Thank you, this stuff is so fucking good and it’s nice to be supporting a good cause :party-cat:
Got me thinking of saving for a manual espresso machine as I’ve only got pour over stuff right now!
I like Espresso, but every time I look into getting a Machine, It goes like
"Okay how Do I start making decent espresso on a budget?"
"Okay, you see this $500 junk shit? That's the bare minimum, and it's hardly consistent, and there are like 5 glaring flaws you'll notice if you use it, but if you use the right technique and ratios, you can manage to extract a cup that is just passing decent. This entirely depends on your beans being ground correctly, you'll need a WYLiOGER Solo grinder at minimum."
"uhh, okay, let me look up that grinder. Oh, it's $300, and it's out of stock everywhere"
yep i can not espresso just how disappointed i was when learning i'll never be able to have this hobby
Yeah I haven’t got that far in my search to be honest, I fear unless I find a bargain on Craigslist or eBay :sadness:
Estate sales might be a good option. Or rich people yard sales. Basically people who care about getting rid of rich person things more quickly than for the best price.
Though imo a nice pour over tastes better and only costs a few bucks for gear.
I've been really happy with my manual hand grinder and french press setup, the extra hassle prevents me from just drinking like litres of coffee every day like when I visit anyone with a coffee machine.
This is pretty accurate. The very cheapest option is an aeropress and manual grinder but that's so much goddamn work it's really not worth it compared to just doing a pour over or something.
If you're patient I think you could get a pretty good single boiler and Burr grinder setup for under $500 used. But that's still a good chunk of change, the kind of thing that only makes sense if you're constantly buying espresso on the way to work (at-home price of two shots is like $0.69 vs $4 at a shop) or if coffee is your main hobby for years or something.
Last year I thought, "hey, I should get one of those manual Italian-style lever ones, I bet they're cheap since it's just a big lever and shit" nope they're more expensive than good single boiler systems wtf.
I'm sticking to my cloth filter in pour over into a big steel measuring cup method, lol. Total cost of like $20 and makes great coffee.
Hell yeah. I've got those beans and a manual espresso machine and I would highly recommend it.
Anyone with an aeropress try these beans and got tips/recs
I have an aeropress and I'm looking to buy a flair neo. I also have a manual Hario burr grinder, though I want to get a timemore grinder tbh, not sure if it's worth it. I also have a bodum french press for foaming milk. Brewing your own coffee fucking owns, really rewarding hobby and it lets you source some great coffee.
The Hario grinder would be fine for a flair neo, since it has a pressurized portafilter and a better grinder won’t really make much difference. You’ll get better results with a normal portafilter and a better grinder, but it’s not night and day. Steel burrs definitely grind much faster than ceramic, though.
On the other hand I use a 1Zpresso JX-PRO with my flair pro, and it’s pretty much the absolute minimum for that. I tried using an $80 steel burr hand grinder instead, and it just didn’t work. It took twice as long to grind and was impossible to dial in. But you don’t need to grind as specifically fine for a flair neo.
Hell yes, thanks. Yeah I had a feeling the portafilter would let me go coarser but thank you for confirming it.
You’d still want to grind fine for better extraction, and grinding fine with the hario will take an annoyingly long time. But you’ve got a much larger margin for error, so you’ll be able to do it. The timemore grinder would still be a huge upgrade in time, effort, and convenience.
But if I were doing it again I’d skip the $80 steel burr hand grinder phase and save up for the espresso grinder instead. Then you can upgrade to an open portafilter and have full control over your brew. And until then, using the Neo with the Hario will let you know how much it's worth to you.
I was pretty bewildered when the jump from my Helor 101 knockoff (HEIHOX) to my JX-PRO was just as big as the jump from my Hario slim to the HEIHOX. I really didn't expect the difference in speed, build quality, fine adjustment, etc. to be as big as it was, but they all make good aeropress coffee.
My first good grinder was a Timemore Slim, and it was a night and day difference when compared to my old one. It's very, very good for the price. The Neo is also very forgiving when it comes to grinders, so I say go for it, you won't regret it!
If you're in the market for a manual espresso machine, you might want to check out the Flair Neo. I have one, it's really good and affordable.
Interesting, that seems cheaper than some others from my initial searching! What do you use for foaming milk, if at all?
I’ve got a flair pro for the extra shot size (not really necessary, and needs a good grinder), and then I found an a old Bellman CXE-25 off eBay for steam.
The electric Bellman is great, as long as you resolve to never make coffee with it. It’s absolutely horrible to clean, but if you only use it for steam and top it off with distilled water once a week there’s not much cleaning involved.
Oh wow, that’s super reasonable! Thanks for the recommendation. I was looking at the Nanofoamer but I can’t help but think it won’t be the same.
Yeah, it's way cheaper than you might think, actually, because their flow control portafilter makes it so that you don't need a high-end grinder to make good espresso. So not only will you buy an affordable machine, you also won't need to fork out more than 200 bucks on a Kinu or a Comandante or something like that.
For foaming milk, you most certainly don't need a steam wand or anything like that. Just get the cheapest French press you can find and use it for that. It's actually very easy , it's what I do when I feel like having a latte.
Neat that's way cheaper than those steel Italian ones.
Think I'll wait a while and get one used for $50 lol
gonna take credit for this one I think that coulda been me
good innit
makes for great Christmas gifts too
I had a delivery just this past week! :maduro-coffee:
where do u get it from? If ur looking for recs on espresso machines I bought a Gaggia Classic and Capresso Infinity for $200 off Craigslist like 5 years ago and its been the best investment ive made.
Awesome find!! I get the beans from Schools for Chiapas. I buy in bulk because of the fixed shipping, and it works out really well
ooo this makes me wonder if theres Cuban or Venezuelan coffee to support too
Everyone's talking about espresso so are these real dark beans?
Usually you'd want a medium roast for espresso, or at least that's the default. I'd say that Zapatista is a medium roast, though.
I'm not a huge fan of dark so that's actually good news to me. I wonder why I thought espresso was one of the darkest roasts.
Espresso is usually very strong and visually is dark, so maybe that's it!
Espreseo is actually a preparation method and you can use any roast with it according to your preferences. Though ages ago when I had a DIY machine, there was a dramatic quality difference when I used different beans and I never really figured out what made the difference. Just that there was one and that buying the same beans as a good local cafe made a huge difference.
