Coffee prices going up?

JR – no, I broke my old one, and could only buy a replacement in quantities of 200’s. This was obviously before they were on the market here in Canberra (still only an emerging product), and I’ve been doing a neat little trade on the side since.

Helps immensely when every EA in my building has one and knows where my desk is.

Go to Townsville and pay $50 for an Expresso made from beans shat out of a Palm Civet Cat. I’ve done it once because I was up there. Would I do it again? For $20 a shot I’d do it once a month if somebody sold it here.

Well lastresort spill the beans…(geddit?!) where was it?
I know its bean (I kill myself sometimes)done about best coffee before but can anyone recommend a foolproof venue for a decent coffee day in day out, specially Woden area. Have to say there’s only one half decent place (Pasha’s) in Mawson and then that depends heavily on who’s driving the machine. Love the turkish serving trays though.

@CanberraResident

CanberraResident said :

aaaah, nothing like a Robert Timms Italian Espresso Coffee Bag. About $3 for 8 bags.

I drink my coffee black (unless I’m out and about then its a double shot latte).
The Robert Timms coffee bags are halfway between instant and plunger coffee.
For a slightly lighter roast the Gold Columbia Style is a nice change.

@Mælinar

Mælinar said :

I actually have a stock of those cups for sale.

Amway?

My family heirloom stainless Atomic perculator for the stovetop (or for capps in the bush when camping!) does the job nicely. No moving parts, give it a clean by undoing two screws occasionally and rinising.. it’s 40+ years old and still kicking !

..and even so bling apparently all the Audi drivers buy them to look nice in their designer magazine-featured kitchens too…

As opposed to the Swiss and Italian made machines at work that shart themselves every other week with minimal use (only about 4 million cups a week I suspect).

@Mælinar- RiotAct can email me- I would like two for home please- will arrange pickup

Life is too short for instant coffee and bad sex

White linecoke instead you rascist whinner.

Ahhh, International Dust… brings back the memories

I had a gastric bug a few years ago and couldn’t drink coffee for a month or so. When it, ah, passed, I couldn’t stomach instant coffee anymore.

We’ve got a Breville Cafe Roma Classic that’s been pumping out 3 cups a day for a few years now. A little anaemic on the heating element for the steam but that can be worked around. Best investment ever was a decent milk thermometer.

mmmmm, need a coffee now…

Mr Evil said :

International Roast – the coffee of choice of 10 million working class Australians.

blaaaah gag splutter. You realise this is WHY they remain working class, rather than clawing their way out of the gutter? Anyway, I bet half of them guzzle Caterer’s Blend (easily the most disgusting substance on earth).

International Roast – the coffee of choice of 10 million working class Australians.

Don’t get into the Bacchus D then… I’ve recently discovered this Korean Red Bull substitute and it’s potent as, the Taurine of 2 Red Bulls in 100mL of bright yellow fluid. $14 for a box of 10 *thumbs and energy up*

aaaah, nothing like a Robert Timms Italian Espresso Coffee Bag. About $3 for 8 bags..

That works out to about 37 cents a cup + electricity to boil the water + a bit ‘o’ milk. ONLY 50 cents a cup – TOPS.

For instant … it’s a pretty nice brew, but I do understand that some people like to buy their coffee “on the go”.

Siiiiiiiippppp …… aaaaahhhhh

…or you could kick your caffeine habit?

It’s obviously just me, but I have no idea how you people concentrate drinking coffee all day. One strong cup and I’m bouncing off the walls. Years ago my colleagues at the Trade Mark Office used to make me a cup once in a while just for the amusement value… lol

Choice recommended the following models in the February 2008 test of 19 manual and semi-auto espresso machines ranging in price from $140 to $1,299:

Magimix L’Expresso Program Automatic 11232 $399
Sunbeam Café Latte EM5600 $299
Krups K2 Plus Pump Espresso XP 4020 $200
Sunbeam Café Espresso Stainless EM3800 $179
DeLonghi Living Innovation EC330S $249
Vibiemme Domobar Manuale $1299

The article concludes:

“The best model is the Sunbeam Café Latte — a good all-rounder. The Sunbeam Café Espresso Stainless is almost as good and costs only $179. Espresso lovers need go no further than the Krups K2 Plus Pump Espresso. It scored 80% in the coffee taste test, a very good score rarely achieved by domestic espresso machines. But if your latte-loving friends front up for a fix, the news isn’t so good: it scored worst overall for milk frothing.”

the irony is coffee is average in canberra too

I have this fantastic “Culinare” mug that is it’s own mini plunger- so quick and easy and delicious plus it’s better for the environment. My $7 bag of coffee lasts about 2 weeks- roughly 3 cups a day. Good value because work supplies the milk! – I actually have a stock of those cups for sale.

$10 a mug, for the effort of throwing an email together of contact details from the RA Team of all the people who want one, I’ll give them all a free one.

We have the breville as well – every day for 4 years now.

When we purchased, we just brought the highest psi machine we could afford without gasping too loudly in the store. If I were buying again, I’d use the same philosophy.

I have a breville – as noted above it cost about $150 and is very simple to operate. Main thing to remember about the lower end machines is that they tend not to have either the heating capacity to brew the coffee at the ideal temperature or the pump pressure to froth milk effectively. Pretty much any reputable brand in the $140-$160 bracket is going to do the business. Prior to the breville I had a sunbeam, but that developed a leak after a couple of years…breville has made two cappucinos a day for three years without any hassle…mmm coffee…
If I had the money I’d love to buy a Gaggia – but never a Krups (war criminals)

So any advice on the best value home expresso machine?

@RAGD and Mr Evil- back to the same wine point- greysonline has heaps of cases for under $20 but you get the good stuff for under $60 :c)

@MR Evil. Hilarious! I had forgotten about the cost of a dozen bottles of wine thread.

I have this fantastic “Culinare” mug that is it’s own mini plunger- so quick and easy and delicious plus it’s better for the environment. My $7 bag of coffee lasts about 2 weeks- roughly 3 cups a day. Good value because work supplies the milk!

The new Providore in Manuka Terrace does a good, large latte for $3.40 – business seems to be going well. Nice breakfast menu too.

And I was feleing put out by the $3.20 mine went up to this week :p

$4.20 is a rip. This week in Coles, you can buy a little 200g brick of Harris Black for $4.50. Makes a lot of very nice plunger coffee. And you’d think they’d be competing a bit harder in Manuka, where there’s plenty of places to go!

Aldi were selling filter coffee machines for $7, i bought one and now I’m wired all day 🙂

Pizza in Civic – overcharged by $5.

Bottles of wine in Griffith – a dozen actually costs more than $20.

Paying $4.20 for a coffee in Manuka – Priceless!

voting with your wallet only works if you’ve somewhere else to take it to. a quick coffee at the cafe in the building is one thing, to trek off to another part of town is another and isn’t always possible. vote with a plunger, like magoo – oh, you’ve done it again!

even ‘expensive’ ground coffee is a boon saving with a plunger vs four bucks + a cup from the mafia…

Yep, you’re right Neanderthasis… I used to run my own coffee shop and we were turning out cups at about 25 cents a cup (this was about 10 years ago) and were charging anywhere from $2.50 to $3 a cup.

$4.20 is an outrage, vote with your wallet and drink coffee elsewhere – they’ll soon get the message.

Loquacious, your average coffee has a markup of 400 – 500% (figures I was told a while ago by a business associate who is CEO of the peak industry body for the hospitality trade, RCA).

Think about the process:
1 scoop of ground coffee 15c
water 0.2c
milk (if you have it that way)power for the coffee machine 15c or maybe 25c for a flat white)
depreciation on the coffee machine .0000000001C
Cup & saucer 1c
dishwasher to wash above mentioned cup and saucer 1c
Barista’s wage (10c if they’re a uni student, 18c if they’re a real person)
rent on building where to have the coffee 0.000000000000001c
hire purchase on the chair you sat on 0.000000000002C
Carbon emmissions tax (for future inclusions no doubt)1c

All adds up to well under a dollar.

I blame Cream. They started the $4+ coffee pricing. And I haven’t been back as a result.
Bardellis charge $2.70 for a large and (after several ownership chanrges) seem back on track and making good cuppas.

Bagels in the Canberra Centre do good coffees for $2.50 before 10am (plus a loyalty discount card).

But for pricey coffee, you just can’t go by Eagle’s Nest at the top of Crackenback Chair Thredbo – try $6+ 3 years ago! And the windows too iced up to enjoy the view to boot. They are a joke.

Sounds bloody expensive I agreed.

I’ve got a plunger for the office and one for home and I just use that.

I am hankering for a machine at home, but the Officer of Home Affairs isn’t a coffee appreciator so its a hard sell.

You think that’s bad – I heard about a guy who got charged $5 extra for his pizza.

Agreed Jimbo, I invested in a good, but not top of the line, espresso machine with a steam wand for Mrs Neanderthalsis’ Decaf – skinny – Cappucinos and my espressos and have never looked back. Took a week or so to master it but now I can do coffees far better than your average Gloria Jeans/starbucks/neighbourhood coffee factory.

The comment about remaining competitive sounds like a handy excuse to me. You are entirely correct when you say that “… wouldn’t you want to absorb the costs in order to remain competitive”. Regardless of the profit margin on coffee (which I don’t know anything about, but my understanding is that most food sales have only marginal profits), the word “competitive”, when used in a business sense, indicates that the person or business being competitive has something that gives them an advantage, or that makes them more attractive to consumers. In this case, raising prices is not competitive, but conforming. That is, “everyone else is doing it, so we are too”. Have you ever noticed that when you have a row of service stations on a street, there is always one that consistently puts its prices one or two cents lower than the others? And that they generally have more cars waiting at the pumps? *That’s* competitive. Maybe someone should have a word in your friendly cafe-owner’s ear – not just about the meaning of the word “competitive” but about why it can make good economic sense (and increase profitability, that always works for business owners) to keep her prices some 10-20c *below* the guys’ next door.

/me wanders off to boil the kettle …

FFS – make your own and stop clogging the ether with pathos

Or drink water, or beer

Spend $150 for your own espresso machine and make your own coffee in the morning. Not only will you pay off your investment after 5 weeks, with a bit of practice you’ll be able to make coffee exactly how you like it. Trust me, you’ll never look back, especially with all the crap coffee that is sold in Canberra these days.

I get my morning flat white for 2.50–closer to 3.00 if i go for a double-shot.

Wow, and I thought Starbucks had closed.