well if you are going to pay $800 for an expresso machine and $15 for a tin of Illy coffee - you better care about the brew :-)

Wow. If you're going to pay $800 for an espresso machine, you should be buying better coffee than Illy...

Okay. Now it's official. I really am a coffee snob.

I was a barista at a better than average cafe while I was in college and it was at my cafe that I met my husband, we are both very serious about our coffee. We're Bialetti people right now, but one day when we have the money and the counter space I would love a true espresso machine.

I won't even let them roast it for me. I handle my own coffee from green bean to cup. The poll scale does not go high enough.

Hmmmm...We buy ground coffee from your regular neigbourhood store or supermarket, and then brew it with a simple drip-coffee-machine, so I'm not really picky. Barring one thing.
Don't. Ever. Feed Me. instant coffee.
I get that it's convenient or if you don't drink a lot of coffee, but sheesh. It's not the real thing to me, no matter what people say.

Pre-baby I gave a damn about these issues. Now I just want my drug delivered.

But those tea bag style things? Don't even rise to placebo status.

Coffee snobbery kind of snuck up on me unawares. One day I'm content with a Starbucks syntheccino, the next day I'm getting 5-lb bags of custom-roasted organic fair-trade beans shipped to me by Greyhound. It's a slippery slope, but once you start the slide down, you can't go back. You can't un-taste perfection.

centauri -- I feel your pain about instant coffee. It's like substituting Tang for orange juice...

A snob to the highest order. :) I get my beans green and then roast, grind, and brew them exactly as I like them. And I get teased a lot from my friends and family as a result (though they'll never turn down a cup when offered!).

I just got an espresso machine (a Gaggia), though, and my cheap burr grinder isn't good enough for the espresso grind. So now I'm saving pennies for a proper grinder and hunting around town for the perfect roast and the perfect grind to tide me over.

Not too picky I guess. I buy a dark roast at the local grocery stor, grind the beans and brew it in a cheap filter machine. I draw the line at instant coffee too - nasty stuff. As an undergraduate and graduate student in Ireland in the 1980s, I seem to have drunk gallons of this godawful potion- we used to buy catering-sized cans of the powder. "Real coffee" was rare and expensive. The national airline still serves it on their flights though. Not a good nostalgia trip. Blech!

I love coffee- almost too much- living in the same town as Armeno roasters (check them out, armeno.com)- i don't need to roast my own- but grind then immediately brew in a french press is my style.

John McCollum - what coffee do you recommend. We have tried many different ones - Illy suits our taste. But I will be open to your recommendation and try something new. WE are definetely not roasting our own coffee - I did too much of that when I was a kid in Albania :-)

Anusha. Home roasting is plenty easy --http://www.sweetmarias.com has some great solutions for those willing to try -- and it ends up being a LOT cheaper than buying Illy.

I roast enough beans for an office of 6 coffee drinkers (plus guests) and it takes me less than 15 minutes of work and less than an hour of sort-of-paying-attention kind of waiting.

If you're not willing to make that kind of commitment, you should find the nearest roaster and buy beans from them. It's pretty essential that you grind it just before brewing -- pre-ground beans go stale even if they're vacuum- and nitrogen-packed.

It's not essential to buy an expensive burr grinder, but it helps. You can buy a cheap blade grinder and shake it gently from side to side as you carefully grind the beans (careful not to get a powdered or uneven grind).

It's also not essential to buy 'espresso roasts.' As a matter of fact, I find most 'espresso roasts' don't taste nearly as good as a lighter roast that allows the flavor of the bean to come through.

Going this route might be a little more complicated, but it's a lot of fun, and may give you a new love for making and drinking coffee.

The only one, true essential is to spell 'espresso' correctly.

;-)

Im one of those rare people that doesnt like coffee.

Hey John - thanks for the input - it sounds like a lot of fun, but with a child on the way - I think I am going to stick to Illy and make time for washing diapers or something equally challenging :-)

as for the spelling - I get your sense of humor - very cute, but I prefer the italian spelling expresso - ex - as in it has been, press as in under pressure :-)

Ciao for now
Ana

Ana,

Oh, jeez. Please forgive me in advance...

Not to make too much of a small point, but the Italian root is not ex (as in 'out of' or 'under pressure'). It is, in fact 'espresso' (as in espresso café).

This is a debate that's taken place in a number of other forums, and the vast majority of experts -- of which I am NOT one -- agree with me that 'expresso' is a non-preferred spelling at best. Most consider it to be a misspelling based on folk etymology or outright error.

Okay. Now I really DO look like a coffee snob. And a spelling snob.

But if you do push into the coffee world a little bit, you'll find yourself corrected so many times that you'll eventually fold and use the standard spelling/pronunciation anyway.