HELP!!!! I'm a coffee addict.

[Stinky The Clown]

I am a coffee addict.

There, I said it. I'm totally addicted. And not just coffee. It has to be espresso. It started out as a bit of self indulgence, a change from the old pour over brewer and the old, old vacuum brewer. Just a little stove top Bialetti. Some canned Medaglia D'oro.

Then bigger Bialettis. Then a few forays into buzz box espresso makers. Braun, Cuisinart, always looking for the perfect cup. Then a used La Pavoni. Too much work and way too fussy. A few more buzz boxes. Two different Briels.

A grinder. The blender type. Then a burr grinder.

Then the big plunge. A Saeco Vienna Deluxe superautomatic. One push of a button and 40 seconds later whole coffee beans are ground, espresso brewed, and the grounds dumped. No fuss, no muss, no bother.

Espresso, latte, cappuccino. All very European. All crema and aroma.

Then imported beans by the kilo ... then by the case. Lavazza Grand Espresso.

Then .... a **second** superautomatic. A Saeco Magic Deluxe. The Vienna in the office (downstairs) and the Comfort in the kitchen, upstairs. Never too far from another shot. Always another shot.

Gotta have it.

3 ...... 5 ..... 8 ..... even more cups a day.

I'm addicted.

And I LOVE it!

[NMDemDist2]

1. ROFL I couldn't live without my Saeco Magic Deluxe. now my coffee

at home is as good as my $8000 machine at work

and yes i'm addicted. I drink espresso, water and the occasional cuppa tea. No soda, very little juice, no booze just espresso from beans that have been locally fresh roasted no older than 14 days, the purest spring water i can get delivered

and your point is??

[The empressof all]

2. God, I'd love one of those puppies

That Saeco Magic Deluxe looks awesome. My purse won't allow me to put it under my tree this year -though with the amount of Latte's and Espressos I buy every year amortized out it would be a cost savings. Maybe you're onto something here. But I'm so addicted then I could never leave home because I wouldn't be able to afford to stop at the local drive throooooooos.


I'm with you on the Lavazza Beans too. They are perfection. I can get them fresh in bulk at my local grocery. Worth every penny!

[NMDemDist2]

3. define "fresh" do you roast them at home?

Lavazza is one of the finer beans available, but find a local "microroaster" and you will be amazed

Like machine cleanliness most espresso making establishments have trouble keeping their supply of roasted coffee fresh. Your goal is to use your coffee between 2 and 5 days after roasting. Roasted coffee must be packaged within 2 hours of roasting and stored in those same bags/containers at 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Doing so will give you great rewards in the cup.

Roasted coffee is extremely volatile.

you can tell if the beans are old very easily. If you have none or very little "crema" your beans are old

a fresh bean will give you 1/3 of the shot as crema



forgive me if I nag, but it is my business. I use 25-30 pounds of beans a week making espresso :)

[The empressof all]

4. We were in the business ourselves a while back

Do you own a shop? We had a stand about 10 years ago outside of Denver. We needed to be in WA full time so we folded.

Of course the Lavazza is not going to be as fresh as roasting your own. I've been looking into those nifty home roasting machines. Luckily we have a Roasting company a mile or so away so we frequently buy from them. My SO is a real coffee snob so I'm a little afraid to start the home roasting or he will complain even more about "commercial" coffee.



Have you home roasted?

[Stinky The Clown]

5. We tried 4 or 5 different Lavazza blends

What we wanted was the more complex, deep coffee flavor you get in Europe. None of the local roasters could do that (or at least didn't know how). Tried a few of the more esoteric US mail order roasts, still no go. Starbucks is bleeech. Just overroasted ordinary coffee, it seemed. Tried Illy and got closer. Lavazza however, was even better. We bought a kilo of each of their flavors and found the Grand Espresso (which is, to the eye, a lighter color than some of their others, but has a deeper flavor) most to our liking.

As to crema, we get about 25% from our Saeco machines with most any Lavazza. I actually got more crema from Illy, but didn't like the taste nearly as much as the Lavazza.

None of this is coffee snobbery. We like Lavazza for what it is. I guess that's why they make different flavors of ice cream, have different colors of cars and have different roasts of coffee.

