Coffee in beer has really got my goat again recently. There’s so many examples of just throwing coffee from a reputable roaster in and hoping for the best. I find it often makes things metallic and throws off a star anise/black cat lollies flavour that I think of as roast faults in the coffee that just shouldn’t be there. A good coffee beer is a real treat when I get one, but I’m often let down.
1 Like
Imo. If you’re going enter level and don’t have the milk based drinks
Get yourself a Gaggia classic or rancillio Silvia. Or really any prosumer single boiler. If you want the milk drinks a dumb idea I’ve toyed with is buying a 2nd hand single boiler for like 1-200 and just using it for steam. Then save for a few years and get yourself a decent dual boiler or heat exchanger.
Breville dual boiler is good but iirc most lost <5 years unless extremely well maintained. Just food for thought.
However that’s not to say the expensive Italian ones don’t break in some form. A month or so ago the yconnector in my lelit Bianca cracked and had to be replaced (under warranty) but that took a week or so to arrive.
Definitely go big on the grinder. You can get away with buying one for life. Or if you wanna save $ and still have quality. There are terrific hand grinders with burrs.
1 Like
It’s certainly something that has my attention. And it seems all the online reviews are good.
Is 199 a good price for this? It seems again that people are happy with this, but then you can take grinders to insane levels as well…conical burrs vs flat burrs vs on and on…
You can do a lot worse than the smart grinder
1 Like
I know a few people that have them. Can’t fault. The only issue any of my friends have had is group head seal replacement, which is a cheap and easily replaced part. Can’t rave about mine enough. 
1 Like
This is where my internet searching always ends up…
A heavy metal coffee machine would certainly be good. Although way beyond anything that I can justify…
1 Like
I paid for $180 for ours, you’ll do well to find better than $199 although coming up on EOFY stocktake sales you might find better.
3 Likes
Is there a real issue with the singer boilers with milk drinks beyond the time it takes to get up to steam temp after pulling the shot? Which is like a minute and a half or so?
Yeah. Pretty much. In my experience in a cafe there’s no real diff on a shot pulled now to about 5 mins ago.
Sometimes they produce less steam pressure.
1 Like
I did insist on playing reign in blood when we fired up the first one we ever got.
3 Likes
That’s what I was thinking. When I do a milk coffee on the big expobar machine at work the workflow goes grind/pull shot/get distracted while getting milk/ wait for someone who is currently using the only full cream milk in the fridge to be finished making their cereal/get angry because they just finished the full cream milk so have to go to the other kitchen to get real milk/steam milk/drink.
I figure the friggin around is always longer than a minute and a half, and doesn’t seem to impact the coffee noticeably to me.
Given the Gaggia is currently around 650 that seems a pretty good deal. But then once I think I’ll be spending that, another 300 will get to a lelit with PID.
Agree with this.
I saw it for $174 at David Jones last December and jumped on it.
$199 is a good price though.
I’ve seen it go as low as $160-ish, but that was a while ago on an EBay promo thru Bing Lee.
It’s a great Grinder, especially when the previous grinding method used was a manual hand Grinder !!!
2 Likes
One thing to be mindful of. In theory the smart grinder won’t last as long as a 4-600 dollar one. However if you’re just dipping your toes to see if you wanna go home espresso or pour overs etc. you could do a hell of a loss worse for the 200 mark.
2 Likes
I just did a search and the same one (BCG820BSS) is respectively, $249 at Bing Lee, $269 at JB, $299 at The Good Guys, & I shitt you not, $369 at Myer.
So yeah, $199 at Harvery Norms no less, is surprising.
I’m thinking of getting one for myself today.
1 Like
Amazon also have 1 left (currently) at $199.
I’ve found their Customer Service to be exceptional, so buy the majority of my stuff thru them.
1 Like
That’s where I’d seen that price.
Yeah, saw that, … incl Free delivery which is cool.
But there’s a HN just up the road, and if I buy one, I’ll want it NOW! 
2 Likes
Make sure you install the app that goes along with it to see who else is making great coffee in your vicinity.
It’s called “Grindr”, install it and you can meet people by simply letting them know whether you’re after a long black, or just a quick shot in the mouth.
14 Likes
Lol,… I’ll leave that to you and your mates sweetie.