i click on the link show 1099 leh .... wanna buy one to ut in my office, hahhaha

You are right! I swear to God it was 559 just now!

yah i know, i saw that too ... was taking few hour to decide but seem like few hour too late

I'd suggest you spend your money on the freshest beans you can find, and the best grinder you can afford, and then lastly whatever you have left on the brewer or machine. Here's a useful video : Home Barista's Buyer Guide

As an overall guide : Home Barista

If I had 1k I'd get a Hario dripper or Aeropress or Moka Pot. I'd probably even go cheap and get a Hario hand grinder as well. If you're near a Parkson, check out their coffee section, usually near the cooking section, which should be pretty well stocked with Hario branded items.

This post has been edited by LazyJin: May 9 2016, 10:53 PM

Agree with 100% of what LazyKin says. Total cost will be less than RM 400 even if you go for all three!

For me it is Aeropress as the best balance between extremely good coffee, versatility (you can do long blacks or strong shots that work well with milk) affordability and *consistency*.

And don't look down on the manual Hario (either slim or Skerton) grinders; nothing will give you a better quality grind until you spend at least 6x the price! The only issue is the 1.5 minutes to 2 minutes it takes to grind one cup worth of beans.

It is hard to really get custom item in Malaysia.... more or so on coffee machine parts (Exclude those tool kits like milk pitcher & tamper) unless u know some vendor that provide them or sell only specifically gaggia item (Mostly they will tell you they will import in also and price wont be that nice since they only import specifically to your order and not by batch). I try to ask a few shops and they seem to only entertain those big commercial coffee machine rather then homemade machine as they saw no profit in doing business so I turn my order to online in direct imported in the parts but there is a hassle/ catch as the item might get delay or block by our custom like what happen to me now....

I'm making some mod on my machine and order couple of part in from Canada and my item got stop by the custom. They required further more detail info on the item before they decided to release them.... that is still yet uncertain if they want to release the item or further charge for it as im waiting for the news....

Why pre ground your coffee .... that is kind of just taboo method for coffee drinkers. Your coffee will get stale very quick within 1 week (If you kept in in the air tight container) and your coffee will end like all other local coffee shop 'kopi O' while fresh roasted coffee bean will sustain 2-3 week after it been roasted out before stale.

This post has been edited by d33pbluez: May 10 2016, 08:45 AM

Thats why singapore is your best neighbour in importing things!! i still can't understand why malaysia customs always make a big fuss instead of following the books! if it needs to be tax just tax it and pay! Sometimes small matter they make u go all the way to KLIA to declare and explain and pay tax! ofcoz unless u import illegal stuff which is understandable!! and import duties are not for the faint hearted!

and yes please don't use pre ground coffee!! If u use better go coffee shop drink Kopi-o RM2.20 is cheaper than invest in a machine which u seldom use and wont produce quality coffee different from ur regular coffeeshop.

Tried Singapore before, and they don sell the part there also that why i end up import the part far from what i expected. last time i try to import my PID from US and it seem there is no problem getting through....

Personally, I had to learn this the hard way. To be honest, you have to identify the reason you are starting up this "hobby" of brewing your own drinking. Is it for convenience? cost saving (I think not)?

Bear in mind, those Espresso Machines you see at Specialty Cafes are mostly professional Espresso Machines, and they cost a bomb. Coffee beans they used are usually freshly roasted (at least the good ones). This all comes with a cost.

If you are to start brewing at home, with entry level espresso machines, the quality of the cup of espresso will not come close to any of those that you have tasted in the Specialty Cafes (it was also mentioned in the Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee book). Unless you are willing to spend up 5 figures for the espresso machine, coffee would usually be just acceptable taste (also quote from the book somewhere).

Coffee crafting at home will most of the time, cost more than a cup at the specialty cafes, in terms of investment in hardware, time (practice, and maintenance), lots of beans (fresh ones!), milk (if you prefer milk based).

Do go through this thread slowly, you will find that you can get a lot of insights and learnings. One thing for sure, please don't get grounded coffee beans, use fresh ones, order by small batches so you won't waste (as they can get stale quickly over a period of time). Invest in a good Grinder, as you will read, it's more important than the espresso machine itself

Cheers!

Hmmm i wonder what you ordered!!

