Coffee machine on the cheap but tastes nice?

SkeeterUK

SkeeterUK

SkeeterUK

Soldato
Joined
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Hi all.

I do like my coffee tho its instant but i do like cappuccino and stuff when im out and about.

I have thought about a coffee machine for awhile now but have been put off by the expense. I was wondering if their is a machine that would suit me in a few ways as in cheap to buy cheap to run and easy to clean or require no cleaning as i hate cleaning lol.

So is there any out there for a budget that would be around £30-50 that's cheap to run i.e buy coffee thats nice and lots of verities to try with the machine also adapting to different types of coffee being made and makes a good cappuccino. Then the final requirement, little to no maintenance i.e cleaning. Oh and would really like nice big mugs to use not tiny cups as i prefer my coffee drinks to by large and last awhile.

How much is the coffee to buy for these machines, im hoping not that much more than say £3 for a decent amount of cups of coffee like i get with 200g of instant coffee provides.

Btw i dont want to grind the stuff myself if possible as i dont like things that take effort (yep totally lazy) so if there are easy ways to do it then i want to do it that way like small packets u just stick in make sure water and milk is in and then press the button.
 
Doesnt look like a one for a large mug to fill. Also does it do hot milk for the drinks?

Lookin at amazon the t discs look expensive like 8 drinks for 10 quid which seems really high cost when i was hoping it be like 10 discs or whatever for £3. Is it really that expensive for these types of machines i thought it was maybe just slightly more expensive than 200g instant which gives like 20-30 cups of coffee for 2-4 quid ish. So if i drink say in a usual day 4-5 cups of coffee or tea a day, its gona be expensive for someone lookin to move from instant coffee on the cheap.
 
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That is the only problem with them but for £50 it pretty much the best you can get. Have a look at the Phillips - Senseo range as the coffee pods are cheaper, around 35p each online. It will make 2 small cups at a time as well.
 
it depends on what you get, some of them are 16 drinks for 3 quid.

tassimo is half price at argos btw, comes with a 20 quid voucher for tdiscs as well
 
Hi there

We've got the Tassimo here - take the drip tray out and you can get a decent sized mug in place easily. Also, you can buy the drink discs cheap enough off Flea Bay. ;)
 
Pod machines are never going to be as cheap, in the long run, as a good espresso machine and grinder.

Gaggia classic + Porlex hand grinder + Has bean/ Sq. mile beans = winning.
 
SkeeterUK said:
Btw i dont want to grind the stuff myself if possible as i dont like things that take effort (yep totally lazy)
Click to expand...


I am lazy too but I think grinding coffee beans is no effort if you have an electric grinder. You don't even need to clean it.

Our office bought a £15 filter coffee machine from Argos, £10 electric grinder, and then bought coffee beans by the kilo from Garraways online. Worked out at about £5 for a kilo of coffee and we always had the smell of freshly ground coffee.
 
I have a Dolce and the Piccolo can be had for £50 on the high street atm

Packs are 3.68 from Dolce. About 20-25 varieties, straight coffees are 16 pods per pack. Special drinks require 2 pods per drink (e.g coffee + milk pod) so you get 8 drinks per pack

So basically under 20p or under 40p per drink.


I also think the Tassimo pods are much cheaper than you found on Amazon :)
 
I did the math for this with pods for beans, i think the price is about double for pods.

One thing with pods is that you have a consistency everytime, that can't be said with beans.
 
Going off the list of things you mentioned mate, I think you're better off sticking with your instant. I don't mean it in a negative way, but there's nothing on the market that is going to give you all of the things you described in your first post, especially for sub £50. Beyond that, ground coffee doesn't really come close to the price of instant cup for cup, so if you're drinking multiple large cups of coffee each day then it's going to add up.

In my mind, levels of home coffee go like this:

1. Instant (very cheap)
2. Pre-ground with a french press/drip filter/aeropress/moka (£15ish outlay then 20-30p per coffee)
3. Home ground with french press/drip filter/aeropress/moka (as above plus £20 for an electric blade or hand burr, £40 for an electric burr)
4. Home ground with an espresso machine (cheapest machine worth bothering with is the Gaggia Baby/Classic for about £100+, then the grinders above and the 20-30p per coffee)

99% of people are happy at 1 or 2, and that's fine. As you go up the list it becomes more expensive and more effort.
 
All i wanted was to have a way to do cappuccino on the cheap at home. Not bothered about espressos etc tho maybe latte might be nice i dunno.

Was considering the phillips thing someone mentioned awhile ago as they have the ability to buy a filter so u dont need the pods and can just buy pre ground coffee in bulk for it. Tho not sure how cappuccino are made with that machine per say to the tassimo thing which all the guess works done with the bar code methods.
 
For a £50 budget go Moka Pot (around £15) use this with preground beans until you can afford a grinder (or a porlex for about £30 i think)
 
Getting anything decent at this sort of budget is tricky. The nearest thing I can suggest is an aeropress for around 20 quid, pre-ground beans until you can justify a 30 quid hand grinder (as already suggested and will be a massive improvement when partnered with freshly roasted beans) and a bodum milk frother for around 10 quid which will give you something cappuccino-like. I did this before my espresso machine and the results aren't too bad considering the outlay.
 
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