Cheapest way to have good coffee

[Coughee]

I have discovered a liking for coffee quite late in life. I prefer a black coffee or espresso. We have a pod machine at home and coffee from there definitely tastes nicer than instant. However, when I've had coffee in a restaurant it's a lot nicer. I don't want to buy a bean to cup machine when I'm only just starting to drink the stuff and would probably only have 1 or 2 cups a day. What would be a good cheap alternative that may be nicer than a pod machine? Is there such a thing?
Thanks!

We have a stovetop which I love, you just put it on low and wander away for 5-10 mins and come back to lovely coffee. But agree with the others, it’s the coffee that you buy that makes the difference. We get ours delivered from someone we found at a farmers market on holiday because it’s the tastiest we’ve found.

I do have a nostalgic love of these ... love the snoring noise they make while brewing!

1. A decent burr coffee grinder, something like an Aergrind.

2. For brewing the coffee, good options are

   
   
   • Aeropress
   
   
   • V60 dripper cone + gooseneck kettle
   
   
   • Stovetop moka pot
   
   

3. Milk frother (if you want latte/cappuccino)

I would recommend Krupps coffee grinder (currently £23 on Amazon) and a cafetière. Sainsburys original beans were always my favourite. Good flavour but mellow. We started buying Lavazza beans online over lockdown. The bigger bag is a faff as it has to be kept sealed and preferably in the fridge once open but we have become used to the slightly stronger blend.

Dh is a coffee snob but swears by a hand grinder, beans and an aeropress. Works out pretty cheap.

Instant costa coffee from Tesco… <faints>

Mokka pot

Wow, thanks everyone! Loads of suggestions there. I'll start by getting some good quality beans and a grinder. We already have a cafetiere so I'll see how that works out and maybe treat myself to an aeropress too.

I have a percolator - yes, really - I am that old.
We love it.

Cafetière for a long cup, stove top espresso maker for espresso.

And the right beans and grind for each.

Decent beans are essential. Single bean, not generic ‘blend’. High roast for espresso, medium for cafetière. Fine grind for espresso, medium or coarse for cafetière.

Experiment with your favourite beans. For cafetière I like Colombian, Kenyan, and an Ethiopian one, I buy in Waitrose when they are on special offer.

Bean less important for espresso because the roast is so high. IMO.

Another vote for a moka pot here, especially for espresso.

Can anyone tell me the best way to make some frothy milk for coffee please?

I recommend a decent grinder (the sage one is good) and decent beans - we find grindhousecoffee best for value and quality.

Then a cafetiere or mokka pot.

We do have a bean to cup and a sage grinder. The grinder is more useful.

I have small old fashioned coffee grinder and Chemex coffee maker. I love the design.

I use a cafetiere, with ground coffee. If you're only making one cup, then just use one cup of water with one spoonful. It's easy to rinse out for the next time. It's so much better than the pod machine. I hated my friend's coffee, made from ground beans. It tasted bitter. I find the "best" range from any supermarket, for ground beans the best.

We grind beans and use a mokka pot

Grind beans, use stove top espresso machine.

I also have a filter coffee machine which has a timer on it for my morning coffee to take to work but the stove top espresso machine makes by far the best coffee on a medium heat not too high

Cafetières just make watery coffee never the decent cup you are yearning for

I think a good grinder and fresh beans are key. I got a refurbished Gaggia espresso machine - it's very reliable and makes good coffee. But a stovetop Moka pot is also very good.

I have a Nespresso machine but I still really love a cafetière coffee so I use that too.

Definitely purchase a Bialetti - as PP suggested. You can use use regular ground coffee. I mostly use Lavazza but also Monmouth when I'm feeling fancy. There's no papers, no mess, none of the bitterness that cafetieres seem to produce and its much easier to clean out - the grinds are in a metal casket and not swilling around in water.

And they're not expensive. I have a 6-8 cup version- I found the 2 cup version too small as I like a long coffee. I also "cut" my regular coffee with decaf as I have two mugs of the stuff every morning.

The only thing about bialettis is that they have a rubber ring inside them - don't let them bubble dry on the stove or your kitchen will smell of burning rubber.

We use a dualit milk frother. Fabulous foam every time

I agree!

I think a cafetière is going to taste pretty weak if you like espresso coffee. I’d go for a stovetop mokka pot if you don’t need to froth milk. When I lived in Italy that’s pretty much what every household had for their coffee at home (and it was strong!).

I use a Mokka pot on the stove. It's cheap and I prefer it to the pods.

I'm not keen on cafetière or filter coffee though, not sure why.