Making Espresso at DMS

DMS General
#1

Would there be any interest in getting an espresso machine and grinder for the space? Coffee could be sourced from one of several excellent local roasters—perhaps Oak Cliff or Cultivar—and there could be a small fee per cup to cover the cost of the beans and milk. Training would be required for use.

A good and sturdy-enough machine would cost $2k–$10k and a grinder would be $500–$1500. I would budget about $200–$500 for misc. items. So if we could find the counter space, we could potentially be in business for as little as $3k depending on equipment and available space.

Short of that, another option would be a decent grinder and an AeroPress and/or Chemex.

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#2

A little birdie tells me there should be a Chemex style machine in the kitchen Thursday or Friday.

No word on a grinder.

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#3

squeals and jumps up and down whilst my little barista heart skips a beat

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#4

O, you said decent grinder, nevermind

#5

I’d just like plain coffee that doesn’t cost 1.75 per cup.

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#6

I suggest anyone who would like better coffee at DMS provide your own tools and beans.

Right now I can’t see us spending $2k-$10k on… coffee.

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#7

…or ever, hopefully?

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#8

Thank the Gods! A voice of reason. :stable genius:

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#9

Grinders are pretty cheap. Doesn’t have to be anywhere near $500+. A good ceramic burr grinder can be had for $50 - 100. I got a Bodum one years ago for $15 on a JCPenney clearance that’s had near daily use and hasn’t given up the ghost yet.

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#10

Maybe we need a “Friends of the Space” group that can raise money for things like this and donate to DMS as well as take responsibility for it care and maintenance.

If such a group starts, I’ll pledge $100 towards it. I’d love to have an espresso machine or even a Bunn type drip coffee maker. But I don’t think DMS should buy it. Provide space, water, and electricity - no problem. We do this for Parks, refrigerator, Kuerig machine (I keep pods in bin from Costco/Sam’s) so I see this as the same. Every place I’ve worked has has a coffee fund, 25 cents for up to 12 oz or 50 cents for larger. This paid for all the fixins.

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#11

Just a note, the FB buy sell pates are often great places to fine new or generality used item cheap

With wedding and graduation season right here, there may some available

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#12

No one will take care of it or use it properly, or clean it. It will be broken and out of order within a week.

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#13

I need to make these marbles smaller tho

#14

Coffee

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#17

@StanSimmons Fantastic, thank you! I look forward to trying it out.

It partly depends on your brew method. For espresso, the grind is finer and the tolerances have to be much tighter to get grounds that are of a consistent size. If the grounds are too varied in size, the pressurized water will form channels through the puck, over-extracting in the areas around the channels and under-extracting in others. The resulting shot will leave much to be desired.

For making drip coffee in normal home quantities, as far as I know there is little benefit in spending much more than $100 on a grinder—but my experience making drip coffee is fairly limited.

A double shot of espresso made with great beans from one of the finest roasters in Dallas would use about 70–80¢ of coffee, so less than half that amount!

It seems like most people here are thinking of coffee as a break-room beverage, and I would agree that it would be a terrible idea for the DMS to spend so much money on equipment to make a break-room beverage.

But one can also view coffee-making as a craft—analogous to baking, and perhaps not very different from some of the other making activities already at DMS. We could potentially have classes on roasting (although this would probably be prohibited by the lease), espresso, latte art, and so on. On the other hand, this clearly doesn’t make sense if there isn’t a lot of interest.

Anyway, I will be very happy to chip in with @Photomancer and pledge $100 towards some good espresso equipment. So we are already 10% of the way there if we go with a smaller machine!

Come to think of it, I did look into building a machine from scratch a while back. It would totally be doable, especially with the resources at DMS—but the materials cost would be substantial. If there is interest in making this, I can do some more research on what it would take. It would be super cool to have a DMS-made machine in the kitchen area!

In the meantime, I very much look forward to trying my hand at pourovers.

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#18

While I realize that it’s not the same thing, Parks (same company we use today) will provide a free nespresso machine for espresso and I assume they can add the pods (at about $.80 each) to our pantry.

we use them at work, the business pays for the pods, but that could work here. It’s a much more scalable way to make espresso and honestly, nespresso makes a surprisingly great cup of espresso.

or even if we have to buy the machine, we could get a home type nespresso machine for $100 and it would last us at least a year, even with regular use, I’m sure parks would be happy to sell the coffee.

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#19

I brought my auto burr grinder that was living in storage with the intention of loaning it and I realize now it may not be wanted and I’m supposed to ask someone about whether I can or not…so should I put it back in the box and take it home or can it be loaned

#20

Please put some kind of making indicating it is on loan from you. And please include a phone number on or and we should be set.

It makes sense for it to live in the galley?

#21

Maybe a note that the sink isn’t the place for grounds? I’ve seen people in our office try to dump loose leaf tea and grounds in the sink.

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#22

If we’re staying with Parks for now then this would be a nice addition. Especially for those of us who already have pods at home.