Espresso Machines

I assume you are based in the UK. If so, whilst it is no longer online, House of Fraser were selling a Gaggia Selecta Deluxe (essentially a Gaggia Coffee in the casing of a Gaggia Classic) for £135. If you google for it you can probably find a Cached version of the HoF page. Worth checking instore, or phoning the online sales in case they still have stock, inventory reference number was 630558136.

Or if you are in the SE England then Bentalls Kingston had a Gaggia Baby on offer at £125 and a Evolution for £99. I think by all accounts any of these machines would make an excellent espresso machine.

BUT.... don't expect any significant improvement over the Krups without investing in a grinder.

I recently did exactly the same upgrading from a Krups (Vivo 15 Bar) to a Gaggia Selecta and whilst the machine sits nicely on the worksurface and I can now burn my hand on the PF, I don't think I am getting any better espresso. Lavazza pre-ground gets pee-ed though as if not there, even with heavy tamping. Illy pre-ground produces reasonable results, but has a "burnt" taste to it I'm not too keen on. Whittards - freshly roasted beans ground to "for a good espresso machine" chokes the Gaggia dead if I put in more than 10g in to a double basket, or attempt any tamping other than the lightest of touches.

I know I *have* to get a grinder, and have it at the very top of my Christmas list and if Santa doesn't bring something soon I'll be forced to visit Starbucks!

Half the fun of espresso is finding good beans and dialing in the grind to match your machine. I have yet to embark on this journey, but with hindsight I would have been better off investing my £150 in a good grinder and keeping the Krups until I could afford to improve it. However the HofF offer was just too good a deal to miss out on!

YMMV - Rufus.

Unfortunatley this is true. For fresh beans I can recommend

Stuart Hudson

AVOID ALL KRUPS!

cheers, DAve

Charles Turner wrote:

I have a Gran Gaggia, I can't remember the price but around £150 I think. I bought it from John Lewis. I have no problem with ground coffee. I get my coffee shop to grind it for me. When I first bought gthe machine, they gave me samples of 3 kinds of coffee, each ground with a different gauge - the best gauge for perfect filtration for me, was medium, fine grade.

I have actually got a Krups Burr Grinder which produces very fine grinds.

Unfortunately this seems to be too fine for the Krups machine.

I have been considering a Gaggia Cubika which I think Comet do for £149.99 but House of Fraser are doing for £129.99, so Comet should better their price.

Anyone any experience of this machine?

I assume you are based in the UK. If so, whilst it is no longer online, House of Fraser were selling a Gaggia Selecta Deluxe (essentially a Gaggia Coffee in the casing of a Gaggia Classic) for £135. If you google for it you can probably find a Cached version of the HoF page. Worth checking instore, or phoning the online sales in case they still have stock, inventory reference number was 630558136.

Or if you are in the SE England then Bentalls Kingston had a Gaggia Baby on offer at £125 and a Evolution for £99. I think by all accounts any of these machines would make an excellent espresso machine.

BUT.... don't expect any significant improvement over the Krups without investing in a grinder.

I recently did exactly the same upgrading from a Krups (Vivo 15 Bar) to a Gaggia Selecta and whilst the machine sits nicely on the worksurface and I can now burn my hand on the PF, I don't think I am getting any better espresso. Lavazza pre-ground gets pee-ed though as if not there, even with heavy tamping. Illy pre-ground produces reasonable results, but has a "burnt" taste to it I'm not too keen on. Whittards - freshly roasted beans ground to "for a good espresso machine" chokes the Gaggia dead if I put in more than 10g in to a double basket, or attempt any tamping other than the lightest of touches.

I know I *have* to get a grinder, and have it at the very top of my Christmas list and if Santa doesn't bring something soon I'll be forced to visit Starbucks!

Half the fun of espresso is finding good beans and dialing in the grind to match your machine. I have yet to embark on this journey, but with hindsight I would have been better off investing my £150 in a good grinder and keeping the Krups until I could afford to improve it. However the HofF offer was just too good a deal to miss out on!

YMMV - Rufus.

It's not the fineness, it's the quality. Cheaper grinders produce too much dust, which just clogs. You need a reasonably uniform grind, say a little finer than salt, with some particle size variance, but no powder.

I do not think that more expensive machines produce a significantly higher pressure. 17 is the highest I can remember.

I also have a Krups 15 bar machines, most the time it works fine. Problems seem to occur if there is a delay between putting the coffee in the filter and making the coffee. I don't pretend to understand it. In fact it makes no sense to me at all. Maybe water in filter soaking into the coffee and making the grains swell and block the holes? I have no idea and don't want to be flamed that much.

Noises Off

the "15 bar" or "17 bar" nonsense is just that!! a marketing numbers game -- has nothing to do with a good cup

the good pressure is to be found in the 8 to 10 bar range.

Dave

to second this, I ground some nice beans on the fine setting on a cheap burr grinder - it resulted in a 25-30 second pour, but no crema and a taste like dishwater. Same beans on the MDF and yumyum!

What about summat like this:

Or; at La Pavoni's site

There also seem to be a few Gaggia Cubika's & Classics on Ebay at present.

Pip pip & Season's Bah-humbug

Did you heard about Nespresso Professional? Try with CS100

Charles Turner ha escrito: