With a Coffee Machine, It’s Not Expensive to Make Luxury Coffee!
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There’s nothing quite like the self-spoil of picking up a tasty, luxurious coffee to reward yourself for a job well done or buoy yourself through a hard day. But those little treats can soon add up over time. Fortunately, there’s now an even better way to enjoy a luxury coffee treat for less- and from the comfort of your own home, too! Can you say win-win? You can, with bean-to-cup coffee machines.
The Startling Cost of Takeaway Coffee in the UK
Enjoying a coffee while out on the town will set you back anything from £1 to £7 a cup. That £1 won’t get you much more than a quick instant coffee at the tube station or a lacklustre ‘cup ‘o Joe’ at the local bar, however.
The average price of solid mid-range coffee chain offerings hovers around the £3.25 mark for a latte. This represents an 11.3% increase in the 2022-2023 period alone. These still aren’t particularly luxurious coffees, but rather the solid staples we’ve come to love. If you like plenty of extras, or are looking for a high-end coffee experience, expect to pay considerably more.
Surprisingly, and unlike many businesses, coffee chains are still managing to thrive despite concerns over inflation and the pressure it causes on our wallets. But if you’re looking for a great way to keep up your ‘fun’ coffee consumption, explore more luxurious coffee options, and save some money while doing it, bean-to-cup coffee machines may be perfect for you.
Creating Luxury Coffees at Home
A bean-to-cup machine lets you enjoy the full spectrum of flavours in your coffee, from delicate Arabica notes to the richer tones of medium roasts.
These machines highlight subtle differences in single-origin beans, bringing out their unique character with every cup. To make your coffee routine even more convenient, you can choose a coffee subscription to suit you, ensuring a regular supply of beans that match your preferred flavour profile.
With a variety of high-end syrups and other add-ons available, experimenting with café-quality coffee at home has never been easier or more enjoyable.
How Many Cups of Coffee Do Bean-To-Cup Coffee Machines Make?
This will vary depending on how strong you like your coffee, how accurately you measure, and so on. However, within the industry, a single coffee ‘shot’ will be about 7 grams of coffee beans (or 56 beans if you’re inclined to count).
So for a 1kg bag of coffee beans, if you were being vigorously scientific, you’d get 140 cups. Few of us are going to be that precise, however! So leaving some room for error, you can expect about 100-110 cups of coffee from your 1kg bag of coffee beans, provided you enjoy single-shot strength. If you’re more of a double-shot person, halve that.
Photo: coffeefriend.co.uk
What Makes Bean-to-Cup Coffee Machines Special?
If you have high-end coffee tastes, then the go-to coffee machine for you is the bean-to-cup style. Bean-to-cup coffee machines offer a one-stop experience. You load your whole coffee beans into the machine, it uses an in-built grinder to create the grounds, and your delectable fresh-brewed coffee comes out.
There are no messy filter papers and pods, no grounds going stale in your cupboard, and no need for a stand-alone grinder and other paraphernalia. But the real lure of bean-to-cup coffee machines is the quality of the coffee. You quite literally cannot get a fresher cup from a coffee machine!
Remember that coffee beans, especially higher-quality coffees, draw their rich and delicate taste from the natural volatile oils in the beans. As soon as you grind them, these start to evaporate- meaning the taste experience will get more stale as they do. Due to their porosity, coffee beans and grounds lose moisture and flavour surprisingly quickly, too.
So, the best way to make a quality cup is to grind the beans right before you make your coffee. For older styles of coffee machines, this means having a separate grinder, and then adding the grounds to your machine. Bean-to-cup machines do it all in one. No mess, no fuss. And because you aren’t transferring the grinds between containers, more of the flavour and moisture is preserved. Not only will you greatly enhance the taste experience of your go-to favourites, but it’s easier than ever to do luxury coffees their full justice from home.
Bean-to-cup coffee machines come at a variety of price points, too. You can pick up a basic no-frills model for surprisingly little, meaning everyone can enjoy a more luxurious coffee experience at home. Most include multiple drink styles, and may even allow for tea-making, too.
And if you have some budget to spare, you can get all the bells and whistles, including special heating parameters, in-built milk frothers, and even self-cleaning models. Top-end bean-to-cup coffee machines will offer multiple bean hoppers and the ability to customise and personalise particular drinks and program their parameters for the future.
Remember that your initial outlay with bean-to-cup coffee machines will soon be offset by not needing to repurchase pods, filters, and other paraphernalia, too, so it’s worth investing in models known for quality grinders and builds.
With a bean-to-cup coffee machine at home, the furthest you need to go for a luxury coffee experience is your kitchen!
