Is a home espresso machine worth it?
FIRST THOUGHTS ON A HOME LEVER COFFEE MACHINE
Coffee is the morning food of many of us coffee lovers, we love to indulge in it during our weekend home breaks and inviting friends home for a visit always involves enjoying a cup of coffee together. Sipping a great cup of coffee at home in your pajamas or whenever you remember during the day. Such moments make you think how convenient would it be to have your own coffee machine at home?
What may discourage you from buying one is the financial costs associated with setting up your home coffee corner. At that point, running to the coffee shop around the corner for your coffee may seem like a better option. However, if you calculate your coffee costs over the long term, you can get a better deal just by investing in your own coffee machine.
However, don't forget to factor in other aspects when comparing the benefits of buying a home coffee machine. Apart from finances, yourneeds and wants for home brewingcoffee are the most crucial factors for buying a coffee maker .
DO I NEED A HOME ESPRESSO MACHINE?
The first step to determining the benefits of getting a home espresso machine is making sure you need one. By this I mean more about what kind of coffee you need and expect from your coffee maker. Simply, what kind of coffee do you like? Or whether you drink espresso or "espresso".
DO YOU DRINK COFFEE OR ESPRESSO?
What is the difference between espresso and espresso? Especially among Czech coffee drinkers, it is not uncommon to order "espresso with milk" in a café. Trained café customers use the more appropriate term for their coffee as lungo with milk. In both cases, it means an extended espresso with a splash of milk. The ratio of hot water to coffee extension can be adjusted at the customer's request (perhaps up to 1:5, in which case the more correct name for such coffee is americano).
However, if you want to have an espresso, the rules for its appearance and, above all, its preparation are fixed. Well, not so fixed, of course, individual coffees vary slightly in their preparation recipes, but there are limits, i.e. standards, which make an espresso an espresso. These are the amount of coffee (inlet - i.e. ground, outlet - espresso), extraction time, water temperature and pressure of about 9 bar. So now you know where I'm going with my question on "espresso" and espresso?
Do you require your coffee machine to make espresso, a standardized drink with its own unique characteristics and preparation needs, or do you desire a machine for simply good coffee close to espresso? If it is the latter, i.e. you want a strong-tasting coffee machine but don't specifically need to prepare espresso at home, then buying a home coffee maker is worth it. It just won't be an espresso machine.
WHAT HOME COFFEE MACHINE TO GET FOR A GOOD CUP OF COFFEE
Your advantage now is primarily the significantly lower purchase price of coffee equipment. You can choose between both traditional methods of making strong-tasting coffee like acoffee pot or a moka pot. A moka pot is actually a small coffee machine and if you don't drink one coffee after another, amoka pot is a popular option for home coffee preparation.
Then there are the newer coffee making gadgets like the Aeropress or the Twist Press. With this coffee equipment, you can open up the possibilities of making coffee in perhaps a thousand ways. Although these methods are widely used for making filter coffee as we classically know it, a larger cup of mild-tasting coffee, you can also make a strong-tasting lungo in them . In an Aeropress or Twist Press, the ground coffee is extracted with hot water over a period of time and withpressure that you manually apply to the coffee.
WHEN I NEED A CHEAP LEVER COFFEE MAKER FOR HOME
If you're looking for a helper among lever coffee makersto prepare your cup of coffee , you'll be in the price range between 3,000 - 7,000 Kč. These cheap coffee makers are capable of preparing a delicious cup of coffee with a strong aroma and taste. And not just one. After all, the alternative methods mentioned above are more suitable for individual coffee preparation. With a coffee machine, you can embark onmass coffee preparation for the whole family.
You can prepare not only black coffee, but also coffee with milk. You won't need any external milk frothers. The home lever coffee maker also includes a steam nozzle for whipping milk. So you can get to work making milky coffee drinks and enjoy a sweet moment with your milk froth coffee.
WHEN I NEED A HOME ESPRESSO MACHINE
Are you an espresso lover who can enjoy your few centilitres of perfect coffee extract? You don't want something like espresso, but proper espresso? The magic of espresso has bewitched many a coffee lover. Master its extraction and enjoy your home espresso the way it should be. For this you will need a powerful coffee machine.
You can buy more powerful espresso machines from around 10,000 CZK. The small, handy and affordable Lelit or Gaggia coffee machines will be your best friend in the morning. They tend to be thefirst coffee machines of enthusiastic home baristas.
The more expensive versions have more than basic equipment such as volumetrics or PID (electronic water temperature controller). However, this is already in the price range of20,000 - 40,000 CZK. The possibilities for home espresso preparation do not end there.
A LEVER ESPRESSO MACHINE FOR THE HOME BARISTA
Thesophisticatedtwo-barrel home coffee machine LelitBianka with rotary pump (for constant pressure throughout the extraction process) boasts technical possibilities almost like the lever coffee machines in cafés. With a price of less than 60,000 CZK you get a home machine for professional espresso.
A HOME LEVER COFFEE MACHINE FOR BARISTAS WHO WANT TO HAVE EVERYTHING IN THEIR HANDS
The simplest, most compact and cheapest lever coffee machine for real espresso? There is one, and it's called Flair Espresso. It doesn't take up too much space in the kitchen, and it has its own carrying case that you can fold up and take on holiday. It's a lot of fun to make coffee in, and you have all the aspects of a proper espresso in your own hands.
