I had a friend visit from Bangalore last week. He stopped by for a coffee. I only had instant coffee and when I offered it, he turned up his nose. He wasn’t impressed. He’d been raving about the fabulous espresso he had had at home, real Indian coffee. I hadn’t realised that India is the world’s sixth largest coffee producer and that our coffee is among the best out there.

Anyway, he couldn’t believe that I didn’t have an espresso machine! He knew I really enjoyed my coffee. When we worked together, we’d regularly go to the local café just to have a real coffee experience. I missed that. I told him so. He said that there was nothing stopping me having that real café experience at home. All I needed to do was to buy an espresso machine. And I could do that online.

So I went online to check. Wow. There’s so much choice; lots of different machines and hundreds of different brands. But I had no idea what I was looking for. I didn’t know where to start. So I called my friend. And this is what he told me:

If you’re looking at the true café experience at home, invest in a pump espresso machine. It will have a built-in pump which extracts all the flavor from the coffee by forcing hot water through the coffee powder under a pressure of at least 15 bar.

[I made a note of this – I need a 15-bar pressure pump.]

You can also use the steam generated in the boiler to froth milk if you fancy a creamy cappuccino. These espresso coffee machines are actually miniature versions of the large commercial espresso coffee machines that was in our favorite café.

But the non-pump machines are so much cheaper, I thought. Surely one of those would do? Apparently there’s a difference. A big difference.

The non-pump espresso machines are understandably cheaper. But they only produce a mild pressure of around 3 bar.The test of a true espresso is in the “pull of an espresso shot”, an artisan term which indicates the pressure at which the hot water is passed through the coffee.  This “pull” is missing in these machines.It’s up to you though. Decide what kind of espresso you want to enjoy … and have your friends enjoy!

Cheeky! So now that I know what to look for, I’m more confident in doing my research. There are great deals available out there, online. A lot of brands now offer their products at international prices. Once I decide, I can enjoy real coffee at home. And next time, when my friend visits, he’ll be impressed.