My wife and I go through about 4lbs a month using mainly Chemex and Areopress. Used to get (decent) crummy coffee at Aldi and Grocery Outlet, occasionally splurging for local roasts at the coffee shops. Still, I calculate that’s about $35 or so a month on beans, Chemex filters should probably be calculated with how pricey they can be - napkin maths say $11 roughly for a months supply.
$46USD ain’t bad compared to my other vices 😪
Curious to hear if I’m around the average spender or how it tracks! Maybe you have some tips on cheap but amazing coffee? I wouldn’t know unless I asked y’all
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I have an espresso machine, so I just buy a bag of beans that I grind myself for about $15 Canadian. A bag lasts me at least a month, usually more. The only other expense is I do use more milk than usual since I make lattes.
One 12oz bag? Wow, that’s efficient. Maybe that’ll help me justify forking over the initial cost for a decent espresso machine.
To be fair, it’s only me drinking it and I typically make it only during work days. But yeah it’s pretty nice to have. I’ve been getting syrups to flavour the lattes which makes it even better.
Edit: The bags I get are about 1kg which is about 32oz.
Try out a Moka pot first if you want to save on money. The espresso is quite good for the price $5 vs $500
Great advice!
Just had this conversation with my partner who wanted to get a Nespresso (no idea why). I also have an espresso machine and have 2 large coffees a day, a 1kg bag of beans is £10 ( $13) and lasts over a month. Espresso machine and a grinder is the most eco and pocket friendly way.
Beko make a bean to cup espresso machine for about €250, it’s a tank
Needs cleaning every month but makes amazing coffee with good beans
I’m an advocate for separate grinder and espresso machines, just seems like an unnecessary complication, and the combo machines seem to take up more space than both the dedicated ones.
If you are looking at the lower end of the market, spare parts and repairability are often nonexistent or afterthoughts at best. If combo machine breaks you now have to get another combo or buy the separates, and even the best value combo is more $ than comparable separates.
That’s solid. I figured I’d need a new setup to make the most of it - doubt my cuisinart burr grinder would be able to pull a really mean americano let alone a late. I’ll keep that in mind for the next few huge Chemex filters I toss. Thanks!
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I buy green unroasted coffee for cheap and then roast it myself, 5lb bag is like 8 bucks Canadian
Do you just roast it in your home oven? Does it make your house smell like a Starbucks knock box?
I do the same thing. Green coffee has a longer shelf life than roasted coffee does.
Where do you buy from?
I believe it’s called buycoffeecanada.com
Recently moved to a more coffee-oriented area so I should be able to find green beans way easier now. Thanks for the reminder!!!
I buy 20 lb bags of green for 80-120 once a year or so, roast a batch once a week or so in a modified popcorn maker, and make espresso, pour over, or french press depending on how it turns out.
I probably don’t save any money when you calculate power, and even if I did, it would take a decade to pay for the grinder/espresso machine.
Realistic take but it sounds like you’re enjoying the best coffee in your city regardless of how much you spent initially. $120 is a hell of a steal for a whole year of joe, IMO
You most probably won’t reach the coffee quality of a professional roaster at home. It just depends on how much you’re interested in the process or how much the taste is worth it to you.
it sounds like you’re enjoying the best coffee in your city
Nah, the roasts aren’t very consistent so most of the time it’s kinda mid. Sometimes it’s so good it demands 3 more shots.
I spend about $30/mo on whole beans from a local roaster. Cheap Hario hand grinder, French press. KISS
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$32 USD a month for 2 lbs (0.9 kg) from a local roaster. Not the most economical, but they do a decent job of roasting.
I do pour over iced coffee (aka Japanese Iced Coffee) using a Hario V60. 35g coffee and 300g water brewed over ice (dilutes the rest of the way and chills the coffee) and I’m good to go.
So about 200g ice?
I just fill my insulated tumbler all the way to the top with ice and I get a perfect amount of coffee. It stops right where the lid goes on top.
However, if you were going to do it the normal way it would indeed be about 300g of ice. Then you’d put that over fresh ice (bigger pieces so it doesn’t dilute as much?).
I’m just lazy and also don’t want to use a second container so I just do it my way.
$24 AUD ($16.30 USD) for 500 grams of coffee a month. I drink a cup a day and it’s enough for me and my partner to get through. I use a stovetop moka pot and get beans from the local markets here in melbourne :-)
I drink tea, like the standard orange pekoe stuff. 1 to two bags a day… About $8 for a box of 72… So I dunno less than $5/mo anyway
EDIT pardon me I just saw that this was a coffee community. No hard feelings meant! I still enjoy a social coffee every now and again! May the coarse bean with you or whatever it is coffee drinkers say eachother 😅
Any good coffee drinker can appreciate tea the same. It’s all delicious plant water one way or another 🤩
About 75 €/month at most, but that would require drinking only specialty coffee. Normally I also have a bag of cheap supermarket coffee, which I use for experiments and training. Really good specially coffee costs about 80…100 €/kg, while good light roasted fresh supermarket coffee costs about 14 €/kg, so that can easily bring that monthly expense down.
