Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

Mad old tory said:
Do you already have a cafetiere? If so spend £30 on a porlex grinder rather than the stove top pot and get some fresh beans. You will get much better coffee than using preground for around the same price.
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I do at work, I dont want to be carrying it back and forwards. I may look into the cheap Porlex. :)
 
I take my Porlex grinder into work every day, along with Aeropress. Been using these for 2-3 months, my only entry into making proper coffee, and I still have'nt gotten over how amazing it tastes, and how easy it is to make. Worth every penny.

I've settled on a favourite blend now, tried about 6, and the definite favourite is Hasbean Dot com blend, it just has that something extra over the other stuff I've tried, kind of like an added acidity to a strong coffee.

The only one i disliked was the Breakfast Bomb, I had to throw it away...even the smell was offputting. Tasted awful. Maybe it's more suited to other brewing methods.
 
Ging3r said:
Total coffee noob here:

Just been told my dad's getting a Gaggia Classic as a leaving present from work. No doubt he'll come to me asking what to do/how to get the best out of it. Any advice? Looking around grinders aren't cheap, so i doubt he'll want to splash out on one straight away.
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As above, fresh ground coffee will make a huge difference. I ended up grabbing a second hand Starbucks Barista electric grinder from eBay, it's OK but not brilliant, the Porlex hand grinders sound like the best way to go on a budget.

There's plenty of guides out there for pulling shots and steaming milk with the Classic, it's a great machine and I love mine.

IMHO it's worth getting a decent tamper and also replacing the "Crema perfetta" pressurised basket with a normal one. These are the ones I bought:

http://www.myespresso.co.uk/product.php/415/motta-58mm-tamper

http://www.myespresso.co.uk/product.php/427/gaggia-double-basket

They did send another pressurised one out by mistake but when I queried that they promptly sent out the proper one immediately so wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.
 
I might be open to abuse here. But I am still loving my Nespresso machine. A machine that cost £80 delivering 19 bar and delivers a pretty good espresso while me toast is cooking.

For time/value/quality can't fault it imo. Although use it more than twice a day or have a family I can appreciate it would get too expensive. For a single bloke they are great.
 
I got some Burundian Musema from Astrora at lunchtime. She's got a couple of new crops in but I haven't had a Burundian before. Looks like it comes from a teensie place between Congo and Tanzania, so nice and unstable, politically, and plenty of drugs trafficking. My experiences of places like this is they usually turn out pretty good coffee :)

Ging3r, I just get my local coffee place to grind it for me with their machine and it lasts up to 2 weeks in a sealed glass jar in the fridge. Whittard's standard size grind for a home espresso machine is too fine and it blocks the portafilter thing. Monmouth's is spot on and I really like their espresso blend.
 
Jonny69 said:
Ging3r, I just get my local coffee place to grind it for me with their machine and it lasts up to 2 weeks in a sealed glass jar in the fridge. Whittard's standard size grind for a home espresso machine is too fine and it blocks the portafilter thing. Monmouth's is spot on and I really like their espresso blend.
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Please don't store them in the fridge, too moist. Just in the cupboard will do.

Steve did a good video on it. Well, I say good... It's certainly got higher production values than his normally do. :D

http://www.hasblog.co.uk/how-to-store-your-coffee-beans
 
Hi all,

Can I have a recommendation for a coffee machine which takes beans please? I would like to get into coffee more but am a noob at present. I don't really have a budget, I would like some advice from you good people about how much better the quality of the end product gets with a more expensive machine please :)

Edit: I've just read the thread from page 1-19 and I notice people tend to be buying coffee grinders and then ground coffee makers, but I would like a machine to include a grinder for ease of use and one-less item in the kitchen please.
 
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Bean-to-cup machines have a reputation for being awful unfortunately... Plus they're usually "top end" models so they'll probably be more expensive than buying an entry level machine and grinder. All the ones I've seen were £400+, and you can do a lot better than that. Whittards once stocked one that was £990 and could be fully automated to start brewing different coffees at different times of the day, so you could set it up to have a coffee ready for you first thing in the morning. It even had wi-fi so the engineers who made it could do remote troubleshooting on it for you :p But what good is all that if the coffee is mediocre?
 
