One man’s opinion. Ask me tomorrow and I’m likely to tell you something completely different.
Roasters
1. Onyx
2. Heart
3. Verve
4. Sweet Bloom
5. Counter Culture
DMV Cafés
1. Café Unido
2. The Coffee Bar (Shaw)
3. Baked & Wired
4. Dua Coffee DC
5. Northside Social (Arlington)
HM (alphabetically): Kaldi Social House (Silver Spring), Lost Sock, Maketto, Swings (Alexandria), Takoma Bev Co, Vigilante (Hyattsville)
Thanks perfect timing. New machine to test beans with.
what did you get?
I blame e-bay. Let me explain. I was quite happy with my very good Calphalon IQ (non grinder) machine but had become inspired to do more self-grinding. My usual over deep research took me into the spiral of confusion as to which grinder to buy. I turned to e-bay to find my bargain (even though I say so myself, I am quite good at finding bargains). There it is was, brand new and $200 less than Amazon, a Calphalon IQ with built in Conical Grinder. For those that do not know the Calphalon Machines get very good reviews and punch above their weight. They are actually Sunbeam machines from Australia and as we know Australians make good machines (i.e. Breville…yes Breville is Australian). The Australian reviews for this machine were excellent. So it gives consistently good grind and consistently decent espresso. It also steams milk perfectly. It has a few quirks but liveable with. For the price and above average specifications it is a good buy.