Coffee and Alfas

[pep105]

It was a 30th birthday present from a mate of mine not sure where he got it from, ill ask next time
I see him. Its a Road Signature 1:18 scale model no. 92348 if that helps.

I was lucky got the model 105 and a real one from the wife as presents 

Sorry bout the photo quality taken from my iphone     

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Wow, so cool to see some people who love their machines so much.  Nice one.

I just got the first one I saw that matched my cups, is that bad?  Seems to produce a good coffee, but definitely needed a bit of practice to work around it's limitations.

[alfagtv100 (Biggus)]

I like it Sheldon
Hey, my web search for Miss Silvia returned some pretty non-family orientated material.  As you all know, I like to keep things clean and respectful. Doing so ensures we are not subjected to stealth censorship, as experienced in Communist China or Nazi Germany.  Anyway, we don't need to worry about that in the Alfa club, do we?
I use a few sizes of moka and a Nespresso machine.  All simple and reliable, producing nice coffee.  I really love the Nespresso due to the reliability, simplicity and large range off coffees available.
Does that sound like and ad?
This is my favorite coffee maker.


Cheers,
Marco

[wankski]

haha, why am i not surprised... yeah, i rely on my bialetti brikka which really does the job well... anyway, its the bean that matters - and using it while its still 'fresh'.... the best beans i've had are from first pour in abbotsford (veneziano warehouse) and some decent beans from 65 degrees (exhibition st melb, they do their own deadman blend which is very good!) and brother bubba budan (7 seeds)

for take away coffee, i find the above places pretty good, but a reasonably surprising contender is toby's espresso also on exhibition st... really great small dedicated coffee shop.

[Paul Gulliver]

This is my favorite coffee maker

Marco , you should have posted a few days earlier. That would have made the perfect "fathers day " gift.

[ProvaRacing]

I use mostly my stove top moka (one not shown being washed) and for a cappuccino my trusty old Gaggia. The one on the right is my travelling electric Velox espresso unit that beats motel/hotel electric jug + coffee sachet!!!

As for coffee choice of course this one at 5 euro a can and the beans are of course, or is that "corse" Alfa...only problem is I have to wait another 100yrs to buy some more!

[ItalCarGuy]

Always been a bit of a fan of the Bezzera. Just cant afford one yet! This one was even a limited edition Giulia model

[bonkfrog]

Bezzera, yum!! Here's a shot of the Silvia (not Nissan) & Bialetti. I thought - really - about gluing on a spare Alfa badge. Perhaps not.

[Davidm1600]

Always been a bit of a fan of the Bezzera. Just cant afford one yet! This one was even a limited edition Giulia model

Good grief Derek, as if I coul afford such a beauty as that one, though it would definitely have to be a case of one up manship if one were to have that Giulia in the SPAM, model (and not the one Marco kindly showed us, for she would need to be elsewhere heh heh  ) on display in the bookcase and car in the garage.

[pep105]

One for the wish list La Pavoni PL, would happily settle for Marco's coffee maker.

Hey Marco is that one hard to clean ? 

[Sheldon McIntosh]

I've heard they need a regular back flush.

[Paul Gulliver]

Hey Marco is that one hard to clean ?  

I reckon a light hand rub with soapy water would do the trick

[alfagtv100 (Biggus)]

You need to give them a good bang every now and then to clear out the flow passages.

[Paul Newby]

About 10 years ago AROCA NSW bought a Saeco automatic espresso machine. It was an enormous thing that I had to "babysit" from time to time between club events. Of course we "test drove" the Saeco at home and coffee never tasted the same again.. 

At that time Saeco wasn't widely available, certainly you couldn't get one at Harvey Norman then. We went to the NSW distributor and bought a very simple manual Saeco machine with a non-descript plastic finish. We then purchased a separate Saeco electric grinder.

I know it sounds a bit cumbersome to operate. However neither machine has ever given any trouble – both are still going strong today after almost 10 years. I don't think that would be the case if we had bought an automatic machine.

As for coffee beans, nothing too fancy for our long blacks – Caffe Migliore or Vittoria do the trick. In the past we used to table in some of the Gloria Jean flavours, Irish Creme was a favourite - quite sweet.

[Evan Bottcher]

[Edit: I accidentally started a new topic, so I've moved this to here]

How nuts (beans?) are you about your coffee?

Fi and I had our ten year wedding anniversary a few weeks back, and our present to each other was this Rancilio Silvia coffee machine, in a package with a matching Rancilio grinder.  We survived the first ten years drinking stove top moka pot coffee, this apparently is how we'll survive the next ten years.

Thus far this is one of the coolest items I've ever owned - every morning we warm the machine up and make our macchiatos, so tasty with freshly ground coffee and thick crema.  I still haven't perfected the art, but I think our coffee is better then most of the rushed bitter or flavourless espresso milkshakes you pay $3 for in the city.

Highly recommended as an 'entry level' espresso machine, much nicer than that Nespresso sh*t.  Takes up a bit of bench space but it's worth it.