Espresso at Home

[Mister Moo]

Originally Posted by tobii3

I don't have the $$$$ maker....mine was discussed, slammed, hammered, kicked, and basically called a POS the last time I mentioned it.

Besides... ...even a lousy glob is ... always a learning experience.

hope I wasn't the one who hammered your piece of sh... I mean, your espresso maker. Hey! You start where you are and make the best of what you have. That's always it, isn't it? I heartily agree that any espresso machine is the route to learning the process, developing a little technique to get the best from what you've got and deciding if a next step is a good idea or not.

Originally Posted by md4958

...I would rather see somebody buy a $20 moka, than a $150 espresso machine.

The problem as a professional barista, is that when somebody is used to drinking lousy coffee, they almost expect it.

That nails it down for me. I was imprinted by a couple of years of killer coffee while I was in Europe and, upon returning home I wanted to reproduce it. Slap wore me out with the wrong espresso gear. And, for sure, a mokapot paired with a good grinder is 5x the value of a low-flight grinder paired with a $2000 espresso machine.

Grinders... gotta get to grinders one of these days. They really do come before everything else in coffeeland. Uh, in my overblown and highly overrated self-important opinion of this topic. I am really just guessing on all this stuff so, if anyone takes me to be too full of myself, just remember - I don't know what I'm talking about. That my disclaimer and I'm sticking to it.