Hi guy,

the following 4 expresso machines:-

Fully auto
- Saeco Lirika Standard
- De'longhi Authentica

Semi auto
- Breville Barista Pro
- Breville Barista Touch

Which one would you suggest for a 1st timer and why?

thank you

first timer try to buy used... who knows later find too troublesome and give up...

Appreciate your comments.

So far am using the following to prepare my daily coffee:

- The Oomph

- ESPRO Ultralight Travel Press

- LUME coffee grinder

- Coffee bean I get from beanshipper and also direct from MyLiberica.

I drink 5 cups a days and all are black coffee. Been doing that for years.

That is why I am planning to get myself a coffee machine, and came to the above 4 models.

And looking for some advise and comments from all coffee lovers here, before I proceed.

thank you

fully auto is one press done.... but if fully auto why not those capsule ? generally fully auto quite pricey but easy to use. quality wise... depend on ppl la..those coffee lover usually avoid fully auto..

semi auto is depend if you have time and passion for it... cause it takes time for the whole process (from grind to espresso to latte to wash ur stuff) to get your nice cup of coffee... quality wise...is good....

most ppl regret buying semi is the hassle..... they just want coffee... and simple to make...tats it... so depend on your liking

I have tried the capsule coffee at my office, I prefer no capsule.

Currently, I have to measure coffee bean, grind, get some hot water and brew... it is almost the same as the semi-auto.

Initially, I only shortlisted the Breville Barista Pro and Breville Barista Touch, then I found the Saeco Lirika Standard and Delonghi Authentica where the price is between the Breville Barista Pro and Breville Barista Touch. And yes, fully auto is much more convenient which is one touch.

thank you for your input

This post has been edited by klaatu08: Feb 25 2020, 11:32 AM

where do you guys normally get your beans from?

Interesting roaster machine with a matching colorway..
This is taken at Mixt, Chatuchak..

Which part of Subang bro?

cool...since you're used to the cleaning up routine...then i too would go for better machines

so you're adding espresso to your coffee palate?... personally i don't want a grinder attached to my brewer for better/easier upgrade path, flexibility and reduce risk of one failure and the other out of service

also you probably know full automatic doesn't brew as well but the benefit is just press a button for instant coffee

i have no personal experience with any of the machines on your list...just wanna suggest maybe getting a good starter grinder, like the baratza sette or eureka mignon, then if maybe you want flexibility with milk drinks to get a hx or dual boiler machine for better steaming, if not then most sbdu machine is a good start...you can get a mignon grinder and china made gemilai machine for about $2.5k...or future proof and get an oscar for milk drinks [ my mrs 100% latte ]

p/s...imho try go for standard 58mm filter baskets for machines...

This post has been edited by dwRK: Feb 26 2020, 08:42 AM

Brewing coffee is an art or science?
1 of the questions from my instructor during the first day of my 1st Degree of Coffee course.
What I learned… something far away to think about would be from the origin of the beans at different altitude, temperature, soil, rain/water all the way to blending (single origin, trio etc) and then roasting. To me they are mostly part of chemistry, so they are science.
Of course, you may say skillful workers picking and shortlisting the beans, skill or roasting etc are art. Yes, I do agree with that too, but a large of them are still science that created the SOP for workers to follow.
Unless you roast coffee beans yourself, most of the mentioned activities are usually beyond our reach. Let's talk about something that we can do…
I would say brewing coffee is both science and art.
I usually do with dose of 20g, yield 40g, between 20s and 30s. These figures are actually Science. Even the type of milk (different brand, lactose free, almond milk etc) would make a difference. Of course milk pitching positioning too… these are science. Btw, I use an average of 4 liters milk each week. My 'regular client' (wife :-)) wants lactose free or almond milk too… They all (diff milk) work differently.
This is like cooking recipe, if you don't follow the given volume of spices or materials, you are not going to get the chemical effect that you want.
What about Art? Undoubtedly Latte art is art :-p
Let me use this analogy to explain more about art…
A very good char kway teow cook is getting too old and decided to pass the business to his only son who had been his helper the past 10 years. The father is given the full including secret recipe but the son just can't cook out the same delicious taste like the father. The secret recipe here would be the science. The art would probably be the way his father massages the kway teow, the strength and gentleness the father stirs and handles the wok, the pace the father puts in ingredients and the heart the father uses.
From there, we can tell that the science is really the recipe, which in cafe's world is very much like SOP for brewing coffee. As for the rest of the things are the art part. I stand corrected. Please feel free to share. Thanks…

thank you very much, appreciate that.

how i brew my coffee... is art...

