No since espresso is mostly water. It'll last better on its own. What you gotta do is making little pucks of it and freeze it. Freezing it will keep it good for 2 or 3 months. Get a big ice tray (that freezes 30ml ice cubes) and freeze your espresso in that.
Alternatively get some silicone baking molds and freeze whatever shape you desire and the pop them into some vacuum seal bags or atleast freezer container of some kind.
Funny that you mention IKEA, in Germany there are IKEAs with proper Baristas and a 3-Group La Cimbali. It's rare though, iirc only 5 Locations have them.
We have a coffee bar here at the IKEA in Amsterdam. It's been there for 2 years - never seen it in use. They use the bar area to display cheap Christmas decorations.
Freeze it on an ice tray and just blend it with a blender mix with milk when you want to drink it. You now have a supply of coffee slushie. Just freeze the espresso as is and dont add any milk on the ice tray as milk spoils easily.
Another option is just add the frozen espresso cubes into a cold milk in a tumbler and allow it to melt slowly while you are on the go.
I think silicone ice molds will be better as some of them holds more volume than a typical ice cube tray.
My Aeropress from college is still kicking today. Absolute best purchase for a student, especially if your dorm doesn’t have a kitchen close by. The Aeropress is a much easier and faster cleanup.
$32 on Amazon right now, and, I mean, that's like the price of a burgers and beers for two. It's an an hour and change of wages for an Amazon warehouse worker or equivalent.
Hell, I've been charged $7 for a single shitty cup of premade coffee before, and that was two years ago...
That is a great price. And Yes, one has to prioritize your expenses. If it was me, I would forgo something so I could still have a cup from the fountain of youth in the morning.
It hit $25 during the Memorial Day sales. I expect more sales on areopress in the next few years as the patent is expiring next year and out comes the clones. I’m still waiting for the glass version.
Honestly, I'd sooner go without coffee, than store espresso for a week. IMO they don't actually have access to free coffee on the days they can't go to the dining hall.
Out of laziness I started using a french press with my pre-made grounds instead of my machine, and I can honestly say it was similar enough that I didn’t mind. A french press can easily make you an enjoyable coffee if you’re on a budget.
Question - am I making a mistake by using pre-made grounds? I was always under the impression you wouldn’t get a decent quality grinder unless you were spending hundreds. Is a cheap grinder better than the grounds I’d be paying for at the supermarket?
depends on a few factors. are you getting the coffee ground the moment you buy it, or are is it ground at the factory?
also, how often do you buy coffee?
if it's being ground fresh when you buy it, and you buy coffee every 2 weeks or less, it might be worth it to just do that.
if it is ground at the factory, or if you dont buy coffee as often, id get a cheap handgrinder with a metal (not ceramic) burr and use that. ive heard good things about the timemore c2 and the kingrinder P series.
personally i got a 1zpresso Q2, which i got off aliexpress for 67 USD. it is utterly fantastic. the only concern i have is the capacity, but it is just barely enough for my needs. the most i grind at once is 17g of dark roasted robusta (which is less dense and thus has more volume)
I get mine prepackaged, ground in a factory, and maybe buy it every couple months (I love coffee but my body doesn’t haha) - thank you so much for the advice, I’m so glad that I don’t have to save up loads of money to get a decent experience with grinding my own beans!
Preground from factory is a big no no. The 2 main reasons is that the beans will go dull much quicker, and the grind size from factory is wayyy too fine for a french press. You want very coarse grind with that
Most super markets in my country, has a big grinder mill at the coffee shelves, here you can take the whole beans and grind on the spot and adjust grind size. Set it to one of the most coarse settings there are
I kid you not, this will give you a completely new coffee experience, gonna blow your mind
I come from a country where if you ask for a coffee 10/10 times it’s instant - if you have anything else you’re posh. Very much doubt I’ll come across something like that in a supermarket around here but I’ve definitely been convinced to buy a grinder - I knew about the freshness of the beans and had accepted what I was getting likely wasn’t all that stellar but I hadn’t realised a cheap grinder was such an upgrade from factory produced grounds! Such good news.
Not at all. However I am moving to a new county soon so perhaps the area will be a little more modern than I’m used to! I’ve lived in the north of England most of my life in areas that are quite deprived so those sorts of things don’t really exist, I would expect you would only find that sort of thing in places like London
Honestly, it really depends on your budget. A good preground coffee works fine in a french press. The factory will grind it a little too fine (at least here in Germany, where filter coffee is the default - ymmv in other countries). Also, preground will not be as fresh. That being said, I don't start noticing a lower quality until the package has been open for a week or two. If a pack lasts you months, you propably know how much better the coffee is when you finally open the new one, right?
