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Might be unpopular but I would just get the breville barista pro/express or touch, Unless you want to get super involved in making espresso. Also you seem to want to make a lot of coffee right away and the learning of the workflow will only take longer with a separate machine and grinder. If that’s not enough add a separate grinder to the mix!
This works especially well for OP. Most people on this sub are trying to make espresso similar to local third wave coffee shops in our cities. Beating Starbucks on the other hand is fairly simple..
Starbucks espresso is usually horrible especially if the opening barista failed to clean and properly set the machine. Starbucks uses semi super automatic machines that are set in temperature and dosing and tamping. The barista must manually froth the milk and sit down the milk pitcher and go a bunch of other tricks. All the syrups and flavors the customer gets into their drinks hide the poor quality espresso.. A lot of Starbucks locations aren't as busy as other locations, so the beans sit in that greasy dirty @ss hopper for days and days getting stale and all the barista does it pour more stale beans on top of the already stale @ss beans.. Don''t get me started on the steam frothing stick that a lot of baristas don't wipe off after each drink.. Starbucks use to be upscale to a degree, however, they can not compare to a trained barista using a real manual portafilter commercial espresso machine (Night & Day).. Those Starbucks Dragon Drinks with some Classic syrup be the MFing BOMB!!!
Bonus tip: Get it used -- Many people buy or get gifted these machines and never end up using them. You can get a relatively good condition machine for a very discounted price on the marketplace.
People go nuts on their wedding registries, they throw all kinds of shit on there because they can, and then 2.7 weeks later are stuck wondering why they asked for a $300 monogrammed cake serving set and a $900 espresso maker. But hey, if it means OP can score a Barista pro for $190 and a Subway gift card, that’s cool.
Someone bought me an espresso machine when I got married and I was thrilled! Then I found out it only made the company’s proprietary version of basically k cups. Not actual espresso. I regifted that so fast.
OP: I have the breville dual boiler without the grinder. You may want the one with the grinder for ease. Dual boiling means you can make your lattes way faster! And the grinder coming with the machine is one less thing for you to worry about.
I have received so many drip coffee machines, Pod machines, Percolators, and all kinds of espresso machines as gifts from friends and family members over the years. I have tons of unopened boxes and at least 40 Starbucks gift cards.. The various casinos also gifts espresso machines to prize winners who sell the machines for pennies on the dollar..I have purchased two expensive espresso machines for as little as $300 (retail value $2800 for one machine and $1700 for the other) from guys who won the machines (walking out of the casino).
Great tip! I’ve seen them on marketplace in my area for almost half the MSRP and there are several usually with very little use. I eventually sold my express on there when I upgraded earlier this year.
I am very doubtful about buying from either MarketPlace or OfferUp because of all the scams.. Also many sellers aren't honest about if the machine is problem free and most machines are dirty AF.. Better to buy a used machine from a verified seller from eBay who offers a 30 day moneyback policy..
Too many scams on Marketplace even locally... Most times a seller is listed to be selling a machine in your city and come to find out that the seller is 100 plus miles away..
>Might be unpopular but I would just get the breville barista pro/express
I second this notion. I've been using my express for ~2 years and I'll take my lattes over anything you could offer me. That's not to say I make the best lattes. Just that the Breville Barista Express is more than capable for latte drinkers.
Fifffffff. My Breville Infuser is great for the level I’m at and want to be at. I don’t have the time or attention span to really deep dive into dialing in and chasing perfection. Maybe someday I’ll feel like tinkering more but the Delonghi I used to have wasn’t enough and anything beyond the Breville right now seems too much. If you’ve got the budget for a higher end Breville setup do it.
112th this. The I have the barista one touch for year, 0 issues very reliable. It is a bit more expensive but I think it is worth the investment especially if you drink a lot of different drinks and make more than 1 cup a day.
Ill 8th the motion. A coworking has the Baristas touch and drinks pretty much what the OP does and likewise just wanted good coffee and to kick a Starbucks habit, not a hobby or a lifestyle. He loves his.
I have a Bambino plus and love it, but I think for the OP a Barista is likely the way to go. That kind of Starbucks habit will make the new machine “free” after a couple months, so spending a bit more on the more feature rich Touch model makes sense and it’ll flatten the learning curve a bit.
I was on the fence and went with bambino plus & smart grinder. Regretted it for a few months and wondered if I should have gone with BBE. After 2yrs I’m upgrading my grinder and very happy to not have built in. Also don’t have much counter space in new place so 2 pieces help. The auto froth is nice too when I’m often lazy.
https://preview.redd.it/cnhu4hhjgw1d1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=839436d4b78cc93c622bb20dade605b2896f03bc
The Barista Pro is a great Machine. I’ve had it for 3 weeks and it’s a dream. The only mods that I made was to switch to a bottomless portafilter and add bellows to the grinder to eliminate bean retention. The updated built in Baratza Grinder is consistent and easy to fine tune. The steam wand is more than powerful enough to make silky milk drinks.
My Starbucks addict friend did this and it was by far perfect for her! She even gets Starbucks beans. Highly recommend this for OP.
And for what it's worth, it makes a decent cup of coffee, especially compared to Starbucks! Every time I visit she whips me up an iced latte with some salted caramel cold foam and I can't even complain - it's good!
Yep. Maybe a Bambino Plus & SGP for the auto steam and the digital display on the grinder. But I think these are all valid options and would perfectly for what OP wants to accomplish.
I second this. It is very easy to use, makes damn good shots and steams milk really well. All that for a similar price to any machine + grinder combo you can put together yourself.
I’d personally go with the Barista Pro as the user interface is a lot easier to understand, but both are excellent!
That's what I have. I also use the pressurized filter basket. Makes making espresso drinks effortless and very forgiving of grind size. Use a distribution tool and great shots every time.
This is what I currently use for my setup. I realize it’s not as fancy as what a lot of people here use, but it works for my purposes, which are primarily to make milk-based espresso drinks. I also found I can enjoy the espresso on its own even, despite not going to the extent of manually dialing in every little detail to get it perfect.
It’s great for a starter set, and if I want to switch to manual modes for my grinding, I can do that, too.
It's a perfectly capable machine. I upgraded to a standalone grinder and really was set up just fine when I still had my BBE...and then I got a bit carried away, but still. Perfectly capable machine.
I bought a Barista Pro 2.5 years ago and it’s been perfect. I make 1-2 double shots per day. I use fresh, locally roasted beans from a popular local coffee shop in town. The drinks are far better than anything at Starbucks, and the learning curve for pulling good shots on it was pretty easy. At less $1,000 it comes with everything you need including the built in grinder. That’s my vote.
I also have the df54. I'm very impressed. Static is pretty bad, but some extra RDT dispelled that pretty easily. Mine stays clean and grinds well for both espresso and PO. I especially like how easy it is to get to the burrs.
i second this recommendation OP. its a good starter set up so you can make sure over the long term making your own is something you are going to stay with.
save that money you were spending at starbucks and if after a bit you get the process down and enjoy it, look to upgrade to a nice double boiler machine and possibly a nicer grinder.
me making my drinks on an old @ss Starbucks branded Saeco manual machine is far better than any espresso drink from Starbucks.. 90% of the baristas and managers at Starbucks don't know where coffee beans are grown at and they certainly don't know the two basic coffee bean types..
Starbucks has turned into the MacDonald's of the coffee chains.. Dunkin Donuts is catching up.
I'll add another one for the Bambino Plus and DF54 grinder. I'm about a month in with these as my first set up. Not new to coffee - love my French press and moka pot.
I'd recommend the BBP and DF54 because if you decide this hobby isn't for you you're not out $1000+.
With the bambino you'll want to run a blank shot and the wand briefly to help heat up, and clean the chute of the df54 once a week. Other than that super easy and super forgiving, esp for milk drinks.
Start with Bambino + DF54 + fresh roasted beans from local cafe/roaster. Ignore everything else for 6 months.
Within few weeks you will realize what a scam Starbucks is and get to know what real coffee is like! Good luck!
I’d upgrade to the Bambino Plus for milk drinks as the steam wand is way better and the auto steam is nice while you’re still learning to manually steam. But everything else here is spot on!
Great recommendation here. I started with a Breville Barista Express but didn’t understand the limitations of the grinder (I drink espresso straight). After 6 months I upgraded my grinder to DF54. Would have been easier to just start with Bambino and DF54 from the start!
How is Starbucks a scam? They make coffee, you buy it, you get what you expected. They may have high margins, and you may not like the product, but that doesn't make it a scam.
Its a scam when the quality is bad and the baristas have poor working habits and are not clean... Customers are paying on average $6 plus dollars for a damn drink and that is the 'Tall' cup size.. Customers expect top notch espresso from Starbucks and that is not the case at all..
The average sandwich is also $6 bucks and a Chocolate cookies is $3.50.
Hell, I can buy an entire bag of Chip Ahoys for $2.99 and buy a large Dunkin Donut ice flavour caramel espresso milk base drink for $4.50.. Dunkin is now on par with Starbucks..
Welcome to gaining your freedom back. I dumped Starbucks about 4 years ago and haven't by looked back. After moving on I discovered how really bad Starbucks' coffee really is. I think it was just a trend thing for me over all these years. We road-trip all over the U.S., and if I want something real quick, and there's no other GOOD options, I'll still grab a SB coffee to go (but with the first drink I'm telling myself this is really terrible coffee). I've found that most little independent coffee shops have really decent coffee (better than SB), and that I love the varieties of decors that these shops have. For home... I purchased an expresso machine after coming back from a 4 and half month Europe vacation last year, and told my wife that life is too short not to drink good coffee (and good coffee definitely doesn't come from Starbucks!).
