The best choice: how to buy a coffee machine that is both convenient and stylish

Hello everyone, I am a coffee shop owner who has been in business for nearly ten years and the author of the e-book "Opening a Long-lasting Coffee Shop". This time I will briefly introduce several coffee equipment suitable for home use that were discussed a lot last year, hoping that it can be a reference for friends who like coffee.

You are also welcome to communicate with me on various social networking sites, Weibo: @定格咖啡, WeChat: Floyd-Liu, Zhihu: @dimlau.

This time, I plan to recommend several categories of coffee equipment: hand brewing kits , cold brew/ice drip , drip coffee machines , capsule coffee machines , and semi-automatic coffee machines . Before buying home coffee equipment, let's sort out the clues:

1. Price budget

Many people who are new to coffee may not be sure about the type of coffee they like. At this time, you can filter the coffee equipment you want to buy based on price. Generally speaking, the price of each category of equipment: hand brew, cold brew

2. Coffee Type

If you know your preferred coffee type, you can choose the right equipment. Generally speaking, coffee that looks like a cup of black liquid is called black coffee. Many people prefer black coffee for different reasons, such as liking its low calorie content to help lose weight, or feeling that drinking coffee with milk is not hardcore enough.

There are also distinctions in black coffee. For high-quality coffee beans from a single origin, we often use hand brewing or dripping , slowly experiencing the different taste sensations of each step from grinding to brewing in a few minutes. Or, sometimes we use a cold brew pot or ice drip pot to make a cup of slightly lighter black coffee in order to get a more unique and pure aroma and taste.

If you prefer a rich and thick coffee, you can use a capsule coffee machine or a semi-automatic coffee machine to quickly make a cup of Italian espresso at high temperature and high pressure in about 30 seconds. Others prefer the sweet and dense blend of coffee and milk. Some capsule machine models support milk frothing, and almost all semi-automatic machines are equipped with a steam milk frothing function, so you can froth milk and mix it with espresso to make a cup of coffee latte or cappuccino.

3. Convenience

In fact, it is not necessarily related to learning ability. Some people just want to drink a cup of delicious coffee, while others enjoy the production process. Both hand-brewed and semi-automatic coffee machines are weapons and equipment for training and upgrading. Coffee can be made with rough processing, but if you want to make it delicious, you have to practice the skills in every link. For example, the design of different hand-brewed equipment, some emphasize diversion and speed up the extraction speed, while others increase the soaking time. These different designs need to be different for each person, and you need to choose the corresponding equipment according to your own operating skills.

For a semi-automatic coffee machine, you need to consider how to distribute the coffee powder evenly, how to press it tightly, and how to observe how many seconds the machine takes to extract the coffee to achieve the best degree of completion... These are the so-called fun of operation, but not everyone likes to go through this kind of trouble.

Automatic drip machines and ice drip/cold brew followed closely behind. All you need to do is prepare your favorite coffee beans and slightly adjust the grinding coarseness and amount of powder. The operation process is quite simple. Capsule machines require almost zero operation and are suitable for people who are willing to enjoy the coffee itself.

4. Personal Preference

Once you have determined the first three indicators, you can determine the type of coffee equipment you want to buy. Finally, you can choose details such as color and appearance according to your preferences.

Below we will introduce several devices by category.

1. Hand pouring

First, I would like to recommend a hand-poured filter bowl that I also use, Kalita’s cake cup (wave cup) .

The texture of the stainless steel is very eye-catching. Compared with the common conical filter cup, the extraction flow rate of the cake cup is slightly slower, the powder is slightly coarser to allow more soaking time, and it has a higher tolerance for technical errors.

In terms of price, the price of Kalita Wave is around ¥170. In addition, the price of Hario cloud pot for hand-brewing is slightly higher, but you can choose some domestic brands for around ¥100.

I also recommend a product from a Taiwanese company, Mr. Clever Smart Cup

This gadget looks like a hand-pour filter bowl, but its usage is a bit like a French press. It has been well received in foreign coffee circles and related magazines for a long time.

There is a piston valve at the bottom. After filling with water, the piston valve closes. Let it soak for about three minutes, then pick it up and put it on the mouth of a cup or other container. The piston valve opens and the coffee flows into the container. Drink it directly. Cleaning is also simple. Just throw away the filter paper with the coffee grounds. It's great.

