Andrea and I caught an episode of “Good Eats†on the food network this week, the whole show was dedicated to making good espresso at...
Andrea and I caught an episode of “Good Eats†on the food network this week, the whole show was dedicated to making good espresso at home. Espresso, in my mind is like a “mixer†of the coffee world – you can make a variety of great drinks with it and on top of that – it tastes great all by it’s self as well.
We were planning on going to Starbuck later that night but after watching Good Eats we wanted to go look into getting our own espresso machine. I would guess that we spend anywhere from $15 – $20 a week at Starbucks on drinks that are primarily made using espresso, so our machine would pay for it’s self after only a few months! (I love this way of thinking – instant justification to buy most things that I want). After doing about 20 minutes of research on the internet and taking note of the advice given on Good Eats in regards to what makes a good espresso machine we setout to find our new appliance.
The search started at Best Buy and quickly realized that they only espresso machines they sell are the cheap plastic ones that will result in sub-par espresso, we had the same results at Target as well. The only place we were able to find a machine worth buying that night was Starbucks but I did not know enough about the model to justify spending $200.00 on it so we both ordered drinks and headed home.
Over the last few days I have been doing a fair amount of research on espresso machines online, as you can imagine there is still a ton of information to sort through however I found a great site that was right up my alley: CoffeeGeek.com awesome name huh? As luck would have it, the site published an article named “How to Buy an Espresso Machine†on July 5th of this year – fate you say? I like to think so (ahh more of that good ole’ justification). The article was incredibly well written and on top of that, the site has a great consumer reviews section that quickly gave me some ideas on what machines are in my price range and still worth buying, an awesome find!
The key tips to buying an espresso machined based on my research are as follows:
• You will need to buy a good grinder in order to make good espresso – your budget for the espresso machine should not be for just the machine it’s self it need to include a grinder, and the good ones will usually run close to the same price as the machine it’s self. I realize that this sounds crazy buy if you have time to read the article I mentioned above then it will all make sense.
• You are going to spend around $300 – $500 on this endeavor (factoring in the machine, grinder and other various accessories)
• Get a pump driven machine, not a steam driven one. Steam lacks the ability to pressurize the water high enough to make a good drink.
• Don’t buy the first thing you come across – take some time to research and you will be much happier with the results.
• If you want a good machine, you may end up having to buy it online – they are difficult to find locally (at least in San Antonio)
So far, the only places I have been able to find any of the machines worth buying are Williams Sonoma, Dillard’s, Macys, and Starbucks. Surprisingly enough, I am leaning towards getting the Starbucks “Barista†espresso machine. At $200.00 this machine is a great value according to the online reviews I have read and makes for the perfect “starter†espresso machine.
I will post when I finally make a decision, at the moment I am trying to determine which grinder to get 