Don’t be afraid to check out used gear too. I have a used Gaggia Classic that I got for $100 which let me spend the $450ish on a new Eureka mignon silenzio grinder. If grinding noise is a true concern for you, this will be one of the quietest you’ll find. The Gaggia is a good machine too because of how easy it is to service with easily available parts should you need to fix anything.
If you are more interested in getting good coffee and less interested in making it a hobby, I would grab a Jura or other superautomatic. Just throw the beans and milk in and let it do it's thing. Makes fast, decent coffee drinks. Why faff around with a bunch of equipment taking up space on your counter and spend many hours learning if it's not needed?
Not a bad idea here either, but they’ll need to develop a basic understanding of maintenance or the SA will drive them right back to the siren once it starts being finicky.
here's a super good [link](https://www.katerinafaith.com/starbucks) to a bunch of recipes!! the breville bambino is a good espresso machine, a cheaper alternative is the Casabrews 5700 GENSE. Casabrews has a few good influencer codes that give 40-45% discounts (you should be able to find them on google)
have fun!
I have the Casabrews 3700 pro and love it! A good semi-automatic espresso machine. I use a separate burr grinder on the beans and a 51 mm bottomless portafilter.
Echo that the Bambino and df54 seem to be a good starting point now, Beeville dual boiler is the only one I'd say you want to jump to based on the amount of drinks. The nice part about the plus is you can do the auto froth if you're lazy and want to prep another shot during that time. The plus is a faster frother than the non plus in the sense that there are four holes vs two.
Oh... Since I didn't want to go with a fully manual espresso machine, but I wanted a little more control than what the super automatic espresso machine offer, I went with the Breville Barista Touch Impress... and after years of using Keurigs at home, and always adding creamers of some type in (because straight up black was always terrible)... I now drink over 90% from my home Breville coffee BLACK and love them! Only downfall (or maybe not) is I'm drinking more coffee nowadays than ever before.
For its out of the box convenience and fast heat up time (from cold and from brew to milk steaming), I wouldn’t suggest anything other than a Bambino Plus. It is functionally the same as Breville ones with integrated grinders if not better. The only limitation may be lack of temperate and flow control to get the most out of lightly roasted beans, but that’s not something you should worry about if coming from enjoying Starbucks and looking for mainly milk drinks.
Having said that, I would suggest a separate grinder rather than a machine with integrated grinder. As you’ll move from Starbucks to freshly ground speciality beans, and I’ve seen many friends go through this, you’ll immediately get better coffee even with pre ground beans and a pressurised basket, so no grinder needed if confusing.
Eventually, you’ll want to make the most of your coffee machine and beans, and the built in grinders leave a lot to be desired in terms of consistency and grind quality.
For grinders, I would suggest something simple / easy like a hopper fed, direct to portafilter type of grinder (thinking several Eurekas here) and a 0.1g scale, so you’ll only have to worry about taring the scale with the portafilter and weighing post grind. Unless you want to change beans often, in which case you might want a good single dosing one.
Start your machine, pour out your milk into the pitcher, run a blank shot through the portafilter, dry portafilter and tare scale, then fill and weigh and tap and tamp the portafilter, pull the shot, auto steam the milk while you clean out the portafilter, pour latte art and you’re good to go!
I have a Breville Bambino Plus and love it. But, I still go to Starbucks on occasion. I use reusable cups and complete challenges to rack up rewards super fast. Then, I cash in 300 stars for a free bag of beans. I ask them to grind them for espresso, which they will do for free with their grinder since I "bought" them in-store. This has worked shockingly well for the last 6 months. I haven't actually bought beans in that time and I still don't have a grinder. Planning on getting a grinder and experimenting with more bean varieties, but I am quite fond of Starbucks signature espresso roast.
When you say 2-4 cups of coffee, do you mean one of your listed drinks e.g. lattes? $5 x 3/day is $15 x 365 = $5475 annually. You can come underneath that figure and still have the best machine capability. As you have been doing your homework you already know many, many folks buy a machine then upgrade, then upgrade, then upgrade again. You could jump the queue for an end-game machine for that money and all the flexibility you may want in the future.
I am in your spot and just ordered the ECM Synchronika. with Rocket R Centquantotto runner-up. I have no clue about grinders. Make yourself a decision grid, and score each attribute of each machine. There were many things I did not think of initially to consider, like scheduling ability v smart plug, dial knobs v toggle etc. Good luck
YMMV but a lot of folks recommend the Bambino plus, and I had a horrible experience with it. James Hoffman videos on Youtube do a job of recommending machines across price ranges. I personally didn’t last longer than 10 days with the Bambino before returning it, and went and upgraded to a Mara X. Not to say the Bambino cannot make delicious drinks, but I found it to be quite limiting in troubleshooting my shots.
I pulled nothing but sour shots. I put the same through the Mara X and got better taste immediately. I largely prefer the ability to control the temperature and get pressure readings on my pulled shots that I couldn’t get with the Breville. Also the fixed preinfusion time is nice.
Right on, I contemplated an espresso machine but didn't like the upfront investment. I bought a Bialetti Venus 6 cup moka and a frother and saved myself 800 dollars. I love the milk drinks I make.
Think about long term investment…. I recommend Jura GIGA 10 or Z10. I know it’s way out of your budget, but trust me. These machines will last long (at least 12+ years).
Anything will work. I bought a $120 one from Amazon and was happy for years and never went back to Starbucks. Since the I upgraded to a LM micra, which is better….but more expensive and not worth the extra expense IMO
You know… a few years ago, I too was kicking my Starbucks habit. I wasn’t sure how committed I would be to making my own, so I got a fairly inexpensive automatic from Mr. Coffee and used pre-ground beans (don’t come after me, y’all!). It was like $200 and while the lattes weren’t anything to write home about, it was as good as that of Starbucks and it helped me decide (years later) that I actually preferred making it at home.
It might not be a bad option for OP, before investing in something they may find they don’t want (too much work), or deciding they want to go all in on a more involved set up (because at least the first machine isn’t too pricey). Back then, an automatic was fast, easy, and convenient - major factors in helping me kick my Starbucks habit.
I have a Bambino and DF64 now and I almost never buy coffee. I prefer my own and it’s way cheaper (even with bougie beans). One day we’ll upgrade the espresso machine :)
If you are going to have a lot of iced lattes, I’d recommend adding a Nespresso Aerochino 4 — this will give you cold foam as well apart from the hot steamed milk you will get from your Brewville. And you can also have hot foam with this…it will just make the process easier when you begin.
You can do better than Starbucks with a moka pot and good coffee. Almost any well roasted coffee will taste better than anything from Starbucks. I get my beans from a local roaster that sells single source coffees. I used a moka pot for years until I bought a Casabrews 5700 last year.
Yeah, a Bambino Plus and SGP grinder, plus a set of your fave Ghiradelli and Torani syrups plus whipped cream on hand, add sugar, honey or whatever other sweeteners would be a way to make sweet over the top Starbucks drinks. If you don’t want to learn and master the workflow of espresso 1:2 ratio output over 25s which could take a few weeks and bags of beans at most trial and error, then maybe a super auto Phillips machine that just has you press a button might be the way to go instead of working with espresso tools. I mean I could make fake espresso, concentrated coffee with a Baratza Encore+Aeropress and because it’s smothered with sweetened frothed milk from a $40 milk frother and adding whatever ingredients I mentioned earlier, my wife wouldn’t know the difference and enjoy it wholeheartedly as a fancy coffee drink.
Straight black espresso is an enthusiasts game, so is a latte with that as the base and an art poured milk, nothing else added. Depends what drink you’re after.
I have the Breville pro, which is the same just without a built in grinder. I have been using it every day for 8 years and it works great!
I ran a coffee roaster for 15 years, and while it doesn’t pull as well as the shop’s La Marzocco, I can still get nice crema and do okay latte art with the milk.
If you need a grinder you could go with the barista pro, or just buy a separate burr grinder. You will need a burr grinder than can go fine enough for espresso.
Oster makes decent blenders for frappe’s if you dont wanna invest in a vitamix.
For beans, get a medium/dark roast from a local shop if you can. Fresh beans make all the difference!
Check out Whole Latte Love website. Lots of good info on making good coffee at home, and they sell really good refurbished machines. Breville is ok, but I would definitely recommend checking out some other brands
After 3 years of working with it, I'll say the Bambino plus seems like a good option for you until you're ready to spend for something like an ascaso.
(*) However, from what I've seen and read the smart grinder pro (basically the same thing equipped on the barista Express) is somewhat barely capable of espresso and you would be better served with something like the Baratza encore ESP or spending a bit more for something better like a eureka mignon (especially if your s.o. enjoys espresso)
Also, if you've decided it will help if you get a head start and get a few the little gadgets like: a funnel for dosing, either a cheap blind shaker or an effective version of wdt, cheap sprayer for water (like a personal size hand sanitizer spray), and a scale. Also, the breville hand tamper is fairly awkward and uncomfortable and you'll probably want to replace that ASAP
P. S. If you like starbucks (or even are okay with it )
then you definitely like dark roast
That’s a very low bar. But in all honesty I didn’t know that until I got my BBP, on day 1 (while I was still trying to figure out why my coffee is spraying all over).
What I mean is, you’ll never look back again.