The skill requirements are much lower than hand brewing, and the taste is cleaner than the French press. It is really a good choice for lazy people with a picky taste. The price is about ¥130.

2. Cold Brew/Ice Drip

In addition to hand brewing, cold brew was also very popular last year. Because it is extracted at low temperature and for a long time, the taste of cold brew coffee is quite unique, with a restrained aroma and a slightly fermented flavor. It is very well received. Coffee shops all over the country have launched their own cold brew coffee. I also followed the trend:

For home use, Hario has a cold brew pot that is more suitable. Put coffee powder in the filter, fill the pot with ice water mixture, put it in the refrigerator overnight, and take out the filter and coffee grounds the next day and throw them away. The price is ¥190.

Put coffee powder in the filter, fill the pot with ice water mixture, put it in the refrigerator overnight, and take out the filter and coffee grounds and throw them away the next day. The price is ¥190.

In comparison, the tool I will introduce below is obviously much more advanced. Cold bruer ice drip coffee maker. Ice drip is not a new concept, but the previous ice drip coffee equipment was generally bulky, time-consuming, and expensive, so it was not common in coffee shops.

However, this small coffee pot, Cold bruer, can fit in even a home refrigerator. Put ice cubes and water in the upper pot, put coffee powder in the middle powder bowl, put it in the refrigerator the night before, and you can drink ice-cold drip coffee the next day. Unlike the extensive method of cold brewing, which is soaked throughout the process, ice drip coffee is filtered through ice water without soaking, so the taste is clearer than cold brewing. If you are interested, buy one now and wait for summer. The price is ¥600.

3. Automatic drip filter

When you buy a large home appliance, have you ever received a coffee machine as a gift? Usually it is an American drip machine that can produce black coffee by plugging it in, adding water and coffee powder.

But to use an ad slogan, not all American drip machines are SCAA certified, and not all American drip machines can make "golden cup" perfectly extracted coffee. The one below says it can. Bonavita drip coffee machine, everyone who plays hand brewing knows that for a while, you would feel embarrassed to say hello to people if you didn't have a Bonavita hand brewing kettle. The temperature control is well done, the water inlet is even, and the hand brewing process is simulated, which completely reverses the inferior image of American drip machines in the past. It can be said to be the most hand brewing drip coffee machine.

Actually, hand brewed coffee has become very popular in recent years, and everyone wants to learn how to make it at home. But you have to pay attention to the water temperature. You have to boil the water and wait for it to cool down. You have to use a thermometer to measure it. Then you have to watch the watch while it is steaming. It starts at 30 seconds. Then you have to pour water, draw circles, raise your arms higher or lower, and increase or decrease the water flow. It is really not fun. In the end, you just want to drink a cup of coffee with a distinct flavor at home! Buy the beans and let the machine do the rest! (When the machine is not turned on, you can also go to the coffee shop to give the baristas who rely on this to make a living and practice their skills every day a bite to eat, hahahaha)

However, other drip machines are given as a gift when you buy a refrigerator or TV, but this one from Bonavita costs ¥1200, a high-end American brand. Guess where it is made in? Smiley face.

I also recommend a Philips HD5412, which is a good-looking speaker.

Without further ado, put it on the table and watch the hot water bubbling. Maybe this cup of coffee will look stylish no matter how you drink it? Price: ¥1200.

4. Capsule coffee machine

As a coffee shop owner who uses semi-automatic coffee machines day and night, I am also a fan of capsule coffee machines. The reason is simple, it is just too convenient. In the past two years, I have recommended many friends to buy capsules. I just remembered that I am still a coffee bean seller. If everyone buys capsules, who will buy my coffee beans? !

However, I have a capsule machine at home just in case I need it… When I feel tired, I just plug it in, turn it on, add water, put the capsule in, press the button, wait for a minute or two, and a cup of coffee is ready. There is nothing to worry about when it comes to brands. Nespresso is the most common one, with many models. You can basically choose according to your budget. There are prices ranging from $700 to $800 and $4000 to $5000. The one in the picture below is the Inissia series.