@castreal well it depends on what type of coffee you like to drink like many people here suggest Good fresh beans + Good hand grinder (Hario or rinoware) + your selection of brew (V60, Aeropress, mokapot or machine) can match specialty caffe quality. But ofcoz if u like espresso type then you need to invest in a good machine (No need 5 figures la unless u open a cafe but in malaysia volume output also not big) there are so many choices. but i would not go for "No brand" "china made" simply because of safety (Boilers are pressurised and heating elements sucks high Power, and you are dealing with hot water i don't want to get 2nd degree burn because of failures and explosion) of coz everything is made in china but made in china with QC in other countries make a huge difference!!

Guys, do you think is it wise to get second hand machine ?

This post has been edited by doppatroll: May 10 2016, 02:02 PM

Not really need 5 figure....4 figure also can already (5K for Coffee Machine Carimali, 6K for Faema E98 2 groups commercial espresso machine while add another 1K you can get Vbm coffee espresso machine double boiler) provided if you got alot of space in your kitchen

Grinder could be one of the most important thing but one must not to forgot that always do maintenance on the machine with regular back flush and half year descale to keep those machine in the tip top condition that would last for years and years to come...

Some other machine part steam wand, I going to do some custom mod on my oscar simonelli changing it from the knob turning to level type. No more cranking the knob when i want to do milk frothing

but im still short of lube for my build which in process of shipping by other supplier

This post has been edited by d33pbluez: May 10 2016, 02:26 PM

can give some writeup/parts/cost/pics when all done, cos got few oscar users here, including me

me too! found that the knob can get pretty hot too after a while
anybody had luck modding to a non burn wand? the wipe off after steaming is troublesome

Sure do when i had my tools and parts ready. For now i only see my steam wand part arrive missing the lube
Also i ordering the custom made screen shower from IMS for consistency flow of the water on the group head i will show that in the later stage.

about the cost, trust me, you wont like the cost of this mod as it is expensive (Ringgit drop alot and order from overseas item cost a bomb) but i doing as part of my hobby as i did with the PID modification on my silvia before





I agree, It tends to get pretty hot after a while when the machine is on.

I don think there is any non burn stem wand mod for Oscar periodically but you can try mod by adding additional sleeve on your steam wand....Or try the conventional way by wetting the cloth with water and clean them....

Here some of the information i want to share about non burn steam wand works:

The no burn wands have a plastic tube inside of them that channels the steam down the center of the wand without heating the wand wall - thereby allowing you to hold and manipulate the wand without burning your fingers. The plastic tube tends to condense steam, so the steam coming out of it is less dry (I suppose this varies from machine to machine). Some people remove the plastic tube to make the wand deliver drier steam, but then you have to insulate it so you don't burn your fingers.

This post has been edited by d33pbluez: May 10 2016, 03:59 PM

Not concern so much about the fingers part but rather the foam tends to dry up fast and sticks to the wand so much that even with a wet cloth you have to "scrub" it. You want to wipe near the holes too as alot gets stuck there
By the time i get it clean and purged, the milk in my pitcher thickens up and has cooled down a little....not fun

Well, looks like I just have to keep finding. Thanks for the info on the insulated wands

Woohoo, Part arrive at my hand 80% already with some postcard and some carve stickers...but they miss ship out my retention C-Clip got to claim from them back.




Shipment comes with some high import charges as well....bloody hell



This post has been edited by d33pbluez: May 10 2016, 05:49 PM

like this

Dont worry about the milk it wont separate so fast after you had froth (Unless you frothing technic is not good enough). All you need to do is to swirl the milk in the pitcher. I seen many videos do that (Froth, clean and purge wand and continue to swirl the pitcher) and they still have cooperated micro foam pour from their pitcher. A little bit dirty is ok, you can come back to clean it later unless you dont do maintenance on your machine all the time (e.g dissamble to group head, steam wand and do cleaning, blackflush, descale). I think having semi auto machine, it is common practice already.

Yup, but better version of that .... i think a way to cover the previous hole with some rubber cap or something soft



This post has been edited by d33pbluez: May 10 2016, 07:27 PM

Hey, can anyone explain how Auresso works? Is the "3 bags monthly" subscription a bag a month or 3 bags at one go? And is there shipping fees?