Espresso Maker - Page 11

I love the nespresso makers. 15 bar makes an amazing crema on top of the coffee!

FTFY

All this 15 bar or 19 bar maximum pressure is just marketing bs. Most espresso machines actually run between 8.5 and 10 bar during extraction. The additional peak pump pressure capacity is useless.

15-16 bar is all you need - pressure can come down to 6 or 7 bars towards the end of the percolation and it will be totally fine.

I use a Handpresso when I travel and can actually see the impact of more or less pressure on the quality of the coffee and crema. They recommend NOT to go above 16 bar by the way.

Never tried the handpresso. I was referring to vibration pump (most home machines) or rotary pump (plumbed-in commercial machines). Anything more than 10 bar will punch a hole through the coffee puck and you will get uneven extraction = watery, bad tasting espresso.

How do you survive when traveling?

Handpresso is a godsend. Really awesome little piece of machinery.

I'll check it out. It appears to take the ESE type pods. What brand ESE pods do you like? I don't think Nespresso makes offers anything in that format. I've tried Illy ESE pods a few years back and wasn't impressed. Perhaps they are better now.

I use Illy. They're not bad for a widely available coffee brand. I use them on my machine if I'm too lazy, tired, in a rush, or don't feel like cleaning up after a shot is pulled.

Also, Starbucks has ESE pods

As mentioned before in this thread, you can´t go wrong with an Nespresso machine, and with an Aerochino on the side, you can make an awesome cappuccino.

i´m a fan of the ristretto & the apreggio grinds.

I buy all sorts of pods (there's a place, espressopods.com?) that sells assortment - like 10 different arabicas, etc... I've tried a bunch and so far the Illy are some of the best IMO.

Nespresso and capsule pods?! Why so much love for these here? Don't you guys get tried of being limited to the selection of capsules? You cannot make great coffee without the best beans, and I find it hard to believe a Netspresso capsule delivers in this area vs. using the very best beans that were roasted only a few days ago.

The portable one looks pretty interesting for travel though. But to use one your main method of making coffee?

I've never pulled a shot over 10 bar - I don't remember now, but I think Schomer says 9 is optimal.

some of us enjoy coffee as a beverage and not as a hobby or a science.

to sum up the points made, yes, limited selection is a trade off. but there are advantages: consistency from shot to shot (I'd rather pull shot after shot of great ESE espresso than have 10% superb shots, 40% great, 40% good, and 10% terrible ... I am no expert after all), generally very good quality, ease of use (I can't seem to avoid a mess with my tamper), etc.


gld, is the Nespresso machine noisy? I'm thinking about one for my office. My DeLonghi is pretty noisy, it would make for an awkward noise 3-4 times a day that I'd like to avoid.

My cube is pretty noisy - I don't know if they all are but I suspect that it comes with the compressor and is unavoidable. I would assume that the DeLonghi Nespresso machine makes the same noise as the DeLonghi non-Nespresso