WHEN I WANT A LEVER ESPRESSO MACHINE AT HOME
Your coffee requirements can help you determine the direction to take when deciding on a home espresso machine. I've listed your coffee preferences as another important factor. What do I mean? Well, simply whatkind of coffee machine your coffee-lovingheart desires!
Without a doubt, the price of the coffee machine plays a major role. Your need and coffee preference justifies the purchase of a home coffee machine. But your desire should also be reflected. You can rationalize that, given the smaller number of cups of coffee or your beginner barista skills, you can get by with a basic lever coffee machine.
Together with a basic espresso coffee grinder and barista tools, such a home café can cost you as little as 25,000 CZK. You can save money on an electric grinder and grind your coffee in a manual grinder, bringing the total price down even further.
YOUR DREAM ESPRESSO MACHINE
If your heart skipped a beat, not because of the caffeine rush this time, but because you're looking at Nuova Simonelli's top-of-the-range machines , include your joy in your consideration of buying a home coffee machine. Because making home espresso is all about the joy of coffee - and therefore the coffee machine you make it on.
Treat yourself to a coffee machine that you'll enjoy day after day, because investing in a quality home coffee machine is a long-term investment. With the right care, it will become what is essentially your lifelong coffee partner. The performance and specific features of your coffee machine will not hold you back, but support you in exploring a world of coffee full of interesting and seasonal flavours that you won't miss with your coffee machine.
With each new espresso, you'll discover more about the magic of extraction and takefull controlof your coffee. The fun with your beloved coffee machine doesn't stop at espresso. You'll show off to your significant other or friends as you prepare a homemade latte or cappuccino decorated with café-like latte art and become theperfect host. Include these incalculable joys in the number of benefits when you buy a home coffee machine.
WHEN IT'S NOT WORTH BUYING A HOME LEVER COFFEE MACHINE
A lever coffee maker, at any price level, is always a coffee maker whose lever waits for the right amount of freshly ground coffee of the right fineness to be evenly tamped with a tamper during brewing. In short - lever coffee machines are espresso machines, but you make the espresso.
Proper espresso preparation in a lever espresso machine requires knowledge of coffee extraction and a certain level of barista skills. The moment you don't have this, it's not worth buying a lever espresso machine for your home. To clarify, if you don't enjoy adjusting the grinds and the entire espresso recipe and the actual brewing process, and you're not interested in learning how to do it, or fine-tuning your espresso to perfection by taking incremental steps and tasting individual samples.
If you don't know much about making espresso, have never tried to use a coffee machine, just watch baristas in cafes at work, and are eager to learn espresso making and understand coffee, then your best bet is tosign up for a coffee course. At the home barista course, you will learn everything you need to know about espresso extraction and practice making coffee yourself . You will learn how towhip milk for lattes. You'll learn how to set up the grinder for an espresso that won't be sour or unpleasantly bitter. Then choosing your home coffee machine will be a lot easier.
WILL THE MACHINE PRODUCE CAFÉ-QUALITY ESPRESSO?
I'll include a look at the quality of the drink in our coffee machine review. Alternative methods like the moka pot and also cheap lever coffee makers prepare coffee that is not standard espresso. Unless the coffee shop is currently offering mocha pot coffee (perhaps as an additional service representing the possibilities of making coffee at home), which is not very common, you simply cannot compare these coffees.
Qualitatively, we can only compare espresso and milk drinks made from it, typically cappuccino. If we put a barista from a café in front of a good home coffee machine, of course with a good espresso grinder and the necessary barista equipment next to it , we can assume that a good barista will make an espresso or cappuccino on a good home coffee machine that is comparable to the coffee from the café.
The technical equipment of the coffee machine, a good grinder and above all the skills of the barista are one thing. Absolutely essential. Then there is the fact thatprofessional coffee preparation has the advantage of consistently good coffee. The barista sets the grinder in the morning, which also means working espressos before finding the ideal extraction. In a home setting, this step can look a little more costly than the volume of coffees prepared in a café.
Stability of quality is harder to achieve in home espresso, whereas a pro espresso machine is tailored to make each successive espresso as good as the one before. Whereas at home you may encounter slight variations in, for example, water temperature or extractionpressure during the preparation of subsequent coffees.
SO, IS IT WORTH BUYING A HOME COFFEE MACHINE?
Coffee lovers usually love not only the divine drink itself, but also everything around it. That is, meeting friends with coffee in a cup that smells the whole room. And since this is exactly the kind of atmosphere that coffee shops literally attract people to visit, I assume that even as a potential new owner of a home coffee machine, you won't completely give up on coffee shops.
However,going to acoffee shopfor your coffee several times a day is more costly than investing in a coffee machine, which will pay off after a while. The price of the coffee machine determines how long it will be. Buying a moka pot or other alternative coffee brewing method works out cheapest .
HOME ESPRESSO MACHINE AS AN INVESTMENT AND A PLEASURE
Buying a cheaphome espresso machine pays for itself after just a few months, but don't count on comparable coffee quality to a coffee shop, even if you are a skilled barista yourself. Along with the price of lever coffee machines, their technological design and specific features increase.
Basic models of quality home coffee machines can make a good cup of espresso. Better equipped machines provide better control over extraction to make great home espresso. An investment in a powerful home coffee machine can pay for itself in about 3 to 6 years.
From the point of view of home convenience when drinking your cup of coffee and the joy of making your own espresso or cappuccino, a home lever coffee maker is absolutely worth it. Aside from your own enjoyment and fulfilling your dream of having a home café for yourself and friends, having your own coffee machine will give you a chance tounderstand and get to know coffee better .