Nice guide due, I'll print it out and take it to the guy who works at the sandwich shop across the university, where I buy my coffee from when I'm in the library. Keep telling him his shots are weak and he says I don't know what I'm talking about!
To the experts: what's the cheapest grinder/coffee maker I could get away with? At the moment I'm using a small cafetiere and ground coffee from Sainsbury's, and I'd like to see an improvement.
Stove-top, hand-held Zassenhaus grinder. I bought a used one dating from the 1930s, £17 inc. delivery, works perfectly, not a speck of rust in the mechanism, grinds much better than the crappy £26 burr grinder I used to have.
I ended purchasing a Morphy Richards espresso maker and frother (£27 down from about £70)
I don't like those, I think a stove-top makes much better coffee. There's a big debate about whether stove-tops count as "proper" espresso - some of the more hardcore espresso geeks say it doesn't put enough pressure, but I think the proof is in the pudding and if the terrible gunk that the £30 espresso machines Argos and Boots sell (are these competitors?) is "proper" espresso I'd rather not have any until I can afford a decent £300 machine.
edit redux: is it wrong to want to buy a new lens just for taking photos of coffee??
Don't turn this into a photography thread!
(I did mean to comment about the pictures though, they look very appetising!
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