1 May 2013

Coffee Prices around Australia. Canberra does OK

| buzz819
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aldi coffee machine

Canberra is apparently about average when it comes to cost of a cappuccino, according to the Gilkatho Cappuccino Price Index for Q1 this year

I went searching after seeing this article on another news website

Maybe this is why petrol is more expensive?

[ED – alternatively there’s the glory of the Aldi coffee machine pictured]

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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

Madam Cholet7:24 pm 03 May 13

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

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.

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.

Madam Cholet9:36 am 03 May 13

JC said :

johnboy said :

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

excellent for morning cuppas and Sunday afternoons I find.

there’s many a public servant selling aldi coffee for $1 a cup around the place.

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 didn’t think the Woolies pods and Aldi pods were compatible with both machines. The Map pods available at Target fit the Woolies machine as do Gloria Jeans and Woolies own brand. They are larger pods with the inbuilt filter. I think realistically you can use any pod in any machine, but some machines have filters and some do not (in which case they will be in the actual pod), so may effect the quality of your coffee.

johnboy said :

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

excellent for morning cuppas and Sunday afternoons I find.

there’s many a public servant selling aldi coffee for $1 a cup around the place.

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.

Genie said :

Free coffee in my building makes me wonder why people even go buy it

To avoid working?

c_c™ said :

rosscoact said :

astrojax said :

yes, but what’s the price of good coffee?

$3.50

I think context is important. Coffee shops make around 70% profit on a coffee, probably down to 40-50% after staff costs. So it is a margin rich product, let’s not kid ourselves about that.

But if it’s a small cafe, where the product is consistently good quality and the staff are good, I’m fine paying $3-$5 for a coffee.

Where it’s out of line I think is the larger chains, I’m looking at you Gloria Jeans and Coffee Guru, who enjoy far larger scales of economy, but charge much more. If you’re lining up at one of those stores, where the staff are often sub par and so is the product, you’re getting ripped.

I’ve had coffee at Gloria Jeans which wasn’t that great, didn’t like it at all. Nothing wrong with it but just blah, although don’t get me started on the customer service model.

Had a coffee at a Melbourne Hudsons that went straight into a bin, undrinkable.

I think that’s it for the chains.

Coffee is a funny thing and definitely polarises people but overall, I think we’re reasonable well served n Canberra.

rosscoact said :

astrojax said :

yes, but what’s the price of good coffee?

$3.50

I think context is important. Coffee shops make around 70% profit on a coffee, probably down to 40-50% after staff costs. So it is a margin rich product, let’s not kid ourselves about that.

But if it’s a small cafe, where the product is consistently good quality and the staff are good, I’m fine paying $3-$5 for a coffee.

Where it’s out of line I think is the larger chains, I’m looking at you Gloria Jeans and Coffee Guru, who enjoy far larger scales of economy, but charge much more. If you’re lining up at one of those stores, where the staff are often sub par and so is the product, you’re getting ripped.

rosscoact said :

astrojax said :

yes, but what’s the price of good coffee?

$3.50

Most of the coffee shops where I work have upped their prices to $3.80 for a coffee.

Free coffee in my building makes me wonder why people even go buy it

astrojax said :

yes, but what’s the price of good coffee?

$3.50

By my calculations, buying one of those ALDI machines would save me around $2000 a year. (Depending on how much they cost.) The amount I spend on coffee is obviously ridiculous.

On the other hand, I like getting out to cafes.

Such a dilemma.

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

excellent for morning cuppas and Sunday afternoons I find.

there’s many a public servant selling aldi coffee for $1 a cup around the place.

Yep, 35c per pod at Aldi. And as I drink mine black/no sugar, it tastes better than the ultra-bitter sludge they serve at most cafes for over 10 times that price.

yes, but what’s the price of good coffee?

The price used to fluctuate daily depending who was on the till at one well know Braddon establishment until they stuck a price list one the register.

I can’t afford to buy a coffee anymore….. The last few rounds of Federal Government spending, resulting in them dipping into my wallet, has been justified to us as “the equivalent of 1 cup of coffee per week”. It’s at the stage where I can’t give up anymore coffee’s per week. Lord knows what I’ll do when I need caffeine!

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