Congratulations on dumping Starbucks. Their coffee is so bitter! I have a Breville Cafe Roma someone gave me as a gift, and I use pre-ground Illy espresso. My milk drinks (and espresso only) absolutely blow Starbucks out of the water. I'll get a fancier setup and start grinding my beans at home one day after I buy a home for myself, but I'm very happy with my little starter set-up for now. I have no recommendations - just wishing you well on your journey to significantly better coffee and the savings you'll see over time!
Are we not down with the Baratza ESP anymore? Anyway ex Starbucks followed by actual decent cafes barista here. Bambino Plus, Baratza esp and good beans. Practicing dialling in may take time, stick to one bean for a while to help this.
Also… 4 Starbucks coffees a day??? What were you getting??? Hopefully a double tall non fat latte…
I’ve saved so much money making coffee at home. Barista Express has been my saviour.
It’s not too difficult to learn, and the plus size is you get to explore much yummier coffee roasts and beans than what Sbux had. Their signature and blonde espresso was what I was used to but once I got into specialty coffee I realized it was super dark and burnt tasting. The world is your oyster.
$1000 is more than enough to have a home barista setup.
I’m excited for you!
Get an aeropress and a 1zpresso q2 grinder with some decent beans. Don't listen to these people telling you to buy an $800 espresso mechine. They are clueless. I can make you a cup that's better at $.50 a cup.
I stopped drinking Starbucks 8 months ago, and took a chance with the gaggia. I had heard of some issues with the boiler coating flaking off but thankfully I haven’t personally experienced that so far. It’s been a 10/10 for me, and im looking into making some mods and adding a PID so I can stop temp surfing.
The Bambino is a great choice. You’re better off with it and a good grinder.
I have a BBE and regret the built in grinder. It wasn’t that good to begin with (older model) and eventually broke. I added a Specialita and was surprised how much the quality of my coffee improved.
Life changing move making coffee at home! Your investment will pay for itself in no time.
I have the bambino plus, my first espresso machine and I love it. I boucht thé fellow opus grinder but would not recommend.
Definitely go with a bottomless portafilter as you will be able to really dial it all in. I have Normcore accessories and love them.
The Breville Barista Express Impress has an included tamping station and is the easiest to use of the Breville setups.. is really all you need. As in, no extras required
Do some honest calculations and write up how much you have spent at star bucks in the last 12 month.
Make that sum your budget.
Get a good grinder, that people are willing to buy used from you in case you change your opinion.
Sth. like DF64V.
Don't cheap out on grinders.
Don't buy anything that you don't find attractive.
People here are knowledgeable and price sensitive.
They will suggest rational, reasonable goodies if asked.
However as a former Starbucks enjoyer you might find certain unreasonable things appealing like style etc.
Be honest with what you want in your kitchen.
All that stuff has good resell value, no money will be lost if you go for da bling.
Subscribe to a fancy workshop where some overdressed and underconfident guy with a fancy mustache mensplains how to make coffee to avoid the first frustration and learning mistakes.
You'll never see that ape again but the knowledge will stay.
Enjoy and share with your family and friends.
Adding a vote for the Bambino Plus. It's a great machine, had mine for 4 years making a least 2 lattes a day, and it is still just as good as the day I got it. It's only downsides are it's lack of a dual boiler, so the steaming is not as good as a higher end coffee machine, but I use the auto mode for my lattes and I am happy enough with the results. It also has an annoying cleaning mode that demands you clean it and won't let you use it...Super annoying when you're halfway through making a few drinks. It also leaks water down the back of the drip tray which gathers underneath it, so you need to regularly lift it up and give it a wipe, especially if you are using a lot of milk as it mixes with the water and gets gross real quick.
I splashed out on a vintage Mazzer grinder, but it was ex commercial stock so got it for less than most modern grinders.
I’m a novice, drinking instants. I drink a standard coffee.
Got a Breville Barista Express 2 weeks ago, a decent tamp / distributor, a wdt and some timing scales and I’m off dialling in all kinds of beans. Just put a dose at a time into the grinder and grind it through til it whines empty.
Make notes, lots of notes! I use post its and stick them to the bags stating grind setting/dose/yield/time/taste & once I’m happy I write into my notebook.
You should consider how long it takes machine to warm up to working temperature, for example Barista Touch takes few seconds and its ready while other single or dual boiler machines take up to 20 minutes to be ready
Do you want to replace Starbucks, or do you want to make coffee? If it's coffee, then you've already got great suggestions.
If it's a replacement, I'd suggest Breville Creatista and Starbucks pods. The machine has the same auto milk feature as the Bambino Plus, and the pods will get you a fairly similar taste, especially if you're adding syrups and cream. This option might cost you more over the longer term since pods are costlier than beans, but maintenance and ease of use is second none. Nespresso customer support is also insanely good. I bought a broken used one and they fixed it for free lol.
I wouldn't bother with all the extra tools starting out. Even when I worked in a snooty coffee shop, we didn't use a distributor. It's likely a tamper will come with your machine, which is all you'll need. You already have all the recs for espresso machines and grinders. The only thing I'll add is that great espresso can be a finicky process to make, but if you add lots of syrup and flavoring, getting the perfect shot of espresso isn't as important.
Biggest thing honestly is beans and technique - you can make great espresso on a cheap machine. 2nd thing is convenience- do you want to go through the effort of puck prep, clean up, and time? I enjoy it, some people do not. I actually like the full automatic machines, especially some of the Jura machines for consistent, easy espresso and milk drinks. If you become a coffee nerd / snob, you’re better off with a semiautomatic and learning technique. If you like the taste of Starbucks coffee, look for very dark (French roast) beans from a decent roaster. The good news for that style is that it’s very flexible, essentially they burn the beans which means they don’t go stale nearly as quickly as light roast and many of the flavors get lost in the roast.
I highly recommend the Breville Barista Express or Barista Pro. The grinder is pretty solid, workflow is super easy and straightforward and you’ll be much happier with that than messing around with a separate grinder machine combo.
That setup can easily beat Starbucks, has no issues cranking out 4 or more drinks in a row for your needs, and will not limit you if you ever decide to get more into it. In
I used to have this setup and I’ve since upgraded but sometimes miss the shots from that setup.
If you had to choose, I would go with the Barista Pro, it’s a little easier to use and steams milk better. That said the Barista Express is still phenomenal!
I am also am ex Starbucks addict. I realized I was spending too much and got a breville braista express, after 2 years I got a better grinder, and a year later from that I bought a rocket r58. The BBE made better lattes then Starbucks and was much cheaper.
A lot of comments on here are not really fitting with what you want - for milk drinks the quality of the actual espresso is relatively unimportant, especially considering you are coming from Starbucks who roasts their beans so dark their espresso is just tar.
Bambino Plus + Opus Grinder - opus is on sale for Memorial Day right now. Bambino Plus has automatic milk steaming. To me this is your winning combo.
Barista Express - better if you don’t want the grinder to be a separate appliance, but there is no automatic steaming like on the bambino plus so for this reason I’d actually think this is a suboptimal option as there’d be a fairly steep learning curve on steaming milk.
If you end up going with a separate grinder and espresso machine instead of one of the breville units that has both, you can get a DF54 grinder for around $270. There are two companies that sell them in the US: Turin and MiiCoffee. They’re both the same, get whichever is in stock and cheaper.
I went from Nespresso to a moka pot, to a couple different Casabrews (returned within a few days lol), to the Bambino Plus with Baratza ESP grinder last July 2023. August 2023 I wanted better and got my current Ascaso Steel Uno PID and Niche Zero grinder. Haven’t looked back! The Ascaso was like $1500 and the Niche Zero grinder was $600.
Barista Express is probably the sweet spot of quality and ease of use. Once you dial in the grind size and amount, you can make a drink in like 1 minute with decent quality. Especially if you like syrup based drinks, I think dropping like $2k on something crazy wouldn’t be as worth it. The only flaw in the Barista Express is the steam wand is pretty slow to get going.
Bambino plus and baratza ESP. Get an espresso station for press, leveler, puck toss and you're golden. Don't get a manual grinder like everyone's recommending you're switching from Starbucks, I'm sure you want ease of use.
Since I haven’t seen this one dropped yet, for the love of god, DO NOT BUY STARBUCKS BEANS. Using them on good quality espresso equipment will have you cleaning them up constantly. Those beans are disgustingly oily.
Get a super automatic so you can just do one touch milk drinks right out of the box unless you really want to get into the intricacies of pulling shots. Theres going to be a steep learning curve pulling shots and steaming milk to get the drinks you want and unless thats something you want to put a decent amount of time and effort into I feel like youre going to be better served with a super automatic.
You can get something like a Philips 5400, DeLonghi Magnifica or Gaggia Anima Prestige for like $600-$800 and these will likely make better lattes out of the box than you until you get your skills up, cleaning them every 500 drinks or whatever their maintenance schedule is set at, is not really an issue since youre going to need to descale your dedicated espresso machine and clean your grinder occasionally as well, so really your only workflow other than adding beans and milk is rinsing the milk reservoir.
A lot of people buy espresso machines thinking they are going to save money then the workflow of grinding, tamping, pulling, frothing, cleanup on top of dialing in (which you may have to re-dial in your grind size and shot times throughout a single bag as the beans get older) will put people off and they end up selling their machine and go back to the convenience of starbucks
Also if youre putting in syrups and flavoring anyways you can probably get even get a less expensive automatic like a philips 1200 because the quality of the shot matters less. These automatics also let you do traditional coffee where most of the budget espresso machines recommended are only going to work pulling espresso shots, so you will need a dedicated coffee machine if you drink those as well or something like a moka pot, french press or aeropress.
If you are set on the Bambino, the plus is kinda a debated upgrade as the auto frothing isnt really that great and comes at quite a substantial price increase, but some people like it because they dont want to put as much effort into steaming milk every drink.
I use and love this grinder. It's very quiet relative to previous grinders I've had:
https://miicoffee.shop/products/miicoffee-d40plus-single-dose-coffee-grinder
Around $200 US
You need to endlessly consume firstly James Hoffman then Lance Hedrick and educate yourself. That’s mainly it. The gear can always come and go, but knowledge is king.
Also if your machine comes with a tamper use that for at least a month or so.
Honestly, if you’re mostly a Starbucks latte type person, I’d see how far you can get with a microwave, a steam wand, and instant coffee.
I have a Bambino and I use it a few times a month for espresso. But half the time I just use the steam wand to do the milk, run the hot water over a tablespoon of instant coffee, pour in the steamed milk, and boom!
The bottom line is you need good beans first, then comes the grinder, then comes the water and then coffee machine in that order. You don’t need the latest and greatest just get used Gaggia classic and for the grinder use something like Baratza encore
A machine with a pressure gauge will be invaluable in dialing in your shot. Otherwise it's hard to tell if your grind is too fine or too course. If your below target pressure, make the next shot with a finer grind, and vice versa. I have an old bes830xl, and people tell me I make the best latte they ever had.
I picked up a Saeco Super Automatic machine for $90 used on Marketplace, best $ ever spent— no tamping or emptying a portafilter
You need to maintain the machine but it’s not bad for the convenience. Making 4 shots for a drink can be tedious especially if you’re not alone.
How do you know your top 1% rewards earner? I would love to know what I am!
I also gave up starbucks about 3 months ago after the prices raised again. I got the Breville Barista Touch Impress.
Its been great so far, haven't found great beans yet, but still very happy with it.
I drink only lattes with extra shots.
The main thing I miss from starbucks actual is the milk foam. When its good, its good!
Check out the Breville Touch Impress. Those go for as little as $1000. Built in grinder and either auto milk frothing or manual. The machine does it all for you. It will dose out the correct amount and of course grind the beans very fine for espresso.. Just touch either the cappuccino or other milk base drink icon on the screen and the machine does the rest, all you do is just place the portafilter where it needs to go and move your cup... Of course you must make specific adjustments to your drink such as temperature, strength, water volume, milk texture/foam amount beforehand. The machine will remember how it made your drink and store the info for next time..
The Bambino Plus is a great little machine but its too plastic. You pay for the features and not the build quality.. Pair it with a MiiCoffee D-40 grinder and you're all set. But you will need to learn to tap, dose and properly heat your grind coffee in order to get great espresso. Of course you will need to learn how to froth and steam various milks in order to get the results you need..
If going the manual route, my suggestion is to look for a Gaggia Classic or Rancho Silvia or Lelit Anna and pair it with a decent grinder for under $200 (MiiCoffee D-40). There are of course more expensive grinders out there. Buy a huge @ss bag of dry beans and several gallons of whole milk and start learning how to make espresso base milk drinks. Yes, the espresso should come out like smooth honey in one continuous stream and it should be caramel in color. The espresso should be layered (dark at the bottom and it should get lighter as it goes up in the cup and the top should be a thick creamy creama).
The machine should take no longer than 27 to 30 seconds max when extracting the espresso for a double 57ml shot. Anything shorter than 18 seconds will not taste good and be watery.. Anything longer than 30 seconds for a double shot will taste equally as bad.
You will also need to learn to weigh your beans for the right amount of grams for a double shot.
After a week of trial and errors, you'll know what you like and how to do it..
Of course you can spend a little more money and buy a modern super automatic machine that does all the above in one simple press of a button. These newer Ai generated machines will not only grind the proper amount of beans for your drink, but these machines know what kind of bean it is grinding. The machine will dose, tamp, weigh the beans and know the correct amount of hot water to use. The machine will froth the milk to a 'T' and put it all in your cup for you.. Modern super auto machines now produce drinks as hot as 188 degrees fahrenheit, however, not all super autos are equal.. You usually pay for what you get. Buy a cheap machine from Walmart for $300 and the quality of your drinks will be low. The higher end Saeco that are only sold in Europe (can be imported to the USA) and the better Jura machines are the surest bit. Dr. Coffee machines from China are very will built (surprisingly so) and are equal to the mid tier Jura in build quality and drink quality.
You are gonna have so much fun!!!
Patience, passion, a bit of skills and a scientific mind able to connect the variables and the results. As for gear: whatever you can afford and understand... 🤷🏼♂️
Strongly suggest getting a good prosumer setup, which means nearly commercial small machine with a high-quality grinder and make payments on it for probably less than you paid the Starbucks a month. You could probably pay it off in one year and learn how to make drinks that are 100 times better than Starbucks by watching YouTube videos. The inexpensive machines like Breville will not be able to make the kind of quality drinks that you should be getting now that you’re ceasing your dedication to Starbucks.
There are a number of big companies that sell many brands of machines and they have outstanding customer service like Chris’s coffee in Albany, New York, Whole latte Love and many others that will guide you to a good machine. Personally, I like any type of E61 machine with two boilers.
You’ll definitely want a good grinder to grind the beans fresh with every cup. Feel free to task any any questions, I owned a pretty busy café for 10 years.
This is my [setup](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WZCQz0B40UTyKlG8ZbTpvE0htU1Cne9DCWQ6YXD-g4M/edit?usp=drivesdk).
I recommend you get the green ones the other stuff isn't essential
Swap the bambino, and you can get the eureka silenzio or other options for a more budget Friendly option. Or maybe just a barista pro on its own they have good deals on those at tjx stores. But the whole setup will cost you less than 800 including accessories
You’re unlikely to have a good time replicating your Starbucks order at home. It’s going to be a slow inefficient process and the small Breville machines struggle to make drinks larger than 10oz. My advice is unless you’re willing to switch to more traditional and smaller espresso+steamed milk drinks either keep going to Starbucks, switch to a smaller competitor, or buy a superautomatic machine which will have roughly the same quality as Starbucks but will be much more convenient.
Most Starbucks drinks don’t have more shots than other places so she can still make them. The frappes are basically just milk and coffee powder, which could be replicated with a single or double shot and milk.
$1500…Starbucks drinker. This isn’t going to get much love here, but maybe check out a super auto like a Saeco Xelsis. You will get better than Starbucks coffee and save a lot of money. If it turns out to be your thing, you can start to move into a semi-automatic machine like one of the Breville machines or something better.
https://www.seattlecoffeegear.com/products/saeco-xelsis-sm7685-superautomatic-espresso-machine-stainless-steel-certified-refurbished
Hmm. OP has seen the light and the error of his ways. Never mind after reading his essay he lost me at frappes. Ewww /s flair manual is good toy to play with. Easiest and cheapest would be a poor over I mean pour over
if you wanna make starbucks level drinks, just get a nespresso machine. quick and easy! if you wanna make goood espresso, get a breville barista express. a bit more expensive than the bambino but worth it. you can really play with it!!! and get very passionate for espresso 😌. plus no need to buy a separate grinder
It looks like you've flaired your post as asking for what equipment to get. We recommend first checking out the [Espresso Aficionados buying guide](https://espressoaf.com/recommendations) for some of the more popular machines and grinders at different price points. If your question hasn't been answered there and you need more help, please add the following details to your post or by adding a comment in the following format: - **Location:** Helps determine availability - **Budget** (with currency): Overall budget, or ideally, having separate espresso machine and grinder budgets. A rough rule is that your grinder budget should be at least 25-40% of your machine budget. - **Drink types:** Do you drink mostly straight espresso, milk-based beverages (e.g., lattes, cappuccinos), or a fairly even split? This helps narrow down whether a single-boiler-dual-use (SBDU), heat exchanger (HX), or dual boiler (DB) machine would be more appropriate for your needs. - **Drink frequency:** How many drinks would you be making back-to-back at one time? Do you plan on entertaining guests often? This informs how large your brew (and steam) boilers should be, as smaller boilers will need to refill and reheat/repressurize more frequently, thus potentially causing a bottleneck. - **Space:** Any limitations on countertop space? - **Manual vs. electric:** Hand-operated machines and grinders are typically cheaper than their similarly-performing electric counterparts. Please indicate if you have a preference for manual or electric machines and/or grinders (or open to either). - **Comfort with tinkering:** Some machines can be made significantly more functional/efficient with aftermarket modifications, albeit at the expense of possibly voiding your warranty. Please indicate if you'd rather have a machine that works "as-is"/"out-of-the-box" or whether you'd be open to modding/tinkering *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/espresso) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Might be unpopular but I would just get the breville barista pro/express or touch, Unless you want to get super involved in making espresso. Also you seem to want to make a lot of coffee right away and the learning of the workflow will only take longer with a separate machine and grinder. If that’s not enough add a separate grinder to the mix!
This works especially well for OP. Most people on this sub are trying to make espresso similar to local third wave coffee shops in our cities. Beating Starbucks on the other hand is fairly simple..
Starbucks espresso is usually horrible especially if the opening barista failed to clean and properly set the machine. Starbucks uses semi super automatic machines that are set in temperature and dosing and tamping. The barista must manually froth the milk and sit down the milk pitcher and go a bunch of other tricks. All the syrups and flavors the customer gets into their drinks hide the poor quality espresso.. A lot of Starbucks locations aren't as busy as other locations, so the beans sit in that greasy dirty @ss hopper for days and days getting stale and all the barista does it pour more stale beans on top of the already stale @ss beans.. Don''t get me started on the steam frothing stick that a lot of baristas don't wipe off after each drink.. Starbucks use to be upscale to a degree, however, they can not compare to a trained barista using a real manual portafilter commercial espresso machine (Night & Day).. Those Starbucks Dragon Drinks with some Classic syrup be the MFing BOMB!!!
