Do we have any coffee geeks here?

[Ian]

I gave up instant coffee several years ago because it was just too easy to end up having made 7 or 8 cups a day.

I had a simple pumped espresso coffee maker that was a gift and bought a hand grinder and started to use these and limiting my consumption to 2-3 cups a day (making coffee this way is quite a process, so you have to need a coffee to make one).

It's turning into a hobby and I can see myself investing in a decent grinder (keeping an eye out for deals), and various accessories.

I'm on my second coffee maker after the first one broke. The replacement was an eBay bargain £20 for a basic spec Delonghi that did new for at least £150.

After several years it's started to leak but they are fixable! I'm looking forward to getting inside it...

Ian

[Melaka]

Here it's ground coffee for breakfast in a generous (French style) cup and instant in a mug for tea and after dinner. Occasionally there'll be a mug of instant late morning. We used to drink more but have cut down for no particular reason.

[Olybirder]

I have spates of being interested in coffee brewing but unfortunately I prefer a nice cup of Assam tea, so my interest tends to wane after a while. I have a Gaggia Classic but it is the 2015 model which the coffee geeks hate, although it actually makes a perfectly decent cup of coffee. A few months ago I bought some spares to give it a service and that revived my interest for a while but it is such faff cleaning it that it has stood unused recently. I have got a Krups grinder, which is all right but doesn't really grind fine enough for espresso. My other half normally uses an AeroPress which is much simpler and does a good job.

Ron

[Ian]

I have an Aeropress as well, mainly for use when travelling.

[davcoll]

Good Afternoon Ian, I use an Izprezzo Hand grinder, I cannot remember the model at the moment (it was not cheap) into a Hario Switch. The coffee at the moment is from Frank Roasters, but when I have finished, I am going back to Darkwoods Coffee 'Deer Hill'.

Mid-afternoon onwards I use Taylors of Harrogate decaff.

Dave

[Ian]

Drip coffee is quite popular in France - did you pick it up while you were living there (here!)?😁

[Wreckdiver]

I love my coffee and have several machines at home, forget the instant stuff. Now here's a story.........

Here at work our cafes had these wonderful machines the likes you see in Starbucks, Cafe Nero ...... etc. They must have cost thousands. Then the company (a very big company and begins with a 'D' 😉) decided to install self-service coffee/hot chocolate machines using cow's milk/Oat milk, truly amazing and again very expensive and they make amazing drinks. Then a dozen or so of those very nice 'Starbucks' type machines where dumped in the skip 😢 We couldn't believe what we saw, the whole damn lot were skipped and it is forbidden to take anything out of the skips. They were not a year old!

I wept! The company bins £millions worth of stuff annually, money value is meaningless here.

Ho hum...........

[Ian]

Wow - that's a sad story!

[Wreckdiver]

Really was Ian. Many people were shocked.

[peak4]

We use one of these, obtained new/opened from ebay years ago; It's always leaked, due to what seems to be some sort of a design flaw where the bypass trickles into the drain tray, and just misses.
I've even tried buying a second, and a third, working second hand machine for spares; they all leak in the same place.
Fortunately Aldi do a perfect sized baking tray to catch the drips; we're now on the second one of those, after the first rusted through. :-)

https://www.coffeefriend.co.uk/p/coffee-machine-delonghi-ec-820-b/

[Ian]

I've come to the conclusion that Sage (also known as Breville in some markets - but beware in the UK the Breville brand is different) is superior to Delonghi,b despite me owning a Delonghi.

[peak4]

Grinder wise, I use a £3 special from the local charity shop in the kitchen
A Krupps Expert Burr

https://www.krups.co.uk/COFFEE-GRINDERS-AND-FROTHERS/COFFEE-GRINDERS/KRUPS-GVX231-Expert-Burr-Grinder-Black-/p/1500813215

My preferred Nemox has to live in the adjacent garage as Jane doesn't like the noise; she doesn't like the Krupps either, but at least that has a built in caddy, so I can pre-grind when I'm alone.
The Nemox did seem to be available under other brand names, which may be cheaper. Mine came unbranded second hand, and I only tracked the model number down by searching images for similar machines.

https://www.nemox.com/en/product/lux-macinacaffe/

[Olybirder]

The Krups grinder is the one which I use. It is okay but runs rather fast and squashes the beans rather than cutting them. But it is cheap!

Ron

[drmarkf]

Yes, I've had one of those Krups for several years. They seem to deliver reasonably consistent weights of coffee of a pretty consistent grind, certainly when you consider the relatively modest cost.
They did well in a Which? comparison a while ago, although it must be said that Which? reports for everything are aimed at the average Joe Public member and not the enthusiast.

