Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Playing Coffee Roulette


Anyone who knows me knows I'm a coffee nut (or should that be bean?) . Like any coffee nut I'm pretty picky about the product. Especially when it costs upwards of $4 for a cup. It seems New Zealander's really aren't that fussed about good coffee - or else why are there so many terrible baristas (I use that term loosely) out there?

Now I'm no expert but if you get a sour watery coffee or one that tastes like someone has stubbed their cigarette out in it then it's no good. That's $4 of undrinkable coffee. Plus the cost of fluffies (that's steamed milk in a demitasse cup for the unitiated) for the kids.

I was lucky enough to be gifted an old coffee machine a year or so ago by friends of mine who had upgraded. It was small but it was beautiful and I loved it. It even came on holiday with me. Sadly it died this year and so I was left with the option to buy a replacement or play coffee roulette with bought stuff.

I managed to get a Baby Gaggia off TM at half the retail price of new. A very dirty, never been cleaned machine but still a good price. I did have to buy the cleaning brush, backflush disk, tamp (it came with a plastic one) and cleaning solution for it. Plus since I don't have a grinder, I have to buy coffee for it every week(To all the coffee drinkers shuddering at the thought of pre-ground; I know! I know! But I haven't been able to convince my non-coffee drinking hubby that we need a $600+ grinder -yet). Unlike my old machine she's a bit fussier and doesn't like the 'supermarket' grind. It has to be finer for my baby. So it costs $12-15/ week for the coffee but I get 7 or more cups from that.

So is it cheaper? Possibly not at the moment. Depending on how long the machine lives it may well be though. Is it better than bought stuff? Well it's better than a majority of it. I know a few places to get awesome coffee around here but only a few.

Consistent coffee every morning is worth the cost to me. Plus my cafe doesn't charge for fluffies :)

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