For those who buy coffee in ground, canned form, try Lavazza Milano Roast. The closest I have ever come to the flavor of European coffee in a regular coffee maker. It is superb in a vacuum brewer! Crisp and clear with a deep complex flavor and no bitterness.

[Willy Lee]

8. Hey AzDem- Do you home roast or roast commercially?

We have a coffee roasting biz in Illinois.

[NMDemDist2]

14. i just buy the beans and extract them

i have a local roaster I work with :)

you should put your biz in the DU marketplace. I bet some folks would love buying fresh roasted coffee from another DUer :)

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Actually, the cheaper Vienna Deluxe may well be the better machine

Saeco makes an insane number of variations. I don't understand why. Their ideal machine would be a combination of the this feature from that machine and that feature from this machine, etc. Its almost as if they can't find the sweet spot!

Every Saeco superauto uses the same brew group. In the brew part, only the piping to and from it is different. In fact, many other brands use the Saeco brew group, its that good. Oddly, it is all plastic and looks a little cheap in a Rube Goldberg sorta way, but it works great!

The Magic has greater bean hopper and water tank capacities, greater spent grounds capacity, faster brew and an integral heater plate on top for cups. But the Vienna Deluxe has their Rapid Steam feature, which, to me, is a huge plus. It takes 5 seconds to get nice, dry, steam for frothing milk. The Magic needs about a minute (and about a 1/2 cup of water) to go from coffee to steam. The steam quality is just as good, however. Then, to go back to brewing, you have another minute or so to cool the steam down so you can get back to brewing. You also get more info from the control panel ...... even a light to tell you when to descale (a process which if not done **religiously** will cause your machine to die a premature death).

With the Vienna Deluxe, the ability to easily make steam is simply a non-issue. But with this machine, you get less water capacity, a smaller dregs box, and no cup warmer, and a "dumber" control panel.

If you ever consider a superauto, and want a bargain, try online for a refurbished unit. Do NOT go to eBay. Espresso machines are very easy to abuse or at least misuse. A machine about to see its boiler die, but is technically still functional, is no bargain. The repair for that will set you back $200 to $250 easy. I bought my Magic DeLuxe as a refurbished unit. It had the full factory warranty and came with an entirely new compliment of accessories. I saved almost $300 on the price of a new unit. I got it at Arbee (Arabee??) coffee on the internet. Just google Saeco Magic DeLuxe Espresso and they should come up very near or at the top. Maybe as a sponsored link.

[madmax]

7. Poor Sparkly....

She's married to a kitchen appliance addict. They must just loooove to see you coming at Bed, Baff and Beyond. :evilgrin:

[Sparkly]

10. There should be a support group!

Now he's got his eye on a sweet little KitchenAid ice-cream making attachment thing. :eyes:

I guess some men collect power tools like drills and electric saws, and others consider mixers, fryers, slicers, steamers, choppers and coffee makers power tools! :hi:

[Eurobabe]

11. my hubby is into kitchen gadgets too, luckily

I've never had to convince him to spend money on nice kitchen things. When we are out shopping, he always say, do you need anything for the kitchen?

Funny, I never ask him that at Lowes.

[madmax]

20. Hey Sprakly

Yes, he said that little ice-cream maker was calling to him, lol.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. I call 'em before I go ..........

..... they very helpfully send a car for me.

[Eurobabe]

9. After 22+ yrs. of constant coffee consumption

I had to go COLD TURKEY for health reasons.

Who is bummin' more than me? I really miss my Joe in the AM. <sigh>

[Neecy]

13. great discussion

Aside from shots, what do you use for brewed coffee? I'm currently using a french press, but I found syphon pots on sale and they look intriguing, if a little complicated:



I'm not sure if their design and cool brewing method is a gimmick, or if they actually produce a good brew. Has anyone used one of these gizmos?

[NMDemDist2]

15. looks like it's based on the old "Turkish" type moka brewer

not a true espresso which is extracted with water under very high pressure

does it work like one of these?



To make coffee in a stovetop Moka brewer, first unscrew the base, remove the metal coffee filter and fill the bottom with cold water to the level of the safety valve. Replace the filter and spoon in enough ground coffee to reach the top. The grind should be medium-fine, about the same as for a paper filter or a little finer. If the grind is too fine, the water won't get through it, because the pressure isn't strong enough, or the water will overheat in the attempt and overextract, drawing out bitter substances. Sweep a knife edge or spatula over the top to level the coffee. You can compact the grounds slightly with the bottom of a glass that fits the diameter of the filter, but don’t tamp the coffee hard or the water won’t make it through.

