[JoshGlazebrook]

Honestly a good espresso machine. Obviously it's not the best of the best, I'm not a coffee snob/expert, but spending $800 on a mid-tier breville espresso machine is miles ahead of the $100 espresso machine I tried a couple years ago. It's just so much more convenient to be able to make a decent tasting hot or iced latte at home vs. going to get one.

Maybe some day I will really get into espresso and get $3000 machines and $1000 grinders, but who knows.

[lostlogin]

100%.

If you are even vaguely into fixing things, a degree of patience will save you a lot of money.

I’ve got an addiction to Mazzer grinders. Second hand they are cheap and the more beat up the better as it reduces the price and they are basically bulletproof. I pull them down, respray and add any parts I want.

Ex cafe equipment is cheaper as people don’t want large grinders. The Super Jolly hits a good spot between size, quality and price.

I like the Major and Robur - air cooled too. Overheating with 6-8 coffee a day will never happen, but the ventilation slots look so good!

[throwaway_au_1]

I've had 2 Barista Express units now. They have lasted me about 12-18 months each before something went wrong. In the recent case, I bought a new group head seal and I got about 60 brews before it blew out again. It has been a good intro machine, and it allowed me to go from using auto mode, to manually weighing 18g ground in for 36g output over ~30s (nb. with a $50 external scale) which made getting reliable results so easy. But now.. I really want a Flair 58, but I can't stomach the $800AUD. I'm stuck somewhere between coffee rookie and coffee snob and can't justify it yet.

Would also recommend finding a nice decaf bean if you are one whom caffeine affects easily. Now I can (did) have 3 great coffees a day instead of 1.

[gtvwill]

Buy a gaggia, mod it or pay someone to mod it.

https://gaggiuino.github.io/#/

Spent a few months fixated on coffee machines. Went deep. Gaggiuino give you equivalent machine value of $3k machine for under $1k aud.

Coffee is ripe for disruption on a hardware end of town. So much over priced 30-50 year old tech w/ at most a pid or Arduino/esp level of grunt computer behind it. It's absurd.

[regulation_d]

If you do get upgraditis at any point, I'd definitely consider swapping that priority. I think, I'd rather use high-end grinder with a mid-tier machine than the other way around.