I’m thinking the Strada EP1 would be the best you can get today?
Electronic pressure profiling, with a saturated head and all the high quality you’d expect from a LM machine.
My stove top kettle and French press make better coffee than any machine I’ve ever used.
That’s awesome, if immersion brewing is your favourite tasting coffee, then it’s pretty easy to get good results on a budget (except the grinder!)
Unfortunately I’m drawn to espressos and cortados so things get a little more technical and expensive.
Have you tried different filter methods? The kalita/v60/chemex/aeropress etc.
The aeropress is actually what got me away from drip brewers, but I drink way too much coffee for it to be my main method. It was nice to use when I was working out of the office, though.
I’m about to do an experiment on which immersion brewing method is best. My plan is to 5 different brews in 8oz mason jars: boiling water and short steep (normal), boiling water and 24h steep, sun coffee (just letting it sit in the sun all day), room temperature 24h steep, and fridge 24h steep. I’m betting option 2 is the worst.
The other way a french press is best is because on one operation you can make an arbitrarily large amount of coffee
You want coffee for five? Easy. More? The machines are cheap, you can parallel them
The downside - you can’t make any of the drinks made of espresso
Cold brew would probably beat the french press, if it didn’t need forethought
