Coffee making at our place has just levelled up!  We’ve just acquired a De’Longhi “Decida” espresso machine.  This is a nice little machine that’s got the neat feature of accepting either regular ground coffee or standard ESE coffee pods (more on that later).

It’s a handy size for a small kitchen, it’s simple to use, it looks nice, and so far I’m really happy with the coffee it puts out.  If you’re in the market for a small “real” coffee machine and you’re in NZ, Harvey Norman have them on sale for NZ$227 at the moment, which I think is a bit of a bargain (RRP is ~NZ$400).

A minor design point that I liked – when the drip tray is full, the red plastic bit floats up and it sticks it’s tongue out at you :p.

Drip tray empty 🙂

Drip try full :p

Coffee & Razor Blades

Previously we had a Lavazza “A Modo Mio” pod-based machine, which was handy, but it’s starting to show its age, and the facts that (a) it was purely pod based, and (b) you can’t buy those pods in NZ (so we were mail-ordering them from Australia or the UK) made for a rather environmentally un-friendly cup of coffee.

I wasn’t aware of the ESE standard (yay, open standards!) before researching this purchase, but I’m really glad to see it exists, since (a) you’re not locked into only the machine’s manufacturer’s range of coffee and (b) it offers consumers a way out of the “razor and blades” business model for coffee pods.  The most egregious example I’ve seen of this for coffee being the “Lavazza Blue” range – you get the machine for free, but the pods are about 2x the normal going rate!

PS, apologies that it’s been so long since I last posted.