[Harold Gough]

We don't have room for a dedicated machine of any kind. I find Rombout's Italian Style one cup filters very acceptable. I buy them in bulk (6-12 boxes) from an Ebay seller.

Harold

[Bikie John]

I must be a peasant. I use a cafetiere and am happy with the results, as long as I like the coffee that goes in it. Easy to use, easy to clean, no maintenance

John

[pdk42]

Life is too short for instant coffee IMHO. I bought the basic DeLonghi espresso machine some years ago and it's still going strong. I keep myself to 2-3 a day max. All the latest "scientific" evidence though is that coffee in those sort of doses (and maybe even higher) is good for your health!

https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2024/apr/08/coffee-benefits-hazards-experts

My wife's grandfather, who lived well into his eighties, drank nothing but coffee and red wine (and that is 100% true BTW). I suspect in his younger days he was probably fond of a few Gauloisses too (he was French after all!).

He was quite a character actually. His language skills were amazing - he taught himself German and English whilst a POW held by the Germans in the last war. I met him only towards the end of his life and he spoke to me in decent English despite hardly using it since he was released from captivity. He told me that his German was much better and he'd been told he could fool some Germans into thinking he was a native speaker.

[Ian]

Coffee and red wine - that's me !🍷☕

[Mark2112]

I agree with the "scientific evidence" that coffee is good for you - after all, am I not the living proof!
Since childhood when my Irish mum first introduced me to tea, which gave me a bellyache, I've hated it. My dad owned a tobacconist shop, and later in my teens I smoked Gauloisses too, I liked the blue packet. I also liked Players cigarettes because of the picture of a sailor and a sailing ship! But I quit smoking in 1998 at sixty three, I knew it was bound to kill me and I wanted to see in the new Milennium!

[Dennis Russ]

It is Two cups coffee with 2 sugars in them each every morning. After that I drink so much coffee I Feel like it's flowing through my ears..lol Nescafe Original.

[Mark2112]

The coffee wont kill you, Dennis, but the sugar will!

[BDennis]

This is how I make a brew - I have this Moulinex type 228 grinder from the 1970s I inherited from my parents and one of these AeroPress one cup hand press things. A simple setup! The grinder has some nostalgia as my long passed late father would have made coffee with this. There's something about the smell of fresh ground coffee, sometimes better than the taste! After a some years the AeroPress gets scored inside by the coffee grounds and the press doesn't work so well to force the water through the coffee / filter and it makes a mess.



For some reason my siblings didn't fight me over the grinder, they dumped it on me when I bought my first house. These are more expensive than I thought second hand looking on Etsy and Ebay.

Back in work days I had to grab a strong coffee from the office machine as soon as I arrived before I could engage with the software code and whatever problems had turned up overnight.

I try not to drink strong coffee after 2pm so do have an instant later on, it's just not the same though!

Bill

[Mark2112]

Should you ever decide to replace the perc', then I can recommend the Italian type that I use (below). I've had mine for three decades, and its seal is as good as ever.

[shakyHands]

I use a 1Zpresso hand grinder and an aeropress. I'm only one coffeee a day. The hand grinder is a pleasure to use - all part of the ceremony of making coffee.

[Mark2112]

The aeropress looks too much like an epidural syringe, it would freak me out, and put me right off coffee forever, for sure! (think about it ...)

[Mark2112]

I'm late to the conversation, Ian. I faced the same problem - too many cups per day.
I'm not sure how much less caffeine you gain by switching from instant to grinding your own.
I buy the Fair Trade pre-ground stuff, very aromatic, and after opening the pack, I keep it in the freezer.
I bought the Italian percolator about thirty years ago in Carlton (Melbourne), and the seal is still in good nick.
So I alternate between Aldi instant and Honduras Organic, only 2 cups of each per day, to keep incontinence at bay!
.
XZ-2 f/1.8 1/30s ISO500 (Alcafe alfresco - no milk, no sugar if you please!)

[BDennis]

Ah I’ve got a percolator like that too. Only problem being it doesn’t work on an electric induction stove! I bought it in France some years ago and still have spare seals for it.

[Mark2112]

I'm cookin' on gas (as they say) Dennis

[OM USer]

You can buy a metal plate to put on an induction hob to heat up non ferrous pans and percolators.

[davcoll]

When I lived in France (for 19 years) I used a cafetiere/french press using ready-ground coffee. On my return to the UK, I discovered a cafe that used Deer Hill coffee and also sold the beans. that became my favourite coffee and it progressed from there first an Aeropress then the Hario Switch which I prefer