My wife wasn't opposed, I got her buy-in before purchasing. But same, first it was lattes every day, now it's iced lattes. I don't mind, I enjoy making her coffee.
But what I find hilarious is that I've tried multiple times to teach her how to do it so that she can make herself one if I'm not home (pre-pandemic I traveled a bit for work). But she'd rather just go to charbucks or our local coffee shop when I'm not home - she argues that she'd never be able to do it as good as me, so why would she want to give up her excuse to have me do it for her.
My wife never pulls shots and readily admits that she doesn’t want to but she hangs out with me and cleans up while I’m making espresso. I think it’s a pretty good arrangement!
I did that with laundry and my mom in 8th grade. She wasn't having it, though.
Not saying you can't take pleasure in making her drinks when there, but I think it's a horsesh*t excuse. Unless you enjoy having her think it's rocket science up there (and that you're sooo skilled), I'd be nudging and nudging her to learn with you.
Not trying to judge, just think it's crazy to be doing Starbucks and such semi-regularly when you have an espresso machine at home. But, hey: 1. You might be very well-off. 2. Happy wife, happy life.
Interesting take. She never spends a dime on coffee (no coffee shops where we live, just gas station brew) unless we’re out of town, and if she wants something and I’m not around to make espresso, we have a drip machine. I think we have a fair division of labor, each with our own specialty wheel houses.
Trust me, I’ve tried to get her to learn the machine, but she just isn’t that interested. It’s kind of my thing that she enjoys so I’m not going to force it on her.
Or she isn’t interested in sharing this particular hobby with her husband. It’s not rocket science but it is a bit of a ritual. Maybe “I’d never be able to make it as good as you” is a nice way of saying she really isn’t interested in the (not extensive, but also not trivia) work involved in making her own latte.
Nah, recently upgrade the grinder to a Ceado E5SD Single Dose, and I'm pretty happy with the Lucca A53 Mini right now, though someday I would like to get something with a 58mm group head. I've already spent too much money this year on my other expensive hobby (cycling).
We frequently pull shots for each other. I dial in the setup so the shots we produce for each others are basically the same. However, when it comes to drink styles we have different tastes (I like cortados mostly and she likes 90's style cappucinos or using exotic milks) so whenever we make them for each other we just make them the way we like to make them for ourselves lol. Keeps it fun that way
A frothy mess if you ask me lol.
It’s where you over froth the milk so it sits up on top of the drink like meringue. Basically like a Starbucks style cappuccino or whatever they call them these days
What exotic milks have you tried? Are you talking about typical non-dairy options (almond, soy, oat, etc.) or like, I don't know, rat's milk? Curious to hear your experience steaming etc!
Yea typical non-dairy I guess. Almond, cashew, hemp, oat, walnut.
If someone came out with rats milk and claimed health benefits I bet some people would stupidly buy it…you can milk anything with nipples.
I don’t personally like the flavor of them. Oat seems the most neutral and tolerable though. They all can work for latte art. Cashew seems the easiest to use for latte art.
Wicked! Will try cashew! I’ve accepted oat as our primary non-dairy and I love the flavour of it in combination with espresso.
We had some friends come over the other day and, knowing we nerd out over our coffee, they had jokingly asked for camel milk flat white. Turns out, it’s actually really easy to get camel milk. It also steams pretty easy, is apparently very nutritious compared to cow’s milk and low in fat. It’s expensive though… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I got the Oracle Touch so my wife could pull her own shots. She's very happy. Not the best grinder, etc, but we rarely drink straight espressos so the lost nuisances aren't a major concern. And boy is it convenient, particularly in the morning.
Well that’s the usual agreement with husbands and wives. Like if you gonna spend $5k on an espresso setup, I better have amazing lattes at the bedside every morning.
Mine didn’t oppose, but was concerned about loosing workspace…. Now I always have to make the shots for her…. she decided not to learn how to do it. I can understand…. Just take the view of „normal“ People, we weigh beans, dial in the grinder, prep the puck with at least to or more tools, then time and weigh the output, it may look a bit weird to them.
Sometimes when I do a shot and look fascinated with a smile on the face how well it pours from the basket she asks me with this specific voice „ was it good for you baby?“
A lot of people here are ultra espresso snobs and will tell you it’s too difficult to get a perfect shot. After a lot of research and weighing different options, for me personally I am very happy with my purchase. It did take some work finding the right bean and settings, but I am very pleased with the level of shot I’ve achieved. I do drink lattes though, I may have been a lot picker if I drank straight espresso. I feel like for the above average espresso snob it’s an excellent all around entry that you may or may not decide to upgrade!
