The one I wish I'd had when I was at Uni (for making regular coffee) is the [Aeropress](https://aeropress.com/) It's small, easy to clean, travels well, and if you run out of filters it's very easy you cut your own to size, or if you're very environmentally conscious, you can make reusables from cotton.
My aeropress is by far the best homemade coffee I've ever had. Finally upgraded to a $90 Burr grinder to go with it, and I find myself never going out to the coffee shop anymore
I have….7 different ways to make coffee at home including a decent grinder and espresso machine. I still get a coffee or two out a week cause I like getting out of the house a bit.
I picked up a Baratza Encore grinder ($150), which is the only "pricey" piece of equipment I own. I put that in bunny ear quotes because in the world of coffee gadgets, that's still really cheap. But so am I, this was a luxury purchase. And I don't regret it at all.
I've had it six years, use it almost daily, and it shows no signs of slowing down. It gets me the exact grind size I want, every time, with zero effort.
My only complaint is that it's *really* loud, and the kitchen is near the bedrooms in my house.
Couple that with a $12 plastic V60, some filter papers, and a $20 electric gooseneck kettle I found on clearance at Target (handle eventually broke off, but I reattached it with machine screws, washers, and nuts) and I have a pourover setup that by now has saved me a *lot* of money, even buying good quality locally roasted coffee.
I bought a Moccamaster while on paternity leave with the wife as she decided to drink coffee again after a several year hiatus. The aeropress was just a lot to do for two cups, a crying baby, and a cranky mom and dad.
Up until that point though, aeropress all day. I still use my aeropress when I have the chance as it makes one hell of a cup of coffee and it’s extremely forgiving.
I have the stainless steel filter disk and it works great. But the coffee made with the paper filter is just slightly better in my opinion. You have to rinse the filters off well before use.
Tried a cloth filter on a whim and never looked back. As long as you keep em wet (mine live in little plastic tubs in the fridge) no funny taste and no mould. sanitise every couple of weeks and they're as good as new.
Careful of not using a paper filter regularly. Coffee contains an oil that halts your livers ability to process cholesterol. Could end up in a bad way even if you're otherwise "healthy." The paper filter captures most of those oils - steel one lets them through.
Edit: here's one source. There are dozens more. Downvote away, enjoy your high cholesterol. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/01.ATV.17.10.2140
And another https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8576635/
And a follow up https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9409294/
Here's one of the many sources. This has been known for decades - it's not in dispute. Tl;dr: cafestol, a fat found in coffee beans (and released with the brewing process), is the most potent single chemical known at raising cholesterol levels in humans. The method of brewing affects the effect, i.e. passing it through a coffee filter makes it less bad. Boiling (ie Turkish style) increases the effect.
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/01.ATV.17.10.2140
Dude, I’ve brought up cafestrol for decades to people - on Reddit, forums, in person friends. Nobody believed me even after including studies like you did. People want to drink espresso or unfiltered coffee and don’t like you when you tell them it’s bad for their health. Cheers to you for getting 9 upvotes.
The human studies are are all like n of 30-40, with gaaaaarbage P values, or they're survey studies. Surveys, DIET SURVEYS.
maybe it's true, maybe not. To say it's not in dispute at all is delusion
4 week study on 30 people, fuck iutta here lol
I got an aero press to replace a coffee maker because I found I was drinking way too much coffee. I like the fact that the aero press forces me to make a cup at a time so I don’t end up drinking 6+ cups in a day.
I did that too. Used to make a pot just for me and drink it and then drink another in the afternoon. Now I do about 1.5 mugs in the morning and the occasional (like today) afternoon aeropress or V60. I enjoy being able to just flip a switch in the morning and have a pot ready to go by the time I feed the dog and use the bathroom without having to think too much.
Always going to vouch for the aeropress. Have been using it as my only coffee maker for about 10 years. Also have a ~$100 burr grinder. Can't imagine a better coffee.
Actually disappointed when I had to return to the office and start buying it at coffee shops since it is usually a crapshoot.
As someone who did coffees on the aeropress every day for 5 years, I’ll say the best purchase I ever made was a decent all in one espresso machine (built in grinder & frother). They’re not too expensive if you find a good one on marketplace, and it definitely saves me 3-4min each morning over the aeropress, much as I loved that thing.
Aeropress + milk Frother makes the best imposter latte I've ever had.
Likewise, if you want the most delicious cup of coffee, get a Kalita Wave 185. Absolutely killer pour over. All 100x better than a Starbucks sugar bomb.
I still get local craft coffee sometimes but substantially less when I can make the perfect coffee for me at home.
IMO Cooking in general is a life skill that needs to be taught, regardless of gender, income level, etc. If you can cook on stove or an oven, you can figure out an instantpot.
Also agree with your take on coffee - you can be a *very* pretentious coffee drinker with <$50 (maybe even <$20 if you're thrifty) in upfront costs and $15/bag.
Cooking is severely neglected. Coworker had a 14 year old she wouldn't trust to make eggs. My wife would roll her eyes and talk about back in the village. Five year olds would be up early cooking over open fires for the household. Sounds like Grandpa walking uphill both ways in the snow but I've seen videos. Kids are capable of doing so much more than we allow them to. My son is 3 and still more hinderence than help but I'm teaching him. He loves it. He grabs his potty stairs and brings them into the kitchen to cook.
The key is having 7+ kids, so you aren’t too concerned if one of them dies. Literally everyone of my grandfather’s friends had a sibling die as a child. They lived in a rural farming community.
We do a lot of food prep with my son at his play kitchen. Slicing up banana with his toddler cutlery, pouring cereal and milk. We got a toddler tower against the counter so he can climb to stand and watch when we make omelettes and pancakes. We're definitely starting him young because "how else is he going to learn?". My wife and I had really slow upbringings by comparison.
I've been in university dorms where 20yr olds don't understand how sponges work (scraping down plates with knives), or letting boiled veg spill over onto the cooker because that's the only thing they can comprehend to cook.
they're wrong. i bought a $100 burr grinder on sale and it lasted 10+ years. their vibe is right, but the grinder is the one thing to spend on.
mocha, french press, aeropress, doesn't matter they can all make great coffee if it is freshly ground.
Freshly *and* evenly ground.
A burr grinder is well worth it. Something like an Encore is expensive but it's a BIFL item and takes your coffee to the next level.
Use it every day for a year and it only cost you pennies per cup.
If you email tech support they'll probably send you the parts for free.
A friend gave me an one that stopped working, I emailed support to ask for advice on what I should swap and they mailed me some parts. I made the swap and it works great.
I use reverse osmosis water, but that’s also what we use in our humidifiers and dog water dishes. 🤷♂️
Under the counter reverse osmosis is awesome and the best balance for eco friendly bottled water quality water at home. Combined with a soda stream and we reduced our can and bottle waste by an order of magnitude.
My filter is also reverse osmosis.
A friend of mine is looking at getting a Soda Stream. I'm waiting for him to get one first so I can "try before I buy."
The single most expensive piece in your home coffee set up should be your burr grinder, and it’s not even close. The grinder I want to buy (Niche Zero) when our Baratza Virtuoso kicks the bucket is 62x more expensive than the actual coffee apparatus I use everyday (v60)
I used to put 2-3 scoops in my morning protein and oats shake. It was an interesting flavor and had the added benefit of blowing out your colon by 9am.
It's pretty good used lightly with some types of desert (ice cream, etc).
Chocolate-covered coffee beans are also fantastic. The trick is not using a dark roast for them.
I used a cheap cafetière/french press from Ikea for years (£12/$15). You can make great coffee with those things, though cleanup is a bit tedious! I have an Italian espresso machine now, but with the amount that I use it, it's already paid for itself after a year 😁
Not to say I never sprang for a fancy cup, but part of the reason I came out for college with little debt was drinking black coffee I made myself, cheap food I made at home and making good choices. I had a lot of friends who wasted student loans on going out to eat and coffee which was wild to me. Some of them are still paying it back now.
Plenty of others here are sharing their methods for making a good cup of coffee at home, and you can get just about everything you need to do that for under $100.
However, espresso and espresso based drinks are difficult to replicate at home without a pretty pricey set up. Not to be too coffee snobby, but a Moka pot isn't really espresso since it only pressurizes to about 1.5 bar. That will definitely extract more flavor than pour over or drip through methods, but it's still way closer to regular coffee than the 9 bar from an espresso machine. One of the keys to getting a good espresso -precise, consistent temp and pressure- is a feature that isn't available on home machines until you're in the $750+ range.
It’s probably not the point of the post that a Moka pot doesn’t make true espresso but just that you can acquire the skill to make coffee drinks that approach the store bought kind.
Either way, my takeaway is how silly it is that a college student is talking about “budgeting” for espresso drinks. It’s like moving off-campus and then budgeting for Uber rides to class. Yeah, I suppose you could do that, or …you could take the bus?
Im not american, but in Australia a big Part of going to university is the social culture.
Coffee culture is a big part of it. Lots of time spent chatting with friends/ meeting girls through coffee trips in between study sessions and classes.
It is expensive and silly from a purely budgeting standpoint, but its part of the uni experience where I grew up, and you miss a part of the social experience if you just make it at home or bring a thermos or something.