Screw on the upper chamber and set the moka on a medium-low flame. After about three minutes, coffee will begin to hiss and dribble out two holes at the sides of the tube in the upper compartment. The tube in the upper compartment is by design partially closed, both to prevent coffee from spraying all over the stove if the lid is left open - as it generally is, so you can tell when the coffee is ready - and to add a bit more pressure to the coffee on its final journey. Some people even buy small metal caps that fit over the tube and further restrict the flow, supposedly to intensify the flavor. These don't do very much.

[Neecy]

16. looks like the same principle

You put a heat source under the syphon, and as the water heats it forces it up through the grounds in the upper chamber. I've seen them at a couple of restaurants, and the coffee was pretty good, but how practical it would be to use it on a regular basis is probably questionable.

The coffee from a vac pot is unsurpassed by any standards, but it is the design of these that make them so unique...and functional. With their roots apparently in the 70's when fondue was the "in thing", these syphons are heated with an oil burner (or canned Sterno for the more practical-minded)and supported by a unique horseshoe-styled base and handle that supports the upper brewer and lower carafe pots.
Bring it out on the dinner table after dinner, add your water and your freshly-roasted "bragging" coffee (using a coarse grind), light the alcohol burner and watch your coffee brew right in front of your eyes. As with any vac pot, extinguish the flame after the water reaches the upper brewing pot, where it will brew and then seep back into the lower carafe. Then simply remove the brewing pot, stick it in the inverted lid, which doubles as a holder, and pour your coffee using the black handle directly from the bottom carafe.

[Stinky The Clown]

18. Not really the same

That's a Moka pot, commonly made by Bialetti. It is a small pressure vessel. The vacuum pots work on vacuum (the opposite of pressure).

[Stinky The Clown]

17. These are modern versions of an ooooold way to brew coffee

This picture is the 1940s/1950's version of the Cory and Cory/Silex style.

I'm not exactly sure when they were invented .... 1880s? 1900?

No matter, they've been around a long time and even today a few companies make them. The links below give some technical insight, so I won't go into that here. I have two of these, both old Cory/Silex. One is the narrow necked one from the 1920s/1930s and one a wide throat model from the 1940s/1950s. They both work perfectly (and with no moving parts and no integral heat source, what's to go wrong?).

The coffee these things make is nothing short of fantastic. The guy that invented them was either a genius or just plain lucky. The physics of them make them brew coffee at an ideal temperature. As a result you get near-perfect extraction. No bitterness at all, unless it is a specific characteristic of the coffee you're using. The liquid has absolutely no cloudiness and the taste is as clean and pure as any you can imagine.

The downside to them is the inability to hold coffee warm for any length of time. You have to either brew it and drink it or brew it and put it in a thermos. I would never think to put it on a hot plate as that will only serve to scorch the coffee, and that would be sinful!

The picture in your post is for one of the new models currently in production. They function exactly like the old ones and will do ya a great cuppa!

Here's a link to some historical pictures of vacuum brewers

http://www.oldcoffeeroasters.com/vacpots.htm

Here's some how-to and a commentary

http://coffeefaq.com/coffaq2.htm#Vacuum

[Neecy]

19. hmmmmm

That's a pretty good endorsement - I think I'll try one. It would be good for coffee after dinner, when I'm not looking to drink an entire pot, so the warming issue isn't a problem. The place I found them has them starting at $33.00, which won't break the bank. Thanks!

[Sparkly]

21. Disclaimer!!!

That is NOT a picture from our house!! No furniture or wallpaper even coming close to resembling what's in that picture can come near our house -- it all left with his ex :evilgrin:. (I'm sorry but I saw that and went, "What the heck?! Where did he take that picture?")

We do have a coffeepot like that, though. We made some for company once to show them how cool it was, and the coffee was undrinkable, but it might have had something to do with me saying, "It needs another scoop! Another scoop! That's not enough, another scoop!")

[Baja Margie]

22. I, too am an addict.