The business of espresso machines

Ok, one more gadget post. I finally bought myself an espresso machine for 99 euros. I chose the cheapest one at Stockmann’s shelves among around 20 options. They call it “semi-automatic”. Median price seems to be over 500 euros and I guess there were more than 10 full-automatic machines priced at over 1000 euros to choose from. The most expensive was well over two grands.

They sold to the previous customer a 1850 euro model with arguments such as “see, it has two motors and the water circles inside ‘like this’ [grazy waving of hands]… so this one I’d buy for myself”…. Oh yes, the buyer was a middle-aged male. However, my guiding principle was that you don’t want a full-automatic if you want to drink the coffee yourself and you want to place the machine on your regular-size kitchen table.

I’m quite happy with my machine. I’ve heard a lot of criticism of home-made espressos but my machine passes any test. Maybe technology has simply progressed. With Paulig’s basic espresso I can end-up with 100% coffee shop quality.

Next thing to do is to find more exotic beans. In Helsinki, I guess Kaffecentralen is worth trying.