Thanks for the all the great posts above. I'm returning to this because we've just killed another coffee machine - it got revenge by wiping the heating system controller's settings as it tripped out the circuit.
Go on, I'll bite before someone else does. Decent Hario grinder (skerton or similar), stovetop by Bialetti, a frother from Hario if you must and a sh*tload of money left over for coffee beans. You'll get much nicer coffee, and will be set up for life with lo-fi gear to last.
I'm leaning towards the above setup (but maybe another Italian than Bialetti), but wondering about one of those combined milk warmers+frothers. Does anyone have one they'd recommend or discourage?
G.A.T. do a basket for their stovetops that can use an ESE pod and sometimes it'd be nice not to mess with loose coffee but not be creating the masses of hard-to-recycle plastic waste that the big pod machines do. Does anyone else do stovetop ESE baskets and who sells them?
Or should we just bite the bullet and buy a small Gaggia to do real espresso and also deliver steam for milk frothing?
And has anyone tried those portable espresso pumps for better coffee while touring? Handpresso, Minipresso or the 8 bar clones. I've an Aeropress but it's not quite espresso plus it's a pig to clean enough to put away.
: 22 1/2 years and a few weeks. Still going strong.
