Cheap home espresso machine

or, How I saved over $900 a year on espresso.

I've used this inexpensive espresso machine (about $60) for the past year, and it's worked out pretty well. I will probably upgrade to a better model eventually, but so far I've been impressed with the fact that it produces decent espresso (an average of 2-3 per day) with only a few niggling problems.

I picked up (or, rather, had delivered--I've been really happy with Amazon's return policy on stuff that turned out to be junk) this espresso maker about a year ago. I had been paying the $2/doppio price to Starbucks for a long time, and some friends had told me about their pod espresso machine at home. They bought pods for about $.65 each (i.e. about a third of Starbucks) through mail-order (I've since started doing the same from Illy) and pulled shots with their espresso machine at home.

I did a lot of research online and, wanting to limit my investment in something that might eventually start gathering dust or break, I gave myself a budget of $100 or less. That ruled out the Italian espresso machines. Some poking around online led me to this model.

For the past year, I've made about a couple of espressos a day, and have steamed milk with it only a couple of times (actually, made a soy chai and soy yerba mate).

For the most part, the espresso is good: hot (using my tips below), with decent crema, and good taste. There are some problems, though:

• the sound is decidedly unsexy: more like a moped than the hissing of the machine your Starbucks barista uses
• occasionally, the seal for the portafilter leaks, spilling some hot water into the tray below
• the scoop that supposedly doubles as a tamper doesn't; if you're using ground beans instead of a pod, it's hard to tamp down effectively with the scoop. And with a 49mm portafilter size, it's hard to find a real tamper (a friend loaned me his, but it was too big). I generally use the pods, so it's not as big an issue, but if I didn't, I'd probably spend another $5-10 on a 49mm tamper.

We're talking about a $60 appliance here. The fact that I've been generally pretty pleased with it over the past year is a pretty powerful statement.

How much I've saved vs Starbucks. Let's assume 2 espressos per day, and $2/shot at Starbucks (I usually throw the change into the tip jar).

STARBUCKS

365 x 2 x $2 = $1460

MR COFFEE + ILLY PODS

$60 + (365 x 2 x $0.65) = $534.50

So I saved $925 and was able to make espresso at home. Now, there's something to be said for the coziness of Starbucks, but... $925 is a 7-day vacation package to Miami. Or Cabo.

I'm comfortable with my decision.