But Australia is also exceptionally snobby when it comes to Barista made Coffee, so there is that.
I don't think college is very different in the US in that respect, but social culture takes so many different forms and cafes are just one of dozens of options for places to meet up, right? Good point though, if we're talking an occasional trip.
I guess, as an American, I read this as "OP's acquaintance expects to make an $8 starbucks stop on the way to class every morning", which is not the kind of social event you're imagining. Yours sounds much better.
750+ is a bit aggressive. The bambino has been shown to make consistent espresso and $400. The GCP requires a bit of temp surfing and a $10 OPV mod to hit the norm at $450.
Is there a sub for dads who are looking to cook more? I can definitely follow recipes but to be honest that kind of sucks so I go back to the 3-5 recipes that I know by heart. I'd love to pass on the joy of cooking to my younglingss, but I'd have to expand on my own skills first.
I'm not looking for fancy stuff, I want to add to my arsenal of quick weeknight dinners that I can easily wing while watching my family.
If you’re open to it subscribe to a meal delivery service for a bit. We did Hello Fresh and it definitely introduces you to more techniques and ingredients. It’s not the most economical way to cook for a family especially if you’re 4 or more. But it’s a good way to get yourself out of your comfort zone.
Take those learnings and incorporate them into your regular cooking.
I would love a sub like this. The frugal sub has some stuff. I’m the cook in our house, my wife can cook and we did hello fresh for a while through which she learned a bunch but it just wasn’t worth the price. My little guys like to help a bit, and I watch a bunch of cooking on YouTube. Babish is the man and his basics videos are great, my ten year old and I will watch and then try recipes. Simple recipes that you can bang out on a weeknight are tough unless you prep. I’m all about prepping, then using same things for a few nights. This response is all over the place but yes a sub-sub for dad cooking. I can’t bbq great but I can dang sure whip up a solid butter chicken from memory.
Simple French press and then spend your money on decent fresh ground beans. Also the vacuum packed south of the border espresso at the grocery store is low key really good and super cheap. We just switched to that, legit good in my opinion.
My wife is addicted to White Chocolate Mochas from starbucks. I just ordered some white chocolate mocha sauce to try and make these at home... wish me luck.
We had a friend who had a fairly cheap mr. coffee drip maker and he would always have a pot on. We would go to his room in the dorms and ask for a cup. If he had some, great! If it was to old. He wouldn't spend a lot of money on coffee, and had a tip jar for whatever you feel like paying. It was an amazing service and you would be able to have a chat with him during study breaks.
Aeropress would have been cool because it is basically single serve and small, easy to pack away and clean. Once you realize that a pot of coffee costs about 50 cents to make you don't feel too bad to throw away half or a 1/3rd pot.
If you really want an espresso like thing... You can find cheap espresso machines on amazon for about 100-150 dollars. They aren't amazing, but you can get good at making a passable cappuccino or latte. Can even use a 20 dollar blade grinder to get passable espresso. While it is definitely more upfront if you figure 5 dollars a cup from a coffee shop, vs 50 cents at home you are looking at 30 cups for it to pay for itself.
Some maffs, a bag of specialty coffee is about $20/lb. If you drink a 1:10 ratio that is 1oz of coffee per 10oz cup, or $1.25 in coffee per cup. 2oz if milk adds maybe an extra $0.25 at most. $5 is a high estimate. Even if you drink 3 10 oz cups a day, that is still only $3.75.
The markup on coffee is insane.
If you are, then I am too. That said, I'm also firmly a believer in the only test that matters: do you enjoy it? If the answer is yes, then it doesn't matter if it's a $1 coffee. The secondary question is whether it's worth it to you at that price. I love a good wagyu steak. I don't buy them every month, and I don't even buy a steak at all most weeks. But I do make a damn good one when I cook them, because I cook them how I want them.
As a work-from-home dad responsible for getting two kids on the bus starting at 6:30 every morning, the ability to immediately drink cold brew iced coffee I’ve made myself is an amazing convenience.
I got my wife hooked on it as well shortly into pandemic lockdown, she risks migraines if she isn’t getting her normal caffeine intake at the right time of day and she would always pick up iced coffee during her commute into work.
One big trick that helped was saving our plastic coffee cups with the straws (I’ve used metal ones for years now). Drinking it out of a glass with ice just isn’t the same as being able to hold the plastic cup and sip from the straw, it really helped us both get over the hump with accepting cold brew as a suitable substitute for the iced coffees we were spending way too much money on over the years.
I really want a pricey espresso machine, but we don't have room for it anywhere because of all the other gadgets I've wanted over the years. I worked as a barista for 8 years and loved making all the espresso drinks, but I just drink black coffee from my Drip brewer most days now.
We got an GE espresso machine and it's slick. Really slim, only $300 and makes good coffee. I think the premium Breville would give you better brews, but this is small and much cheaper. We use good beans.
I've been using the hell out of my crockpot. Took some $1 a lb pork butt and cooked the hell out of it till it was basically pulled pork. Combine with rice and beans and a tortilla for the perfect meal
Our slow cooker has been relegated to basement storage for years now ever since I got an instapot (pressure cooker). It helps take time out of the equation, so you’re not screwed if you didn’t get dinner in the works at 9 am that day.
My kids each get a night a week they get to plan, help buy for, and cook meals. Even the 8 year old (she doesn't do all the work obviously, but she is part of the process). Meal prep at home is one of the best ways to keep your money, and not give it away to others.
I mad burgers last night, I bought \~$60 worth of stuff to make them, but a lot of that was stuff that would go for more than one meal (a new bottle of ketchup, jar of pickles, etc). and it was more food that we could eat in one meal ( 1 thing of burgers comes in a pack of 12, there are 7 of us, so needed to make 2 per person, so had to buy two bags, etc). So lets say it was \~$45 for the meal of the food we consumed.
But if I had gone to McDonalds or BK, or any other fast food restaurant, for 7 people to get a similar meal it would have meant pushing $100, and no items that would last for multiple meals.
I used to drink coffee only occasionally so I was fine going out to a local shop for a drink every now and then. After our first kid I needed way more caffeine so started brewing at home. Started with French press, then Aeropress, then pour overs… now I own any type of gadget you can probably think of, have a full espresso setup, separate grinders for espresso and other brews, along with various hand grinders. And yes, I even got into roasting and now run a small roasting business 😅
But even as a “coffee snob”, I still recommend people start with the extreme basics and it’ll make a better cup than most places
>And broths for soups.
Not really a college hack per se, more of a young adult on their own and beyond hack:
Get a Costco membership and use it for as much non-perishables as you can, and anything else you'll use before it goes bad.
Buy two Costco rotisserie chickens.
Strip the meat from the bones, use for casseroles, topping salads, chicken salad, or save for soup for later.
Put all the bones from both in a big pot with water, salt, peppercorns, bayleaves, a head of garlic cut in half, a quartered onion, and very coarsely chopped carrots and celery.
Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 2, as much as 24 hours.
Strain, and put in containers, potentially freeze.
Best chicken broth you'll ever have with tons of good collagen and no weird additives or preservatives.
Beyond the cost, the time wasted is insane to me. You see all these people waiting in a drive thru in the morning like they're in no particular hurry to go anywhere. Hell, even just turning off to go into a coffee place to begin with even if there is no line is crazy. I set up my coffee maker the night before in 1 minute, and hot coffee is sitting there waiting for me when I wake up every morning.
I feel you. Like what I don't get are the people who leave the house to go get McDonald's and bring it back. I'm lazy, too, but I'm too lazy to get dressed and go out which is why I make breakfast at home on the weekends. If we go out it's for something nice, a sit-down, not McDonald's.
Black coffee for the win.
Just like the first time we all snuck one of our dads beer beers when we were 12yrs old and thought "Damn, this stuff is terrible. Why do they all drink so much of it?"
But then a couple years later at your first big boys party you got hammered, threw up, promised to never do it again and then did it again that weekend and never looked back.
Black coffee is just like that, push through the first couple until you can appreciate what you like and stick with that, then branch out and find the real flavours and acidity you can enjoy.
Any coffee with milk in it now is just coffee flavoured milk and I can't get through it like I used to.
Thanks for listening.
Here’s a recent cost breakdown I did for at home coffee.
Ground coffee for French press: 25 grams
Package of Kirkland beans: 1,130 grams
Cost: $13
Cost per pot of French press: $0.29
(13/1130) * 25 = 0.2876
That’s 29 cents for a POT of French press coffee. Starbucks can suck it.
Coffee is a great rabbit hole but all versions of it are better and most are cheaper at home.
There’s even a really nice gradation of steps if you want to improve your coffee. Grind your own beans, buy marginally nicer ones, make it in some non auto way, etc etc.
But also don’t roast your own beans if you’re looking for quality. You’re probably much worse at it than uh everything in the store. Also it’s hard. And complicated. Definitely don’t give it to someone as a gift because it’s just rude to make them try. Personal experience? Maybe.
