Tea & Coffee Makers
Buy and sell tea and coffee makers in Guatemala.
A capsule machine is only as good as the capsules you can buy for it, and in Guatemala it is the Dolce Gusto boxes that turn up on ordinary supermarket shelves. The rest of the kit is easier to keep fed. A drip coffee maker takes any bag of ground coffee, an electric kettle filled from the jug of purified water heats water for chamomile or lemongrass tea, and a semi-automatic espresso machine from Black+Decker or De’Longhi rewards beans ground that morning. New and second-hand machines both change hands, including capsule makers whose owners have moved on to beans.
Capsule machines depend on the capsules sold near you:
Dolce Gusto is the system whose boxes sit on Guatemalan supermarket shelves, and that is why it is the capsule maker that resells most easily. Other systems turn up too, each taking only its own capsule shape, so before buying one find out where its capsules will come from. A capsule machine makes one cup at a time with no grinding and almost no cleaning, which suits a single coffee drinker or an office desk better than a household that gets through a full pot every morning.
When a drip coffee maker beats an espresso machine:
most of the time, if coffee is drunk by the mug. A drip machine from Black+Decker, Hamilton Beach or Oster takes the medium grind most bags are sold in and fills a carafe unattended. Pick a thermal carafe if the pot sits for an hour, because a glass jug on the warming plate keeps cooking the coffee until it turns bitter. The aluminium moka pot makes a short, strong cup on the gas ring that people often call espresso, though it brews at far lower pressure. A semi-automatic espresso machine is the one that asks for fresh, fine grounds. Entry models come with pressurised baskets that forgive bagged coffee; better ones need a burr grinder beside them. For a blended iced coffee, the cooled shot goes into one of the blenders. The electric kettle is the simplest of the lot: it boils water for tea or a French press faster than a pot on the stove and switches itself off, and with one of the toaster ovens it covers breakfast without lighting a burner.
Espresso machines set the price, capsules set the running cost:
a semi-automatic espresso machine starts around Q1,500 new, and all-in-one models that add a grinder or a drip side reach about Q5,000. That is where a used machine saves real money, provided it still builds pressure, since a tired pump or a boiler clogged with scale can cost more to put right than the machine is worth. Capsule makers run the other way. A box of sixteen Dolce Gusto capsules costs around Q70 to Q90, roughly Q5 a cup. A second-hand capsule maker costs little to start with, but the capsules never get cheaper.
A used espresso machine has to pull a shot in front of you:
lock in the portafilter and run water through. An even hum with a steady stream is healthy; a loud buzz and a trickle mean scale or a worn pump. Drips round the portafilter point to a hardened group gasket, which is a cheap fix, and milk dried inside the steam wand blocks the tip. On a capsule maker, brew one and watch for water escaping under the holder. Lift the lid of any kettle or drip machine and look for a white crust. That is mineral scale, and it builds faster when the machine is filled from the tap than from a jug of purified water, so ask which. A kettle that does not click off as it boils has a failing switch. On a moka pot, check that the rubber gasket is still soft, the safety valve is clear and the aluminium inside is not white and pitted from the dishwasher.
Before someone comes for your kettle or espresso machine:
descale it and run one clean cycle, because the buyer will lift the lid looking for that crust. Photograph the machine from the front, the reservoir open, and the portafilter, baskets, tamper and milk jug laid out beside it. For a capsule maker, name the system and say whether capsules go with it. A buyer driving in from Fraijanes or Santa Catarina Pinula will want to watch an espresso machine pull a shot and steam milk, so have the tank filled, the coffee ground and a carton of milk cold in the fridge.