What is a very good Espresso machine

[Bruins Fan]

I have a Breville Caferoma I use it several times a day for the past three years.
I paid around 250.00 great machine.

[Mister Moo]

Good luck, guy. From your $500 starting point you now have rock solid recommendations from honest brothers for going grinder, going high, going low and going rebuilt in the middle. My take is, we're all right (for different reasons).

(Get the grinder and the moka pot.)

[trogdor]

Brikkas are more fun and less work than regular old mokapots. Mukkas look great, too, and although I've never tried one the videos I've seen look pretty sweet. Consider getting her one of those two (or both!) and an Aeropress.

However, if you drop the cash for good equipment and she gets neurotic enough to make real espresso well, you should be in for a serious treat! Barista at home!

[Pat1075]

I love my breville and you can often find deals on them I got mine for about 370 usually goes for about 600. And capresso makes a great burr grinder for about 100 bucks.

[Silound]

Originally Posted by Pat1075

I love my breville and you can often find deals on them I got mine for about 370 usually goes for about 600. And capresso makes a great burr grinder for about 100 bucks.

Yeah, and the way I was grinding a half-pound a day for my habits, that Capresso was dead by the third month. New burrs were nearly as expensive as the machine was.


I bought a used Mazzer Mini from a local coffee shop for $150. It needed a rewiring job (they did SOMETHING to rip off the power cord SOMEHOW) and new burrs, which cost me about $70 bucks shipped.

Given the manufacturing date is sometime 2008, I expect to get, at minimum, a thousand pounds out of this thing before it lets go for good.


Moral of the story is check with your local coffee shop. If you're in real close, they may even buy one and sell it to you at cost (for them Mini's run about $450 I was told).

[germantown rob]

Still waiting for my Oscar to arrive but my Baratza Vario arrived with all my espresso toys. I looked at all the usual suspects for a grinder, madcap, mini mazzer, compak k3 and the 24" tall super jolly. The Vario beats all the grinders except for the jolly in blind espresso tasting and it comes in just behind or tying the jolly. It may also be able to switch back and forth from espresso grind to the extreme of press grind with little effort to find the sweet spot returning to espresso, which means 1 grinder on the counter instead of 2. If I have to go with 2 it looks very at home sitting next to the Baratza Virtuoso. The Vario is not stepless but does allow 10 macro grind changes with 22 micro steps of each macro setting. Compared to the Virtuoso it is amazing, I have been over caffeinated dialing in grind for my moka pots, instead of 1 click coarser or finer taking me out of the sweet spot with the virtuoso there are 22 increments at least to play with.

Bored with a moka pot, 20 years of using them and I am still getting more out of the darn things. I have to agree with Mr Moo 100% on grinders, you can't have great coffee without a great grinder.

Edit: Oh yeah...Oscar, Vario, espresso toys $1500... Look on my wife's face, priceless until I realized it was murder in her eyes.

[germantown rob]

Originally Posted by Silound

Moral of the story is check with your local coffee shop. If you're in real close, they may even buy one and sell it to you at cost (for them Mini's run about $450 I was told).

The Mazzer Mini are up to $599 for new. That probably translates into the $550 range with a phone call but if you just go to amazon expect to pay over $650.

[Mister Moo]

Humidor Minister? This is Houston. Come in.

Have you made a move yet or have we left you more confused than ever?

I've read it all in this thread and here's my consolidation opinion: if you want to make great cappuccinos for $500 you are shopping hard for used equipment which means you need a mechanics eye to fixing a few things.

a. Silvia IS the first real* espresso machine mentioned for around $600;
b. a $30 AeroPress DOES make a cappuccino-passable brew;
c. a $20 mokapot will produce cappa-passable brew with practice;
d. you gotta have a grinder ($150 to $600); or
e. limit yourself to commercial preground cans (not the greatest but no up front money for grinder); but
f. without the Silvia you need a way to froth milk which means -
i. you need a plunger-frother (cheap but not hardly the real deal), or
ii. you need a stovetop frother mokapot with steam wand (Bellman style**)

Seriously... making a "real" good cappuccino at home is a labor of love and it ain't cheap to play. The combination of a steam-powered stovetop frother (say $50), mokapot or AeroPress ($30) and a low-end burr grinder (which is fine for AeroPress or mokapot - $130) isn't too pricey for very good quality. If you wanna make a not-too-shabby cappa at home with the press and the frother you'd find them OK, too, using commercial espresso pre-ground coffee - thus saving the cost of the grinder.

After the bargain route above there is the Silvia with preground commercial coffee - in your range; or the Silvia with a matching grinder - nearly double your range.

Germ'robs experiences will be interesting on this subject since he recently passed from low-tech mokapot to high-tech HX commercial-guts espresso maker with monster grinder. I am interested to hear how he'll compare a mokapot cappuccino to an Nuova Simonelli Oscar cappuccino.

*sufficient heat, 58mm basket and a three-way solenoid

** I have read very mixed reviews on the Bellman that cover the range from impossible to use to very good. I never hand my hands on one to make an honest call. I suspect it works well if you take the time to really figure it out.