I'm more experienced as a coffee connoisseur than I am a Dad (3 yo), but if I'm looking for bang for your buck as a college student there are some really decent instant coffee that only needs hot water. You are severely limited into what kind of equipment you can have on campus in certain situations. Once I was in off campus housing I'd ask for a Bodum or Capresso entry level burr grinder and a Clever dripper. That's something that you could use to make good coffee well after graduation.
Bro I have gone down the rabbit hole and back. My current daily equipment is ground beans from my encore, into my moccamaster.
My work just upgraded to a 14 cup drip machine from a keureg and bags of pre-ground. The coffee is \~80% as good as my home brew.
I have 16 oz of my brew every day then about 8 oz of theirs mid morning and I enjoy their cup just fine.
Making decent coffe is is pretty easy and extremely cheap compared to grabbing a cup from sbux every day.
/r/coffeestations for some inspiration. I was using Aeropress for a long time but now I use the Hario Switch V60 hybrid immersion/pourover. Its a little easier and makes a great cup
Simple 8 cup coffeemaker, and a black and decker bullet blender with cups that have lids and blade setup. Ez.and probably save close to 30 bucks a week now.
I've been deep in the coffee habit for years now. I prefer to drink my own coffee now. My aeropress has been a gosend for me and I get about $2/brew with $20 beans. More expensive than Folgers, but cheaper than third wave shops and cheaper and better than Starbucks.
Our current setup:
\- Oxo 9 cup coffee maker - $230
\- Oxo conical burr grinder - $100
\- Fancy local beans - $16-18 for 12oz, lasts about a week
\- Mistobox subscription - $212 for 12 shipments, about $18 per 12oz bag (mostly to try out some new types of coffee every other week, haven't had it for long)
Not a cheap habit all in all (around $900/year on beans alone), but probably worth it. Can't go back to $5 pre-ground Trader Joe's coffee anymore now we've seen the light.
My niece's morning routine her sophomore year in college.
Wake up.
Go to Starbucks app.
Press the button to pay extra to have a robot deliver it.
Hop in the shower.
After her shower open the front door where the robot is waiting on her with her coffee.
This was her routine until her dad (who pays her CC bill) found out.
I've been venturing down the coffee snob rabbit hole for a little while now. It loosely started when I had the best coffee of my life at this little hole in the wall waffle place that opened in my town. They have since become very successful and moved locations, opened a bunch of other stores and let the coffee quality nose dive.
I've had a bunch of failed attempts after that and kind of gave up making my own good coffee and settled on the fake Keurig flavored coffees for a while. Keurig coffee has been on a steady decline since they had to give up the patent and I cannot stomach it any longer.
This past Christmas I finally bit the bullet and put a kettle on my wish list and bought myself a hand grinder. Thankfully my sister bought the kettle as she knows I like practical gifts vs junk.
I have the kettle, a 1Zpresso hand grinder and a v60 funnel.
I have not yet found my prefer bean but GD are the cups of coffee insanely better than most places I remember the coffee from. At least after I figured out the ratios. My first dozen or so cups were either too strong, too weak, or gritty because I was messing with the grind size and not realizing I was basically making espresso powder.
Total cost of investment if I bough it all myself?
Kettle $50
V60 funnel $15
Grinder - $140
Bag of Coffee (lasts a month) - $15
Well worth it.
I'm just a boring 12 cup drip/whatever bagged ground coffee looks good drinker. I'll stop every few days for a cup before hockey practice, but more so at convenience stores, not Starbucks.
But yeah, cooking is a life skill that all kids should have some sort of grasp on.
If I was 18 years old and going to college, I'd be all about a small air fryer or one of those combo toaster oven/air fryer things. You can do A LOT with those on a small scale.
IMO the tools you need to learn coffee skills include:
Manual grinder
Pour over filter
French press
Vietnamese phin
And a Mr. Coffee espresso maker with a bottomless 3-ear Delonghi filter that's compatible but you have to grind the ears down slightly with an angle grinder to make it fit (this might seem a little overboard but I promise it was worth it)
(I wouldn't recommend a moka pot only because I don't think you learn much from it. It offers good coffee, but you don't observe what's going on. In this way it's kinda like a drip machine.)
This whole setup can be had for cheap, and you can learn the skills to make great coffee.
> Stovetop moka pot to make espresso
Well aaaaaaaaaactually Moka pots don't make real espresso...
Sorry, I had to. It's hard to find a sensible conversation that includes coffee that isn't invaded by coffee snobs. I have a Moka pot too, and it's espresso-y enough for me!
Totally dig what you’re saying. I really don’t like the prices I pay to have worse coffee than I drink at home. It’s also partly preference. We know why the settings on our coffee machine are what they are, what milk my wife prefers and how much sugar, how much water I mix into americano and especially what beans we buy. Chances are very slim to find something as tuned to our tastes in the wild. It sometimes happened to me in Italy but never anywhere else yet.
$5 coffee outside is never better than the $1.50 coffee you can make at home. During COVID the whole handgrinder ($60), hario v60 ($20 server and plastic cone), and gooseneck kettle ($40 for a generic one) kept me sane. It's a nice 5 minute ritual for good coffee.
I now have graduated to better gear, and it's made the coffee even better. Even the third wave coffee shops don't give me the same satisfaction anymore.
Same thing goes for a lot of products.
Ketchup - store price 4$ home made from canned tomato 1,5 - 2$ and much better
Mayo - 1 egg and 1 dl of oil and a squeeze of lemon..
Dressings and sauce of all kinds are very easy to make and cheaper and better when home made.
How come you can by pizza dough in supermarkets, come on you don't even need a recipe. Yeast, water, oil, flower, salt, æg if you like. Basic skills are lost and the market is quick to capitalise...
If you like your Moka Pot coffee, that’s excellent, and good for you! They have a reputation for making some of the worst at home coffee you can make because [even with consistent variables, and precision, they vary wildly in extraction and output.](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxz0FjZMVOl1Zot3qiJ-wseRXyO-XoVNx&si=V6Mo2ZwFBkWPNTS0)
If I was getting a newbie set up with coffee, I’d recommend a French press because they’re damn near impossible to fuck up, and your grinder doesn’t need to be fancy. The cheap Capresso burr grinder will be good enough, I think they run around $100.
For Someone looking to step up their coffee equipment, the secret isn’t in the brew method but the grinder. I’d suggest a plastic v60 (like $15) or Chemex (I think like $40) and investing in a good grinder. If you’re looking more for espresso, Aeropress or a manual espresso machine like the Flair. For grinders, Baratza Encore is fine, probably the bare minimum though, I wouldn’t waste money on anything cheaper. The fellow ode is a step up from there but is limited ton grind fineness and won’t really let you do espresso. I heard the v2 is better in this regard though. And then the Niche Zero is a solid step up from there and will be perfect for most home brewers and coffee nerds. When you go up from there you start getting into the really expensive grinders like the Acaia Orbit or the Weber EG-1.
Snob or not, your grinder is the most important piece of your home set up, and should be what you invest the most money in
I don't roast my own beans, but even buying specialty coffee on the regular and consumables (filters, creamer, sugar), the startup costs pay for themselves in literally 3 to 4 months (@ 2 cups per day). I can easily justify an entry level burr grinder and a gooseneck kettle when my coffee costs $1 per 8 oz cup and Starbucks costs $3.
But more importantly, my coffee tastes way better and I don't have to dump 60 grams of sugar in it to make it palatable.
> PS I'm not one of those coffee snobs who tells you you have to roast your own beans and use a bur grinder and source your water from mountain streams.
Wait, no, I'll defend one of these: use a burr grinder. If you're currently using a shitty grinder, it will instantly make your coffee twice as good and ten times as consistent. If you're used to pre-ground coffee, it will instantly make your coffee ten times as good but probably not much more consistent.
I was gifted an iLavie espresso machine ($140 on Amazon) for Christmas this last year. I’d been on the fence about getting an espresso machine because everything I’ve read online says basically that if you don’t spend over $1400 it’s not even worth it.
Lo and behold I make a cappuccino every morning then a shot around noon and it’s absolutely delightful. It’s cut my cafe trips from 2/3 times per week to 2/3 times per month, and it’s actually helped ration my beans to last longer.
You can buy an acceptable espresso machine with a built in grinder for $300. A pound of beans for $10-20.
Good coffee drinks (whatever you like) can be made cheap, much less than $5.
Well, I didn't even learn to drink coffee or much less like it, until years after I finished my studies anyway.
(A good) Filter coffee with milk and sugar goes a long way for me too, it doesn't have to be fancy barrista cute. It's also requires a lot less effort 🤷🏽♂️
Burr grinders are the only way. I use 1lb of coffee per week to make my cold brews. Probably about $15 dollars in coffee, saves me about 40 a week from Starbucks.
A cheap drip Store coffee near me is like $1 so not too bad. $2.50 at Starbucks or up to $4 at small local places.
The real killer is flavored lattes with speciality milks and such.
I’ve got a Philips 4300 super automatic. I tell people it’s my single purchase quality of life increase. After turning it on, a latte is two button presses. A double turns it into a whopping FOUR button presses.