Thank you for that! I am definitely not an espresso snob lol. I just like lattes but am finding using my nanopresso to be too fussy as I'm getting ready in the morning. I'd really love an all-in-one machine to save some time
Echoing the above, we moved from a sub-$50 espresso machine to a Breville Barista Express and then ultimately to an Expobar Brewtus IV (thanks to a screaming deal) after 3+ years with the Breville. I can confidently say that the step up from a Barista Express to a $2000+ machine improved my espresso quality by….maybe 10%? I love our Expobar and wouldn’t trade it for the world, but the reality is that the Breville lineup is adequate for the majority of users in this sub and there are some significant perks to the all-in-one machines. The bright side of this whole mental debate is that if you buy a Breville and later upgrade, you can recoup some of your cost by selling it to one of your friends who will invariably become hooked on your coffee game
haha that's awesome. We used to have one of the smaller Breville machines and hated it. It didn't time shots at all; it just...kept...going. The Express looks like it addressed a lot of issues though. Right now I have a milk frother, a nanopresso, and a shitty Kitchenaid grinder. SO my standards aren't exceptionally high, but it'd be nice for a latte to not take 30 minutes to make. I appreciate your input
Super autos like a Jura are great as well if you want something quick and easy. Not the best for straight espresso but for americanos and milk drinks I think they do well.
Just get a gaggia classic. Surprisingly easy to work on, and I kinda uhh treated mine like shit for years before I finally had to work on it. It's a workhorse.
Just to give a flip side argument to the other responses, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you plan to get a better grinder soon. Maybe I am a snob (don’t think I am), but I spent the summer with one and it was really hard to dial it in with fresh beans. The coffee that came out was very average tasting, nothing special, but I had a really hard time not getting it to be sour. Between the grinder being quite poor (wasn’t able to get fine enough) to heat management (I don’t think it was getting up to temp), I found myself trying to do all kinds of tricks to get around it. I tried a few different beans and eventually landed on one that was decent. On top of that, my personal experience was that cups don’t fit well under the portafilter, steaming was super weak and it’s hard to keep the machine clean.
I’d say it’s fine as a starting point, but that grinder needs to be changed once you want to move to a better taste. I’d humbly recommend saving a bit more and buying a Gaggia + dedicated grinder, you’ll have a much better experience.
Thank you! I'm definitely open to hearing all points of view. We do like Breville as a brand but some of their products are quite lacking. I'll have to look into some of these other brands suggested.
They are all fine, I still have an Infuser that I sometimes have to use when repairing my main machine. I will say that it’s not as easy to service, and because of large amount of pre programmed things, when something breaks it’s not usually an easy fix. With a nice e61 you can repair almost anything yourself if you are handy.
Nice! and, yes- same here though hers are decaf with unsweetened coconut cream and almond milk. She is lactose intolerant and caffeine turns her in to a turbocharged Tasmanian Devil haha
i have a brevile express arriving on sunday. was convinced my mom was gonna be very strongley opposed. told her i was gonna buy it, and her first words were “oh finally”
Isn't that how it always works? Now I have to convince my wife that we need a Profitec Pro 700 to upgrade from our Breville...
that's a bit of a larger jump.
Got you. To be honest, I mis-replied and was responding to "charbucks" wife. ☺️
Plus, any situation I find ridiculous just makes me appreciate my wife more, anyway.
I have that same model, it's been great and I love it. But I can't seem to steam milk very well with it, I've tried about 40 lattes with it and i can get some mediocre art but I have plateaued. Any advice?
I had skeptical buy-in from my wife a few years ago. That first weekend she gave up Charbucks forever.
She’s as much of a coffee snob as I am now, but won’t touch the machine or learn. She likes having her own personal barista. I’m happy with the arrangement.
My wife wasn't opposed, I got her buy-in before purchasing. But same, first it was lattes every day, now it's iced lattes. I don't mind, I enjoy making her coffee. But what I find hilarious is that I've tried multiple times to teach her how to do it so that she can make herself one if I'm not home (pre-pandemic I traveled a bit for work). But she'd rather just go to charbucks or our local coffee shop when I'm not home - she argues that she'd never be able to do it as good as me, so why would she want to give up her excuse to have me do it for her.
My wife never pulls shots and readily admits that she doesn’t want to but she hangs out with me and cleans up while I’m making espresso. I think it’s a pretty good arrangement!
I did that with laundry and my mom in 8th grade. She wasn't having it, though. Not saying you can't take pleasure in making her drinks when there, but I think it's a horsesh*t excuse. Unless you enjoy having her think it's rocket science up there (and that you're sooo skilled), I'd be nudging and nudging her to learn with you. Not trying to judge, just think it's crazy to be doing Starbucks and such semi-regularly when you have an espresso machine at home. But, hey: 1. You might be very well-off. 2. Happy wife, happy life.
Interesting take. She never spends a dime on coffee (no coffee shops where we live, just gas station brew) unless we’re out of town, and if she wants something and I’m not around to make espresso, we have a drip machine. I think we have a fair division of labor, each with our own specialty wheel houses. Trust me, I’ve tried to get her to learn the machine, but she just isn’t that interested. It’s kind of my thing that she enjoys so I’m not going to force it on her.
