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housethingsgoing
A frog and a duck living in a 4rm resale flat
Starting our home cafe dreams from Taobao
34
We've always wanted a coffee machine to make our own fancy cappucinos and lattes at home, but it was just one of those purchases that got delayed because well, coffee machines are kinda expensive T.T After deliberating for a long time, we finally bit the bullet and decided to take a gamble on getting one from Taobao. 
So here's our baby - I mean, Duck's beloved coffee machine :)) It's from a local Chinese brand called Stelang, which is widely popular in China and also recommended on Xiaohongshu as a good 'starter' brand for coffee newbies. That's exactly us, because while Duck took a couple of barista classes almost 10 years ago, we're considered noobs in coffee making and have absolutely no technical knowledge. This is what the machine looks like - it's pretty standard, quite compact and comes in a cute cream colour :) 
It also came with a bunch of basic gear, including a milk frothing jug, a tamper, a stand to hold all the equipment and even the container to hold the coffee grounds. (Do forgive us if we're not using the right terms - we've been learning how to make coffee via the STELANG instruction manual and videos... which is 100% in mandarin so we have no idea what these things are called in English LOL) 
Shipping wasn't a big issue - there are quite a few sellers selling this machine on Taobao. We got ours from the official store, which came with free shipping under the 199RMB promo and the option to do a local SG return if the product was faulty. It's about maybe $10-$15 SGD more expensive than the other options, but this is considered a big ticket item for us so we paid a little more for the peace of mind. But great news is that everything reached in great condition - and they even managed to stuff a small bag of free coffee beans as a freebie! It wasn't that fresh anymore after sailing on the sea for a month, but it was definitely freshly roasted when they put it in - we checked the date haha. 
Cleaning wise the machine has been pretty easy to manage - most of the surfaces are either brushed metal or plastic, so any stains and all come off very easy with a damp cloth. The base is also detachable so we just bring the whole thing to our kitchen sink to rinse off any ground coffee or spills. 
We also chose this machine because it comes with a grinder (we're lazy and didn't want to source for another grinder LOL) but as you can tell from this knob, the functions are pretty minimal and there aren't a lot of options for customisation. But that said, we're pretty simple people AND coffee noobs so this suffices for us for now, until we up our skills and improve our coffee knowledge. 
The machine also comes with a steam wand, so we can make our own lattes and cappucinos, but as you can tell, our latte art skills are VERY VERY lacking. I also do wish that the steam wand had a little bit more mobility in the joints - it's movable but the angle isn't always the best, depending on the type of cup I want to use. Still, we bought this whole thing (including shipping) for $380 SGD and I would say it's a pretty good deal for something basic. We have no idea how to evaluate the technical specifications or go into the finer details of coffee tasting, but if you're a newbie who wants a simple, affordable machine you can experiment and learn with just for you and your family, I think this is actually a pretty good option. (but everything is in Mandarin so you'd also have to pick up some mandarin in order to do the machine cleaning, etc) It's definitely not the best machine in the market out there, and we wouldn't rule out upgrading to a fancier machine in the future when we become more skilled with our coffee making, but in the meantime, this was a budget-friendly purchase that should probably feed our caffeine habits for the foreseeable future.
12 April
