Your first espresso machine.

Dry_bean.

My first machine was a very basic Krups, similar to the pic below,  purchased in the late 1990's, lasted all of about 6 months before I realised it was simply not capable of making a decent brew.

Sold the thing for a few dollars less than I paid for it and upgraded to a Silvia.

Cuir Beluga

DeLonghi Icona  8).

FreshCoffee2

Simonelli Mia, 1980's

steve82

Sunbeam EM2300 Actual single boiler (tiny) that ran pretty hot, but could be flushed to a decent temp. I cut out the bottom of the dual wall baskets. Coupled with a foray into hot air gun roasting and a porlex hand grinder - could make a pretty decent coffee.

Moon

A krups like DB's in the top post .. thought it was great at the time. Golly DB .. the Silvia was a huge upgrade.. from the Krups blob of plastic. All have to start somewhere eh.  :P

Dry_bean.

Not sure it was a huge leap Moon, however it certainly was a good move at the time, the Silvia/Rocky combo served me well for just short of 10 years before I felt the need to upgrade again.

Lacehim

My first machine was a Lucy (Silvia/Rocky) and I loved her.  Total learning curve!  I was getting awful coffee outbid it and my wife got me 2 hours training with the lovely Tim Adams and he turned it around for me and I really learned a lot.  We were very lucky having him at Pioneer at the time, and now he's got his own cafe near Kelsey.  Saw on his facebook page he's starting training there too.  Nice. Lucy was great but the temp surfing got a bit annoying.  Had a Data logger reading temps of the boiler and hot wired it so the low water light was the boiler element light (as per Miss Silvia).  That causes much amusement with AM and Mal over on CS!  Safety safety!  But I should have know better eh! From then I restored a San Marino CK (nightmare but learnt a lot about espresso machines) and to the lusso, QM 0996 and to an Oscar.  So up up up up and back to basics!  lol. My mum and dad still buy me a bottle of Nescafé when they visit.  It's all too much fuss they say. Lol.

FreshCoffee2

ah yeah we used to have to keep a jar of 43 beans for my mother in law (also in the "too much fuss" brigade). That's ok if they needed to make themselves a cuppa because they didnt know how to use "the gear", but in the main we were always here at the same time so the jar just sat in the pantry forever and a day. Although they were quite "conversant" with the bialetti stove top moka.... Which brings to mind, that if you discount pump driven espresso machines,  anyone's first "espresso machine" was probably a stove top.

Dry_bean.

on 1426403205:

Which brings to mind, that if you discount pump driven espresso machines,  anyone's first "espresso machine" was probably a stove top.

Very true A, I owned a Bialetti stove top longer ago than I care to reveal. ::)

Cuir Beluga

on 1426403205:

ah yeah we used to have to keep a jar of 43 beans for my mother in law (also in the "too much fuss" brigade). That's ok if they needed to make themselves a cuppa because they didnt know how to use "the gear", but in the main we were always here at the same time so the jar just sat in the pantry forever and a day. Although they were quite "conversant" with the bialetti stove top moka.... Which brings to mind, that if you discount pump driven espresso machines,  anyone's first "espresso machine" was probably a stove top.

In that case mine was a Kambrook drip thing with the glass jug that sits on a hot plate of sorts. I still have it somewhere and as far as I know it still works .

Dry_bean.

Guess we all know, this will lead to another thread outlining personal coffee journeys. Mine will take quite a bit of documenting, it started a loooooong time ago. :coffee2:

Cuir Beluga

;D

Dry_bean.

Crikey! its big ;D As a matter of interest Sue, how did you post a full size image? using the attachment option they all post as thumbnails.

Cuir Beluga

;D I just upload the pic to TinyPic and copy and paste the IMG code that the TinyPic site tells me to  .

Moon

Crikey DB .. I forgot that I too had a Bialetti many years before having that Krupps. Probably at least 15 years before. Golly.. they made a potent brew .. an excellent heart starter in the morning. Doubt I'd like it these days.. the caffeine hit probably would've burned me out by now if I'd continued with those coffees. Think I even gave the Turkish coffee a go back then .. although that powdery gunk boiled up in one of those ladle pots wouldn't have lasted long. It was that cellophane packet of pre-ground stuff that may even still appear on the Supermarket shelves today. Blimey .. someone must still be buying it.

Brett H

When I was a student I was a very popular dorm-mate only because I had one of these:

Brett H

Then I got two real jobs one teaching full time and one singing professionally!  I had the disposable income to save for the dream Machine!  The guy at Myer where we saw it demo'd said it was a category killer.  Hmmm.... If I knew them what I know now.... Hmmm

Moon

Oooooh .. another Krups .. and the top model by the looks ... impressive start there Brett.  ;D Category killer eh  :rofl: ps. We can larf about it now ..

Brett H

Yep... My only volumetric machine was my first.  The double walled basket meant you could even get Crema from tea.  Unspeakably bad tasting Crema irrespective of the beans!  My first grinder to match was a Whirly one....

GeekKopi

my first machine was a Saeco Via Venezia, I didn't know what I was doing when I first got it then I quickly out grew it.

Kevohere

Yup, same here, but I don't think I out grew the Saeco quickly enough  :-[. Finances held me back until I could afford a "step up" three years later to an Isomac Venus followed soon by an Expobar Minore III and now The Strega! Me thinks I'll be sitting on this for quite a while.  :thumb:

GeekKopi

on 1433135015:

Yup, same here, but I don't think I out grew the Saeco quickly enough  :-[. Finances held me back until I could afford a "step up" three years later to an Isomac Venus followed soon by an Expobar Minore III and now The Strega! Me thinks I'll be sitting on this for quite a while.  :thumb:

I didn't upgrade for a while too but during that time I also had a sunbeam and was lucky enough over the last few years to have used a Silvia at work.

Brett H

That's a great work machine!  Simple, reliable and robust!  Just don't let a newbie blow the boiler in it!  Having said that it's harder to break them than some retailers would have you believe!!  The thermal cut-out saved mine once!

Dry_bean.

My first machine was a Krups, bought it about 1998, owned it for less than 12 months, it really was a very ordinary appliance. :tearhair: I replaced it with a Silvia. ^-^

GeekKopi

on 1433146016:

That's a great work machine!  Simple, reliable and robust!  Just don't let a newbie blow the boiler in it!  Having said that it's harder to break them than some retailers would have you believe!!  The thermal cut-out saved mine once!

Before our team grew it was only 4 of us using it. My director at the time is a coffee geek. So we treated the apparatus with respect. We also had the rocky grinder with it. Once our team grew to over 20 there were some that started using the gear without respect and leaving it in an ugly state. They did manage to blow the boiler. Had no choice at that time but to brew Turkish in an electric self contained unit while the silvia was getting fixed.

askthecoffeeguy

I had a Krups too wasn't up for much Then I bought a baby gaggia from campberwell market and my espresso journey began ! Since then I've owned a gaggia classic, a bezzera bz 40,  a bezzera domus Galatia,  a la cimbali s20, and now a rancilio epoca Must say my preference is for the semi commercial machines - they just seem to have more grunt and cope better with catering for larger numbers Still to each their own and I know preferences are unique Owned a bunch of commercial machines through my cafes but my favorite would have to be the kees van der westen mistral triplicate - beautifully designed with great functionality - it just seemed to ramp up to meet demand -  the busier we were the better it seemed to perform often coping with 10 to 12kg on a busy day no problem !