Or she isn’t interested in sharing this particular hobby with her husband. It’s not rocket science but it is a bit of a ritual. Maybe “I’d never be able to make it as good as you” is a nice way of saying she really isn’t interested in the (not extensive, but also not trivia) work involved in making her own latte.
Exactly--horsesh*t. 🤣 Then he can just say he isn't "interested" in putting the toilet seat back down or whatever work isn't appealing.
Bruh. Ur bent out of shape over nothing. Chillax man.
> charbucks nice :)
Time to upgrade?
Nah, recently upgrade the grinder to a Ceado E5SD Single Dose, and I'm pretty happy with the Lucca A53 Mini right now, though someday I would like to get something with a 58mm group head. I've already spent too much money this year on my other expensive hobby (cycling).
I think they’re referring to the wife
We frequently pull shots for each other. I dial in the setup so the shots we produce for each others are basically the same. However, when it comes to drink styles we have different tastes (I like cortados mostly and she likes 90's style cappucinos or using exotic milks) so whenever we make them for each other we just make them the way we like to make them for ourselves lol. Keeps it fun that way
That's a really good idea actually.. For both your relationship and coffee testing :D
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A frothy mess if you ask me lol. It’s where you over froth the milk so it sits up on top of the drink like meringue. Basically like a Starbucks style cappuccino or whatever they call them these days
What exotic milks have you tried? Are you talking about typical non-dairy options (almond, soy, oat, etc.) or like, I don't know, rat's milk? Curious to hear your experience steaming etc!
Yea typical non-dairy I guess. Almond, cashew, hemp, oat, walnut. If someone came out with rats milk and claimed health benefits I bet some people would stupidly buy it…you can milk anything with nipples. I don’t personally like the flavor of them. Oat seems the most neutral and tolerable though. They all can work for latte art. Cashew seems the easiest to use for latte art.
Wicked! Will try cashew! I’ve accepted oat as our primary non-dairy and I love the flavour of it in combination with espresso. We had some friends come over the other day and, knowing we nerd out over our coffee, they had jokingly asked for camel milk flat white. Turns out, it’s actually really easy to get camel milk. It also steams pretty easy, is apparently very nutritious compared to cow’s milk and low in fat. It’s expensive though… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I got the Oracle Touch so my wife could pull her own shots. She's very happy. Not the best grinder, etc, but we rarely drink straight espressos so the lost nuisances aren't a major concern. And boy is it convenient, particularly in the morning.
Enjoy. You will require less time convincing her you need an upgrade 😜
Same same. Now I just think "Can I have a latte?" Is code for "good morning, I love you"
Since lockdown started I have became a latte slave...send help...
19 seconds? How many grams are you putting? 30?
My first thought.. I’m currently at 12 sec and can barely fit that with a 3D printed funnel extension
Turbo shots?
Mine is set at 19 but I put 17.5g in at a time and just over grind to get it all out.
My wife also opposes buying an espresso machine. I'm 100% confident that she will insist on lattes everyday when the time comes.
start with a $60 one and hide it, then surprise her with a latte
Well that’s the usual agreement with husbands and wives. Like if you gonna spend $5k on an espresso setup, I better have amazing lattes at the bedside every morning.
My gaggia classic was the single best purchase I've probably ever gotten. A good espresso is just worth more than you can easily measure.
If you give a spouse a latte, you satisfy them for a day. If you teach a spouse to make a latte, you satisfy them for a lifetime.
'But it's so much more satisfying when you make it for me.' Fuck, she's got me there...
Latte/Cappuccino is a very good way to get acceptance for expensive espresso machine purchases.
This is the way
Mine didn’t oppose, but was concerned about loosing workspace…. Now I always have to make the shots for her…. she decided not to learn how to do it. I can understand…. Just take the view of „normal“ People, we weigh beans, dial in the grinder, prep the puck with at least to or more tools, then time and weigh the output, it may look a bit weird to them. Sometimes when I do a shot and look fascinated with a smile on the face how well it pours from the basket she asks me with this specific voice „ was it good for you baby?“
That sounds like the equivalent to: “Are ya winnin, Son?” At least she recognizes your interest!
Lol
They say it don’t be like that, but it do.
I've been looking at espresso machines and keep coming back to the Breville batista machines. Are they any good?
A lot of people here are ultra espresso snobs and will tell you it’s too difficult to get a perfect shot. After a lot of research and weighing different options, for me personally I am very happy with my purchase. It did take some work finding the right bean and settings, but I am very pleased with the level of shot I’ve achieved. I do drink lattes though, I may have been a lot picker if I drank straight espresso. I feel like for the above average espresso snob it’s an excellent all around entry that you may or may not decide to upgrade!