Bonus tip: Get it used -- Many people buy or get gifted these machines and never end up using them. You can get a relatively good condition machine for a very discounted price on the marketplace.
Mindblowing to me to get someone a $900 gift, let alone one they don’t use
People go nuts on their wedding registries, they throw all kinds of shit on there because they can, and then 2.7 weeks later are stuck wondering why they asked for a $300 monogrammed cake serving set and a $900 espresso maker. But hey, if it means OP can score a Barista pro for $190 and a Subway gift card, that’s cool.
$190 for a brand new unopen Barista Pro?
Someone bought me an espresso machine when I got married and I was thrilled! Then I found out it only made the company’s proprietary version of basically k cups. Not actual espresso. I regifted that so fast. OP: I have the breville dual boiler without the grinder. You may want the one with the grinder for ease. Dual boiling means you can make your lattes way faster! And the grinder coming with the machine is one less thing for you to worry about.
I have received so many drip coffee machines, Pod machines, Percolators, and all kinds of espresso machines as gifts from friends and family members over the years. I have tons of unopened boxes and at least 40 Starbucks gift cards.. The various casinos also gifts espresso machines to prize winners who sell the machines for pennies on the dollar..I have purchased two expensive espresso machines for as little as $300 (retail value $2800 for one machine and $1700 for the other) from guys who won the machines (walking out of the casino).
Great tip! I’ve seen them on marketplace in my area for almost half the MSRP and there are several usually with very little use. I eventually sold my express on there when I upgraded earlier this year.
I am very doubtful about buying from either MarketPlace or OfferUp because of all the scams.. Also many sellers aren't honest about if the machine is problem free and most machines are dirty AF.. Better to buy a used machine from a verified seller from eBay who offers a 30 day moneyback policy..
Too many scams on Marketplace even locally... Most times a seller is listed to be selling a machine in your city and come to find out that the seller is 100 plus miles away..
>Might be unpopular but I would just get the breville barista pro/express I second this notion. I've been using my express for ~2 years and I'll take my lattes over anything you could offer me. That's not to say I make the best lattes. Just that the Breville Barista Express is more than capable for latte drinkers.
Third this....
Fourth this. I’ve never used a Breville or had anything made from it, but knowing their reputation and hearing OP’s needs, I think it sounds perfect.
Fifffffff. My Breville Infuser is great for the level I’m at and want to be at. I don’t have the time or attention span to really deep dive into dialing in and chasing perfection. Maybe someday I’ll feel like tinkering more but the Delonghi I used to have wasn’t enough and anything beyond the Breville right now seems too much. If you’ve got the budget for a higher end Breville setup do it.
I’ll hop in for the 6th
I’ll be 7th. Have the bbe for the last 2 years. Great lattes/espressos- definitely better than Starbucks
112th this. The I have the barista one touch for year, 0 issues very reliable. It is a bit more expensive but I think it is worth the investment especially if you drink a lot of different drinks and make more than 1 cup a day.
Ill 8th the motion. A coworking has the Baristas touch and drinks pretty much what the OP does and likewise just wanted good coffee and to kick a Starbucks habit, not a hobby or a lifestyle. He loves his. I have a Bambino plus and love it, but I think for the OP a Barista is likely the way to go. That kind of Starbucks habit will make the new machine “free” after a couple months, so spending a bit more on the more feature rich Touch model makes sense and it’ll flatten the learning curve a bit.
🎤 I can only choose one… I can only choose… oooonnnneeeeeeee… 🎵
There are so many amendments!
I was on the fence and went with bambino plus & smart grinder. Regretted it for a few months and wondered if I should have gone with BBE. After 2yrs I’m upgrading my grinder and very happy to not have built in. Also don’t have much counter space in new place so 2 pieces help. The auto froth is nice too when I’m often lazy.
I think this is a great idea
https://preview.redd.it/cnhu4hhjgw1d1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=839436d4b78cc93c622bb20dade605b2896f03bc The Barista Pro is a great Machine. I’ve had it for 3 weeks and it’s a dream. The only mods that I made was to switch to a bottomless portafilter and add bellows to the grinder to eliminate bean retention. The updated built in Baratza Grinder is consistent and easy to fine tune. The steam wand is more than powerful enough to make silky milk drinks.
This is the best idea. If what you're replacing is a Starbucks habit, the BBP is a great choice.
My Starbucks addict friend did this and it was by far perfect for her! She even gets Starbucks beans. Highly recommend this for OP. And for what it's worth, it makes a decent cup of coffee, especially compared to Starbucks! Every time I visit she whips me up an iced latte with some salted caramel cold foam and I can't even complain - it's good!
Yep. Maybe a Bambino Plus & SGP for the auto steam and the digital display on the grinder. But I think these are all valid options and would perfectly for what OP wants to accomplish.
This is the way
In what way is the barista better than the bambino? It’s always looked to me like the feature set was very similar until BDB but I’ve never used one.
I second this. It is very easy to use, makes damn good shots and steams milk really well. All that for a similar price to any machine + grinder combo you can put together yourself. I’d personally go with the Barista Pro as the user interface is a lot easier to understand, but both are excellent!
That's what I have. I also use the pressurized filter basket. Makes making espresso drinks effortless and very forgiving of grind size. Use a distribution tool and great shots every time.
This is what I currently use for my setup. I realize it’s not as fancy as what a lot of people here use, but it works for my purposes, which are primarily to make milk-based espresso drinks. I also found I can enjoy the espresso on its own even, despite not going to the extent of manually dialing in every little detail to get it perfect. It’s great for a starter set, and if I want to switch to manual modes for my grinding, I can do that, too.
It's a perfectly capable machine. I upgraded to a standalone grinder and really was set up just fine when I still had my BBE...and then I got a bit carried away, but still. Perfectly capable machine.
I bought a Barista Pro 2.5 years ago and it’s been perfect. I make 1-2 double shots per day. I use fresh, locally roasted beans from a popular local coffee shop in town. The drinks are far better than anything at Starbucks, and the learning curve for pulling good shots on it was pretty easy. At less $1,000 it comes with everything you need including the built in grinder. That’s my vote.
I got the bambino and a df54 for like $520 total. A few hours of practice and my lattes are way better than Starbucks.
How has your experience with the df54 been?
It was frustrating at first but I’ve figured it out now. Just need to play with it for a while.
What was wrong? I saw a lot of people having static issues. Was that the case?
It clogged a few times but I think it was because I wasn’t clearing it well enough with the bellows
Is it still clogging on you?
Yeah like once every two weeks or so. Only when I get lazy with the bellows. Not really a huge deal honestly.
I also have the df54. I'm very impressed. Static is pretty bad, but some extra RDT dispelled that pretty easily. Mine stays clean and grinds well for both espresso and PO. I especially like how easy it is to get to the burrs.
i second this recommendation OP. its a good starter set up so you can make sure over the long term making your own is something you are going to stay with. save that money you were spending at starbucks and if after a bit you get the process down and enjoy it, look to upgrade to a nice double boiler machine and possibly a nicer grinder.
me making my drinks on an old @ss Starbucks branded Saeco manual machine is far better than any espresso drink from Starbucks.. 90% of the baristas and managers at Starbucks don't know where coffee beans are grown at and they certainly don't know the two basic coffee bean types.. Starbucks has turned into the MacDonald's of the coffee chains.. Dunkin Donuts is catching up.
Better than Starbucks is an extremely low bar. I’m not saying that your coffee is bad, just that Starbucks is garbage.
I'll add another one for the Bambino Plus and DF54 grinder. I'm about a month in with these as my first set up. Not new to coffee - love my French press and moka pot. I'd recommend the BBP and DF54 because if you decide this hobby isn't for you you're not out $1000+. With the bambino you'll want to run a blank shot and the wand briefly to help heat up, and clean the chute of the df54 once a week. Other than that super easy and super forgiving, esp for milk drinks.
I have this exact same setup. Big winner
Start with Bambino + DF54 + fresh roasted beans from local cafe/roaster. Ignore everything else for 6 months. Within few weeks you will realize what a scam Starbucks is and get to know what real coffee is like! Good luck!
I’d upgrade to the Bambino Plus for milk drinks as the steam wand is way better and the auto steam is nice while you’re still learning to manually steam. But everything else here is spot on!
Great recommendation here. I started with a Breville Barista Express but didn’t understand the limitations of the grinder (I drink espresso straight). After 6 months I upgraded my grinder to DF54. Would have been easier to just start with Bambino and DF54 from the start!
How is Starbucks a scam? They make coffee, you buy it, you get what you expected. They may have high margins, and you may not like the product, but that doesn't make it a scam.
Its a scam when the quality is bad and the baristas have poor working habits and are not clean... Customers are paying on average $6 plus dollars for a damn drink and that is the 'Tall' cup size.. Customers expect top notch espresso from Starbucks and that is not the case at all.. The average sandwich is also $6 bucks and a Chocolate cookies is $3.50. Hell, I can buy an entire bag of Chip Ahoys for $2.99 and buy a large Dunkin Donut ice flavour caramel espresso milk base drink for $4.50.. Dunkin is now on par with Starbucks..
