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Excuse the rookie question, but I am a newbie to coffee. (I blame my nationality; I grew up with tea. ;) )

What equipment, exactly, do I need to get from coffee beans to a cup of espresso that I can drink?

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Easiest thing is a bean to cup machine like any of these, these will grind a pre-measured amount of beans, heat water and pump through into your cup and dispense the used grounds into a grounds bin internally.

Going the other way you need a minimum of some form of grinder (preferably burr type) which can be manual or electric.

A 'normal' espresso machine like these which may or may not have a milk frother.

You can opt for a digital scale machine to weigh your beans, possibly mineral water if you hate descaling your machine.

The scales are for measuring an accurate amount of beans, I do this because I have a manual grinder. The water is cheap still mineral water because I live in the south of England and the water is so incredibly hard that it has tattoos.

Also you need cups to drink the final product.

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  • Huh. I kind of assumed I either had to buy a grinder or buy ground beans. Can you explain what to do after that?
    – starsplusplus
    Commented Feb 4, 2015 at 16:46
  • Are you asking about tamping the ground coffee into the holder and then clamping to the machine and switching on?
    – EdChum
    Commented Feb 4, 2015 at 16:47
  • I'm asking what the next step is after grinding the coffee (sorry, comment was badly worded - I was in the middle of editing to clarify when I saw your comment). I've heard of filters and percolators and cafetières, but I don't know what the differences are or how I'm meant to use them.
    – starsplusplus
    Commented Feb 4, 2015 at 16:50
  • You asked about espresso coffee which requires 9 bar pressure, the other things you mentioned just use gravity and/or steam to extract the flavour
    – EdChum
    Commented Feb 4, 2015 at 16:51
  • Ah, right. I may be asking the wrong question, then. Is espresso what I need to start with if I want to make a latte or cappuccino or whatever? Or can I start with the coffee that comes out of those other devices?
    – starsplusplus
    Commented Feb 4, 2015 at 16:57

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