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It's crazy to me that people spend money on coffee from restaurants. It's literally the easiest thing to make at home for pennies.
I agree with you, but what coffee are you buying that costs pennies to make at home? I don't buy the cheapest stuff myself, but I do get bags of whole beans and grind it myself. They are way cheaper than going someplace, but definitely not pennies.
Dozens of pennies, anyway. IIRC, my back of the envelope math on the french press for two mugs every morning is something like $0.30 per mug, and that's including an estimate of the electricity to heat the water. Tend to use a pour over these days, and the bean usage is slightly more (50g vs 42g).
I'm not buying the most elite coffee in the world, nor am I buying bullshit. Kinda like the middle of the road brand? I'm Canadian, so like 3 weeks of coffee costs around $10. I make enough for me and my partner to have a cup or 2 every single morning. Let's say conservatively that we have 1 cup each every day for 3 weeks. That's 42 cups of coffee for around $10. 10/42 = 24 cents per cup of coffee. Under a quarter = pennies.
Truth my espresso machine was $300 on sale + $100 grinder and beans are typically $20.
And this is without the fancy accessories most people buy. Also that being said lattes nowadays running $7.50 so I'm pretty sure it would only take ~2 months to break even
I said coffee, not espresso. I'm talkin drip coffee my guy. I'm talking about the people who would go to Starbucks every morning and throw down $3-5 for drip coffee.
I suspect the vast majority of people sitting in the line that wraps around the building at Starbucks are getting fancy ass coffee flavored milkshakes.
I don't know anyone that actually likes the coffee at Starbucks.
When they had the clover pour over machines it was nice. Their normal drip is over roasted garbage. It also REALLY gives me caffeine jitters.
Say you're buying the really good stuff for $15/12oz. Thats roughly 340g of coffee, with each shot of espresso being 10g at most.
So $15/34 shots works put to just shy of $0.50/shot, and that for stunningly pricey coffee. You can get that to $0.25/shot with bulk premium coffee or cheaper stuff. Add boiling water, and that espresso shot is a cup of Americano.
Still pennies a cup, even if it's 25 or 50 of them.
A standard espresso double shot, which is what you would get in anything but the smallest espresso drinks, is around 18g. I do find 10g to be enough for my morning 150ml cup (assuming some absorption by the coffee), but drip or immersion brewing extracts a bit more than espresso just due to the huge volume difference
$12 is also pennies just 1,200 of them
You forget to add in the price of the equipment. A coffee grinder alone can set you back $4000. An espresso machine can go up to $30,000
Sure, you can get cheaper equipment but does that give you the same quality as you get in a coffee shop that does use that kind of kit?
And there is the space requirement as well.
Whoa, where are you getting these prices from? An espresso made from a $2000 machine will taste exactly like an espresso made from a $30,000 machine XD
AFAIK the quality of the grinder makes a huge difference at least, especially for espresso.
As for the prices, example of a high-end coffee machine: https://www.simonelliusa.com/Black-Eagle
High-end grinder: https://weberworkshops.com/products/eg-1
I honestly wouldn't know either way.
This topic kind of reminds me of the people who believe that they can taste and distinguish each one of dozens of notes within a bottle of wine. When that's put to the test, people fail it practically every time.
I could maybe see it happening with this, depending on the materials that the grinder was made out of. Some super cheap appliances might be made out of a toxic material that also spreads a bad odour/taste. The intensity of the grind itself could definitely play a role in flavour too.
I might test this one day, now I'm curious lol
With coffee it’s mainly the consistency of the grind. You want all particles to be the same size. Larger particles take longer to extract than smaller articles, and if it’s uneven you over/under extract parts of the coffee depending on grain size. This affects the flavor of the coffee. E.g. under-extracted is sour, and over-extracted too bitter.
An even grind requires a machine that’s been built with precision components and that’s expensive to make.
Youre absolutely off your rocker if you think a high quailty $200 burr grinder cant make excellent coffee at home.
A professional coffee shop doing mass volumes is pretty much the only reason to buy a $4000 grinder. That's something you get because you pull 1000 shots/day and need spare parts for repairs, because downtime costs you lots of money. Its not for Johnny "2 lattes."
Cheaper equipment does give better coffee, yes.
Don't tell me how fucking good my coffee is, ok? I know how fucking good it is. Because I fucking bought it ok? My wifes coffee tastes like shit. Because she buys shit coffee. But I'm not worried about the fucking coffre in my kitchen.
I don’t own the $10000 marzocco espresso machine that produces consistent heat and pressure to brew espresso correctly and steam milk so it froths without scorching, nor do I have years of experience to do that correctly, and I’d rather meet friends out than keeping my home perfectly clean so guests can come over any time.
Always enjoy yourself, but check out the bambino plus. It pulls beutiful shots with lovely crema and has a simple and excellent auto frother, all for $4-500.
I appreciate the recommendation but I don’t have $400 to spend on an espresso machine either 😅
I'm over here with my 25€ cast iron teapot and 60€ kettle wondering if coffee drinkers are alright
When I make it at home I use a US$25 pour-over pot and a US$30 electric kettle.
You really don't need all that shit. An Aeropress, a french press, and/or chemex-style pour over all goes for <$50 each and isn't particularly difficult to learn how to use. Need a kettle and a good grinder. Grinder is the only thing worth spending money on, but for this setup, even a $200 grinder is probably overkill. You just don't want the bottom of the barrel blade grinders.
I have a friend who went the aeropress route and he confirms there is a difference between that and the professionally made coffee we get at the coffee shop we both go to. Which is where we met, not incidentally—cheap at-home “espresso” still doesn’t answer the part about going to a public place where you can meet other people at random.
The one thing I'll pay for is espresso. Good espresso is incredible, and it's nearly impossible to do well without spending over $1000. Cheap espresso makers have channeling problems, or can't produce proper pressure, or both. You also need a very fine grind, so you're spending even more on the higher end grinders.
Sometimes I like paying for the experience of going and getting a cappuccino from a bougie coffee place instead of filter coffee from my crappy machine xD