most out of the bean. Would kind of beans and roast are you using?

Supposedly, this method allows you to really get the full taste from a single strain/roast/batch/whatever bunch of beans (the opposite of a blend which is like every major bag of beans you can buy). I'm not sure I have a palette that's refined enough to confirm that, but I can definitely taste the difference when I was dialing grind size on my grinder. Not only does the intensity of the coffee change, but there's this weird sour -> bitter scale with a sweet spot in the middle that you need to experiment with to dial in the grind size.

The first time I tried it, it was intense... but really it's not. You're just watching the readout on a scale and a readout on a timer. I can't taste a ton of difference when I play with the timing, but I do when I play with the water/coffee ratio and grind size. Regardless though, I always get a very smooth cup of coffee with the manual method. My wife usually drowns her coffee with super-sweet creamer, and even she can almost drink the pour-over black.

I highly recommend that anyone even remotely interested in playing with the taste of their coffee try it. Getting set up doesn't have to be expensive (burr grinders can be expensive, but manual crank ones are cheap).

j/c

Does anyone make a pot of folgers, drink it black, and then use the microwave the next day to heat up what was left in the pot? Or am I the only "non coffee snob" here.

My wife will save Dunkin and drink it the next day. I can't do the next day coffee thing... almost tastes a little moldy to me, and definitely loses it's "bite" -- that acidic pinch on the back of your tongue.

I may dig out my grinder and give that a shot. Looks like a pretty large selection of set-ups under $30 on Amazon.

"Boiling" is 212°, a little to hot... I'm reading that the best temp is 205° (about 30 seconds off the boil). Is that what you're doing for water temp?

Snobs? Name calling on a coffee thread? My goodness.

You, sir, need to get a life. I can't post an opinion? Get over your self.

When yo over extract you get a bitter cup and when you under extract you get sour.

Bitter is easier to deal with than sour in my opinion.

Honestly, I don't sweat water temps (yet).

This is something that, if you're so inclined, you can take it to obsession-level perfection. I got my grind size and ratio(s) mostly figured out which makes a special (something way different and better IMO) than what comes out of my coffee pot. It's a special treat from me to me on rare mornings where I'm not chasing dog and/or toddler and/or newborn.

95% of the time my morning coffee comes out of my Mr. Coffee. Some days I need a little extra help and if there's some that's still left in the pot, then I'll pour and and add some ice (since it's already cold at this point).

The sour taste was definitely a new one for me. I'm with you on I'd rather have bitter over sour, but that first time I tasted an under-extracted coffee was really eye-opening.

j/c

I used to fresh grind my own beans, add a touch of cinnamon and drip process. Then I went to pre-ground drip, and now I simply go the Keurig way....lol

Sounds similar to the French press I used for many years. Only you didn't keep pouring the coffee over. You just let it steep. Much like a bag of tea, the longer you let it steep, the stronger the cup. Ulike the tea bag where you just pul it out, you insert the filter at the end and press it to the botton of the container.

I guess it could have been as scientific as you mention. Over a few tries I learned how fine I could grind the coffee. Too fine gave you more sediment in the cup. Time and experience also gave you the feel for how many grounds to use and how long to allow the water and coffee to steep to get it to a strength you wanted.

In the end I am pretty happy just using my K-cup and not fooling around grinding beans and what not.

No.

I have gone through the grinders and what not. Today I use a Keurig set up. Just the mid level machine I guess. It does have a water reservoir on the side and a few different water amount options to adjust brew strength.

I do keep a jar of Taster Choice instant in the cupboard in th event i run out of K-cups to use. I only like to buy them at Costco, and I don't go but once a month. If I run out, it is instant coffee time for me. That works just fine.

Our Keurig has a setting on it that describes what oober is talking about and I use it. Not sure if it really works or not.

Mine has a mild/med/ or strong setting, if that is what you are talking about? I just set it for strong and have never fooled with it since.

Like I said, I like my coffee strong and black. I might mellow it out a bit with a shot of cool water from the fridge. Maybe not so much to mellow it out as to cool it down a bit. I don't like those first few sips burning the skin off my lips...lol.

My wife likes to add some cream. She can add all the cream she wants for all I care.

I don't fret about temp. When I pull a shot I do run the pump first to clear the too hot water from the group head. I know it will be too hot so it is part of the routine.

That's probably what it is. Supposedly, the process is slower for the water to seep through the grounds if you set it on stronger. I really can't remember. Like you, I set it on strong and haven't touched it since.

I think you are right.

Now after reading all of this I will go monkey around with the setting...lol

LOL

I did break down and descale mine yesterday after reading one of your earlier posts. Completely took it apart and went through the entire process. I YouTubed it and followed the directions. I used a descaling solution for Keurigs instead of the vinegar, though. It's takes awhile to go through the process. My coffee definitely tasted different this morning, but I'm not sure if it tastes better or worse.