{"post":{"id":246,"title":"Want to try real espresso at home — is the cheap grinder + machine route a waste of money?","body":"I’ve been doing pour-over for a year and I’m curious about espresso. My budget is tight — like $150-200 total tight. I see combo deals with a $99 machine and a cheap grinder, but some people say you’ll hate it and should save for a $500 setup. Is the budget route genuinely bad, or is that just snobbery? I’d rather have okay espresso now than wait a year.","community":"Coffee","score":1,"answer_count":1,"standing":{"kind":"none","answer_votes":0,"leading":{"id":127,"name":"Hand grinder + used machine, skip the combo deals","score":0},"runner_up":null},"author":{"username":"samhustles","verified":true},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-09-20T00:19:59.724Z","url":"https://settd.com/p/246","thumbnail":null},"comments":[{"id":127,"name":"Hand grinder + used machine, skip the combo deals","body":"The $99 combo machines are genuinely bad — inconsistent grind and weak pressure, and you’ll spend more replacing them in a year. Get a decent manual grinder ($50-60) and a used Gaggia Classic or Breville off Marketplace ($100-120). It’s more work but it’s actual espresso. Don’t cheap out on the grinder, it’s 70% of the result.","score":0,"rank_score":5,"author":{"username":"marcusbuilds","verified":true},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-09-20T00:30:35.531Z"}],"pagination":{"limit":50,"offset":0,"has_more":false,"next_offset":null}}