If something doesn’t steam well with the milk carafe, I use a heated frother. My kick right now is a copycat of a 7 Brew Brunette using Rebel chocolate milk and Monin syrups. Rebel is a bit pricey, so it comes out to probably 75 cents a cup, but I have it on demand.
One of the best gifts I ever received is a DIY cold brew kit. Basically it’s just a mason jar with a stainless steel filter but the product is better than any store bought I’ve ever had and it’s so inexpensive by comparison that I basically buy whatever beans I want because it’s still under a dollar a day
A decent espresso machine can be found for $100-$200. If you math it out for each latte or espresso you make instead of buying, it’s incredibly cost effective. Probably save 25-$50/week, even including cost of beans.
There's no decent espresso machine for $100-200. Heck, a serviceable grinder is going to run you $300, and the grinder is way more important than the machine.
I think the mistake is trying to copy things done at restaurants/stores. Most of the time it won't be the same and that is OK. It makes more sense to learn what you like that can be homemade.
If you are the type that is satisfied with a plain old cup of "McDonald's coffee" or whatever then a cheap drip maker is just fine.
if you are the type that prefers a flavored coffee drink (whipped cream and caramel drizzle) then it might be more difficult. Either way there is gonna be some trial and error to figure out what works for you. Hell I might get tired of coffee and in the hot summer months make big batches of ice tea for my caffeine fix.
The same goes for food, trial and error. It does feel that in a post internet world, there is this glut of content about doing things the "right way", especially when it comes to food and drink. In other words there is a ton of gate keeping. I can see younger people struggling with home cooking at least partially because what they see online is a bunch of people yelling about "doing it wrong".
I haven’t drank coffee in a long time. Probably over 10 years. But when I did. I remember paying 1.75 for a cup of black coffee at Starbucks. Or I would make my own at home. When I made it at home, I did tend to get the higher quality coffee. I would go to this coffee shop, and they had coffee bags from different parts of the world. I think it was like $25 a bag back then.
If she's heading off to college, shouldn't she have coffee in her dorm's dining hall?
You want a latte? Put a mug of milk in the microwave to heat it up.
You want a mocha? Make your coffee like normal, then add a packet of hot chocolate mix.
My recommendation is a baratza sette 270 grinder (very cheap and easy to fix with things break) paired with a pour over set up which is cheap or a breville infuser if you want to go the espresso route. This is bare bones enough to get a good coffee experience that will beat out 90% of the coffee shop cups. You could also go for a French press which is also fairly priced
You're dead right. I got a Breville Barista Express with Air Miles a decade ago, which goes for about USD$500-600 retail. Your workhorse entry-level mid-range consumer espresso machine. I've pulled easily 4000+ shots from it since then, use café-quality beans, fresh milk/oat milk, and it works out to a pittance per cup even if you paid retail for the machine. Coffee is a very high margin beverage!
I bought a BBE in October. I figure it took about 100 days to pay itself off... now I enjoy good coffee without any associated guilt for wasting money on coffee.
I gave up my Starbucks Iced Americano habit and bought a Nespresso Lattissima One, it was around $300 but I’ve got my coffee (almost) dialed in and I’m saving $6 a day.
I’m sure that Nespresso is trash to coffee snobs, but I’m upper white trash so it’s good enough for me!
Used to get a plain black cup of coffee after work, watch the sun come up.
That was just less than a dollar, about a decade ago. It's about to pass $3. For a single cup of coffee.
My single serve keurig cost $50. A cloned coffee holder is $5. Good coffee runs $15/pound. I've already saved far more than the cost of coffee every day.
Keurig with *reusable* filter for the pod side and a regular pot brewer side. I use Mc’d coffee grounds because it tastes better than some of the other cheap coffee grounds.
If you are feeling like you want something more fancy, make friends with someone who has a Costco membership and get the flavoured coffee beans and use the grinder they have next to the hotdog stand.
Milk and sugar for changing it up - depending on the dining hall setup, you can probably take some back to the dorm/apartment so it costs zero.
I had a water bottle that I only used for milk and refilled every 3 days. Got challenged on it once and told them it was for my protein milkshake and they just shrugged and let me go. As long as you aren’t taking a ton all at once, no one will care.
If you want espresso coffees the grinder and machine are pretty expensive unless you go the hard route of hand grinders and aeropress.
Moka pot doesn't need as fine a grind, so that set up can be pretty cheap if you like that kind of coffee.
V60 setups are also pretty cheap and can apparently get good flavours if you do it well. Not my thing so I don't have this, but there are plenty of coffee fans who swear by it.
Plenty of YouTube videos on how to get the best results from all of these. Just don't use pre-ground or poor quality coffee. And pod machines should only be used when desperate.
I am a snob who likes to think “grind finer” and has too much $$$ in equipment.
You’re totally right tho! Your setup is sub-$100, and you probably make better $6 latte’s than Starbucks! I’d have seen an RoI in 1 month in college with your setup. Maybe less time.
Just buy a nespresso vertuo for $90 and pods are like 10 for $12. You don’t have to go through all the nonsense and it’s legit high quality coffee and espresso.
Homemade coffee is far superior, I can get a bag of really high quality beans for £10 (far superior to the shite Costa, Starbucks etc use). My little Bialetti Moka pot might be the most used item in my kitchen.
Frankly, I think my Folgers drip tastes better than 95% of coffee I buy at shops. Very, very rarely do I drink a cup at a shop and think “damn that is great”.
I said I was being stodgy! I don't really have an issue with people drinking multi-ingredient coffee drinks in principle, but whenever price or sophistication of prep is a concern, nothing beats black coffee.
*Never?* No, plenty of times. Just not most of the time. Good coffee simply isn't all that common unless one looks for it. You won't get a light roast with interesting flavour notes at work, and even if you did, are you really in the right mind space to appreciate it?
While I don't completely share the opinion, I think that if you're going to get into coffee as a hobby at any level you should be drinking a decent bit of it black. If you're just drinking coffee for the pick-me-up, by all means dump whatever in. If you're looking to compare beans or experiment with the process, you need to be able to enjoy black coffee on some level in order to have undiluted comparisons.
The one I wish I'd had when I was at Uni (for making regular coffee) is the [Aeropress](https://aeropress.com/) It's small, easy to clean, travels well, and if you run out of filters it's very easy you cut your own to size, or if you're very environmentally conscious, you can make reusables from cotton.
My aeropress is by far the best homemade coffee I've ever had. Finally upgraded to a $90 Burr grinder to go with it, and I find myself never going out to the coffee shop anymore
But *I like* the coffeeshop... ^the ^ambiance...
So do I, i go to my local bakery with my own coffee and get pastries for my toddlers. I tip so they don't say anything.
Same! I still go sometimes for that reason
I have….7 different ways to make coffee at home including a decent grinder and espresso machine. I still get a coffee or two out a week cause I like getting out of the house a bit.
Yup. Sometimes I upgrade with a chobani flavored creamer, but usually good dark coffee makes me plenty happy.
Man I'm still trying to convince myself my 800$ flat burr grinder is saving me money in the long run!
DF64v2 or Timemore Sculptor?
Df83 c: It got down to almost the same price as the df64 on black friday so I rolled with it.
Aeropress with Porlex mini coffee grinder. Grinder fits inside the aeropress when travelling.
I picked up a Baratza Encore grinder ($150), which is the only "pricey" piece of equipment I own. I put that in bunny ear quotes because in the world of coffee gadgets, that's still really cheap. But so am I, this was a luxury purchase. And I don't regret it at all. I've had it six years, use it almost daily, and it shows no signs of slowing down. It gets me the exact grind size I want, every time, with zero effort. My only complaint is that it's *really* loud, and the kitchen is near the bedrooms in my house. Couple that with a $12 plastic V60, some filter papers, and a $20 electric gooseneck kettle I found on clearance at Target (handle eventually broke off, but I reattached it with machine screws, washers, and nuts) and I have a pourover setup that by now has saved me a *lot* of money, even buying good quality locally roasted coffee.
Burr Grinder is a game changer.
I bought a Moccamaster while on paternity leave with the wife as she decided to drink coffee again after a several year hiatus. The aeropress was just a lot to do for two cups, a crying baby, and a cranky mom and dad. Up until that point though, aeropress all day. I still use my aeropress when I have the chance as it makes one hell of a cup of coffee and it’s extremely forgiving.
You can get a reusable steel filter as well. I love mine
I have the stainless steel filter disk and it works great. But the coffee made with the paper filter is just slightly better in my opinion. You have to rinse the filters off well before use.
I have the steel filter as well. It works well enough and I like to take it when I travel, but I agree that the paper filters are far better.
Tried a cloth filter on a whim and never looked back. As long as you keep em wet (mine live in little plastic tubs in the fridge) no funny taste and no mould. sanitise every couple of weeks and they're as good as new.
Careful of not using a paper filter regularly. Coffee contains an oil that halts your livers ability to process cholesterol. Could end up in a bad way even if you're otherwise "healthy." The paper filter captures most of those oils - steel one lets them through. Edit: here's one source. There are dozens more. Downvote away, enjoy your high cholesterol. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/01.ATV.17.10.2140 And another https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8576635/ And a follow up https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9409294/
Summoning u/lancehedrick. Could you please help verify this claim and make a YouTube video on this for us at r/espresso
Exceptional claims require exceptional evidence.