Gangster said:
Sorry if its been asked before, but how do you get that thickness in the coffee? I've got an Aeropress, Stove Top (not sure of the name) and it never comes out like a thick fluid... literally comes out as slightly thicker than water.

Doesn't taste 'proper' - I spent £100 on a coffee machine but that didn't really make it too well.. Wondering if the one in the OP or is this any good? "FrancisFrancis! X7.1 Coffee Maker"?

My £100 one broke, I compressed the coffee but the water/steam was coming out of the top rather than going through the coffee and been stuck with an aeropress since! Dont get me wrong, tastes better than Instant... but I'd like that proper 'thickness'.
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Anyone? :)
 
Gangster said:
Anyone? :)
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Not much chance of getting 'thick' coffee from an Aeropress.
With the stovetop, tamp the grounds slightly (not too much) - even though it's recommended you don't. Keep the heat of the stove fairly mediumish and let it take its time brewing. You should get a fairly full bodied coffee that way - at least I do.
 
manveruppd said:
Bean-to-cup machines have a reputation for being awful unfortunately... Plus they're usually "top end" models so they'll probably be more expensive than buying an entry level machine and grinder. All the ones I've seen were £400+, and you can do a lot better than that. Whittards once stocked one that was £990 and could be fully automated to start brewing different coffees at different times of the day, so you could set it up to have a coffee ready for you first thing in the morning. It even had wi-fi so the engineers who made it could do remote troubleshooting on it for you :p But what good is all that if the coffee is mediocre?
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AAh damn, really! :( I wanted to make it really easy with minimal cleaning to make a really nice coffee.....I saw a Delonghi machine for just £250 which seemed a good price with good reviews.

So you recommend a ground coffee machine such as Gaggia Classic and a separate grinder I guess?
 
Stan_Lite said:
Not much chance of getting 'thick' coffee from an Aeropress.
With the stovetop, tamp the grounds slightly (not too much) - even though it's recommended you don't. Keep the heat of the stove fairly mediumish and let it take its time brewing. You should get a fairly full bodied coffee that way - at least I do.
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I tamped my stove pot the other week, well at least I know the pressure release valve works now! :D
 
steinooo said:
AAh damn, really! :( I wanted to make it really easy with minimal cleaning to make a really nice coffee.....I saw a Delonghi machine for just £250 which seemed a good price with good reviews.

So you recommend a ground coffee machine such as Gaggia Classic and a separate grinder I guess?
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Ah, was it the Magnifica? That's apparently quite good for its price, heats up quickly and makes "decent" coffee, but it won't wow you.
I'm not sure how much hassle it actually saves you. Apparently it empties the used coffee out of its grounds holder automatically, but I'm dubious that it can clean itself properly.
Anyway, a decent grinder + Gaggia won't cost you more than £300 so I think it's worth it. If £250 is your absolute limit then you can save another £40 or so by skimping on the grinder (get a £60 Starbucks Barista instead of an Iberital or similar). It'll make better coffee, be more fun to play with and tbh the only extra work will be pouring the grounds into the portafilter and then tapping them out into the bin afterwards, not a huge deal.


Rojin said:
I tamped my stove pot the other week, well at least I know the pressure release valve works now! :D
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Been there, done that, haven't done it since - don't want my epitaph to read "impaled in the head by moka pot shrapnel" :p
 
manveruppd said:
Been there, done that, haven't done it since - don't want my epitaph to read "impaled in the head by moka pot shrapnel" :p
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Stan_Lite said:
:D

I've read stories about that so I'm careful not to tamp it too heavily - a light tamp seems to be fine.
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Well I say tamped, I'd only levelled it off a bit with my finger. I didn't think I had pushed it down that much! It was a really fine grind though so I don't think that helped either, oops!
 
So I have been in Zurich for a week now (on a 3 month secondment with work) and the general quality of coffee on sale is higher I would say than in the UK. Also found a place called La Stanza which does a genuinely great espresso, right up there with the likes of Prufrock I would say.

Nice touch in the office is there is a Nespresso machine in the kitchen. Now I know Nespresso is mediocre but compared to the rubbish vending machine we have in the UK offices it makes a nice change.
 
Clever dropper is a fantastic bit of kit and is currently my fave brew. Cup is somewhere half way between aero press and chemex; more body than chemex but cleaner than aero press.

Works extremely well with the Philter blend from hasbean. Like it lots!
 
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