Opinions on AEG machine ?

You might want to post this on "alt.coffee"--it's a much, much more active group and you're more likely to get good answers there.

The machine appears to be in the general category of "super auto" machines--whether that particular model is decent or not I have no idea myself. Upside of that general class of machine is that once you get it adjusted it will give you fairly repeatable results, downside is that its best isn't as good as you can learn to do by hand.

Cheers, done. Just thought there might be a few more UK people in here with it being a .rec group. Plus alt.coffee seems to be full of stuck up idiots who prattle on about how only one cup of coffee they've made in the last decade has been excellent, the rest have just been good :/

Can't seem to find many reviews of it either.

But I'm assuming its 'best' would still be far better than that acheivable with instant coffee or a drip filter machine... :)

Let's start out with what you're really looking for. Do you _like_ espresso? Some people do, some don't. Personally I didn't at first but it grew on me.

Heh, do you know what, in all honesty I don't know :)

I'm not sure what the difference is offhand. I'm just one of those common idiots who likes the coffee I buy from Starbucks (which would appear to make me a heretic in the coffee newsgroups :) and am looking to improve my home efforts a little bit.

The machine in question does cappucino, latté and espresso. I'd not really put any thought into whether I don't like one or the other, and because it does all three I don't think it's really going to be a deciding factor of any kind.

Basically I'll be wanting to play with lots of different flavoured beans (which again may make me an outcast in the coffee groups ?). There's a little place near me that sells lots of coffee beans of varying flavours...

You might want to find out before you spend a lot of money on a machine.

I liked starbucks too. Then I made my first really good shot. The thing is they roast the beans very dark so you are tasting the roast and not the bean, and they're working a production line so they don't have time to tweak the parameters for every shot.

While it can do them don't assume that it can do latte and cappucino well. It's a thermoblock machine, which means that its ability to produce steam is limited and for milk drinks you need lots of steam--if you like latte and cappucino you'll be a lot happier with a boiler machine that won't run out of steam half way through frothing.

There's also skill involved in frothing--the machine does not froth automatically, it just makes espresso automatically and gives you a steam want for frothing.

Well, now, the real question is whether you like espresso better than you like drip or vac pot or french press or whatever.

Nothing wrong with flavored beans, but make sure that they're aware that you're going to be using an espresso machine and not a drip machine--espresso machines extract differently from drip and the results may not be quite what you expect.

Yup, obviously it's mass produced, but it's still nice mass production in the opinion of my taste buds :)

I particularly like the 'gingerbread' latté they are doing at the moment...

Hmmm, I've heard 'thermoblock' mentioned on a few machine, didn't realise there were different types of machine. Actually, I seem to recall something about problems with it, is the thermoblock thing generally reliable or trouble prone ?

I'm assuming it would be fine for occasional use tho, just a couple of cups - it's not like I'm going to be making them all night or anything (or maybe I will, depends how good it is, heh).

Oh, that's a surprise. Thought it would spoil the purity or something for the coffee lovers :)

A thermoblock heats the water as it flows through the machine, a boiler machine heats it in a batch.

It's not a matter of reliability so much as of suitability for particular purposes--a thermoblock machine has two weaknesses--low steam volume and poor temperature regulation. Running out of steam before you finish frothing the milk pretty much ruins the batch and poor temperature regulation affects taste.

Matter of taste. Personally I used to like flavored coffees then I had my first taste of Kona.

As a fellow lover of Starbuck's coffee, here are my 2 cents.....

I love a Starbuck's latte, and, a few years ago, decided to buy an espresso machine so I could make mine at home. Bought one from Starbuck's, actually. US$375.

Had it for about three weeks, and decided it REALLY was more trouble than it was worth to me! It worked OK, but cycling it in the morning and steam/frothing the milk, and all that was just more than I was willing to do while I was waking up.

So, I called them, and asked if I could return it, and they said: Yes!

Full refund!

I'm glad!

My usually coffee at home is a cup-at-a-time with a Melitta cone filter. Fresh, delicious, and it's something I can manage while half asleep.

(Years ago I changed over from an electric drip to the cone filter. Depending on the type of coffee I used, the electric drip wasn't all that bad, but, at some point, I realized that one cup at a time would guarantee fresh coffee, and it is really easy with a cone filter.)

When I made a pot at a time, I used a thermos to keep it hot, instead of letting the coffee maker burn it. That is something that is a good move if you really want to make pot at a time.

Trying different beans is a good thing. However, on a personal level, I don't like flavored coffees -- which is why I ended up making a cup at a time for myself. That way it is made from coffee I like, and it is fresh, fresh, fresh!

Good luck!

THAT IS SO COOL I love that tuff