1. i dump 2 (gaggia classic plastic) scoops of beans into grinder...depends on beans and age...sometimes more sometimes less... no idea how many grams
2. i adjust grinder based on how fast the coffee drips out the first 5-10 seconds...i dun used timer...just mental count
3. i tamper sometimes hard sometimes soft...depends on how powdery the grind comes out
4. i start machine and mental count...but basically check how it drips out in 5-10 seconds...
5. i stop on blonding...sometimes more sometimes less...can be from 25-90s...dunno how long... i dun weight my yield...
6. i get new bag of beans...i bite and chew them to determine how to adjust the grinder for 1st grind...

end of the day...i enjoy the coffee just as much as the science nut who tries to perfect every step of the way ...

SS 17, very near to SS15 LRT Station. 😊

You are like the master char kway teow cook who can simply grab the kway teow with free hand can come out with perfect taste char kway teow. Thumbs up.

Even when you know well that there are variances like the coarseness, brewing time, tamping weight and angle, water temperature, pump pressure, etc but that still taste nice to you, then congrats for having such a nice tongue with rather wide range of sweet spot. That also means that very high chance the coffee made by almost any cafes will be acceptable to you.
I wish my wife can have that tolerance and my daughter who can't drink coffee yet wouldn't complain when her milk is too foamy, not as sweet as usual etc. Yes, milk frothing skill and temperature would make a difference to the texture, taste and sweetness. Before my hands got familiar with temperature, I had to rely on thermometer or this temp sticker in the pic.

Moving to more and more expensive equipment:
Espresso makers - we can see and even control variables like water temperature, pump pressure, E61 group head, etc. The control variables are science. People with more sensitive tongue will comment like this is too bitter for me - the first thing to consider is probably the brewing time (too long) and that may also related to coarseness. Adjustment can only be done when we know for sure the values we used previously.

Grinder - most probably realized these facts… weight from the 1st grind is different from the 10th grind. Bean A weights different from bean B. Like wine you can never get back the same taste of wine unless they are from the same batch, coffee beans too. Bean A will not weight and taste exactly the same unless they are from the same batch with the same handling and exposure to the same environmental conditioning.
That also tells that a busy cafe should do calibration a few times a day.

you should also know...

summer cow eats grass...winter cow eats hay... milk taste will be different...

also australian fat cow... vs malaysian skinny cow...

any good recommendation for cold brew coffee maker ? and also the travel mug that can keep the cold brew coffee cold for at least 10 hours

My wife has stopped ordering the teh-c that she likes in the restaurant that we usually go for lunch. The taste has changed. We first suspected due to the change of barista, so we asked the one that we know to make the tea. It tasted better but still not right. Other friends also complained about the same problem, so we decided to analyse it - culprit is the change of tea powder.

There are so many factors that will affect the taste of a cup of coffee - our friend said about cows eating different food in different season, that's too. It's an end-to-end process, from the start of beans all the end to the brewing and serving or the coffee. Almost there, but there's 1 more very important factor, the consumer - from the mood of the moment to sensory analysis sensitivity: taste, texture, flavour, sight.
Anyway, from book - the 5 elements of brewing espresso: bean, barista, machine, grinder, water.

Getting / upgrading to more and more expensive equipment means paying to get more detailed level of control like PID, temperature, pressure, DB and 1 very important thing:- Consistency.
Consistency sounds so subjective and abstractive too, right? Today, I just want to share something that I learned that we can do as consistency check that we can do with naked eyes: Puck.
Check it out in this link:
https://artisti.com.au/blogs/news/identifyi...the-coffee-puck

i think the only downside with fully auto is the ability to customize e.g grind size, time and temperature... its one press and done.... semi auto, generally requires you to tweak a bit with every new bean (if you are changing everytime). for me, i got my bean from online and offline and various roaster. so each time new bean i ll need to tweak the grind size to get the optimum output... will get it right eventually after one or 2 espresso...
from the way u explain...semi auto is minus off the hot water part. the rest remains the same. measure, grind, tamp and time the extract. i usually dose 18g and 36g output as close as possible in 30 seconds


online n offline. for me beanshipper, nisy, 103coffee, ppp, havent try perk though...

thanks for sharing

Harvey Norman will frequently have their Delonghi, Saeco and Breville representatives do demos of the equipment. I got a demo of the Delonghi Dinamica yesterday at Harvey Norman IOI City Mall during their Leap Day sale. All I can say is the latte felt off on many levels. Obviously I have no idea what beans was used although the milk was fresh. The cleaning routine looked a lot more involved than I expected. I recommend bringing your beans and doing a taste test.

My normal routine is using the Breville 920 dual boiler with a Eureka Mignon grinder with beans from Reframe, Fmarketing on shopee or Beanshipper.

If I had to choose between the options you listed, I'd go for the Brevilles because you have a bit more of the extra control as you have the option to dose and tamp yourself. Ideally the touch because it automates the milk steaming as well. But the recommendations others have made are very valid, you'll likely make a better cup with a semi auto and a good grinder

Good luck