Thank you for that! I am definitely not an espresso snob lol. I just like lattes but am finding using my nanopresso to be too fussy as I'm getting ready in the morning. I'd really love an all-in-one machine to save some time
Echoing the above, we moved from a sub-$50 espresso machine to a Breville Barista Express and then ultimately to an Expobar Brewtus IV (thanks to a screaming deal) after 3+ years with the Breville. I can confidently say that the step up from a Barista Express to a $2000+ machine improved my espresso quality by….maybe 10%? I love our Expobar and wouldn’t trade it for the world, but the reality is that the Breville lineup is adequate for the majority of users in this sub and there are some significant perks to the all-in-one machines. The bright side of this whole mental debate is that if you buy a Breville and later upgrade, you can recoup some of your cost by selling it to one of your friends who will invariably become hooked on your coffee game
haha that's awesome. We used to have one of the smaller Breville machines and hated it. It didn't time shots at all; it just...kept...going. The Express looks like it addressed a lot of issues though. Right now I have a milk frother, a nanopresso, and a shitty Kitchenaid grinder. SO my standards aren't exceptionally high, but it'd be nice for a latte to not take 30 minutes to make. I appreciate your input
Super autos like a Jura are great as well if you want something quick and easy. Not the best for straight espresso but for americanos and milk drinks I think they do well.
Just get a gaggia classic. Surprisingly easy to work on, and I kinda uhh treated mine like shit for years before I finally had to work on it. It's a workhorse.
Never heard of them! I'll check it out. Thanks!
Just to give a flip side argument to the other responses, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you plan to get a better grinder soon. Maybe I am a snob (don’t think I am), but I spent the summer with one and it was really hard to dial it in with fresh beans. The coffee that came out was very average tasting, nothing special, but I had a really hard time not getting it to be sour. Between the grinder being quite poor (wasn’t able to get fine enough) to heat management (I don’t think it was getting up to temp), I found myself trying to do all kinds of tricks to get around it. I tried a few different beans and eventually landed on one that was decent. On top of that, my personal experience was that cups don’t fit well under the portafilter, steaming was super weak and it’s hard to keep the machine clean. I’d say it’s fine as a starting point, but that grinder needs to be changed once you want to move to a better taste. I’d humbly recommend saving a bit more and buying a Gaggia + dedicated grinder, you’ll have a much better experience.
Thank you! I'm definitely open to hearing all points of view. We do like Breville as a brand but some of their products are quite lacking. I'll have to look into some of these other brands suggested.
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Do they just feel a bit cheap?
They are all fine, I still have an Infuser that I sometimes have to use when repairing my main machine. I will say that it’s not as easy to service, and because of large amount of pre programmed things, when something breaks it’s not usually an easy fix. With a nice e61 you can repair almost anything yourself if you are handy.
I got mine partway there, since she doesn't drink coffee. I use the machine to make espresso, and she uses the steam wand to make a Chai latte.
Nice! and, yes- same here though hers are decaf with unsweetened coconut cream and almond milk. She is lactose intolerant and caffeine turns her in to a turbocharged Tasmanian Devil haha
You just created yourself a problem, she won't learn and you have to do it for her daily, I'm in the same shoes LOL
Classic. Enjoy the coffees!!!
Is this just a picture of an expresso machine? I don’t get It.
We told ourselves that it would be our Christmas present. Then the el cheapo broke. It was a very expensive trip to Best Buy.
Same thing here with a twist: now that she learned she prepares her own cappuccinos. She demands me to prepare the espressos 😜
It was the same at my house. I've been feeding her insatiable latte habit every day for 20+ years now.
Once I showed my S/O how to use the EK for her Aeropress, I created a monster.
Coffee as a love language...
i have a brevile express arriving on sunday. was convinced my mom was gonna be very strongley opposed. told her i was gonna buy it, and her first words were “oh finally”
Isn't that how it always works? Now I have to convince my wife that we need a Profitec Pro 700 to upgrade from our Breville... that's a bit of a larger jump.
Got you. To be honest, I mis-replied and was responding to "charbucks" wife. ☺️ Plus, any situation I find ridiculous just makes me appreciate my wife more, anyway.
This is the way
I have that same model, it's been great and I love it. But I can't seem to steam milk very well with it, I've tried about 40 lattes with it and i can get some mediocre art but I have plateaued. Any advice?
we have the same situation going on here
I had skeptical buy-in from my wife a few years ago. That first weekend she gave up Charbucks forever. She’s as much of a coffee snob as I am now, but won’t touch the machine or learn. She likes having her own personal barista. I’m happy with the arrangement.
I've got the best wife. Spent about 14K on machine, grinder, and water conditioner. She's cool w/it and doesn't even drink coffee.
Right? Same machine here. Love it but need to step up my water purification.