If you have a good budget, you can buy a milk frother set, which is also very good for making a cup of cappuccino at home. The official price of the bare machine and the price with milk frother are ¥888 and ¥1688 respectively.

Alternatively, Nestle also has a brand that focuses on fashion and fast-moving consumer goods called Duoqukusi , which is a model developed in cooperation with Delonghi. It has a more fashionable appearance and uses a different type of capsule. Jiguo.com has reviewed it before. The characteristic of Duoqukusi is that the milk is also made into capsules. As long as you have the capsules, you don’t have to worry about anything else. The price is ¥1000.

The capsule machine is worry-free. You can use it whenever you want, without preheating the machine, etc. It is also quiet and takes up little space. It has decorative value. Most importantly, for a family, if the coffee beans are not consumed very quickly, storage is a problem. If you always have them, you may lose the flavor. If you don’t always have them, you may not be able to find the beans when you want to drink! The shelf life of capsules is generally much longer than that of coffee beans or powder. If you always have a few boxes, even if you consume one box a month, it is more worry-free.

The only thing is that the cost of a cup of coffee capsules may be higher than that of coffee beans. But considering the storage cost, there is nothing to complain about.

5. Semi-automatic

If the above still can't meet your needs, you are probably waiting for semi-automatic coffee, right? The so-called semi-automatic coffee means that you grind the coffee powder, manually put it into the powder bowl of the coffee machine handle, spread it evenly, and compact it. The rest of the steps are to press a button or pull the handle, and the machine will pump water to extract coffee.

When we talked about capsules, we said that using a semi-automatic machine at home is actually time-consuming, labor-intensive, and troublesome. The machine needs to be preheated, you have to practice the skills of each step, and you have to always think about how to choose beans and how to adjust the grinding coarseness, and other tedious matters. However, if you want to try coffee latte art or something to please yourself or your partner, you can only use a semi-automatic machine. Other machines or milk frothers are not very ideal.

Because semi-automatic coffee machines are widely used in coffee shops, there are a wide variety of brands and models. The prices are almost unlimited. For example, I use a square La Marzocco single-head small machine, which costs ¥ 40,000... So although it is officially labeled as a home model, it is too expensive to use it at home.

So I want to recommend a more affordable model that is quite popular, Huijia WPM KD 310 , priced at ¥8000, with more precise PID temperature control. Because it is heated by a heating block, the preheating process I mentioned earlier takes a very short time. The extraction is relatively stable, and the steam is sufficient. It is not a problem to use it to learn latte art. The rest is to stock up on beans! Many stores on Taobao will offer free beans if you buy this machine. Of course, they are just beans for practice. You have to choose the beans yourself later to drink good beans.

After talking so much about coffee equipment, I hope everyone knows that what we ultimately want to drink is the unique charm of life produced by the nutrients that coffee beans absorb from the environment they grow in their entire lives, the sunshine and rain they experience, which is what we call flavor. This flavor is retained and highlighted by the roaster during the roasting process, contained in the coffee beans, and finally we use the equipment to present it in a cup of coffee. So even if you use the most advanced equipment, if you use beans that have lost their flavor after being roasted for too long, or defective coffee beans produced in areas that are not suitable for planting, you will never be able to make a good cup of coffee.

In order to drink a good cup of coffee, and to truly verify whether you have the skills to make good coffee after learning, I still hope that everyone will choose freshly roasted high-quality coffee beans~

The author of this article is Floyd, a Jiguo experiencer

The series of content "40 Great Gods' Choice of Top Products" was exclusively released by Jiguo on Taobao Toutiao.

As Alibaba's officially certified MCN agency, Jiguo has more than 15,000 professional experiencers in the fields of 3C digital, home appliances, fashion, mother and baby, outdoor, personal care, home, automobiles, etc., and has strong e-commerce platform content operation and conversion capabilities.

Jigu's chief experiencers have many years of experience in shopping in the five major categories of technology and digital products, home appliances, sports and outdoor, fashion and wear, and novelty and cool toys. Here they share professional shopping tips for 40 categories of top products, which are the most worthwhile and coolest guides to super top products.

This article was originally written by Floyd, an intern experiencer at Jiguo