One day, I met two friends. We went to a coffee shop, bought two cups of coffee, and chatted. One of the topics was whether to buy an espresso machine. “Think twice before you buy it,” I said, “it’s not as easy to brew an espresso as you might think.” In fact, this wasn’t the first time I faced this question.
Imagine that you are sitting at a cafe with your friends. You enjoy chatting with them and having an egg benedict. A moment later, you receive a cup of caffe latte topping with pretty latte art. How cosy it is.
An espresso machine is an essential tool for brewing espresso. The cheapest entry-grade machines don’t come with commercial-grade accessories. You may find it difficult to upgrade them. Buying these espresso machines doesn’t bring a good result. You will soon upgrade to the prosumer level or give up the investment. Both of these actions are a waste of money.
How about buying a prosumer-level espresso machine directly? You’ll need at least HKD 4000. These low-prosumer-level espresso machines can brew good espresso, but often times they have different limitations. Some don’t equip themselves with a temperature control unit or a pressure gauge. Some produce too much pressure. Most of them are single-boiler or heat exchanger machines. You have to spend a lot of time taming this beast, not to mention you will often result in sour, bitter or hollow coffee. You can minimise these errors by buying a more expensive espresso machine – HKD 10000 or more. But does it sound reasonable for a beginner to buy it?
Beginners often think espresso machine costs the most. No, it is the grinder. Since the espresso machine brews coffee by exerting a high pressure, the coffee beans must be ground as fine as white sugar. Hand grinders that cost HKD 300 cannot achieve this grind size. You may need a hand grinder like 1Zpresso K-Plus, which costs HKD 1500. However, if you are not physically fit, you won’t enjoy grinding the coffee beans into an espresso-fine size. It’s like training your biceps, forearms, chest and back muscles. The starting price for an electric grinder is HKD 4000.
Summing the costs of an espresso machine and a fine electric grinder, it’s already HKD 8000. You still have a lot of accessories, namely, cups, a weighing scale, a WDT tool, a pitcher, etc. Your espresso starting pack now costs about HKD 10000.
Buying adequate tools doesn’t mean you have the skills to brew a tasty espresso. You will be frequently frustrated by brewing disgusting espresso, overusing beans in the dial-in process, frothing too thick milk foam or pouring broken latte art. You may need to practise all the barista skills every night for a couple of months. Until one day, you finally brew a tasty caffe latte, topping with pretty latte art and serve it to your friend. If you accept this challenge and are willing to invest so much time and money, go for it.
To be honest, I still can’t pour a stable rosetta.