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You can take my espresso machine from my cold dead hands. Then again I don’t understand why Americans pay so much for their coffee. Here 1kg of fairly good sing

You can take my espresso machine from my cold dead hands. Then again I don’t understand why Americans pay so much for their coffee. Here 1kg of fairly good single origin coffee is 22€ and the quality is miles ahead of instant. You don’t have to become an insufferable snob to enjoy better coffee.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
michaelchisari 4y ago
Those little stove-top espresso makers that Italians use make the best espresso. Apparently they're called Moka Pots, never knew that.
- spread_love 4y ago
  Technically not espresso, they operate at a relatively low pressure
- blowski 4y ago
  You’ve given me my opportunity to be a pedantic coffee snob… those don’t make espresso as they don’t generate enough pressure. But they do make fantastic coffee.
  - WastingMyTime89 4y ago
    They are finicky little things however (say the guy with a Silvia). It’s easy to burn your coffee if you don’t pay attention.
    - acchow 4y ago
      I've pretty much given up on them since it ends up with a burnt taste about 80% of the time
- abstract_put 4y ago
  The moka pot is how I transitioned from coffee as a utility drink to coffee I enjoy drinking. James Hoffman (popular coffee YouTuber) has a video[1] where he goes over what it takes to get consistently good results out of the moka pot - it's not easy. Used naively they kinda go heavy "bitter and dark". What appealed to me about the moka pot at the time was the reeeeeally "strong" coffee flavor. As I've moved away from it, I think my palate was just geared towards really dark roasts - very little the bean brings to the table at that point. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfDLoIvb0w4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfDLoIvb0w4
  - bigDinosaur 4y ago
    I didn't find his advice on preheating the water (and also cooling down the pot before pouring the coffee out) to be particularly useful (or make any appreciable difference at all) but got a few burns for my trouble. Grrr.
    - chongli 4y ago
      Better to go straight to the source [1] (who Hoffmann credits in his video). You don’t need to preheat the water in a separate kettle, you can preheat it in the base. You just need a towel or some mitts for when you screw on the top. The other trick to it is to keep moving it on and off the heat, keeping it at the minimum temperature to keep the coffee flowing gently up and out of the spout, and then stopping it before it gets over extracted. [1] https://youtube.com/watch?v=u-PeYeiqPLU https://youtube.com/watch?v=u-PeYeiqPLU
      - bigDinosaur 4y ago
        I'll give it a proper retry and see how it goes. I still wonder at the risk of burns with preheating, so am more interested in the on/off strategy. Thanks!
    - jaclaz 4y ago
      I have never seen anyone (here in Italy) pre-heating the water, what may make a difference is that we normally use the lowest possible flame (on a gas burner), in Italy kitchen stoves have typically 4 burners, of which one is very small and in practice "dedicated" to the Moka or to heat very small quantities of liquids, and when making coffe it is usually set to the minimum (actually those caring about it start with a medium flame and then lower it to a minimum, and switch it off completely when about 1/3 to 1/2 of the coffe has come out). On electric (resistive) stoves the behaviour may be different.
- rjh29 4y ago
  I love the Moka Pot. I have an aeropress but there is something delightful about just leaving the Moka Pot on the stove and hearing it bubble and deliver fresh coffee. They look cool, it's less effort, and there are fewer variables to worry about.
- intrasight 4y ago
  I visited Italy - and became a fan. Came back and bought a moka pot. Has been my only coffee making gadget (well, grinder too) now for 5 years. It makes me two cups in the morning. I add 1/3 part Chobani oat milk. Such a wonderful simple pleasure. The routine of grinding the beans and filling the water then coffee then screwing it together and then waiting for the gurgling sound that means its done - all part of that pleasure. Is good like slow sex.
  - pimeys 4y ago
    It is even better if you pre-heat the water before pouring it to the pot. Then heating the water just enough it comes up from the pipe. Keep the temps low and don't let it boil on the top. It helps if you keep the lid open. Such a great tool...
- ethbr0 4y ago
  For those who are curious, link: https://www.amazon.com/Bialetti-275-06-Express-6-Cup-Espresso/dp/B0000AN3QH/ https://www.amazon.com/Bialetti-275-06-Express-6-Cup-Espress... Or in other words, the way to make something espresso-like when all you have is a heat source.
- rjsw 4y ago
  Fairly big supermarkets in Italy will have one whole aisle just for Moka Pots in different sizes and spart parts for them.
majormajor 4y ago
What exactly do you mean by "pay so much"? E.g. I could buy a KG of single origin that I'd call "fairly good" for about $33 bucks - which recently would've been like 28 Euros though it's about 1-to-1 now - is that what you mean? Or are you meaning much more than that? Like comparing to retail "fancy coffee shop" US drink price? (There's a lot of range in what one person might call fairly good compared to the next, too, of course.)
- WastingMyTime89 4y ago
  The price you are giving me is indeed between 30% and 50% above the one I pay and the 22€ is post-taxes while I suspect you are giving me a pre-taxes price in the USA. My understanding from reading Reddit was that 40$ a kilo was not uncommon.
  - reddog 4y ago
    Whole or ground coffee is not subject to sales tax anywhere in the US that I know of since coffee is a grocery. Although a prepared cup of coffee (from Starbucks for example) is taxed. Two weeks ago I paid $9 for a pound of whole bean coffee from a good local roaster. That may be a bit below average but $11/lb is easy to find if your not living in a high-dollar, high-status coastal city.
  - majormajor 4y ago
    You could definitely spend $40, $60, probably even more for a kg in the US, but I think that's fairly uncommon. Something costing 30-50% different in another country is kinda what I'd expect, the double or triple stuff I think would more be fancy people being extra-fancy.
lostlogin 4y ago
Those same beans are about half that price when green. It's not snobbery so much as laziness that has me get 10ish kgs of a variety of types delivered every few months.
roflyear 4y ago
About the same in the US from many local roasters. Slightly more I guess but not super significant.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

michaelchisari 4y ago

Those little stove-top espresso makers that Italians use make the best espresso. Apparently they're called Moka Pots, never knew that.