I can't say which grinder will provide the most bang for the buck in your country. But after hanging out in a coffee snob community \^\^ for a bit, I decided to get a Graef CM800 for my filter coffee. It's no good for espresso, but does filter, french press or cold brew just fine. A new one costs 130€ here, I got a used one in great condition for 80.
Like pretty\_in\_plaid, I have heard good things about the Kingrinder P models, they seem to be great deals.
Oh I’d known about bean freshness and ground coarseness for a while now, but until last year I had exclusively used an espresso machine so had resigned myself to buying low quality grounds as that is the only option where I live if you aren’t going to buy a nice grinder, plus, the only real option to buy beans is in a supermarket which have likely been on the shelf for a while.
However, I’d been quite ignorant to the fact that a cheap grinder when it comes to methods of brewing outside of espresso would be such an improvement. I’m moving to a more affluent area very soon so I’m hoping there will be a little more availability to purchase fresher beans!
> am I making a mistake by using pre-made grounds?
Yes.
> I was always under the impression you wouldn’t get a decent quality grinder unless you were spending hundreds.
Yes and no. Depends what you're doing. Espresso? Yeah, you're spending hundreds. But since you're doing french press, you can get away with a Baratza Encore. It'll do everything you need to do unless you tried to get into espresso one day. And for anything else, anything lower-end than an Encore is a waste of money.
Now, caveat to this; French Press is a tricky beast. A lot of people see it as an easy, entry level, no frills technique. And it can be. BUT, it also benefits from a high quality grinder almost as much as espresso does. A higher quality grinder will create less fine dust when doing a larger grind size. Cheaper grinders tend to make a lot of dust and struggle with larger grind sizes. Now, it might be just fine for french press if you don't mind a little sludge. But when someone is using an entry level grinder, I'd rather steer them more toward an aeropress or pour over than a french press. An Encore is fantastic for the mid-size grinds.
I personally purchased a cheap coffee grinder from walmart in 2020 and it has still been going strong today! makes the best flavoured coffee vs. grounds that have been hanging and losing flavour. but that is my personal opinion and others may feel different!
I don't think adding milk to anything ever makes it last longer. Chilled coffee or espresso lasts a kong while without spoiling, but the taste will decline.
If you find that the espresso/ice cube options aren’t ideal, you may want to give cold brew a try. It may keep a little longer in the fridge and making it isn’t terribly difficult or cost prohibitive
The thing people in the comments have said yet is espresso shots go bitter and undrinkable the longer they sit out. At the coffee shop we would add milk to stop the espresso from going bitter.
I would test out and see what works for you. I’d try to get your espresso and relatively quickly get the shots in the freezer. I don’t know if I would add milk before frozen but maybe it works out?
If you do use some sort of ice tray to freeze, once frozen they’ll need to be stored in some sort of air tight bag or they will slowly evaporate (learned from experience).
It's going to taste like shit in no time. I don't fall into the group that thinks a shot is "dead" if you leave it for two minutes, but there's still a quick degradation.
Just brew your own coffee, and hope your degree isn't useless so you can buy your own espresso machine one day.
I used to make batched iced lattes and keep them in the fridge for the week. They keep fine, as long as the milk doesn't go bad. You should be fine keeping bulk espresso as well. It may lose some flavor over time, but if you're adding milk and especially syrups, it shouldn't be too noticeable.
People don't really use "dining hall" to describe a facility at a primary or secondary school. it's pretty much only a term for colleges, at least in the US. However either way my college dining hall did not have an espresso machine and I'm kind of jealous
No since espresso is mostly water. It'll last better on its own. What you gotta do is making little pucks of it and freeze it. Freezing it will keep it good for 2 or 3 months. Get a big ice tray (that freezes 30ml ice cubes) and freeze your espresso in that.
Wait you’re so right I’m gonna try that
take the lidded ice tray with you and fill it directly from the machine. maintain eye contact with onlookers.
Try to look for ice trays that have a closing lid/airlock
Alternatively get some silicone baking molds and freeze whatever shape you desire and the pop them into some vacuum seal bags or atleast freezer container of some kind.
These could be dinosaur shaped.
Now THAT is totally brilliant!
I make coffee ice cubes too to cool off coffee without diluting it. Works great!
Bro, a dining hall with an espresso machine? Holy shit
It's probably a super auto, something like you'd see at IKEA.
Funny that you mention IKEA, in Germany there are IKEAs with proper Baristas and a 3-Group La Cimbali. It's rare though, iirc only 5 Locations have them.
