Help with stovetop espresso machine - Page 2

I am not quite getting the gist of your question, this is considered one of if not the best commercial grade home espresso/cappucino/coffee machines you might ever purchase for a complete kitchen set-up.

Do you make your espresso, so large like the photo?

No, you are quite correct, it is a damn big cup, I use some small demi-sups we brought back from Italy

The Capresso S9 is a nice machine but one does not have to spend $2400 to get excellent espresso. This machine and other superautomatics like it automate tasks like grinding, measuring, tamping and even frothing and that's why it costs what it does.

If you are willing to sacrafice some convenience for additional control over the whole process than you can get a superior setup for much less.

Me: Open the espresso pod bay doors, Hal! Hal: I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that. Dave Bowman: What's the problem? HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do. Dave Bowman: What are you talking about, HAL? HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it. I'm sorry, that's the only thing I could think of looking at that beast with the little red LED. I was under the [mistaken?] impression that a stovetop espresso machine was something along the lines of this Bialetti: Of course, I use mine and don't expect real crema or anything, just a cup of very strong coffee that has a nice taste...so maybe I'm using it wrong?? When I want espresso, I go down to my Starbucks(yes, I work for The Man) and I use the Marzocco there: It's old school, hand tamped/ground/etc, industrial strength, and luvverly. When our store switches over to the new 'Verismo' automatic shit, I will cry and then try and steal the 500lb, 7-foot-long monster before they do some horrible thing like throw it out. We need a coffee smiley for posts, just because.

A Moka like the one you've pictured makes fine coffee. For espresso, I use one of these:

I may have to look into that...my college coffee shop is expensive and leaves much to be desired.
How hard is that Atomic to clean?

Ahhhhh....but if you know what and where to buy from they can be had for much less, roughly 30%

Pretty easy. You'll want to clean the 'frothing wand' fairly promptly after you use it to save yourself from harder work later on. Apart from that, certainly no worse than the Moka.

At 70% off that machine is an awesome buy.

Alas, "not available".

I bought a cheapo version on the street in Paris for about 5 Euro.
Piece of shit. Plastic handle all melted and whatnot.

Not bad coffee though. And I've found (and have been told) that the fine ground works much better on these types than the course ground coffee.

My gf and I just can't do straight espresso. Has anyone used one of these:

http://www.bialetticafe.com/s.nl/sc....it.A/id.106/.f

We like the milk and coffee in one feature of it.


But there is this too with a separate milk frother. Anyone know how this works?

http://www.bialetticafe.com/s.nl/sc..../it.A/id.22/.f

thanks,
bob