spread_love 4y ago
Technically not espresso, they operate at a relatively low pressure
blowski 4y ago
You’ve given me my opportunity to be a pedantic coffee snob… those don’t make espresso as they don’t generate enough pressure. But they do make fantastic coffee.
- WastingMyTime89 4y ago
  They are finicky little things however (say the guy with a Silvia). It’s easy to burn your coffee if you don’t pay attention.
  - acchow 4y ago
    I've pretty much given up on them since it ends up with a burnt taste about 80% of the time
abstract_put 4y ago
The moka pot is how I transitioned from coffee as a utility drink to coffee I enjoy drinking. James Hoffman (popular coffee YouTuber) has a video[1] where he goes over what it takes to get consistently good results out of the moka pot - it's not easy. Used naively they kinda go heavy "bitter and dark". What appealed to me about the moka pot at the time was the reeeeeally "strong" coffee flavor. As I've moved away from it, I think my palate was just geared towards really dark roasts - very little the bean brings to the table at that point. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfDLoIvb0w4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfDLoIvb0w4
- bigDinosaur 4y ago
  I didn't find his advice on preheating the water (and also cooling down the pot before pouring the coffee out) to be particularly useful (or make any appreciable difference at all) but got a few burns for my trouble. Grrr.
  - chongli 4y ago
    Better to go straight to the source [1] (who Hoffmann credits in his video). You don’t need to preheat the water in a separate kettle, you can preheat it in the base. You just need a towel or some mitts for when you screw on the top. The other trick to it is to keep moving it on and off the heat, keeping it at the minimum temperature to keep the coffee flowing gently up and out of the spout, and then stopping it before it gets over extracted. [1] https://youtube.com/watch?v=u-PeYeiqPLU https://youtube.com/watch?v=u-PeYeiqPLU
    - bigDinosaur 4y ago
      I'll give it a proper retry and see how it goes. I still wonder at the risk of burns with preheating, so am more interested in the on/off strategy. Thanks!
  - jaclaz 4y ago
    I have never seen anyone (here in Italy) pre-heating the water, what may make a difference is that we normally use the lowest possible flame (on a gas burner), in Italy kitchen stoves have typically 4 burners, of which one is very small and in practice "dedicated" to the Moka or to heat very small quantities of liquids, and when making coffe it is usually set to the minimum (actually those caring about it start with a medium flame and then lower it to a minimum, and switch it off completely when about 1/3 to 1/2 of the coffe has come out). On electric (resistive) stoves the behaviour may be different.
rjh29 4y ago
I love the Moka Pot. I have an aeropress but there is something delightful about just leaving the Moka Pot on the stove and hearing it bubble and deliver fresh coffee. They look cool, it's less effort, and there are fewer variables to worry about.
intrasight 4y ago
I visited Italy - and became a fan. Came back and bought a moka pot. Has been my only coffee making gadget (well, grinder too) now for 5 years. It makes me two cups in the morning. I add 1/3 part Chobani oat milk. Such a wonderful simple pleasure. The routine of grinding the beans and filling the water then coffee then screwing it together and then waiting for the gurgling sound that means its done - all part of that pleasure. Is good like slow sex.
- pimeys 4y ago
  It is even better if you pre-heat the water before pouring it to the pot. Then heating the water just enough it comes up from the pipe. Keep the temps low and don't let it boil on the top. It helps if you keep the lid open. Such a great tool...
ethbr0 4y ago
For those who are curious, link: https://www.amazon.com/Bialetti-275-06-Express-6-Cup-Espresso/dp/B0000AN3QH/ https://www.amazon.com/Bialetti-275-06-Express-6-Cup-Espress... Or in other words, the way to make something espresso-like when all you have is a heat source.
rjsw 4y ago
Fairly big supermarkets in Italy will have one whole aisle just for Moka Pots in different sizes and spart parts for them.

majormajor 4y ago

What exactly do you mean by "pay so much"? E.g. I could buy a KG of single origin that I'd call "fairly good" for about $33 bucks - which recently would've been like 28 Euros though it's about 1-to-1 now - is that what you mean? Or are you meaning much more than that? Like comparing to retail "fancy coffee shop" US drink price? (There's a lot of range in what one person might call fairly good compared to the next, too, of course.)

WastingMyTime89 4y ago
The price you are giving me is indeed between 30% and 50% above the one I pay and the 22€ is post-taxes while I suspect you are giving me a pre-taxes price in the USA. My understanding from reading Reddit was that 40$ a kilo was not uncommon.
- reddog 4y ago
  Whole or ground coffee is not subject to sales tax anywhere in the US that I know of since coffee is a grocery. Although a prepared cup of coffee (from Starbucks for example) is taxed. Two weeks ago I paid $9 for a pound of whole bean coffee from a good local roaster. That may be a bit below average but $11/lb is easy to find if your not living in a high-dollar, high-status coastal city.
- majormajor 4y ago
  You could definitely spend $40, $60, probably even more for a kg in the US, but I think that's fairly uncommon. Something costing 30-50% different in another country is kinda what I'd expect, the double or triple stuff I think would more be fancy people being extra-fancy.

lostlogin 4y ago

Those same beans are about half that price when green. It's not snobbery so much as laziness that has me get 10ish kgs of a variety of types delivered every few months.

roflyear 4y ago

About the same in the US from many local roasters. Slightly more I guess but not super significant.