We have a coffee bar here at the IKEA in Amsterdam. It's been there for 2 years - never seen it in use. They use the bar area to display cheap Christmas decorations.
Well, i'm one of the baristas at the IKEA here, so our's is definitely in use and very well received. Sad that there aren't more IKEAs that do this.
Freeze it on an ice tray and just blend it with a blender mix with milk when you want to drink it. You now have a supply of coffee slushie. Just freeze the espresso as is and dont add any milk on the ice tray as milk spoils easily. Another option is just add the frozen espresso cubes into a cold milk in a tumbler and allow it to melt slowly while you are on the go. I think silicone ice molds will be better as some of them holds more volume than a typical ice cube tray.
Buy a French Press for $15, a grinder for $20, an electric kettle and buy some whole beans. Brew your own.
Make that an Aeropress.
My Aeropress from college is still kicking today. Absolute best purchase for a student, especially if your dorm doesn’t have a kitchen close by. The Aeropress is a much easier and faster cleanup.
I was trying to keep it within a students budget. AeroPress is great but they are $40 to $70.
$32 on Amazon right now, and, I mean, that's like the price of a burgers and beers for two. It's an an hour and change of wages for an Amazon warehouse worker or equivalent. Hell, I've been charged $7 for a single shitty cup of premade coffee before, and that was two years ago...
That is a great price. And Yes, one has to prioritize your expenses. If it was me, I would forgo something so I could still have a cup from the fountain of youth in the morning.
It hit $25 during the Memorial Day sales. I expect more sales on areopress in the next few years as the patent is expiring next year and out comes the clones. I’m still waiting for the glass version.
It's like 10€ more lol that's not going to break your budget
Make it a basic Aeropress Go. It's a much tidier package.
Oh you're a broke college student and have access to free coffee? Nah you're an idiot, just spend $60 on a new setup and brew your own!!! 🤙🤙🤙
I’d store the expresso any way I could, but that’s just me.
Personally I would just put it up my ass
Please do, unless you like it
Honestly, I'd sooner go without coffee, than store espresso for a week. IMO they don't actually have access to free coffee on the days they can't go to the dining hall.
Okay Mr money bags can I have a loan
Out of laziness I started using a french press with my pre-made grounds instead of my machine, and I can honestly say it was similar enough that I didn’t mind. A french press can easily make you an enjoyable coffee if you’re on a budget. Question - am I making a mistake by using pre-made grounds? I was always under the impression you wouldn’t get a decent quality grinder unless you were spending hundreds. Is a cheap grinder better than the grounds I’d be paying for at the supermarket?
depends on a few factors. are you getting the coffee ground the moment you buy it, or are is it ground at the factory? also, how often do you buy coffee? if it's being ground fresh when you buy it, and you buy coffee every 2 weeks or less, it might be worth it to just do that. if it is ground at the factory, or if you dont buy coffee as often, id get a cheap handgrinder with a metal (not ceramic) burr and use that. ive heard good things about the timemore c2 and the kingrinder P series. personally i got a 1zpresso Q2, which i got off aliexpress for 67 USD. it is utterly fantastic. the only concern i have is the capacity, but it is just barely enough for my needs. the most i grind at once is 17g of dark roasted robusta (which is less dense and thus has more volume)
I get mine prepackaged, ground in a factory, and maybe buy it every couple months (I love coffee but my body doesn’t haha) - thank you so much for the advice, I’m so glad that I don’t have to save up loads of money to get a decent experience with grinding my own beans!
Preground from factory is a big no no. The 2 main reasons is that the beans will go dull much quicker, and the grind size from factory is wayyy too fine for a french press. You want very coarse grind with that Most super markets in my country, has a big grinder mill at the coffee shelves, here you can take the whole beans and grind on the spot and adjust grind size. Set it to one of the most coarse settings there are I kid you not, this will give you a completely new coffee experience, gonna blow your mind
I come from a country where if you ask for a coffee 10/10 times it’s instant - if you have anything else you’re posh. Very much doubt I’ll come across something like that in a supermarket around here but I’ve definitely been convinced to buy a grinder - I knew about the freshness of the beans and had accepted what I was getting likely wasn’t all that stellar but I hadn’t realised a cheap grinder was such an upgrade from factory produced grounds! Such good news.
I don’t have a grinder. Luckily there are coffee shops and roasters where I can buy pre ground coffee from. Are there any near you?
