I need a new espresso machine.

Antony101 · 3 Dec 2013 at 15:49

Okay, ordered:

Gaggia Classic
Grindenstein Knock Out Box Black (Our bin is a PITA)
RANCILIO FROTHING ARM 2008 VERSION

Still need a good tamp.

DezUk · 3 Dec 2013 at 15:57

Out of interest how much are the pods for the Dolce Gusto machine?

Footyslayer · 3 Dec 2013 at 16:16

dfarrall said:
Is it possible to get a machine that makes even a crappy expresso for under £50?
Would love something to make a mocha on a morning now and again but don't want to spend the earth!

Here.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Krups-Kp220...F8&qid=1386087221&sr=8-1&keywords=dolce+gusto

DezUk said:
I have been looking at a espresso machine for my old mans Xmas and don't want to spend a fortune. I have had experience with the manual version if this and thought the drinks tasted really decent for the money.

https://www.dolce-gusto.co.uk/EN/sh...yNewAutomatic.aspx?productId=8004399326651_02

Or should I be considering something else?

Cheaper here...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/NESCAFÉ-EDG...F8&qid=1386087301&sr=8-7&keywords=dolce+gusto

DezUk said:
Out of interest how much are the pods for the Dolce Gusto machine?

You can get 38 pods (3 packs) for £9.99 in a few places at the minute.

Russinating · 3 Dec 2013 at 18:03

^^ Better than that: http://www.johnlewis.com/nespresso-...d-aeroccino3-by-magimix-white-sand/p231746228

£100 and you can claim a £70 gift card towards capsules making it effectively £30 over the course of its use. Also comes with an Aeroccino for warm/frothed milk which the Dolce Gusto doesn't.

JL also price match.

Saint1972 · 3 Dec 2013 at 19:44

Treated myself to a Gaggia Classic(Amazon)and Iberital MC2(HappyDonkey)for Xmas and they arrived today

.After freaking out for 10 minutes thinking they didn't include the power lead with the Gaggia before realising it was in the plastic bag wrapped water tank

I tested it with some ese pods and must say its a really easy to use piece of kit.Espresso tasted really nice,then tried a Cappuccino.Will need a bit of practice at that to get good results,maybe get a bigger wand as most suggest.

Will try the MC 2 tomorrow I think.Im impressed with HappyDonkey,they threw in 2 free(although small 1 1/2 oz)shot glasses and 250 g each of Italian/Brazilian beans.I have a problem though,the shot glasses are too small to take the duel delivery spout thing.Can the spout be taken off,or do I have to make 2 shots each time?

Can see myself buying a better tamper as the plastic one that comes with the Gaggia is obviously not good enough.

Any tips for a newbie will be welcome to make my coffee making more enjoyable

Phal · 3 Dec 2013 at 19:55

Saint1972 said:
Treated myself to a Gaggia Classic(Amazon)and Iberital MC2(HappyDonkey)for Xmas and they arrived today .After freaking out for 10 minutes thinking they didn't include the power lead with the Gaggia before realising it was in the plastic bag wrapped water tank I tested it with some ese pods and must say its a really easy to use piece of kit.Espresso tasted really nice,then tried a Cappuccino.Will need a bit of practice at that to get good results,maybe get a bigger wand as most suggest.

Will try the MC 2 tomorrow I think.Im impressed with HappyDonkey,they threw in 2 free(although small 1 1/2 oz)shot glasses and 250 g each of Italian/Brazilian beans.I have a problem though,the shot glasses are too small to take the duel delivery spout thing.Can the spout be taken off,or do I have to make 2 shots each time?

Any tips for a newbie will be welcome to make my coffee making more enjoyable

I got the same setup although the grinder and Classic were spaced out by a few weeks

I also got the free shot glasses with the MC2 grinder but I also had ordered coffee with it so I got two free bags along with my 1 I had ordered lol.

Tips? Start grinding and testing to see how much finer you need to go in order to get the right grind. Also, get the normal basket with lots of holes in the bottom so you don't need to use the perfect crema plastic widget thing. New basket is £4-5 or something

Siliconslave · 4 Dec 2013 at 07:51

tips wise, the basket is a good idea, as is the opv mod, read all 15 pages of this: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17887005
Start playing around with your grind and tamp weight to get the right sort of volume though. Your aiming for each shot (30ml) to pour in around 25seconds (or 60ml in 25 seconds for a double)

FrenchTart · 4 Dec 2013 at 09:06

Antony101 said:
Okay, ordered:

Gaggia Classic
Grindenstein Knock Out Box Black (Our bin is a PITA)
RANCILIO FROTHING ARM 2008 VERSION

Still need a good tamp.

I use this one:
http://www.creamsupplies.co.uk/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=1817

I'm sure there are better tamps about but for the price it's very good and a massive upgrade over the plastic POS that comes with the Gaggia

Russinating said:
^^ Better than that: http://www.johnlewis.com/nespresso-...d-aeroccino3-by-magimix-white-sand/p231746228

£100 and you can claim a £70 gift card towards capsules making it effectively £30 over the course of its use. Also comes with an Aeroccino for warm/frothed milk which the Dolce Gusto doesn't.

JL also price match.

That's actually tempting for work. A crappy espresso maker for the office (the coffee available here whilst better than some work places is still very bad) and a milk frother for home use. Hmm.