Since I drink a little bit of both, I think the overall cost is somewhere around 30…40 €/month.
AP filers are really cheap, so they contribute only cents to the monthly sum. Can you really taste the difference between two filter types? If so, can Chemex really justify the higher cost?
Chemex is preferred when I’m sharing a pot with my wife/company since we can make 3 cups at once. I know you can make AeroPress for two cups at a time but it seems like it’s better when pulling singles. It’s nice having the coffee warm for everyone to enjoy at once but I’m now thinking a V60 might be a cheaper alternative for that situation.
You can also do americano style with the AP. If I’m brewing to 3 people at once, I make the coffee very strong, and then dilute it with milk or water to make it just right.
~2kg/month, currently spending ~$60NZD/kg - anywhere between 1 and 4 espressos a day for me depending on if I’m going into the office or not, and my wife drinks a jug of cold brew every ~week
I just use whatever the machine at work has. So $0 lol
I’m no coffee snob but jfc, I swear they get Folgers and CFoN just to fuck with us lol
My wife and I split a pot a day, brewed on a Moccamaster. We buy bulk from a local grocery store a lb at a time and go thru about 3 lbs a month. At $12/lb, we’re at around $40 a month.
During the winter months I go to a coffee shop down by the Seattle waterfront. I do it because they’re starving in the winter and I want them to stay open. Couple times a week, $5 with tip for a drip.
$5USD for a coffee, is that normal? Is that inclusive of a tip? Here in Australia Id leave the register if they tried charging me more than $3USD, and we don’t have a tipping culture (thank god).
You could probably find $3, but no less. And if you went to a nice coffee shop, that did a pour over or something, I’d expect $5-$7.
I’d say $3.50 is about the cheapest pour over house coffee here in PNW US. You can find cheaper stuff at like 7-Eleven and other convenience stores - about $1-$2 but the quality is usually lacking. McDonald’s was my cheapest/most convenient/tastiest go-to back in Florida. I think it was around $2
PNW?
Damn, $3.50USD gets you a flat white/cappuccino/latte here, I don’t know if you’d find pour over coffee. And people here are upset at THAT cost, with home espresso machines taking off accordingly. I’m surprised Americans drink so much coffee at that price.
My local sit-in cafe near Portland has V60 and chemex for about $3.50 but the ones I really love is the whole milk 16oz latte from the tiny 4x12 coffee house but they’re like $4
The sit in place, I tip in but the coffee house doesn’t even ask for one if I use my card.
Lots of coffee here so I’ve found $8 lattes at places and that makes me retch
It’s about $30 a month for two of us who both drink 2-3 cups a day.
For me about 10€. At work I have free “coffee” and at home I alternate coffee and tea. For the coffee I’ve found a nice 500g bag of whole brand for 8€ that is my go to.
“Antique” 2€ grinder bought well over a decade ago and french pressing. No expensive equipment.
Do you have a Costco near you? I usually get Lavazza beans when it’s on offer for £10/$13 per kg (~2lbs) but Amazon sometimes have it cheaper delivered. One word of warning though, the Kirkland coffee beans are terrible, no idea how they make It so bitter.
Also have you tried a re-usable metal filter for your AeroPress?
Good price. I spend over $20 for Lavazza organic on Amazon.
The Kirkland beans really are bad, which is surprising. I like the Don Pablo beans they carry a lot though.
Ooh not sure we have those in the UK, we do have San Francisco Bay coffee beans which are good but Lavazza is smoother. I did wonder if the San Fran was just for us in Europe so we had “Exotic American” coffee.
Lavazza is delicious too. I actually don’t know if the American Costco stores carry Lavazza. I didn’t think my local store does. I see in their website that they may only be available for delivery.
We do have Costco around here! I’ll take a look for those Lavazza beans - they sound like a great deal.
Never tried the metal Aero filters but I found some off brand ones on Amazon that do the job really well. Got like fkn 800 filters for $10 on Amazon so that’s WAY cheaper than the Chemex as it is. I worried about the metal filters resulting in oily coffee akin to a french press, did you experience that or are my fears unfounded?
Well I’ve asked Santa for an AeroPress for Christmas, I take a French press camping but we broke it this year. Planning on getting the metal filter, and finding out myself.
My first coffee maker is my AeroPress! Had it for about a decade now and it’s still plungin’
Took it out camping a ton over the years! It’s been banged up so much and still works perfectly. I usually just bring a stack of paper filters in a ziploc but a metal filter sounds pretty bulletproof now that you mention it…
