Coffee Prices around Australia. Canberra does OK

pajs said :

The other cost comparison you can make with capsules is what are they charging you per gram of often fairly ordinary quality coffee. If you’re up for around $0.75 for a 7.5g capsule, you are looking at $100 a kilo pricing for the coffee. That’s getting up there with some of the better single-origin coffees in the world, bought as beans. For example, I can get pretty decent Ethiopean Harrar beans (proper Mocha) or some really good, nutty, Cuban beans at $52 a kilo, plus a bit extra for packing and shipping.

Local suppliers will offer OK beans closer to $25 a kilo. Not swish, but likely to be better or on par with capsule contents at $100 a kilo.

You can buy refillable capsules and choose your own coffee.

IP

johnboy said :

stove top espresso maker uses a ghastly amount of coffee and is a royal pain to clean in comparison to the one button press cleaning of a pod coffee maker.

i’m a convert from mocha pots. I know whereof I speak.

Quick rinse under the tap is all it needs. About once a month it gets a scrub with steel wool. And every few months it gets a new rubber O-ring.

Ghastly amount of coffee? Don’t know about that as I have nothing to compare it with. But a kilo of Coles Fair Trade espresso roast beans or ground lasts a long time at onle $17 or so.

IP

If you search online you can find reusable pods that you fill yourself.

pajs said :

Capsule machines are good if you aren’t that fussed about what the coffee tastes like & value consistency and convenience. If you don’t know how to use and clean a manual machine, or don’t want to stump up for semi or fully automated espresso machines, then capsules might also be a good option.

But if you want the best of fresh coffee, then grinding it just as you use it, from fresh & quality beans will give you better results than a capsule. Less packaging waste as well.

It’s also worth thinking about the basis for some of the cost-per-cup comparisons you might see associated with capsules. You can find some capsules loaded to 5 grams, most to 7.5g. But a decent espresso shot is going to need around 11 grams. So either you under-do it per cup (one capsule, even overextracted isn’t going to give a decent shot) or go to two capsules per cup.

Even at two capsules per cup, the systems are still fairly cheap to operate compared to crappy cafe coffee. But they won’t give you the quality you can get making coffee yourself from good beans, ground fresh. Not to mention giving you only a narrow world of choice about the coffees that go into those capsules. There’s a whole world of coffee flavours out there if you buy beans, grind fresh yourself and know how to make a good cup. Not much of that diversity ends up in a capsule.

I believe you need less coffee because of the method. I like the taste of the Aldi pod coffee. Maybe I’d think differently if I’d use milk and/or sugar. Also, the pods are vacuum so the coffee inside them stays fresh.

Maybe it has something to do with my cultural background, but I never understood the Italian espresso craze. Just for starters, leaving grounds in the bottom of your cup makes the coffee go bitter within seconds. The stovetop ones even boil some of the coffee which is a total no-no for taste. And it simply is a very wasteful extraction process. And any kind of espresso machine is a bugger to clean and you use heaps of water to do so properly.

I got an Aerorpress for camping which makes a decent coffee and is easy to operate and clean. Can recommend it for those who want something more portable.

The other cost comparison you can make with capsules is what are they charging you per gram of often fairly ordinary quality coffee. If you’re up for around $0.75 for a 7.5g capsule, you are looking at $100 a kilo pricing for the coffee. That’s getting up there with some of the better single-origin coffees in the world, bought as beans. For example, I can get pretty decent Ethiopean Harrar beans (proper Mocha) or some really good, nutty, Cuban beans at $52 a kilo, plus a bit extra for packing and shipping.

Local suppliers will offer OK beans closer to $25 a kilo. Not swish, but likely to be better or on par with capsule contents at $100 a kilo.

Capsule machines are good if you aren’t that fussed about what the coffee tastes like & value consistency and convenience. If you don’t know how to use and clean a manual machine, or don’t want to stump up for semi or fully automated espresso machines, then capsules might also be a good option.

But if you want the best of fresh coffee, then grinding it just as you use it, from fresh & quality beans will give you better results than a capsule. Less packaging waste as well.

It’s also worth thinking about the basis for some of the cost-per-cup comparisons you might see associated with capsules. You can find some capsules loaded to 5 grams, most to 7.5g. But a decent espresso shot is going to need around 11 grams. So either you under-do it per cup (one capsule, even overextracted isn’t going to give a decent shot) or go to two capsules per cup.

Even at two capsules per cup, the systems are still fairly cheap to operate compared to crappy cafe coffee. But they won’t give you the quality you can get making coffee yourself from good beans, ground fresh. Not to mention giving you only a narrow world of choice about the coffees that go into those capsules. There’s a whole world of coffee flavours out there if you buy beans, grind fresh yourself and know how to make a good cup. Not much of that diversity ends up in a capsule.

johnboy said :

Aldi machine goes for $90, but you can only buy the pods from Aldi.

How much is the maintenance on those machines in practice? I know with the Jura I used for a while (a hopper not a capsule machine admittedly), the filter and cleaning tablets ended up packing on the costs after a while.

A stove top espresso maker for about $20 and a small coffee plunger for maybe $10 for frothing milk heated in the microwave. (You can put the plunger in the microwave if you find one with no metal.)

Perfect cappuccino in about 2 minutes. I’ve never worked out the cost per cup, but it’s not much.

Doesn’t work so well on an electric hob, but gas hob is perfect.

I even travel with my little kit.

IP

I have a 2nd generation Aldi machine and never have had issues with Woolworths or MAP pods. As mentioned they all use the same system and the Woolworths and Aldi machine are identical from a mechanical perspective they only differ in styling. The same company Caffitaly makes them both as well as machines for other brands too.

JC said :

Not true. The Aldi machine is made by the company who also make the Woolworths machine with the pods also used in nap machines. Pods that fit can be got from Aldi, Woolies, Gloria Jeans (also sold at Woolies) and cough cough Starbucks. Think the pods are called cafeitalia or something like that.

I do not recommend using any of the Woolies pods in the Aldi machine. They are a slightly different size which causes them to often get stuck and for some reason they seem to build up a higher pressure inside them which occasionally causes them to burst and fill the cup with grounds. I believe you risk breaking your Aldi machine too if you use these regularly.

I think the Map ones are ok, but I haven’t tried them myself.

The only reason why I would ever buy a coffee at a cafe is if I go there to socialise and people watch. But these days I try to avoid times when I usually need a caffeine fix and order a juice or softdrink instead. The time people take to make a cuppa in some of these places makes me despair sometimes too.