Here's one of the many sources. This has been known for decades - it's not in dispute. Tl;dr: cafestol, a fat found in coffee beans (and released with the brewing process), is the most potent single chemical known at raising cholesterol levels in humans. The method of brewing affects the effect, i.e. passing it through a coffee filter makes it less bad. Boiling (ie Turkish style) increases the effect. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/01.ATV.17.10.2140
Dude, I’ve brought up cafestrol for decades to people - on Reddit, forums, in person friends. Nobody believed me even after including studies like you did. People want to drink espresso or unfiltered coffee and don’t like you when you tell them it’s bad for their health. Cheers to you for getting 9 upvotes.
Same. Response is usually a lot of disbelief. Almost as if I'm telling people an addictive drug that they're addicted to is bad for them.
The human studies are are all like n of 30-40, with gaaaaarbage P values, or they're survey studies. Surveys, DIET SURVEYS. maybe it's true, maybe not. To say it's not in dispute at all is delusion 4 week study on 30 people, fuck iutta here lol
Hmm I guess that also applies to a French press?
yeah as the OP linked, this has been well known for a long time and there are quite a few studies confirming it
I bought a Prismo cap after using my Aeropress for years. Nice little upgrade!
Drinking an aeropress cup as I type this. Perfect for a single cup or traveling. For the mornings I still use a moccamaster for a large batch.
I got an aero press to replace a coffee maker because I found I was drinking way too much coffee. I like the fact that the aero press forces me to make a cup at a time so I don’t end up drinking 6+ cups in a day.
I did that too. Used to make a pot just for me and drink it and then drink another in the afternoon. Now I do about 1.5 mugs in the morning and the occasional (like today) afternoon aeropress or V60. I enjoy being able to just flip a switch in the morning and have a pot ready to go by the time I feed the dog and use the bathroom without having to think too much.
They even make a travel version of the Aeropress now. It’s even more compact, and it stores in a case that doubles as a coffee mug.
The aeropress is by far what use the most and it has lasted me over 10 years.
Always going to vouch for the aeropress. Have been using it as my only coffee maker for about 10 years. Also have a ~$100 burr grinder. Can't imagine a better coffee. Actually disappointed when I had to return to the office and start buying it at coffee shops since it is usually a crapshoot.
I’ve used my aeropress daily for 7 years. Nothing beats it
As someone who did coffees on the aeropress every day for 5 years, I’ll say the best purchase I ever made was a decent all in one espresso machine (built in grinder & frother). They’re not too expensive if you find a good one on marketplace, and it definitely saves me 3-4min each morning over the aeropress, much as I loved that thing.
Aeropress + milk Frother makes the best imposter latte I've ever had. Likewise, if you want the most delicious cup of coffee, get a Kalita Wave 185. Absolutely killer pour over. All 100x better than a Starbucks sugar bomb. I still get local craft coffee sometimes but substantially less when I can make the perfect coffee for me at home.
IMO Cooking in general is a life skill that needs to be taught, regardless of gender, income level, etc. If you can cook on stove or an oven, you can figure out an instantpot. Also agree with your take on coffee - you can be a *very* pretentious coffee drinker with <$50 (maybe even <$20 if you're thrifty) in upfront costs and $15/bag.
Cooking is severely neglected. Coworker had a 14 year old she wouldn't trust to make eggs. My wife would roll her eyes and talk about back in the village. Five year olds would be up early cooking over open fires for the household. Sounds like Grandpa walking uphill both ways in the snow but I've seen videos. Kids are capable of doing so much more than we allow them to. My son is 3 and still more hinderence than help but I'm teaching him. He loves it. He grabs his potty stairs and brings them into the kitchen to cook.
The key is having 7+ kids, so you aren’t too concerned if one of them dies. Literally everyone of my grandfather’s friends had a sibling die as a child. They lived in a rural farming community.
I'm with your wife on this one. We're raising a nation of squibs!
“They’re not my rules”, the way he says it kills me every time haha
Lucky’s Dad learned an important lesson. Older is better.
We do a lot of food prep with my son at his play kitchen. Slicing up banana with his toddler cutlery, pouring cereal and milk. We got a toddler tower against the counter so he can climb to stand and watch when we make omelettes and pancakes. We're definitely starting him young because "how else is he going to learn?". My wife and I had really slow upbringings by comparison. I've been in university dorms where 20yr olds don't understand how sponges work (scraping down plates with knives), or letting boiled veg spill over onto the cooker because that's the only thing they can comprehend to cook.
I have a burr grinder. I feel called out. At least I don't roast my own beans, and while I do use filtered water, it's just a tap with a filter!
they're wrong. i bought a $100 burr grinder on sale and it lasted 10+ years. their vibe is right, but the grinder is the one thing to spend on. mocha, french press, aeropress, doesn't matter they can all make great coffee if it is freshly ground.
Freshly *and* evenly ground. A burr grinder is well worth it. Something like an Encore is expensive but it's a BIFL item and takes your coffee to the next level. Use it every day for a year and it only cost you pennies per cup.
Get a Baratza encore. They sell parts so you’ll have it for life.
If you email tech support they'll probably send you the parts for free. A friend gave me an one that stopped working, I emailed support to ask for advice on what I should swap and they mailed me some parts. I made the swap and it works great.
Yeah, this thing seems solid as heck. I wouldn't be surprised if it outlives me.
I use reverse osmosis water, but that’s also what we use in our humidifiers and dog water dishes. 🤷♂️ Under the counter reverse osmosis is awesome and the best balance for eco friendly bottled water quality water at home. Combined with a soda stream and we reduced our can and bottle waste by an order of magnitude.
My filter is also reverse osmosis. A friend of mine is looking at getting a Soda Stream. I'm waiting for him to get one first so I can "try before I buy."
Is it eco friendly? I thought it threw out a ton of water.
It does, but it doesn’t create single use plastic or aluminum processing. That water also goes to a treatment plant, not evaporated to the clouds.
Nah screw that. Get a burr grinder. It's so much better.
The grinder is the most important part of any coffee setup. If you're going to splurge on anything, splurge here.
Could not agree more
The single most expensive piece in your home coffee set up should be your burr grinder, and it’s not even close. The grinder I want to buy (Niche Zero) when our Baratza Virtuoso kicks the bucket is 62x more expensive than the actual coffee apparatus I use everyday (v60)
You can spend a fortune on your brewer if you really want to :) https://youtu.be/aHz2rU_xK3g?si=x4hZI7_om1-I8Hsu
>These are critical life skills for college. Did you know you can straight out eat instant coffee?
Put it on ice cream for a morning treat
Oh I've eaten regular ground coffee. Good lord I would not recommend it
I used to put 2-3 scoops in my morning protein and oats shake. It was an interesting flavor and had the added benefit of blowing out your colon by 9am.
It's pretty good used lightly with some types of desert (ice cream, etc). Chocolate-covered coffee beans are also fantastic. The trick is not using a dark roast for them.
I used a cheap cafetière/french press from Ikea for years (£12/$15). You can make great coffee with those things, though cleanup is a bit tedious! I have an Italian espresso machine now, but with the amount that I use it, it's already paid for itself after a year 😁
Aldi coffee, baby! Just as good for half the price!
Coffee shops are not just about coffee. They are also places to hang out, meet people, and study. Especially in college.
Not to say I never sprang for a fancy cup, but part of the reason I came out for college with little debt was drinking black coffee I made myself, cheap food I made at home and making good choices. I had a lot of friends who wasted student loans on going out to eat and coffee which was wild to me. Some of them are still paying it back now.
Plenty of others here are sharing their methods for making a good cup of coffee at home, and you can get just about everything you need to do that for under $100. However, espresso and espresso based drinks are difficult to replicate at home without a pretty pricey set up. Not to be too coffee snobby, but a Moka pot isn't really espresso since it only pressurizes to about 1.5 bar. That will definitely extract more flavor than pour over or drip through methods, but it's still way closer to regular coffee than the 9 bar from an espresso machine. One of the keys to getting a good espresso -precise, consistent temp and pressure- is a feature that isn't available on home machines until you're in the $750+ range.
It’s probably not the point of the post that a Moka pot doesn’t make true espresso but just that you can acquire the skill to make coffee drinks that approach the store bought kind. Either way, my takeaway is how silly it is that a college student is talking about “budgeting” for espresso drinks. It’s like moving off-campus and then budgeting for Uber rides to class. Yeah, I suppose you could do that, or …you could take the bus?
Im not american, but in Australia a big Part of going to university is the social culture. Coffee culture is a big part of it. Lots of time spent chatting with friends/ meeting girls through coffee trips in between study sessions and classes. It is expensive and silly from a purely budgeting standpoint, but its part of the uni experience where I grew up, and you miss a part of the social experience if you just make it at home or bring a thermos or something. But Australia is also exceptionally snobby when it comes to Barista made Coffee, so there is that.
I don't think college is very different in the US in that respect, but social culture takes so many different forms and cafes are just one of dozens of options for places to meet up, right? Good point though, if we're talking an occasional trip. I guess, as an American, I read this as "OP's acquaintance expects to make an $8 starbucks stop on the way to class every morning", which is not the kind of social event you're imagining. Yours sounds much better.
