Dries Buytaert

Last weekend our Nespresso machine died in front of my eyes. Water started leaking from its base during use and it shorted the electricity. It was a painful death. I'm tempted to take it apart and try to repair it but it also brings up the question; what to buy next?

Part of me enjoys the convenience of the Nespresso machine, the other part of me is eager to buy my first "serious" espresso machine.

See, I'm a coffee lover. That is to say, like most of the people living in the US I have a coffee addiction, and have been brainwashed into spending more and more on my daily coffee intake. To make matters worse, we live in a society where we call the people who make great coffee "artists". I'd love to practice some coffee artistry myself and make that perfect barista-grade cup of coffee.

I did a little bit of research and picking an espresso machine is not easy. It turns out this is a complex space. The choices range from super-automatic machines (e.g. they do everything from grinding, dosing, tamping to brewing) to semi-automatic machines (e.g. you manually grind your own beans and tamp them) to manual machines (e.g. you control how long the brewing water sits over the bed of coffee, resting as it were at neutral or boiler pressure). There are even "coffee schools" that offer classes and certifications to become a professional barista.

While I love the smell of fresh ground coffee and an above perfection espresso, I also don't want to take 15 minutes to make a cup of coffee. I usually need my first cup of coffee to help me wake up and I'm often crunched for time, so I don't want it to be super complicated.

Espresso or Nespresso? To bean or not to bean? Help!