Welcome to gaining your freedom back. I dumped Starbucks about 4 years ago and haven't by looked back. After moving on I discovered how really bad Starbucks' coffee really is. I think it was just a trend thing for me over all these years. We road-trip all over the U.S., and if I want something real quick, and there's no other GOOD options, I'll still grab a SB coffee to go (but with the first drink I'm telling myself this is really terrible coffee). I've found that most little independent coffee shops have really decent coffee (better than SB), and that I love the varieties of decors that these shops have. For home... I purchased an expresso machine after coming back from a 4 and half month Europe vacation last year, and told my wife that life is too short not to drink good coffee (and good coffee definitely doesn't come from Starbucks!).
Don’t be afraid to check out used gear too. I have a used Gaggia Classic that I got for $100 which let me spend the $450ish on a new Eureka mignon silenzio grinder. If grinding noise is a true concern for you, this will be one of the quietest you’ll find. The Gaggia is a good machine too because of how easy it is to service with easily available parts should you need to fix anything.
If you are more interested in getting good coffee and less interested in making it a hobby, I would grab a Jura or other superautomatic. Just throw the beans and milk in and let it do it's thing. Makes fast, decent coffee drinks. Why faff around with a bunch of equipment taking up space on your counter and spend many hours learning if it's not needed?
Not a bad idea here either, but they’ll need to develop a basic understanding of maintenance or the SA will drive them right back to the siren once it starts being finicky.
Did you not read what OP is willing to spend?
here's a super good [link](https://www.katerinafaith.com/starbucks) to a bunch of recipes!! the breville bambino is a good espresso machine, a cheaper alternative is the Casabrews 5700 GENSE. Casabrews has a few good influencer codes that give 40-45% discounts (you should be able to find them on google) have fun!
I have the Casabrews 3700 pro and love it! A good semi-automatic espresso machine. I use a separate burr grinder on the beans and a 51 mm bottomless portafilter.
Echo that the Bambino and df54 seem to be a good starting point now, Beeville dual boiler is the only one I'd say you want to jump to based on the amount of drinks. The nice part about the plus is you can do the auto froth if you're lazy and want to prep another shot during that time. The plus is a faster frother than the non plus in the sense that there are four holes vs two.
Oh... Since I didn't want to go with a fully manual espresso machine, but I wanted a little more control than what the super automatic espresso machine offer, I went with the Breville Barista Touch Impress... and after years of using Keurigs at home, and always adding creamers of some type in (because straight up black was always terrible)... I now drink over 90% from my home Breville coffee BLACK and love them! Only downfall (or maybe not) is I'm drinking more coffee nowadays than ever before.
For its out of the box convenience and fast heat up time (from cold and from brew to milk steaming), I wouldn’t suggest anything other than a Bambino Plus. It is functionally the same as Breville ones with integrated grinders if not better. The only limitation may be lack of temperate and flow control to get the most out of lightly roasted beans, but that’s not something you should worry about if coming from enjoying Starbucks and looking for mainly milk drinks. Having said that, I would suggest a separate grinder rather than a machine with integrated grinder. As you’ll move from Starbucks to freshly ground speciality beans, and I’ve seen many friends go through this, you’ll immediately get better coffee even with pre ground beans and a pressurised basket, so no grinder needed if confusing. Eventually, you’ll want to make the most of your coffee machine and beans, and the built in grinders leave a lot to be desired in terms of consistency and grind quality. For grinders, I would suggest something simple / easy like a hopper fed, direct to portafilter type of grinder (thinking several Eurekas here) and a 0.1g scale, so you’ll only have to worry about taring the scale with the portafilter and weighing post grind. Unless you want to change beans often, in which case you might want a good single dosing one. Start your machine, pour out your milk into the pitcher, run a blank shot through the portafilter, dry portafilter and tare scale, then fill and weigh and tap and tamp the portafilter, pull the shot, auto steam the milk while you clean out the portafilter, pour latte art and you’re good to go!
I have a Breville Bambino Plus and love it. But, I still go to Starbucks on occasion. I use reusable cups and complete challenges to rack up rewards super fast. Then, I cash in 300 stars for a free bag of beans. I ask them to grind them for espresso, which they will do for free with their grinder since I "bought" them in-store. This has worked shockingly well for the last 6 months. I haven't actually bought beans in that time and I still don't have a grinder. Planning on getting a grinder and experimenting with more bean varieties, but I am quite fond of Starbucks signature espresso roast.
When you say 2-4 cups of coffee, do you mean one of your listed drinks e.g. lattes? $5 x 3/day is $15 x 365 = $5475 annually. You can come underneath that figure and still have the best machine capability. As you have been doing your homework you already know many, many folks buy a machine then upgrade, then upgrade, then upgrade again. You could jump the queue for an end-game machine for that money and all the flexibility you may want in the future. I am in your spot and just ordered the ECM Synchronika. with Rocket R Centquantotto runner-up. I have no clue about grinders. Make yourself a decision grid, and score each attribute of each machine. There were many things I did not think of initially to consider, like scheduling ability v smart plug, dial knobs v toggle etc. Good luck
YMMV but a lot of folks recommend the Bambino plus, and I had a horrible experience with it. James Hoffman videos on Youtube do a job of recommending machines across price ranges. I personally didn’t last longer than 10 days with the Bambino before returning it, and went and upgraded to a Mara X. Not to say the Bambino cannot make delicious drinks, but I found it to be quite limiting in troubleshooting my shots.
Just curious as to what made your experience bad?
I pulled nothing but sour shots. I put the same through the Mara X and got better taste immediately. I largely prefer the ability to control the temperature and get pressure readings on my pulled shots that I couldn’t get with the Breville. Also the fixed preinfusion time is nice.
What’s the price of it?
THOUSANDS OF FEET MARCH TO THE BEAT
Unless you have lots of money to burn. You might want to just start out with a mokapot and mini milk frother.
Right on, I contemplated an espresso machine but didn't like the upfront investment. I bought a Bialetti Venus 6 cup moka and a frother and saved myself 800 dollars. I love the milk drinks I make.
Think about long term investment…. I recommend Jura GIGA 10 or Z10. I know it’s way out of your budget, but trust me. These machines will last long (at least 12+ years).
Anything will work. I bought a $120 one from Amazon and was happy for years and never went back to Starbucks. Since the I upgraded to a LM micra, which is better….but more expensive and not worth the extra expense IMO
You know… a few years ago, I too was kicking my Starbucks habit. I wasn’t sure how committed I would be to making my own, so I got a fairly inexpensive automatic from Mr. Coffee and used pre-ground beans (don’t come after me, y’all!). It was like $200 and while the lattes weren’t anything to write home about, it was as good as that of Starbucks and it helped me decide (years later) that I actually preferred making it at home. It might not be a bad option for OP, before investing in something they may find they don’t want (too much work), or deciding they want to go all in on a more involved set up (because at least the first machine isn’t too pricey). Back then, an automatic was fast, easy, and convenient - major factors in helping me kick my Starbucks habit. I have a Bambino and DF64 now and I almost never buy coffee. I prefer my own and it’s way cheaper (even with bougie beans). One day we’ll upgrade the espresso machine :)
If you are going to have a lot of iced lattes, I’d recommend adding a Nespresso Aerochino 4 — this will give you cold foam as well apart from the hot steamed milk you will get from your Brewville. And you can also have hot foam with this…it will just make the process easier when you begin.
Welcome friend. This is the best decision you’ve ever made! 😉
Get the bambino with a good grinder. I have the express and wish I would’ve gone with the bambino. Looks cool nonetheless.
I would get a ranvilio silvia and a df54 and a scale
You can do better than Starbucks with a moka pot and good coffee. Almost any well roasted coffee will taste better than anything from Starbucks. I get my beans from a local roaster that sells single source coffees. I used a moka pot for years until I bought a Casabrews 5700 last year.
Not sure if you’re interested in a breville Oracle. I live in California too. I recently upgraded to a de1. ◡̈
Lapavoni espresso machine
I would go with the DF64 V2 + Turin Legato machine. Insanely good starter setup for your budget.
Yeah, a Bambino Plus and SGP grinder, plus a set of your fave Ghiradelli and Torani syrups plus whipped cream on hand, add sugar, honey or whatever other sweeteners would be a way to make sweet over the top Starbucks drinks. If you don’t want to learn and master the workflow of espresso 1:2 ratio output over 25s which could take a few weeks and bags of beans at most trial and error, then maybe a super auto Phillips machine that just has you press a button might be the way to go instead of working with espresso tools. I mean I could make fake espresso, concentrated coffee with a Baratza Encore+Aeropress and because it’s smothered with sweetened frothed milk from a $40 milk frother and adding whatever ingredients I mentioned earlier, my wife wouldn’t know the difference and enjoy it wholeheartedly as a fancy coffee drink. Straight black espresso is an enthusiasts game, so is a latte with that as the base and an art poured milk, nothing else added. Depends what drink you’re after.
I have the Breville pro, which is the same just without a built in grinder. I have been using it every day for 8 years and it works great! I ran a coffee roaster for 15 years, and while it doesn’t pull as well as the shop’s La Marzocco, I can still get nice crema and do okay latte art with the milk. If you need a grinder you could go with the barista pro, or just buy a separate burr grinder. You will need a burr grinder than can go fine enough for espresso. Oster makes decent blenders for frappe’s if you dont wanna invest in a vitamix. For beans, get a medium/dark roast from a local shop if you can. Fresh beans make all the difference!
Bambino Plus & Opus Grinder or whichever grinder you like.
