Home use machines

[muchochihuahua]

Hi there, me and my wife love Starbucks, but the nearest one is over an hour driving-time away. We want to buy a coffee / expresso machine for our home for ourselves, and also for entertaining. What is a good one to buy? Please notice i don´t know the least bit about coffee machines. We want to make coffee, lates, expressos, capuchinos, etc...
Does one need different machines for coffee than for expresso?
I always appretiate coffee made of freshly ground beans, and now i want to be able to do that at home. Can you help me?
thanx

[EspressoItalia]

Choosing a coffee machine for home can be difficult but you have to start with the basics, first of all, do you want a manual coffee machine or an automatic? Generally manual coffee machines make better tasting coffee if you know how to use them, but they require the user to take the time to learn the necessary skills to make great tasting coffee.

If you just want to enjoy a nice cup of coffee every morning i would just get an automatic machine, but if you want to be involved in the coffee making process go for the manual machine.

All of the major brands( Saeco, Jura and Delonghi) all make great automatic coffee machines, the right machine for you just depends upon your budget and your desired features.

if your looking for a manual machine there are literally hundreds of options. Check out the forums and get a feel of what will suit your needs.

Good luck!
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Espresso Italia - The Coffee Experts

[CoffeeVending]

I agree, it does depend on what you want from your coffee experience. If you don't have much time to clean and look after your machine then you shouldn't get a manual one, as these require a lot of care to keep them at thier best.

But grinding your own beans each time you have a cup of coffee will make your coffee taste that bit better!

[juliekw1]

The Baby Gaggia is a great machine for home use. It's a little pricey (around $400), but if you're spending $10.00 a day on coffee from Starbucks for you and your wife, it pays for itself pretty quickly.
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Julie Weaver

[espressopine]

Single serve coffee makers are a great way to go for several reasons.

Firstly: Most people who enjoy drinking several cups of coffee during the day will make a full pot and then wind up dumping a good portion of it out because it has been sitting on the burner and it's just burnt water.... so it's a waste.

Secondly: You have the clean up and mess with traditional coffee makers that you do not with single serve machines.

For example, with a Tassimo Coffee Maker the machine uses what are called T-Discs that have a bar code on them and when inserted the machine reads the code and precisely determines exactly how much water to draw from the reservoir, exact brew time, exact brew temperature etc for a perfect cup every time.

The machine can make Coffee, Espresso, Cappuccino, Hot Chocolate, Hot Tea and more...

You just select the T-Disc for the beverage you want and press one button... and in less than 2 minutes you have a perfect cup!

No waste and no clean up.

So, even if you drink a lot of coffee throughout the day it still makes more sense to make one perfect cup at a time because your not wasting any coffee and you save yourself the clean up time!
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Tassimo Coffee Maker