hey Phil,
tend to agree in regards to getting your own machine. had a machine in Oz, just a cheapy, but made good coffee with nice crema, so long as you used nice beans...
since moving to HK however, I have invested in a middle of the range Krups - not one that does stuff like grind etc, just a simple machine with a nice heavy copper brewing head (a must!). however, even with the beans from "home" brought in as you do, the coffee was... mediocre... until I started having short blacks again, then realised it was the ruddy milk stuffing my coffee up.
serious, i think that as milk makes up 60% of your drink, if it is pretty yuck to start with, then frothy/steamed "pretty yuck" milk, though an improvement, is not much better. and burnt "pretty yuck" milk, is damn near horrendous
just my shots worth...