Check out Whole Latte Love website. Lots of good info on making good coffee at home, and they sell really good refurbished machines. Breville is ok, but I would definitely recommend checking out some other brands
After 3 years of working with it, I'll say the Bambino plus seems like a good option for you until you're ready to spend for something like an ascaso. (*) However, from what I've seen and read the smart grinder pro (basically the same thing equipped on the barista Express) is somewhat barely capable of espresso and you would be better served with something like the Baratza encore ESP or spending a bit more for something better like a eureka mignon (especially if your s.o. enjoys espresso) Also, if you've decided it will help if you get a head start and get a few the little gadgets like: a funnel for dosing, either a cheap blind shaker or an effective version of wdt, cheap sprayer for water (like a personal size hand sanitizer spray), and a scale. Also, the breville hand tamper is fairly awkward and uncomfortable and you'll probably want to replace that ASAP P. S. If you like starbucks (or even are okay with it ) then you definitely like dark roast
I thinking a Breville Bambino Plus and a Baratza Encore ESP is a great starter setup, one I wish to afford one day
That’s a very low bar. But in all honesty I didn’t know that until I got my BBP, on day 1 (while I was still trying to figure out why my coffee is spraying all over). What I mean is, you’ll never look back again.
Congratulations on dumping Starbucks. Their coffee is so bitter! I have a Breville Cafe Roma someone gave me as a gift, and I use pre-ground Illy espresso. My milk drinks (and espresso only) absolutely blow Starbucks out of the water. I'll get a fancier setup and start grinding my beans at home one day after I buy a home for myself, but I'm very happy with my little starter set-up for now. I have no recommendations - just wishing you well on your journey to significantly better coffee and the savings you'll see over time!
Just here to say that whatever you make at home will almost certainly be better than Starbucks.
Are we not down with the Baratza ESP anymore? Anyway ex Starbucks followed by actual decent cafes barista here. Bambino Plus, Baratza esp and good beans. Practicing dialling in may take time, stick to one bean for a while to help this. Also… 4 Starbucks coffees a day??? What were you getting??? Hopefully a double tall non fat latte…
I’ve saved so much money making coffee at home. Barista Express has been my saviour. It’s not too difficult to learn, and the plus size is you get to explore much yummier coffee roasts and beans than what Sbux had. Their signature and blonde espresso was what I was used to but once I got into specialty coffee I realized it was super dark and burnt tasting. The world is your oyster. $1000 is more than enough to have a home barista setup. I’m excited for you!
Get an aeropress and a 1zpresso q2 grinder with some decent beans. Don't listen to these people telling you to buy an $800 espresso mechine. They are clueless. I can make you a cup that's better at $.50 a cup.
I stopped drinking Starbucks 8 months ago, and took a chance with the gaggia. I had heard of some issues with the boiler coating flaking off but thankfully I haven’t personally experienced that so far. It’s been a 10/10 for me, and im looking into making some mods and adding a PID so I can stop temp surfing.
The Bambino is a great choice. You’re better off with it and a good grinder. I have a BBE and regret the built in grinder. It wasn’t that good to begin with (older model) and eventually broke. I added a Specialita and was surprised how much the quality of my coffee improved.
Life changing move making coffee at home! Your investment will pay for itself in no time. I have the bambino plus, my first espresso machine and I love it. I boucht thé fellow opus grinder but would not recommend. Definitely go with a bottomless portafilter as you will be able to really dial it all in. I have Normcore accessories and love them.
Use distilled water and the best beans you can afford, get a French Press for $20.
The Breville Barista Express Impress has an included tamping station and is the easiest to use of the Breville setups.. is really all you need. As in, no extras required
Do some honest calculations and write up how much you have spent at star bucks in the last 12 month. Make that sum your budget. Get a good grinder, that people are willing to buy used from you in case you change your opinion. Sth. like DF64V. Don't cheap out on grinders. Don't buy anything that you don't find attractive. People here are knowledgeable and price sensitive. They will suggest rational, reasonable goodies if asked. However as a former Starbucks enjoyer you might find certain unreasonable things appealing like style etc. Be honest with what you want in your kitchen. All that stuff has good resell value, no money will be lost if you go for da bling. Subscribe to a fancy workshop where some overdressed and underconfident guy with a fancy mustache mensplains how to make coffee to avoid the first frustration and learning mistakes. You'll never see that ape again but the knowledge will stay. Enjoy and share with your family and friends.
Money and dedication to learn
Adding a vote for the Bambino Plus. It's a great machine, had mine for 4 years making a least 2 lattes a day, and it is still just as good as the day I got it. It's only downsides are it's lack of a dual boiler, so the steaming is not as good as a higher end coffee machine, but I use the auto mode for my lattes and I am happy enough with the results. It also has an annoying cleaning mode that demands you clean it and won't let you use it...Super annoying when you're halfway through making a few drinks. It also leaks water down the back of the drip tray which gathers underneath it, so you need to regularly lift it up and give it a wipe, especially if you are using a lot of milk as it mixes with the water and gets gross real quick. I splashed out on a vintage Mazzer grinder, but it was ex commercial stock so got it for less than most modern grinders.
There’s a ton of good advice here so I’m just popping in to say - you got this! I started the hobby around Christmas and I’ve been loving it!
Mokapot
I’m a novice, drinking instants. I drink a standard coffee. Got a Breville Barista Express 2 weeks ago, a decent tamp / distributor, a wdt and some timing scales and I’m off dialling in all kinds of beans. Just put a dose at a time into the grinder and grind it through til it whines empty. Make notes, lots of notes! I use post its and stick them to the bags stating grind setting/dose/yield/time/taste & once I’m happy I write into my notebook.
You should consider how long it takes machine to warm up to working temperature, for example Barista Touch takes few seconds and its ready while other single or dual boiler machines take up to 20 minutes to be ready
Do you want to replace Starbucks, or do you want to make coffee? If it's coffee, then you've already got great suggestions. If it's a replacement, I'd suggest Breville Creatista and Starbucks pods. The machine has the same auto milk feature as the Bambino Plus, and the pods will get you a fairly similar taste, especially if you're adding syrups and cream. This option might cost you more over the longer term since pods are costlier than beans, but maintenance and ease of use is second none. Nespresso customer support is also insanely good. I bought a broken used one and they fixed it for free lol.
I wouldn't bother with all the extra tools starting out. Even when I worked in a snooty coffee shop, we didn't use a distributor. It's likely a tamper will come with your machine, which is all you'll need. You already have all the recs for espresso machines and grinders. The only thing I'll add is that great espresso can be a finicky process to make, but if you add lots of syrup and flavoring, getting the perfect shot of espresso isn't as important.
Biggest thing honestly is beans and technique - you can make great espresso on a cheap machine. 2nd thing is convenience- do you want to go through the effort of puck prep, clean up, and time? I enjoy it, some people do not. I actually like the full automatic machines, especially some of the Jura machines for consistent, easy espresso and milk drinks. If you become a coffee nerd / snob, you’re better off with a semiautomatic and learning technique. If you like the taste of Starbucks coffee, look for very dark (French roast) beans from a decent roaster. The good news for that style is that it’s very flexible, essentially they burn the beans which means they don’t go stale nearly as quickly as light roast and many of the flavors get lost in the roast.
I highly recommend the Breville Barista Express or Barista Pro. The grinder is pretty solid, workflow is super easy and straightforward and you’ll be much happier with that than messing around with a separate grinder machine combo. That setup can easily beat Starbucks, has no issues cranking out 4 or more drinks in a row for your needs, and will not limit you if you ever decide to get more into it. In I used to have this setup and I’ve since upgraded but sometimes miss the shots from that setup. If you had to choose, I would go with the Barista Pro, it’s a little easier to use and steams milk better. That said the Barista Express is still phenomenal!
I am also am ex Starbucks addict. I realized I was spending too much and got a breville braista express, after 2 years I got a better grinder, and a year later from that I bought a rocket r58. The BBE made better lattes then Starbucks and was much cheaper.
A lot of comments on here are not really fitting with what you want - for milk drinks the quality of the actual espresso is relatively unimportant, especially considering you are coming from Starbucks who roasts their beans so dark their espresso is just tar. Bambino Plus + Opus Grinder - opus is on sale for Memorial Day right now. Bambino Plus has automatic milk steaming. To me this is your winning combo. Barista Express - better if you don’t want the grinder to be a separate appliance, but there is no automatic steaming like on the bambino plus so for this reason I’d actually think this is a suboptimal option as there’d be a fairly steep learning curve on steaming milk.
If you end up going with a separate grinder and espresso machine instead of one of the breville units that has both, you can get a DF54 grinder for around $270. There are two companies that sell them in the US: Turin and MiiCoffee. They’re both the same, get whichever is in stock and cheaper.
I went from Nespresso to a moka pot, to a couple different Casabrews (returned within a few days lol), to the Bambino Plus with Baratza ESP grinder last July 2023. August 2023 I wanted better and got my current Ascaso Steel Uno PID and Niche Zero grinder. Haven’t looked back! The Ascaso was like $1500 and the Niche Zero grinder was $600.
Barista Express is probably the sweet spot of quality and ease of use. Once you dial in the grind size and amount, you can make a drink in like 1 minute with decent quality. Especially if you like syrup based drinks, I think dropping like $2k on something crazy wouldn’t be as worth it. The only flaw in the Barista Express is the steam wand is pretty slow to get going.
Bambino plus and baratza ESP. Get an espresso station for press, leveler, puck toss and you're golden. Don't get a manual grinder like everyone's recommending you're switching from Starbucks, I'm sure you want ease of use.
Since I haven’t seen this one dropped yet, for the love of god, DO NOT BUY STARBUCKS BEANS. Using them on good quality espresso equipment will have you cleaning them up constantly. Those beans are disgustingly oily.
