Advice wanted for office coffee machine

hayabusa

Hi. I am very new to coffee, but would like to make a half-decent coffee when clients come to my office. I'd appreciate your thoughts about what brand, what model, etc you'd recommend, before I go to the professionals that actually sell and service the machines...

Basically I'd be making maybe between 2 and 16 coffees each day... just for clients (no charge).

Forgive my lack of technical terms in advance...  ::)

Would you recommend a coffee machine with something like an "auto-frother" or is that an unrealistic short-cut? I would rather not have to wash up between clients as there is no sink in my office (but there is a sink/kitchen 2 doors down)...

Would you suggest a "traditional" coffee machine (I had an older model Krups once) or are any of the "instant" espresso machines worthwhile?  :-?

Any advice would be appreciated...


Cheers

askthecoffeeguy

if its ease of use you're after then a semi-auto may be the way to go - i've not tried one but the sunbeam em8910 is supposed to make decent coffee, is reasonably priced, and would require minimal effort on your part.

hayabusa

Just did a search n the internet. Looks great. Thanks  

askthecoffeeguy

cool also you may want to consider your budget and your demographic i should also mention that i have an E61 manual lever machine at home that makes great coffee, and clean-up is easy with minimal fuss so its horses for courses. really cheers, pat

DoubleRistretto

actually, unless you enjoy making shots on a 'manual' machine, you might want to look at an automatic. We coffee purists don't love them, but if you talking an office environment, you might be looking for more of a 'push-button' type machine. They're not cheap [you'd pay around $2,500 for a good one] but they make a half-decent coffee and are very convenient. You could look at the deLonghi range, and machines like the Jura Z5. As I said, purists don't go for them because they prefer the control you get from doing a manual shot, but if you want convenience for an office situation, that might be the way to go! dR

hayabusa

Thanks fellas. I AM looking more at an automatic one, but budget is under $1000... so the Sunbeam looks good. I will check out the others too, but probably end up with an average machine by the looks of it, unless I can score a bargain second hand at that price... :-?

askthecoffeeguy

actually according to my research it's possible with a little tweaking to get a very good result on the EM8910, and according to Alan Frew, this machine can potentially produce a better result than other high end machines, many thousands of dollars more expensive try reading this: http://www.coffeeco.com.au/newsletter/september2006.html like anything else the key to coffee success is to start with a good fresh product, recently roasted, and then maintain the integrity of the ingredients every step along the way i used to pull great shots on my 12yr old Baby Gaggia, which looked great, and which worked well for one or two people at a time - the only thing that slowed me down was the milk production on a machine that didn't have a lot of umph to a certain extent the man (or woman!) maketh the machine!  Its about what you can do for your equipment as much as anything else let us know what you decide and feel free to ask any questions about the machine you decide to buy on the 'machines / technical' section of the forum cheers, pat