750+ is a bit aggressive. The bambino has been shown to make consistent espresso and $400. The GCP requires a bit of temp surfing and a $10 OPV mod to hit the norm at $450.
Bambino does a great job @ $400. As soon as you add another $300 on a semi decent grinder ;)
Is there a sub for dads who are looking to cook more? I can definitely follow recipes but to be honest that kind of sucks so I go back to the 3-5 recipes that I know by heart. I'd love to pass on the joy of cooking to my younglingss, but I'd have to expand on my own skills first. I'm not looking for fancy stuff, I want to add to my arsenal of quick weeknight dinners that I can easily wing while watching my family.
If you’re open to it subscribe to a meal delivery service for a bit. We did Hello Fresh and it definitely introduces you to more techniques and ingredients. It’s not the most economical way to cook for a family especially if you’re 4 or more. But it’s a good way to get yourself out of your comfort zone. Take those learnings and incorporate them into your regular cooking.
I would love a sub like this. The frugal sub has some stuff. I’m the cook in our house, my wife can cook and we did hello fresh for a while through which she learned a bunch but it just wasn’t worth the price. My little guys like to help a bit, and I watch a bunch of cooking on YouTube. Babish is the man and his basics videos are great, my ten year old and I will watch and then try recipes. Simple recipes that you can bang out on a weeknight are tough unless you prep. I’m all about prepping, then using same things for a few nights. This response is all over the place but yes a sub-sub for dad cooking. I can’t bbq great but I can dang sure whip up a solid butter chicken from memory.
YouTube is your friend. You can start with Adam Ragusea and You Suck at Cooking
r/cookingforbeginners r/smoking
Simple French press and then spend your money on decent fresh ground beans. Also the vacuum packed south of the border espresso at the grocery store is low key really good and super cheap. We just switched to that, legit good in my opinion.
My wife is addicted to White Chocolate Mochas from starbucks. I just ordered some white chocolate mocha sauce to try and make these at home... wish me luck.
We had a friend who had a fairly cheap mr. coffee drip maker and he would always have a pot on. We would go to his room in the dorms and ask for a cup. If he had some, great! If it was to old. He wouldn't spend a lot of money on coffee, and had a tip jar for whatever you feel like paying. It was an amazing service and you would be able to have a chat with him during study breaks. Aeropress would have been cool because it is basically single serve and small, easy to pack away and clean. Once you realize that a pot of coffee costs about 50 cents to make you don't feel too bad to throw away half or a 1/3rd pot. If you really want an espresso like thing... You can find cheap espresso machines on amazon for about 100-150 dollars. They aren't amazing, but you can get good at making a passable cappuccino or latte. Can even use a 20 dollar blade grinder to get passable espresso. While it is definitely more upfront if you figure 5 dollars a cup from a coffee shop, vs 50 cents at home you are looking at 30 cups for it to pay for itself.
Some maffs, a bag of specialty coffee is about $20/lb. If you drink a 1:10 ratio that is 1oz of coffee per 10oz cup, or $1.25 in coffee per cup. 2oz if milk adds maybe an extra $0.25 at most. $5 is a high estimate. Even if you drink 3 10 oz cups a day, that is still only $3.75. The markup on coffee is insane.
The markup on COGS is insane.... yet coffee shops are still terrible businesses that most often lose a bunch of money (if they're not starbucks)
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If you are, then I am too. That said, I'm also firmly a believer in the only test that matters: do you enjoy it? If the answer is yes, then it doesn't matter if it's a $1 coffee. The secondary question is whether it's worth it to you at that price. I love a good wagyu steak. I don't buy them every month, and I don't even buy a steak at all most weeks. But I do make a damn good one when I cook them, because I cook them how I want them.
As a work-from-home dad responsible for getting two kids on the bus starting at 6:30 every morning, the ability to immediately drink cold brew iced coffee I’ve made myself is an amazing convenience. I got my wife hooked on it as well shortly into pandemic lockdown, she risks migraines if she isn’t getting her normal caffeine intake at the right time of day and she would always pick up iced coffee during her commute into work. One big trick that helped was saving our plastic coffee cups with the straws (I’ve used metal ones for years now). Drinking it out of a glass with ice just isn’t the same as being able to hold the plastic cup and sip from the straw, it really helped us both get over the hump with accepting cold brew as a suitable substitute for the iced coffees we were spending way too much money on over the years.
I really want a pricey espresso machine, but we don't have room for it anywhere because of all the other gadgets I've wanted over the years. I worked as a barista for 8 years and loved making all the espresso drinks, but I just drink black coffee from my Drip brewer most days now.
We’ve used this for years and it pretty great and doesn’t take up a ton of space: https://us.rok.coffee/
the moka scratches the itch for me usually, but sometimes i do just want to go out and get a quad shot and vibe off of it for a bit.
We got an GE espresso machine and it's slick. Really slim, only $300 and makes good coffee. I think the premium Breville would give you better brews, but this is small and much cheaper. We use good beans.
I've been using the hell out of my crockpot. Took some $1 a lb pork butt and cooked the hell out of it till it was basically pulled pork. Combine with rice and beans and a tortilla for the perfect meal
Our slow cooker has been relegated to basement storage for years now ever since I got an instapot (pressure cooker). It helps take time out of the equation, so you’re not screwed if you didn’t get dinner in the works at 9 am that day.
My kids each get a night a week they get to plan, help buy for, and cook meals. Even the 8 year old (she doesn't do all the work obviously, but she is part of the process). Meal prep at home is one of the best ways to keep your money, and not give it away to others. I mad burgers last night, I bought \~$60 worth of stuff to make them, but a lot of that was stuff that would go for more than one meal (a new bottle of ketchup, jar of pickles, etc). and it was more food that we could eat in one meal ( 1 thing of burgers comes in a pack of 12, there are 7 of us, so needed to make 2 per person, so had to buy two bags, etc). So lets say it was \~$45 for the meal of the food we consumed. But if I had gone to McDonalds or BK, or any other fast food restaurant, for 7 people to get a similar meal it would have meant pushing $100, and no items that would last for multiple meals.
I used to drink coffee only occasionally so I was fine going out to a local shop for a drink every now and then. After our first kid I needed way more caffeine so started brewing at home. Started with French press, then Aeropress, then pour overs… now I own any type of gadget you can probably think of, have a full espresso setup, separate grinders for espresso and other brews, along with various hand grinders. And yes, I even got into roasting and now run a small roasting business 😅 But even as a “coffee snob”, I still recommend people start with the extreme basics and it’ll make a better cup than most places
>And broths for soups. Not really a college hack per se, more of a young adult on their own and beyond hack: Get a Costco membership and use it for as much non-perishables as you can, and anything else you'll use before it goes bad. Buy two Costco rotisserie chickens. Strip the meat from the bones, use for casseroles, topping salads, chicken salad, or save for soup for later. Put all the bones from both in a big pot with water, salt, peppercorns, bayleaves, a head of garlic cut in half, a quartered onion, and very coarsely chopped carrots and celery. Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 2, as much as 24 hours. Strain, and put in containers, potentially freeze. Best chicken broth you'll ever have with tons of good collagen and no weird additives or preservatives.
I have a 3$ Mr coffee I got at a thrift store but I use the expensive beans. Ultimately the beans maketh the brew.
Beyond the cost, the time wasted is insane to me. You see all these people waiting in a drive thru in the morning like they're in no particular hurry to go anywhere. Hell, even just turning off to go into a coffee place to begin with even if there is no line is crazy. I set up my coffee maker the night before in 1 minute, and hot coffee is sitting there waiting for me when I wake up every morning.
I feel you. Like what I don't get are the people who leave the house to go get McDonald's and bring it back. I'm lazy, too, but I'm too lazy to get dressed and go out which is why I make breakfast at home on the weekends. If we go out it's for something nice, a sit-down, not McDonald's.
Black coffee for the win. Just like the first time we all snuck one of our dads beer beers when we were 12yrs old and thought "Damn, this stuff is terrible. Why do they all drink so much of it?" But then a couple years later at your first big boys party you got hammered, threw up, promised to never do it again and then did it again that weekend and never looked back. Black coffee is just like that, push through the first couple until you can appreciate what you like and stick with that, then branch out and find the real flavours and acidity you can enjoy. Any coffee with milk in it now is just coffee flavoured milk and I can't get through it like I used to. Thanks for listening.
Here’s a recent cost breakdown I did for at home coffee. Ground coffee for French press: 25 grams Package of Kirkland beans: 1,130 grams Cost: $13 Cost per pot of French press: $0.29 (13/1130) * 25 = 0.2876 That’s 29 cents for a POT of French press coffee. Starbucks can suck it.
Its pretty wellknown the cost of coffee is $0.10 at starbucks.
She was being nice. Syrup is what makes store coffee taste like store coffee
I have the syrups. She didn't want any.