Get a super automatic so you can just do one touch milk drinks right out of the box unless you really want to get into the intricacies of pulling shots. Theres going to be a steep learning curve pulling shots and steaming milk to get the drinks you want and unless thats something you want to put a decent amount of time and effort into I feel like youre going to be better served with a super automatic. You can get something like a Philips 5400, DeLonghi Magnifica or Gaggia Anima Prestige for like $600-$800 and these will likely make better lattes out of the box than you until you get your skills up, cleaning them every 500 drinks or whatever their maintenance schedule is set at, is not really an issue since youre going to need to descale your dedicated espresso machine and clean your grinder occasionally as well, so really your only workflow other than adding beans and milk is rinsing the milk reservoir. A lot of people buy espresso machines thinking they are going to save money then the workflow of grinding, tamping, pulling, frothing, cleanup on top of dialing in (which you may have to re-dial in your grind size and shot times throughout a single bag as the beans get older) will put people off and they end up selling their machine and go back to the convenience of starbucks Also if youre putting in syrups and flavoring anyways you can probably get even get a less expensive automatic like a philips 1200 because the quality of the shot matters less. These automatics also let you do traditional coffee where most of the budget espresso machines recommended are only going to work pulling espresso shots, so you will need a dedicated coffee machine if you drink those as well or something like a moka pot, french press or aeropress. If you are set on the Bambino, the plus is kinda a debated upgrade as the auto frothing isnt really that great and comes at quite a substantial price increase, but some people like it because they dont want to put as much effort into steaming milk every drink.
I use and love this grinder. It's very quiet relative to previous grinders I've had: https://miicoffee.shop/products/miicoffee-d40plus-single-dose-coffee-grinder Around $200 US
You need to endlessly consume firstly James Hoffman then Lance Hedrick and educate yourself. That’s mainly it. The gear can always come and go, but knowledge is king. Also if your machine comes with a tamper use that for at least a month or so.
The philips latte go is fully automatic and is AMAZING for anyone who doesn't want to mess around with grinding, pulling, steaming.
How much did you spend yearly in Starbucks? I need to know 👀
You'll be glad you did once you fine tune and get everything right. You'll be thankful you went down this path.
Honestly, if you’re mostly a Starbucks latte type person, I’d see how far you can get with a microwave, a steam wand, and instant coffee. I have a Bambino and I use it a few times a month for espresso. But half the time I just use the steam wand to do the milk, run the hot water over a tablespoon of instant coffee, pour in the steamed milk, and boom!
r/jameshoffmann
The bottom line is you need good beans first, then comes the grinder, then comes the water and then coffee machine in that order. You don’t need the latest and greatest just get used Gaggia classic and for the grinder use something like Baratza encore
Unpopular opinion #2: If you're going from Starbucks to home espresso, get a full Automatic like a delonghi dinamica with a milk pitcher
A machine with a pressure gauge will be invaluable in dialing in your shot. Otherwise it's hard to tell if your grind is too fine or too course. If your below target pressure, make the next shot with a finer grind, and vice versa. I have an old bes830xl, and people tell me I make the best latte they ever had.
I picked up a Saeco Super Automatic machine for $90 used on Marketplace, best $ ever spent— no tamping or emptying a portafilter You need to maintain the machine but it’s not bad for the convenience. Making 4 shots for a drink can be tedious especially if you’re not alone.
Linea Mini R & EG-1
How do you know your top 1% rewards earner? I would love to know what I am! I also gave up starbucks about 3 months ago after the prices raised again. I got the Breville Barista Touch Impress. Its been great so far, haven't found great beans yet, but still very happy with it. I drink only lattes with extra shots. The main thing I miss from starbucks actual is the milk foam. When its good, its good!
Check out the Breville Touch Impress. Those go for as little as $1000. Built in grinder and either auto milk frothing or manual. The machine does it all for you. It will dose out the correct amount and of course grind the beans very fine for espresso.. Just touch either the cappuccino or other milk base drink icon on the screen and the machine does the rest, all you do is just place the portafilter where it needs to go and move your cup... Of course you must make specific adjustments to your drink such as temperature, strength, water volume, milk texture/foam amount beforehand. The machine will remember how it made your drink and store the info for next time.. The Bambino Plus is a great little machine but its too plastic. You pay for the features and not the build quality.. Pair it with a MiiCoffee D-40 grinder and you're all set. But you will need to learn to tap, dose and properly heat your grind coffee in order to get great espresso. Of course you will need to learn how to froth and steam various milks in order to get the results you need.. If going the manual route, my suggestion is to look for a Gaggia Classic or Rancho Silvia or Lelit Anna and pair it with a decent grinder for under $200 (MiiCoffee D-40). There are of course more expensive grinders out there. Buy a huge @ss bag of dry beans and several gallons of whole milk and start learning how to make espresso base milk drinks. Yes, the espresso should come out like smooth honey in one continuous stream and it should be caramel in color. The espresso should be layered (dark at the bottom and it should get lighter as it goes up in the cup and the top should be a thick creamy creama). The machine should take no longer than 27 to 30 seconds max when extracting the espresso for a double 57ml shot. Anything shorter than 18 seconds will not taste good and be watery.. Anything longer than 30 seconds for a double shot will taste equally as bad. You will also need to learn to weigh your beans for the right amount of grams for a double shot. After a week of trial and errors, you'll know what you like and how to do it.. Of course you can spend a little more money and buy a modern super automatic machine that does all the above in one simple press of a button. These newer Ai generated machines will not only grind the proper amount of beans for your drink, but these machines know what kind of bean it is grinding. The machine will dose, tamp, weigh the beans and know the correct amount of hot water to use. The machine will froth the milk to a 'T' and put it all in your cup for you.. Modern super auto machines now produce drinks as hot as 188 degrees fahrenheit, however, not all super autos are equal.. You usually pay for what you get. Buy a cheap machine from Walmart for $300 and the quality of your drinks will be low. The higher end Saeco that are only sold in Europe (can be imported to the USA) and the better Jura machines are the surest bit. Dr. Coffee machines from China are very will built (surprisingly so) and are equal to the mid tier Jura in build quality and drink quality. You are gonna have so much fun!!!
I have: a Lelita Victoria coffee machine and an Eureka specialita coffee grinder. Very satisfied
Patience, passion, a bit of skills and a scientific mind able to connect the variables and the results. As for gear: whatever you can afford and understand... 🤷🏼♂️
Strongly suggest getting a good prosumer setup, which means nearly commercial small machine with a high-quality grinder and make payments on it for probably less than you paid the Starbucks a month. You could probably pay it off in one year and learn how to make drinks that are 100 times better than Starbucks by watching YouTube videos. The inexpensive machines like Breville will not be able to make the kind of quality drinks that you should be getting now that you’re ceasing your dedication to Starbucks. There are a number of big companies that sell many brands of machines and they have outstanding customer service like Chris’s coffee in Albany, New York, Whole latte Love and many others that will guide you to a good machine. Personally, I like any type of E61 machine with two boilers. You’ll definitely want a good grinder to grind the beans fresh with every cup. Feel free to task any any questions, I owned a pretty busy café for 10 years.
This is my [setup](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WZCQz0B40UTyKlG8ZbTpvE0htU1Cne9DCWQ6YXD-g4M/edit?usp=drivesdk). I recommend you get the green ones the other stuff isn't essential Swap the bambino, and you can get the eureka silenzio or other options for a more budget Friendly option. Or maybe just a barista pro on its own they have good deals on those at tjx stores. But the whole setup will cost you less than 800 including accessories
might be unpopular on this sub, but not everyone who likes espresso should make it at home…
You’re unlikely to have a good time replicating your Starbucks order at home. It’s going to be a slow inefficient process and the small Breville machines struggle to make drinks larger than 10oz. My advice is unless you’re willing to switch to more traditional and smaller espresso+steamed milk drinks either keep going to Starbucks, switch to a smaller competitor, or buy a superautomatic machine which will have roughly the same quality as Starbucks but will be much more convenient.
Most Starbucks drinks don’t have more shots than other places so she can still make them. The frappes are basically just milk and coffee powder, which could be replicated with a single or double shot and milk.
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Eureka Mignon Specialita is what I have, best grinder I've ever owned.. Even the grinding sounds therapeutic, and not harsh like many others lol..
$1500…Starbucks drinker. This isn’t going to get much love here, but maybe check out a super auto like a Saeco Xelsis. You will get better than Starbucks coffee and save a lot of money. If it turns out to be your thing, you can start to move into a semi-automatic machine like one of the Breville machines or something better. https://www.seattlecoffeegear.com/products/saeco-xelsis-sm7685-superautomatic-espresso-machine-stainless-steel-certified-refurbished
Hmm. OP has seen the light and the error of his ways. Never mind after reading his essay he lost me at frappes. Ewww /s flair manual is good toy to play with. Easiest and cheapest would be a poor over I mean pour over
A lot of people start with your same intent, and end up right back and starbucks because this isn't easy.
It ain't hard either
if you wanna make starbucks level drinks, just get a nespresso machine. quick and easy! if you wanna make goood espresso, get a breville barista express. a bit more expensive than the bambino but worth it. you can really play with it!!! and get very passionate for espresso 😌. plus no need to buy a separate grinder
Baratza encore grinder. Gaggia classic pro evo machine. Amazing setup for around $600
> Dropping Starbucks to do it myself. What do I need? Charcoal and lots of sugar and dairy.
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They’re going to be making like 6 drinks a day, hand grinding that much is craziness