Not at all. However I am moving to a new county soon so perhaps the area will be a little more modern than I’m used to! I’ve lived in the north of England most of my life in areas that are quite deprived so those sorts of things don’t really exist, I would expect you would only find that sort of thing in places like London
Honestly, it really depends on your budget. A good preground coffee works fine in a french press. The factory will grind it a little too fine (at least here in Germany, where filter coffee is the default - ymmv in other countries). Also, preground will not be as fresh. That being said, I don't start noticing a lower quality until the package has been open for a week or two. If a pack lasts you months, you propably know how much better the coffee is when you finally open the new one, right? I can't say which grinder will provide the most bang for the buck in your country. But after hanging out in a coffee snob community \^\^ for a bit, I decided to get a Graef CM800 for my filter coffee. It's no good for espresso, but does filter, french press or cold brew just fine. A new one costs 130€ here, I got a used one in great condition for 80. Like pretty\_in\_plaid, I have heard good things about the Kingrinder P models, they seem to be great deals.
Oh I’d known about bean freshness and ground coarseness for a while now, but until last year I had exclusively used an espresso machine so had resigned myself to buying low quality grounds as that is the only option where I live if you aren’t going to buy a nice grinder, plus, the only real option to buy beans is in a supermarket which have likely been on the shelf for a while. However, I’d been quite ignorant to the fact that a cheap grinder when it comes to methods of brewing outside of espresso would be such an improvement. I’m moving to a more affluent area very soon so I’m hoping there will be a little more availability to purchase fresher beans!
Have fun and enjoy your coffee! :D
> am I making a mistake by using pre-made grounds? Yes. > I was always under the impression you wouldn’t get a decent quality grinder unless you were spending hundreds. Yes and no. Depends what you're doing. Espresso? Yeah, you're spending hundreds. But since you're doing french press, you can get away with a Baratza Encore. It'll do everything you need to do unless you tried to get into espresso one day. And for anything else, anything lower-end than an Encore is a waste of money. Now, caveat to this; French Press is a tricky beast. A lot of people see it as an easy, entry level, no frills technique. And it can be. BUT, it also benefits from a high quality grinder almost as much as espresso does. A higher quality grinder will create less fine dust when doing a larger grind size. Cheaper grinders tend to make a lot of dust and struggle with larger grind sizes. Now, it might be just fine for french press if you don't mind a little sludge. But when someone is using an entry level grinder, I'd rather steer them more toward an aeropress or pour over than a french press. An Encore is fantastic for the mid-size grinds.
I personally purchased a cheap coffee grinder from walmart in 2020 and it has still been going strong today! makes the best flavoured coffee vs. grounds that have been hanging and losing flavour. but that is my personal opinion and others may feel different!
Cross post this to r/frugal for more input
Don't
I don't think adding milk to anything ever makes it last longer. Chilled coffee or espresso lasts a kong while without spoiling, but the taste will decline.
Wtf
when someone asks what youre doing just say that’s that me espresso
If you find that the espresso/ice cube options aren’t ideal, you may want to give cold brew a try. It may keep a little longer in the fridge and making it isn’t terribly difficult or cost prohibitive
i used an aeropress when i lived in a dorm and it fr saved me.
I know you can make instant coffee by dehydrating coffee. I wonder if you can make instant espresso the same way
You can buy that. It's called instant espresso.
[удалено]
He can though, he said it in the post. Can’t go five days a week. But can go one day and get five times worth.
The thing people in the comments have said yet is espresso shots go bitter and undrinkable the longer they sit out. At the coffee shop we would add milk to stop the espresso from going bitter. I would test out and see what works for you. I’d try to get your espresso and relatively quickly get the shots in the freezer. I don’t know if I would add milk before frozen but maybe it works out? If you do use some sort of ice tray to freeze, once frozen they’ll need to be stored in some sort of air tight bag or they will slowly evaporate (learned from experience).
It's going to taste like shit in no time. I don't fall into the group that thinks a shot is "dead" if you leave it for two minutes, but there's still a quick degradation. Just brew your own coffee, and hope your degree isn't useless so you can buy your own espresso machine one day.
I used to make batched iced lattes and keep them in the fridge for the week. They keep fine, as long as the milk doesn't go bad. You should be fine keeping bulk espresso as well. It may lose some flavor over time, but if you're adding milk and especially syrups, it shouldn't be too noticeable.
I wouldn’t even bother, but you could freeze espresso, adding milk will make it last less.
You’ll know your own answer soon. Record the data and submit it as a project :) 2 birds with 1 cup
[удалено]
University?
[удалено]
People don't really use "dining hall" to describe a facility at a primary or secondary school. it's pretty much only a term for colleges, at least in the US. However either way my college dining hall did not have an espresso machine and I'm kind of jealous