Saint1972 said:
Treated myself to a Gaggia Classic(Amazon)and Iberital MC2(HappyDonkey)for Xmas and they arrived today .After freaking out for 10 minutes thinking they didn't include the power lead with the Gaggia before realising it was in the plastic bag wrapped water tank I tested it with some ese pods and must say its a really easy to use piece of kit.Espresso tasted really nice,then tried a Cappuccino.Will need a bit of practice at that to get good results,maybe get a bigger wand as most suggest.

Will try the MC 2 tomorrow I think.Im impressed with HappyDonkey,they threw in 2 free(although small 1 1/2 oz)shot glasses and 250 g each of Italian/Brazilian beans.I have a problem though,the shot glasses are too small to take the duel delivery spout thing.Can the spout be taken off,or do I have to make 2 shots each time?

Can see myself buying a better tamper as the plastic one that comes with the Gaggia is obviously not good enough.

Any tips for a newbie will be welcome to make my coffee making more enjoyable

I actually got caught out in the same way by the power lead for my Gaggia. I started to get really annoyed until I finally found it

edit: You can remove the spout with a lot of elbow grease. I may have ended up using pliers. Personally now I never make less than a double so it isn't an issue

Russinating · 4 Dec 2013 at 09:15

FrenchTart said:
That's actually tempting for work. A crappy espresso maker for the office (the coffee available here whilst better than some work places is still very bad) and a milk frother for home use. Hmm.

Yeah we've got one at work too. Great most of the time, only downfall is the speed of the machine and capacity of the reservoir which becomes a pain when you're trying to make 4+ for meetings etc.

FrenchTart · 4 Dec 2013 at 09:23

Russinating said:
Yeah we've got one at work too. Great most of the time, only downfall is the speed of the machine and capacity of the reservoir which becomes a pain when you're trying to make 4+ for meetings etc.

How slow is it?

I won't be making multiple ones for meetings (unless they are long and i forsee myself needing multiple coffees to make it through

) so I should be fine on that note

Russinating · 4 Dec 2013 at 09:58

Not that slow, probably 50 seconds to fill a mug, so fine for one or two but you can see how that adds up when making 4+ when you need to change capsules each time and refill the reservoir etc.

Antony101 · 4 Dec 2013 at 10:42

Added a Motta 58mm Tamper to the list of orders too.

Should be more or less set now.

DezUk · 4 Dec 2013 at 16:01

I ended up buying the Gusto from Amazon along with the 64 pods for a ton, not bad. Cheers

Antony101 · 4 Dec 2013 at 16:06

Can't recommend MyEspresso enough, emailed them to ask if I could have a Tamper added to my order with the Silvia Wand to avoid paying 2x£5 postage. Got an email back at 4/5AM. called them up at 10AM after I received the dispach email and they still managed to get it sorted.

Very prompt phone and email service.

Footyslayer · 4 Dec 2013 at 17:02

Russinating said:
^^ Better than that: http://www.johnlewis.com/nespresso-...d-aeroccino3-by-magimix-white-sand/p231746228

£100 and you can claim a £70 gift card towards capsules making it effectively £30 over the course of its use. Also comes with an Aeroccino for warm/frothed milk which the Dolce Gusto doesn't.

JL also price match.

That does look amazing but is it limited to espresso's? The dolce gusto gives you a range of 10+ different drinks by buying different pods.

DezUk said:
I ended up buying the Gusto from Amazon along with the 64 pods for a ton, not bad. Cheers

FrenchTart · 4 Dec 2013 at 17:11

Footyslayer said:
That does look amazing but is it limited to espresso's? The dolce gusto gives you a range of 10+ different drinks by buying different pods.

Well..you make all the drinks by adding frothed milk or water to the espresso so it isn't limited in any way.

That particular milk frother has a cold setting too, which is awesome for making iced coffee/etc in the summer.

Footyslayer · 4 Dec 2013 at 17:25

FrenchTart said:
Well..you make all the drinks by adding frothed milk or water to the espresso so it isn't limited in any way.

That particular milk frother has a cold setting too, which is awesome for making iced coffee/etc in the summer.

As ranges of drinks go though...

https://www.dolce-gusto.co.uk/EN/SHOP/Pages/flavours.aspx

Tea's, coffee's, hot chocolate's. It's a very large range of drink options from one machine.

Personally this excites me.

But I do understand each to their own, I'm just pointing the range out here

FrenchTart · 4 Dec 2013 at 17:27

So..are those made with pods that have powdered milk in them somehow or does the machine have various settings you can choose from?

It's kind of cool in a way (assuming it doesn't use powdered milk - ugh) - though personally anything I want to drink that contains coffee can be made with decent espresso and a little milk

Footyslayer · 4 Dec 2013 at 17:29

FrenchTart said:
So..are those made with pods that have powdered milk in them somehow or does the machine have various settings you can choose from?

It's kind of cool in a way (assuming it doesn't use powdered milk - ugh) - though personally anything I want to drink that contains coffee can be made with decent espresso and a little milk

I always add my own milk, don't think it has any powdered milk. The machine has different settings but the pods have a recommended setting.

So, I turn it on. The pod empties into my cup, I add milk / sugar then press the machine again for the remainder of the pod and hot water.

Tastes great.

FrenchTart · 4 Dec 2013 at 17:34

Footyslayer said:
I always add my own milk, don't think it has any powdered milk. The machine has different settings but the pods have a recommended setting.

So, I turn it on. The pod empties into my cup, I add milk / sugar then press the machine again for the remainder of the pod and hot water.

Tastes great.

It sounds very convenient for people that like coffee but aren't coffee snobs (I'll readily admit that I am

) and those that want to experiment with sugary drinks.