HOW TO CHOOSE AND BUY AN ESPRESSO COFFEE MACHINE part 1

HOW TO CHOOSE AND BUY AN ESPRESSO COFFEE MACHINE part 1

By russel

Hii…. Everbody

Nice to see you again, today I will share about “How to choose and buy an espresso coffee machine”. Yea yea yea…. I know I know, there is so many articles talk about this issue. But what I want to share is something simple just uses our logic or comment sense. But before we can choose the espresso coffee machine, we need to understand first basic of the espresso coffee machine and use it as the guide.

So…. Let’s start from what is espresso coffee machine? Espresso coffee machine is one machine for brewing coffee use high pressure hot water method. The idea is to squeeze the coffee grinds until all the flavors and chemicals come out and produce the coffee oil, we call crema. And the coffee drink produce from this type coffee machine we call espresso coffee. In modern coffee drinker, espresso coffee is base of other coffee drink menu such latte, cappuccino, mocha, etc. All espresso coffee machines from cheap one until expensive, small size until big size, standard model until super high-end, manual until fully automatic, have 3 important things inside the machines  :

·         Pump

For produce the pressured

·         Solenoid or valve

For maintain the pressured

·         Boiler

For boil the water, they have 2 popular types in boiler one is boiler tank and other one is thermoblock. Boiler tank is like one water tank that have heater inside the tank to boil the water and thermoblock is one metal block that have heater inside the block so when the water pass through the block it will boil. Some espresso coffee machine have more than 1 boiler, depend of the function and specification. 

And they have 4 other things outside the machine :

·         Group head

For lock the porta-filter and from this group head the high pressure hot water come out. They have 1 or 2 or 3 group head in espresso coffee machines.

·         Porta-filter

For hold the basket that use for keep the coffee grind. They have 2 types of porta-filter, for produce 1 shot and 2 shot of espresso coffee (note, for 1 shot the basket will follow for 1 shot basket and for 2 shot the basket will 2 shot basket, meaning the capacity of the coffee grinds in 1 shot will smaller than 2 shot basket). Mostly porta-filter for 1 shot they have 1 spout (the hole that the espresso coffee will come out) and 2 spout for 2 shot. But some of the espresso machines especially small type they only have 2 spout in the porta-filter whether for 1 shot or 2 shot.

·         Steam wand

For produce steam air to frothing the milk. Usually for make other menu coffee drink.

·         Water tap

For produce hot water

Modern espresso coffee machine have 3 popular type :

·         Manual type

From grind the coffee beans, put the coffee grinds inside the basket, tamper, lock into group head, press on the switch button until switch off the button, we need to do it all.

·         Semi automatic

From grind the coffee beans, put the coffee grinds inside the basket, tamper, lock into group head and press on the switch button, we still need to do it but we no need to wait and switch off the button because the machine will automatically switch off after the timing that we are already program reach the time.

·         Fully automatic

In this type we almost no need to do anything, just put the coffee beans inside the coffee beans container in the machine and switch on the button and walaa….. a cup of espresso coffee done. What we need to concern for this type espresso coffee machine have more maintenance concern than other type.

(Note, all espresso coffee machines from cheap one until expensive, small size until big size, standard until super high-end, manual until fully automatic, need maintenance for keep them can work properly)

 

Many of espresso coffee machine manufactures have they own specification and the end it will connect with the price of the machine. Even some of them produce the machine with the latest material or high tech design. So what is the deferent? Is that have connection with the espresso coffee taste? This is a few question (usually) will come out from us about this issue.

From my experience, the answer is like this example, the espresso coffee machine is like car, so basically the main reason car use for bring us from one place to other place in easier, comfortable, faster (if not traffic) or in other word is for transportation. Meaning all cars as long as already have standard it can be use for transportation (the main reason), but they have so many brand with they own specification with deferent price (same like espresso coffee machines). Yes from they are specification they have some reason to follow our need such for driving fast we need buy more power full engine car or for more comfortable or for more luxury or etc. So what happen in the end? The answer is depends us, we buy follow we need or can say follow our own specification. So for espresso a coffee machine is exactly same (now you know my point). All the deferent in espresso coffee machine is just to follow our need such for make a lot of espresso coffee or for convenience or for show off. But for the main reason is same to make espresso coffee, that’s it.                                                                                        Basically as long as the machine already follow the standard, no matter how big the size or price or model or type it will produce same standard of espresso coffee.

(Note, from my experience mostly the quality of the espresso coffee come from the coffee beans, size of the coffee grinds, volume of the coffee grinds in the basket, tamper, timing when brewing and the most important thing quality of the water)

That all from me Russel in part 1 of this article “How to choose and buy an espresso coffee machine”, I will continue in part 2 next week and thank you for your previous time to read this article. If you have any question, please send to russelw@gmail.com See you next week….