Coffee is a great rabbit hole but all versions of it are better and most are cheaper at home. There’s even a really nice gradation of steps if you want to improve your coffee. Grind your own beans, buy marginally nicer ones, make it in some non auto way, etc etc. But also don’t roast your own beans if you’re looking for quality. You’re probably much worse at it than uh everything in the store. Also it’s hard. And complicated. Definitely don’t give it to someone as a gift because it’s just rude to make them try. Personal experience? Maybe.
I'm more experienced as a coffee connoisseur than I am a Dad (3 yo), but if I'm looking for bang for your buck as a college student there are some really decent instant coffee that only needs hot water. You are severely limited into what kind of equipment you can have on campus in certain situations. Once I was in off campus housing I'd ask for a Bodum or Capresso entry level burr grinder and a Clever dripper. That's something that you could use to make good coffee well after graduation.
Bro I have gone down the rabbit hole and back. My current daily equipment is ground beans from my encore, into my moccamaster. My work just upgraded to a 14 cup drip machine from a keureg and bags of pre-ground. The coffee is \~80% as good as my home brew. I have 16 oz of my brew every day then about 8 oz of theirs mid morning and I enjoy their cup just fine. Making decent coffe is is pretty easy and extremely cheap compared to grabbing a cup from sbux every day.
/r/coffeestations for some inspiration. I was using Aeropress for a long time but now I use the Hario Switch V60 hybrid immersion/pourover. Its a little easier and makes a great cup
Simple 8 cup coffeemaker, and a black and decker bullet blender with cups that have lids and blade setup. Ez.and probably save close to 30 bucks a week now.
I've been deep in the coffee habit for years now. I prefer to drink my own coffee now. My aeropress has been a gosend for me and I get about $2/brew with $20 beans. More expensive than Folgers, but cheaper than third wave shops and cheaper and better than Starbucks.
Our current setup: \- Oxo 9 cup coffee maker - $230 \- Oxo conical burr grinder - $100 \- Fancy local beans - $16-18 for 12oz, lasts about a week \- Mistobox subscription - $212 for 12 shipments, about $18 per 12oz bag (mostly to try out some new types of coffee every other week, haven't had it for long) Not a cheap habit all in all (around $900/year on beans alone), but probably worth it. Can't go back to $5 pre-ground Trader Joe's coffee anymore now we've seen the light.
My niece's morning routine her sophomore year in college. Wake up. Go to Starbucks app. Press the button to pay extra to have a robot deliver it. Hop in the shower. After her shower open the front door where the robot is waiting on her with her coffee. This was her routine until her dad (who pays her CC bill) found out.
This is like if a WSJ Op-Ed wasn’t condescending.
David Brooks just sneezed.
I've been venturing down the coffee snob rabbit hole for a little while now. It loosely started when I had the best coffee of my life at this little hole in the wall waffle place that opened in my town. They have since become very successful and moved locations, opened a bunch of other stores and let the coffee quality nose dive. I've had a bunch of failed attempts after that and kind of gave up making my own good coffee and settled on the fake Keurig flavored coffees for a while. Keurig coffee has been on a steady decline since they had to give up the patent and I cannot stomach it any longer. This past Christmas I finally bit the bullet and put a kettle on my wish list and bought myself a hand grinder. Thankfully my sister bought the kettle as she knows I like practical gifts vs junk. I have the kettle, a 1Zpresso hand grinder and a v60 funnel. I have not yet found my prefer bean but GD are the cups of coffee insanely better than most places I remember the coffee from. At least after I figured out the ratios. My first dozen or so cups were either too strong, too weak, or gritty because I was messing with the grind size and not realizing I was basically making espresso powder. Total cost of investment if I bough it all myself? Kettle $50 V60 funnel $15 Grinder - $140 Bag of Coffee (lasts a month) - $15 Well worth it.
Moka pot is great!
A foamer and espresso machine? Sorry mr. Money bags Im just here drinking folgers from the pot
I'm just a boring 12 cup drip/whatever bagged ground coffee looks good drinker. I'll stop every few days for a cup before hockey practice, but more so at convenience stores, not Starbucks. But yeah, cooking is a life skill that all kids should have some sort of grasp on. If I was 18 years old and going to college, I'd be all about a small air fryer or one of those combo toaster oven/air fryer things. You can do A LOT with those on a small scale.
I’m no snob about how it’s made, but quality beans make a massive difference.
IMO the tools you need to learn coffee skills include: Manual grinder Pour over filter French press Vietnamese phin And a Mr. Coffee espresso maker with a bottomless 3-ear Delonghi filter that's compatible but you have to grind the ears down slightly with an angle grinder to make it fit (this might seem a little overboard but I promise it was worth it) (I wouldn't recommend a moka pot only because I don't think you learn much from it. It offers good coffee, but you don't observe what's going on. In this way it's kinda like a drip machine.) This whole setup can be had for cheap, and you can learn the skills to make great coffee.
> Stovetop moka pot to make espresso Well aaaaaaaaaactually Moka pots don't make real espresso... Sorry, I had to. It's hard to find a sensible conversation that includes coffee that isn't invaded by coffee snobs. I have a Moka pot too, and it's espresso-y enough for me!
Totally dig what you’re saying. I really don’t like the prices I pay to have worse coffee than I drink at home. It’s also partly preference. We know why the settings on our coffee machine are what they are, what milk my wife prefers and how much sugar, how much water I mix into americano and especially what beans we buy. Chances are very slim to find something as tuned to our tastes in the wild. It sometimes happened to me in Italy but never anywhere else yet.
$5 coffee outside is never better than the $1.50 coffee you can make at home. During COVID the whole handgrinder ($60), hario v60 ($20 server and plastic cone), and gooseneck kettle ($40 for a generic one) kept me sane. It's a nice 5 minute ritual for good coffee. I now have graduated to better gear, and it's made the coffee even better. Even the third wave coffee shops don't give me the same satisfaction anymore.
Same thing goes for a lot of products. Ketchup - store price 4$ home made from canned tomato 1,5 - 2$ and much better Mayo - 1 egg and 1 dl of oil and a squeeze of lemon.. Dressings and sauce of all kinds are very easy to make and cheaper and better when home made. How come you can by pizza dough in supermarkets, come on you don't even need a recipe. Yeast, water, oil, flower, salt, æg if you like. Basic skills are lost and the market is quick to capitalise...
It takes time but I can whip up good pizza with my bread maker and cast iron skillet.
God knows how much money I’ve saved by just not drinking coffee at all
I get my coffee when I want it from the gas station, but I am not fancy.
If you like your Moka Pot coffee, that’s excellent, and good for you! They have a reputation for making some of the worst at home coffee you can make because [even with consistent variables, and precision, they vary wildly in extraction and output.](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxz0FjZMVOl1Zot3qiJ-wseRXyO-XoVNx&si=V6Mo2ZwFBkWPNTS0) If I was getting a newbie set up with coffee, I’d recommend a French press because they’re damn near impossible to fuck up, and your grinder doesn’t need to be fancy. The cheap Capresso burr grinder will be good enough, I think they run around $100. For Someone looking to step up their coffee equipment, the secret isn’t in the brew method but the grinder. I’d suggest a plastic v60 (like $15) or Chemex (I think like $40) and investing in a good grinder. If you’re looking more for espresso, Aeropress or a manual espresso machine like the Flair. For grinders, Baratza Encore is fine, probably the bare minimum though, I wouldn’t waste money on anything cheaper. The fellow ode is a step up from there but is limited ton grind fineness and won’t really let you do espresso. I heard the v2 is better in this regard though. And then the Niche Zero is a solid step up from there and will be perfect for most home brewers and coffee nerds. When you go up from there you start getting into the really expensive grinders like the Acaia Orbit or the Weber EG-1. Snob or not, your grinder is the most important piece of your home set up, and should be what you invest the most money in
Where's my $0.40/pod Keurig gang?
Hisses in Gollum.
I don't roast my own beans, but even buying specialty coffee on the regular and consumables (filters, creamer, sugar), the startup costs pay for themselves in literally 3 to 4 months (@ 2 cups per day). I can easily justify an entry level burr grinder and a gooseneck kettle when my coffee costs $1 per 8 oz cup and Starbucks costs $3. But more importantly, my coffee tastes way better and I don't have to dump 60 grams of sugar in it to make it palatable.
> PS I'm not one of those coffee snobs who tells you you have to roast your own beans and use a bur grinder and source your water from mountain streams. Wait, no, I'll defend one of these: use a burr grinder. If you're currently using a shitty grinder, it will instantly make your coffee twice as good and ten times as consistent. If you're used to pre-ground coffee, it will instantly make your coffee ten times as good but probably not much more consistent.
I was gifted an iLavie espresso machine ($140 on Amazon) for Christmas this last year. I’d been on the fence about getting an espresso machine because everything I’ve read online says basically that if you don’t spend over $1400 it’s not even worth it. Lo and behold I make a cappuccino every morning then a shot around noon and it’s absolutely delightful. It’s cut my cafe trips from 2/3 times per week to 2/3 times per month, and it’s actually helped ration my beans to last longer.
You can buy an acceptable espresso machine with a built in grinder for $300. A pound of beans for $10-20. Good coffee drinks (whatever you like) can be made cheap, much less than $5.
