I appreciate Marshall's advice - if you are interested in sampling and learning about the varieties of coffees and taste, he is spot on.

If you are interested in espresso, however, don't be afraid to start with a basic kit for learning about the process. I started with a simple Saeco machine and hand grinder, and enjoyed it thoroughly for a couple of years before moving on to home lever machines. Espresso-making is an enjoyable journey in itself for those who allow themselves to love the process.

I just pulled my first AM cappuccino with a vintage second hand grinder I've been using for 10 years ($10), paired with a 2nd hand lever machine I purchased for £100 from and HB mate. No scale, refractometer, just the three of us, grinder, lever, and me. The taste was out of this world - as good or better than most cafes. The experience as always one of the most sublime ways to start the day.

peacecup wrote:If you are interested in espresso, however, don't be afraid to start with a basic kit for learning about the process.

From your signature panel, it appears you already have a more-than-acceptable kit: Crossland CC1, B Vario-W, Lido 3, Acaia pearl. You don't need to worry about upgrading until you're consistently making the best espresso you possibly can from what you have. All you need to add is patience and a willingness to practice. For espresso and everything else you want to make (photographs, music, etc), start with a generally accepted procedure and do it often enough and long enough to get consistent acceptable results. Then change one thing at a time, and document how each change worked out. Re espresso, this means starting with commonly used and loved beans, an average dose and set of brew parameters from among all those posted on HB etc, and a lot of patience. Then see what happens when you increase the dose by a gram, keeping everything else the same. Go up another gram. Grind a little finer, tamp a little lighter. Lower your brew temp by 3 degrees for a few dozen shots, then bring it up one at a time. Keep notes on every change and its effect. It'll take you more than a year just to reach optimum parameters for you and your equipment, especially if you do it with a few different beans to learn about the differences.

You should have no problem at all learning to make very good espresso with your current stuff. No, you won't get velvety chocolate-y godshots from it, but there seem to be many happy users. Just remember that it's a poor carpenter who blames his tools. Even with fancy gadgetry, you can't expect to set some dials and pull great shots - you'll have to try some alternatives even if you weigh your dose to 0.1 gm. A refractometer is not a guarantee of great coffee - it can tell you how much stuff you've extracted from the ground coffee, but it can't tell you how the coffee tastes. Only you can do that, and your equipment is more than adequate for some pretty good drinking. So you might as well get used to the idea that it'll be a while before you love most of what you make, and start going down the path. You simply can't buy this kind of expertise.

As others have already posted, financing an espresso machine is a sign that you probably shouldn't be buying it. Sure, there are some who can't stop themselves from buying serious machinery that they have to finance. But in my experience, borrowing to buy luxury items is most often an aberration and a terrible role model, especially before establishing a basic financial path with realistic expectations for the future. If you save $2 a day by not having one thing you'd otherwise eat or drink (e.g. a mediocre chain espresso, a muffin or doughnut, etc), you'll have $500 in less than a year. That's enough to get started with a simple hand grinder and a nice new or very nice used machine. Take good care of what you get and it'll last for several years before needing much other than cleaning and gaskets. The pressure to buy more than you can use is very costly, but there's a limited return on the marginal investment.

bluesman wrote: Just remember that it's a poor carpenter who blames his tools.

+1

I've had terrible espresso on extremely expensive machines pulled by a bad barista. I've also had amazing espressos that I've pulled myself on inexpensive, old equipment. Get to know your tools and I bet you'll be able to coax great results out of them. After that, an upgrade could mean more consistency and ease of use.

Hudson wrote: Get to know your tools and I bet you'll be able to coax great results out of them. After that, an upgrade could mean more consistency and ease of use.

And if, as the OP suggests, money is an issue, an upgrade will not be necessary. As I begin my retirement, I have no irresistible desire to replace my old Oscar with a Linea Mini. I will admit to a resistible one, though.

Every coffee related purchase under 500.00, I just paid for it.

Everything over that amount was funded by saving every $5.00 dollar bill received in cash transactions.
Every other piece of equipment was paid for with cash; saved $5.00 at a time over a 4-5 year period. I'm still stashing the 5's away. It sort of became an obsessive/legalistic thing to do.

I'll speak for me:

I have a ''normal'' job. I have many passions and hobbies, but coffee is the only one requiring important personnal expanses: lucky point number one. I have many other priorities but coffee is part of the game, yes. Anything related to coffee is paid cash because I think only house and car should be financed and if you don't have the money then don't buy it.

I also have an incredible girlfriend that just don't give a sh** about my personnal expanses if she got her cappa on the week-ends: lucky point number two.

Coffee has always been enjoyed in my life, with any gear or budget allowed to it and I think it's a life story. It's easy to find freaker than you on the internet and you are not in these people pants. Just live your life and enjoy each cup you have the chance to drink. You'll never find the end anyways, so just enjoy it. It's fine if it's at Starbucks, at your home with a 20k equipment of with instant coffee: enjoy it.

And if you decide to spend money while enjoying the taste of your dark fuel: grinder first.

Cheers !

I wrote this somewhere in another thread talking about coffee and cost, but I have tried to make the hobby pay for itself as much as possible. Most of the equipment I have now came from either trading or selling old equipment to get it. To buy my two group vintage lever I bought 5 old broken home levers, repaired them, and then sold them to what I assume to be happy new leverheads. I learned some new skills and a bit more about physics along the way. I took up home roasting as a way to save money, building my own roaster. Now I also enjoy the greater variety of coffee home roasting has afforded me and I've learned a bit more about chemistry!

stherric wrote:Do people often finance machines, pay in cash, take out a second mortgage, etc.? Mostly kidding about the second mortgage . Does the increase in purchasing power come with age?

It can come with age. I definitely have more spending power than I did when I started out and balked at paying $450 for my first "real" machine and $250 for my first "real" grinder nearly 14 years ago. The latest upgrades were rolled into our kitchen & wet bar remodel which also included running power & water for the new machine.

As many have said, buy used, get a good grinder, and learn to repair. My first setup was purchased for under 500$. That was a Brasilia Cub and Mazzer Super Jolly.