- Jul 12, 2007
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I'm in the far south, so my main daily is cold brew coffee, which I make a batch of every week by grinding 12 oz of whole beans and steeping for 18 hours.
I'm in the northeast and cold brew/nitro brew iced coffee was just introduced en mass up here about a year ago. I myself am not a fan of either, but I can understand why some people like them.
As for your use case, your focus on self-cleaning is very good. Cleaning the machine afterwards is the worst part & most likely thing to keep you from using it. And, nespresso is too wasteful for a daily driver. So, don't listen to these people saying to use a cheap machine that doesn't self clean. Also, a machine that self grinds is good, too, because a good grinder is imperative to espresso, more so than any other style.
I concur with all of the above. If the machine isn't easy to use and easy to clean we won't use it at all. As for grinding, all superautomatics include a bean hopper and a grinder. The nicer ones include ceramic burrs, which are objectively better for various reasons.
IMHO, you'd be better off getting a superautomatic with a simple milk frothing wand, and then getting a separate milk frother like this one.
The machine I am leaning towards right now is the Gaggia Accademia (Link). It has both an auto frothing milk carafe and a separate frothing wand. Which means that if the milk carafe gizmo breaks, the frothing wand is still useable (or vice versa). One other thing I like about that machine is the milk circuit is 100% outside of the machine body - meaning that all the frothing, etc. gets done outside the machine and there is no need to worry about rotten milk, etc. contaminating any part of the machine (save the carafe, which is both self cleaning any easy to hand wash).