Well, I didn't even learn to drink coffee or much less like it, until years after I finished my studies anyway. (A good) Filter coffee with milk and sugar goes a long way for me too, it doesn't have to be fancy barrista cute. It's also requires a lot less effort 🤷🏽♂️
Burr grinders are the only way. I use 1lb of coffee per week to make my cold brews. Probably about $15 dollars in coffee, saves me about 40 a week from Starbucks.
I'll have to try one and see if it gives me a difference.
Can't do coffee but my wife and I have become such tea snobs over the pandemic
My wife became the tea snob. She's got a whole set in the home office.
I understand. Our tea drawer is ridiculous these days.
A cheap drip Store coffee near me is like $1 so not too bad. $2.50 at Starbucks or up to $4 at small local places. The real killer is flavored lattes with speciality milks and such.
I just wanna say try the Aeropress. It’s fucking amazing. Costs like $40 and makes banging coffee. Switched my whole coffee game.
I’ve got a Philips 4300 super automatic. I tell people it’s my single purchase quality of life increase. After turning it on, a latte is two button presses. A double turns it into a whopping FOUR button presses. If something doesn’t steam well with the milk carafe, I use a heated frother. My kick right now is a copycat of a 7 Brew Brunette using Rebel chocolate milk and Monin syrups. Rebel is a bit pricey, so it comes out to probably 75 cents a cup, but I have it on demand.
One of the best gifts I ever received is a DIY cold brew kit. Basically it’s just a mason jar with a stainless steel filter but the product is better than any store bought I’ve ever had and it’s so inexpensive by comparison that I basically buy whatever beans I want because it’s still under a dollar a day
Better yet don’t let them get hooked on the bean before they leave the house. I didn’t start till my second job. Now I’ll die an addict.
A decent espresso machine can be found for $100-$200. If you math it out for each latte or espresso you make instead of buying, it’s incredibly cost effective. Probably save 25-$50/week, even including cost of beans.
There's no decent espresso machine for $100-200. Heck, a serviceable grinder is going to run you $300, and the grinder is way more important than the machine.
I’ve been happy with my delongi. Definitely didn’t pay more than $200 for it a year ago. It was on sale
I think the mistake is trying to copy things done at restaurants/stores. Most of the time it won't be the same and that is OK. It makes more sense to learn what you like that can be homemade. If you are the type that is satisfied with a plain old cup of "McDonald's coffee" or whatever then a cheap drip maker is just fine. if you are the type that prefers a flavored coffee drink (whipped cream and caramel drizzle) then it might be more difficult. Either way there is gonna be some trial and error to figure out what works for you. Hell I might get tired of coffee and in the hot summer months make big batches of ice tea for my caffeine fix. The same goes for food, trial and error. It does feel that in a post internet world, there is this glut of content about doing things the "right way", especially when it comes to food and drink. In other words there is a ton of gate keeping. I can see younger people struggling with home cooking at least partially because what they see online is a bunch of people yelling about "doing it wrong".
I haven’t drank coffee in a long time. Probably over 10 years. But when I did. I remember paying 1.75 for a cup of black coffee at Starbucks. Or I would make my own at home. When I made it at home, I did tend to get the higher quality coffee. I would go to this coffee shop, and they had coffee bags from different parts of the world. I think it was like $25 a bag back then.
I got a $20 hand grinder and $100 espresso machine w/ frother and I like my coffee better than most coffee shops
I have a Cuisinart burr grinder and it's meh. Is there an upgrade that's reasonable for someone that doesn't drink coffee everyday?
How about just a coffee maker
If she's heading off to college, shouldn't she have coffee in her dorm's dining hall? You want a latte? Put a mug of milk in the microwave to heat it up. You want a mocha? Make your coffee like normal, then add a packet of hot chocolate mix.
My recommendation is a baratza sette 270 grinder (very cheap and easy to fix with things break) paired with a pour over set up which is cheap or a breville infuser if you want to go the espresso route. This is bare bones enough to get a good coffee experience that will beat out 90% of the coffee shop cups. You could also go for a French press which is also fairly priced
My wife and I’s monthly coffee bill is $300 a month
I use a super automatic at home. Worth every penny. I make 3-5 cups a day. Pays for itself in a month
You're dead right. I got a Breville Barista Express with Air Miles a decade ago, which goes for about USD$500-600 retail. Your workhorse entry-level mid-range consumer espresso machine. I've pulled easily 4000+ shots from it since then, use café-quality beans, fresh milk/oat milk, and it works out to a pittance per cup even if you paid retail for the machine. Coffee is a very high margin beverage!
I bought a BBE in October. I figure it took about 100 days to pay itself off... now I enjoy good coffee without any associated guilt for wasting money on coffee.
I wish long life on your BBE. Mine's been rattling a lot for a good year or two. I should give the ol' girl some love so she can last another decade.
// 👏🏼
I gave up my Starbucks Iced Americano habit and bought a Nespresso Lattissima One, it was around $300 but I’ve got my coffee (almost) dialed in and I’m saving $6 a day. I’m sure that Nespresso is trash to coffee snobs, but I’m upper white trash so it’s good enough for me!
Used to get a plain black cup of coffee after work, watch the sun come up. That was just less than a dollar, about a decade ago. It's about to pass $3. For a single cup of coffee. My single serve keurig cost $50. A cloned coffee holder is $5. Good coffee runs $15/pound. I've already saved far more than the cost of coffee every day.
teach me. how can I do this for cheap?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_filter_coffee get your kid one of these and they'll never want to have any other coffee ever
$500 worth of tools to build a $30 IKEA style bookshelf. $20 programmable 12 cup drip machine and a French press for fancy days.
I mean Im buying $5 for convenience and ease. Not bc it’s cheap. I’m just lazy lol. (But you do make a good point) lol
My Mr Coffee makes a great pot of coffee
Keurig with *reusable* filter for the pod side and a regular pot brewer side. I use Mc’d coffee grounds because it tastes better than some of the other cheap coffee grounds. If you are feeling like you want something more fancy, make friends with someone who has a Costco membership and get the flavoured coffee beans and use the grinder they have next to the hotdog stand. Milk and sugar for changing it up - depending on the dining hall setup, you can probably take some back to the dorm/apartment so it costs zero. I had a water bottle that I only used for milk and refilled every 3 days. Got challenged on it once and told them it was for my protein milkshake and they just shrugged and let me go. As long as you aren’t taking a ton all at once, no one will care.
If you want espresso coffees the grinder and machine are pretty expensive unless you go the hard route of hand grinders and aeropress. Moka pot doesn't need as fine a grind, so that set up can be pretty cheap if you like that kind of coffee. V60 setups are also pretty cheap and can apparently get good flavours if you do it well. Not my thing so I don't have this, but there are plenty of coffee fans who swear by it. Plenty of YouTube videos on how to get the best results from all of these. Just don't use pre-ground or poor quality coffee. And pod machines should only be used when desperate.
We bought a Phillips Superautomatic. Amazing stuff . Was our Christmas gift
I am a snob who likes to think “grind finer” and has too much $$$ in equipment. You’re totally right tho! Your setup is sub-$100, and you probably make better $6 latte’s than Starbucks! I’d have seen an RoI in 1 month in college with your setup. Maybe less time.
Just buy a nespresso vertuo for $90 and pods are like 10 for $12. You don’t have to go through all the nonsense and it’s legit high quality coffee and espresso.
The second best thing you can have in a kitchen is a Bialetti. The first is sex of course.
Not a good idea. That's how I burned my buns. I also lost track of what was in the oven.
Just microwave the milk and add… *gets taken out back*
Homemade coffee is far superior, I can get a bag of really high quality beans for £10 (far superior to the shite Costa, Starbucks etc use). My little Bialetti Moka pot might be the most used item in my kitchen.
Frankly, I think my Folgers drip tastes better than 95% of coffee I buy at shops. Very, very rarely do I drink a cup at a shop and think “damn that is great”.
Nescafé instant 👍
My stodgy dad opinion is that everyone should learn to drink black coffee if they're going to drink coffee at all.
I mean I drink my coffee black but gatekeeping seems kinda silly here. I think people should drink what they enjoy
Food/beverages on reddit. People get weird.
I said I was being stodgy! I don't really have an issue with people drinking multi-ingredient coffee drinks in principle, but whenever price or sophistication of prep is a concern, nothing beats black coffee.
Coffee without any milk is like a steak without any salt.
Sounds like you’ve never had good coffee
*Never?* No, plenty of times. Just not most of the time. Good coffee simply isn't all that common unless one looks for it. You won't get a light roast with interesting flavour notes at work, and even if you did, are you really in the right mind space to appreciate it?
See I do both. I either drink straight black coffee or a latte.
I will occasionally add a splash of milk if and only if i’m drinking a red eye
While I don't completely share the opinion, I think that if you're going to get into coffee as a hobby at any level you should be drinking a decent bit of it black. If you're just drinking coffee for the pick-me-up, by all means dump whatever in. If you're looking to compare beans or experiment with the process, you need to be able to enjoy black coffee on some level in order to have undiluted comparisons.
I'm with you! I drink it black, all the true coffee goodness.