Yes, I realise now. You sometimes see people offering them on Reddit.
But did it wake you up? (and make you wish you were still asleep?) ![]()
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Oh yeah, it did, what I could choke down of it. I mean, Iām not a coffee snob, canāt work around construction and aerospace and be one. Closest to that was the crew I worked with upstairs in the same building; their lead ordered two pallets of the two-gallon jugs of water, and when the hardware guy came to the island, heād get a bunch of Hawaiian coffees in his Honolulu layover, so we did nicely in the MrCoffee class.
Second-worst episode was in Alaska, on the power plant project. We got a new manager; on his first day I got there just after him, and found a pot of coffee already brewed. We had one of those commercial job plumbed into the building water lines, so making was easy. I pulled a cup, tasted it, not much better than the missile guys. Turns out he came in, saw the previous dayās grounds in the basket, and just pushed the button⦠We had to take turns making sure the basket was clean the day before, so he wouldnāt do that. Ackkā¦
I carry the Wacaco MiniPresso NS2 to places where I donāt expect quality coffee to be readily available. Just need hot water, there are versions with ground coffee and for capsules, also now there is a new one that has a built-in battery that heats the water.
Beware: if other coffee addicts notice that you can make espresso when it is not otherwise available, you will make a lot of friends very quickly ![]()
This thing is $60 and you say it works well??
I use a V60 and handgrinder for travel, though you do need a kettle/stove.
Yes, it is superb.
I also had a repair question after the warranty period and the custÅmer service just helped me solve it, so I would not hesitate to recommend the brand. I have been using their products for a decade now, starting with the Mark I Minipresso.
I used to grind coffee, mainly because my wifeās father was a manufactureās rep for gourmet foods and kitchenwares, heād go to these trade shows and come back with 25-pound bags of beans. Got some good coffee that way, wore out two grinders in the process. Best was private reserve from a Columbian grower, i usually sweeten my coffee, this didnāt need it.
Currently, weāre squirting Keurig espresso pods, too busy (read, lazy) to do anything more involvedā¦
Please go into more detail. Do you ever use the nespresso pods? Or just esprrseo?
Yea, thatās why I have been putting off getting into flight simā¦
I used to have the version which accepts ground coffee, found it too much of a hassle to carry the grinder for travel/hiking, got the Nespresso capsule adapter, then when the much smaller NS2 came out just switched to that and carry/buy capsules. I am cheap so I usually get my Nespresso-compatible capsules from Lidl.
Donāt buy if for stationary use though, a machine is much more convenient. With the Nanopresso, you have to rinse it with hot water to warm it up, then make the coffee, pumping with your hand. A Krups/Delonghi Inissia is around 80ā90 EUR, quite compact, and much more convenient.
I pretty much switched to capsules overall when our big, fancy espresso machine had developed another problem within 5 months of being repaired for the previous problem. Sure, in theory I can make a better coffee with a good machine with fresh grinds, but it is constant fiddling and a lot of maintenance, frankly I got tired of it.
This is what puts me off getting a home espresso machine for the sake making a couple of coffees a day.
In our household we make 6ā10 espressos daily, but as a far as I am concerned it still does not make sense to invest in the whole grinder-espresso machine setup below 100/day.
My major problem is that even in Budapest, with an extensive coffee culture, it is quite hard to find people who can perform a repair well for consumer-grade machines. Many companies claim to have the ability, and they fix the machine in the sense that it powers up and hot water comes out etc, but still no good coffee. The good repair shops focus on serving coffee shops with their larger machines, and they donāt keep all the parts in stock for consumer sized machines.
Making coffee is a very messy activity and it is hard on mechanical parts. Coffee has oily residues, water gives you limescale, and you need regular cleaning, maintenance, and retuning of the process. I simply gave up on this, I just want an espresso.
My Robot whilst a manual machine, is easy and fast to operate and it gives good espresso, coupled with an automatic grinder it would be a no-brainer, but capsules are good enough as well if you want the least trouble possible. A manual machine still consumes at least 3 minutes per shot and in your use case would be 30 person minutes per day which is significant.
I bought a Robot, partly because of its size, simplicity and relatively cheap price. Iāve considered getting a machine with a boiler and all the other stuff but the problems of scale, mechanical failure, using industrial cleaners, etc that @Tamas_Papp references is off putting.
I am/was seriously tempted by the Cafelat Robot, since it has no electric pump or heating element (both very common points of failure in espresso machines), sells spare parts (especially O-rings) to customers.
I almost pulled the trigger on one until I started reading grinder reviews (of course I would need a good grinder to go with it!) and noticed claims about the grinder affecting the taste. Note the grinder setting, but the f***ing grinder, out of, say, 3 grinders each recommended by the website, Grinder A has sweet and balanced overtones, Grinder B imparts an earthy flavor, while Grinder C gives you apocalyptic visions. (I made one of those up, can you spot which?)
At this point it started to sound like audiophile forums, so I escaped quickly with my wallet intact.
Yeah, lots of woo-woo bollocks going on in espresso. Iāve had a Mahlkoenig Vario for more than a decade, again because itās an established business that supplies cafes, and you can buy pretty much every part from them pretty cheaply. I swapped out the original plastic chassis for their metal version. I have one coffee geek friend saying I should upgrade to something more expensive (even the Varios have gone up quite a lot in price) but I canāt see why. Humans have been milling stuff for millennia. I donāt think thereās much innovation. I suppose if I was buying something now I might be tempted by the cheap Chinese grinders that are out there, though who knows whether theyāll be selling parts in a decade or more.
Heh, we recently bought the Keurig model that has both a pod-squirter and a Mr Coffee-style pot because we missed the ritual of sharing a pot of coffee.
That ritual was big in south Louisiana where i grew up. In the morning my mom would make a pot first thing, in anticipation of the regular stream of visitors through the morning. Folks out running errands and such, and i think a few just going from coffee to coffeeā¦
This is the life I want.
When I was much better off than I am now (Electrical Engineer), I literally drank 6 cups of coffee a day. More often than not, it was instant coffee (i.e. Tasterās Choice). If I still was a coffee drinker, I would continue to use Tasterās Choice with the occasional Starbucks Capuchino (last time I purchased a Starbuck Capuchino was back in 2002 (right after I lost my EE job; never able to get another EE position so survived doing other things). As I recall, a Capuchino cost around $4.50 for a large cup which I drank when I got off work on Fridays. lol
God only knows what one costs now. Again, Iāll stick with Tasterās Choice if I were still drinking coffee (which I donāt). Now I drink a 2-liter bottle of Samās Choice Zero 6 times a week and get a few cups of CircleK Coke Zeros during the week to supplement. lol
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