Thinking Of Buying A Home Espresso Machine? Before You Take The Plunge…
You’re a coffee lover, you’ve got some Christmas gift vouchers to burn and you’re thinking of a home espresso machine. We get it! – wouldn’t it be great to have coffee-shop-quality drinks at home and without paying £3 every time? Especially when there’s shiny, sophisticated kit on the market promising to deliver just that with ease.
Cafe Allez! would urge a little caution before you take the plunge, but before we go further: here, we mean an espresso machine where you’ll be grinding the coffee first, then tamping it into a group handle for the machine to brew an espresso shot… perhaps with the machine also including a steam wand so you can steam milk to combine this with your shot to make a cappuccino, flat white, or caffe latte…
The first thing to say is: all the home espresso machines we’ve tried to date are capable of producing truly delicious espresso. BUT! – there are some factors to weigh up…
- Expense
Decent kit is a major investment and you must budget for a separate burr grinder too, if your machine doesn’t have one built in. Then consider the cost per cup: for the coffee we use, you’ll be spending £8.95 for 200g from 200 Degrees. That’s 76p per cup, plus any milk and power to run the machine.
And if you thought £3 is steep at your coffee shop, consider that if they’re doing it right, they’ll be using a considerable amount of coffee each day just ‘dialling in’ – that’s the process of setting the grinder to get the right weight of coffee, that then brews the specified volume of coffee in the specified extraction time. That’s an investment any good coffee shop will make, but it might start to hurt at home if, let’s say, you get 11 double espresso shots from your £8.95 bag and you’ve used 6 of them up just dialling in!
Also: don’t assume after you’ve ‘dialled in’ once, you’re all set. You might need to repeat the process for different coffees, but also with the same coffee from a different roast batch … or even as the temperature or humidity in your house changes.
2. Hassle!
Once you’ve made your coffee, you’ll need to clean up! – you’ll have a tamper to clean, portafilter, milk jug and group handle to wash, and a machine to wipe down. Your coffee shop will do this for you…
Then, there’s maintenance of the machine. Scale will form whatever water filtration system you use, so factor in time and cost for regular back-flushing and descaling.
3. Skill
We’re going to level with you: making good coffee is really hard! Baristas take months to get good, longer to get expert. You might really want to learn those skills – and you can get a head-start with some classroom barista training – but if you just want a decent coffee without all the learning and experimentation first, you may quickly get frustrated.
We mentioned dialling in before. This can be exasperating as you try and hit that magic balance between the 3 variables: weight of ground coffee, dose of brewed coffee and extraction time.
Steaming the milk to get that silky texture you experience in a great coffee shop takes practice … and we find it harder to achieve on a home espresso machine because of the lower steam pressure.
As for latte art: it’s the cherry on the cake, but be prepared for lengthy practice sessions before you achieve something you’re proud of.
4. Time
If you consider the process steps involved, making an espresso-based coffee takes time. Grind the beans; tamp them; pull your shot; pour your milk; steam it; pour milk into coffee; wipe and purge steam wand; rinse jug.
Even with commercial kit, that’s going to take the best part of a minute. Your home machine, though, won’t pull the shot and let you steam milk at the same time in all likelihood plus, as mentioned, the steaming process takes longer too: so let’s say, 2 1/2 minutes per coffee. If your dream was to delight your dinner party guests with your barista skills, let’s hope they’ll excuse you for the 15+ minutes it’ll take you to whip up 6 coffees!
Home Espresso Machines: In Summary
We know what goes into making a good espresso-based coffee and that’s why we’ll always travel to our favourite local coffee shop if we want one!
Don’t get us wrong: a home espresso machine will be an absolute treat if you want an absorbing new hobby, centred around learning about coffee and how to make it well. But if that doesn’t sound like you: we won’t judge you if, like us when we’re not on board Henri, you prefer to leave it to the experts…
