Originally posted by Dr Dave link=1161205247/45#47 date=1195807915
Preparing espresso with any equipment, bar the coffee pod machine, takes some time to master. People need a little lesson beforehand n how to use the equipment to avoid damage or dissapointment.
I love my Presso and can prepare a latte in about 8 minutes including the hand grinding of the beans. The milk preparation (in my case heat milk on stove and whisk it) always involves a bit of washup and mess. Problems resulting in Presso misuse include bad coffee (preground and too course, too fast or too slow extraction), a blown gasket (coffee too fine), explosion (not putting the portafilter on properly).
I can see why plungers are popular at the work environment. You might be better off spending the office coffee kitty on fresh roasted beans and purchasing a good grinder (eg Sunbeam EM0480 or a good hand grinder) and concentrating on getting good coffee out of the plunger. Follow threads on how to get better plunger results.
The temptation in the office is for people to save time and denigrate the coffee making with prepackaged preground coffee. Rule number 1 is fresh roasted/fresh ground for good coffee. You could do a fortnightly online purchase off Bean Bay (on this site) to get good beans to your office with a minimum of fuss (and good value too).
Hope that helps

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