Thread: How do you prefer your coffee?

Not really, too much caffeine , also like to give the others a rev to keep them on their toes, well, they do it to me don't they?

treated myself to the Breville ESP4 (capuccino(sp?)/espresso maker) - $67.99 in K-mart 15% off sale ( last day today in Melbourne), tried it out after breakfast this morning.

1. it makes an ok cup of coffee
2. the instruction booklet is in MHO poor ( if I can be bothered I may give Breville my feedback ).
3. the machine has some features which may prove irritating to live with .. never used one before so these may be "normal"

- while the box indicates measures for 1-4 cups what they don't indicate is that you have to make 2 cups whether you like it or not ... so if there is just one of you you are going to make 2 cups dirty.

-the left hand spout dispensed more slowly than the right hand spout ( does anyone know if this is normal or did I get a dud one ? ). so you are going to have to judge the point to stop the machine for your one cup of coffee.

- you have to switch it off at the wall to turn off the cup warmer - there is no "off" switch on the machine.

- if your overhead kitchen cupboards are low you may have trouble opening the lid to put your water in.

- the instructions tell you to put the water in to a level 5mm below the exposed water pipes. So far I've overfilled it twice - basically you can't see 5mm below the pipes while you're filling the thing up. So keep something absorbent - kitchen towel, face washer etc to "suck up" the extra liquid.

The best I could do without stuffing the face washer into the internals to use capillary action was to get the water level with the top of the exposed water pipes and it seemed to work ok.

- you have no way of knowing how much water is in there until it pops over the top of the pipes ( i.e. full up ) So its definately a case of stand over the thing while it does the job and prepare to switch it to "standby" as soon as the right hand cup and left hand cup reach their different levels to meet your needs. If you walk off and leave it, even with mugs instead of their p*ssy little cups you are going to have coffee all over the kitchen bench.

btw you can fit mugs under it as long as they aren't excessively tall or excessively thick walled.

- you probably wouldn't want to buy it for someone who isn't good at remembering a sequence of actions or has slow reactions - a plunger or drip filter will probably suit them better. And I'm betting I make at least one cup of coffee without the coffee

All that said I'll probably get my money's worth out of it ( I reckon around 40 cups of coffee and it will have paid for itself if it means I stop buying on the way to work and treating myself when i'm out at the weekend ).

irritated with the fact that the coffee maker doesn't fill both cups equally I spoke to Breville Customer Services.

They answered very quickly and the guy on the phone was very helpful. It seems the ESP2 and the newer ESP4 both have the same behaviour. One nozzle will work faster than the other. And if they send me another one it will do the same.

It would seem, if I understood the guy correctly, that the Customer Services people get to take the products home to try them so he was able to tell me that he'd had an ESP6 and been happy with it ( of course its more expensive ).

turns out you can put one big cup under both nozzles if you only want one cup - now why didn't I think of that!

But for making two cups of coffee expect to have to either make them sequentially or have fast reactions and be better at pouring from one cup into another than I am.

My Sunbeam is a bit out of balance too but it works for me because if it's just me, the cup goes under both nozzles and if it's me and the missus, she likes hers weak - left hand nozzle. Otherwise I'd have to tip some out of hers into mine. Blessing in disguise

My six year old Krups is also exactly the same, except which is the "favored" nozzle changes from time to time. Sometimes they both work at the same speed but only rarely.

I love the smell and taste of percolated coffee, nothing better than setting the stove to switch on about half an hour before I get up so I can rise with the smell of percolating Irish Creme Coffee!

My perants currently own a chicken and chips shop (Chickens Ahoy, Wantirna mall ) and our 10 amp 6300 watt single ph. machine (not a typo :eek: ) always puts the same amount in the left cup and the right cup.

They have been to Lavazza coffee school and make the best capaccino/latte in the area. There not supper trendy, just nice simple coffee.
The key is a clean machine (!) and freshly ground beans.

Latte is my fav.

Ben.

Originally Posted by Ben from Vic.

and our 10 amp 6300 watt single ph. machine (not a typo :eek: )

I just noticed that this is infact a typo

The machine isn't 10 amp, but it is 6300 watts and single phase.

We have one about the same size, only difference is we use the water for a shower at night.

Just as a slightly off topic comment, the two worst coffee's I have had the displeasure of sampling were from McDonalds, stewed and bitter, and the Sorrento to Queenscliff ferry whom I suspect re stew McDonalds leftovers, and charge for the privilege.

I was drinking Instant in my mothers womb, and have done so ever since. The only concession I have made (in the last few weeks as a matter of fact) is that I am trying the cheapest version of decaffienated coffee - for no real reason other than I think it might be less of a burden on my health.. What has been the outcome of this? Well every second person tells me how bad decaf is because of all the chemicals they use to take the caffeine out (sort of ironic in a way), I am dead tired all day and I am now sleeping like a log at night. I wonder what Dr Phil would say?

Speaking of Doctors and Coffee, I had a sore shoulder/back some time ago and went to a chiro 3 times in a row with no discernible improvement. I then went to a Doctor who asked, without touching the injury if I was drinking coffee. He suggested I stop for a week or so because caffeine can dry out the ligaments in your joints. Of course after a few days the shoulder was fine. I went back to the chiro and mentioned this to him and his reply "Oh yeh, I knew that" Suffice to say he is still waiting to get paid!!!

Only drink cold tea :mad:

Comes in a can with the word "Carlton" on it

All that caffeine's bad for you

And it takes less time to open the fridge than it does to boil the jug

I drink expresso at work because we have an industrial grade automatic machine.

Instant at home 'cause its easy. Used to drink plunger but my wife has taken ownership of the plunger. We bought a bigger plunger so we could share but then she also bought bigger cups.......back to instant for me.

We do have a stove top expresso machine that I sometimes pull out at breakfast times on weekends.

Now don't howl and cringe but I do like macca's drip filtered. We have a drip filter machine at home but as far as I am concerned the coffee always tastes muddy or stewed, or both. Any suggestions to what I am doing wrong?

Jon

Originally Posted by Jon

We have a drip filter machine at home but as far as I am concerned the coffee always tastes muddy or stewed, or both. Any suggestions to what I am doing wrong?

Hi Jon,

Assuming that you aren't just leaving the coffee sitting on the hotplate for too long, I would say that your coffee is too finely ground, which means that the fine grinds are getting through to the coffee (hence the muddy taste) and the coffee is taking too long to filter through (hence it tasting stewed).

In theory you should use finely ground coffee in a filter machine but maybe in yuor case you should use a medium grind.

Simon