Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

San Fermin when made into Americano and added with milk, taste nothing like coffee, it disappears completely, it is very mellow. In an espresso it is very fruity and strong berry flavour.
 
Street said:
Can any one recommend a budget grinder for me? ...
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MC2 is useless if you want more than one type of coffee - moving from espresso to filter is nigh on impossible. The sage isn't too bad generally - theres someone on the UK coffee forums who keeps trying to sell a Lelit Fred which is apparently not too bad (and very well built) for £120

Last order from Origin i had the resolute & i'm not sure if they accidentally gave me decaf, didn't taste like decaf but got none of the caffeine effect of other coffee from it :confused:

I'm onto some stuff from a little local Norwhich roastery now - Smokey Barn El Salvador El Molinito. They tend to come in a bit heavily roasted but some lovely background fruits and chocolates, couldn't be much different from the Origin tbh.
 
Siliconslave said:
MC2 is useless if you want more than one type of coffee - moving from espresso to filter is nigh on impossible.
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I very much doubt I would in work. I've only got an Aeropress in here so that's all I drink. If I bought a new espresso machine for home, I'd bring mine into the office, but I can't see that happening for a while so the MC2 might do the job for me. I'll check out the Fred though.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
Buckled under the imaginary peer pressure in this thread and ordered some coffee from Origin. Stronghold's (a blend) tasting notes caught my attention and it's really quite nice. It's super mellow compared to what I usually like (single origins tend to have more body IME) but so so silky. Next time I'm going to try Das Almas or just copy you lot and order some San Fermin. :)
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I really like the Stronghold in an oatmilk cappucino.

San Fermin...it's ok, doesn't really grab me. Das Almas has a really noticable toasted peanut flavour that I quite like in a filter.

The Neighbourhood Coffee espresso blends have trumped Origin for me, I really like the strong fruit notes coming through. The speciality blend and it's blackberry twang are lovely. Need to try some more of their beans next order.
 
Street said:
Can any one recommend a budget grinder for me
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I got the MC2 as my first electric grinder last month after much deliberation. I found the review from Kev at UK Coffee Blog quite useful, he's had the Sage for a few years as his daily driver so does a good comparison.

I've had no problems with the main issues I saw mentioned online (time taken to dial-in and noise) but it does retain a LOT. I have to tip it every which way and whack it a fair few times to get my dose out. So for a quick clean grind in the workplace (fnarr) the Sage may be better.

I get the impression the next tier of quality is at least twice the price. In hindsight for home use I'd probably go with a Mignon, but for a second unit or keeping under £200 would stick with the MC2.
 
I went from the MC2 to the Niche, honestly, I think it is totally worth it. Unless there is another grinder that i can change grind settings that easily which I don't know about and retain less than 1g.

Should have backed it when it was £300, at £500 it is still worth it and it's end of the grinder search for life.
 
Siliconslave said:
Hindsight and all, given the spectacular failure of several high profile coffee kickstarters £300 seemed a hell of a punt at the time unfortunately.
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True, but now I am thinking I could get all the similar grinder under £500, it seems most of them have something I don't like, and even the Niche isn't perfect, but for what it does, it's fantastic. It does deliver what it sets out to do. A easy to use, single dose, zero (low) retention grinder that looks good in the kitchen that takes up little space. I thought had I gone up to £200, or £300 grinder I will eventually end up to the Niche or something around the value of the Niche, I dislike losing money in upgrading so might as well go all in, then the only money "lost" is the £110 i spent on the MC2 from 13 years ago, after that long, it owns me nothing.
 
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its odd - theres no commercial single dose grinder really, but that a factor of the volumes going through coffee shops, your beans aren't sat out for weeks at a time before there ground (or shouldn't be)

Home (bur) grinders were/are just scaled down & compromised commercial machines.

Hobbyists then built crazy machined edifices to encompass commercial burrs and essentially introduced single dosing (see the monolith & HG-1 grinders)

Niche then tried to make that affordable and created their own, well, niche - mainstream manufactures don't even seem to be starting to get into it yet...
 
single dosing,you do get problems with the grind uniformity, without the weight of the upcoming beans + pop-corning, albeit, less concerning,
that Niche site independant review discusses that a lot
... did wonder if I should stop single dosing, but, I'd then have to dose the pf, sitting on scales ?
 
jpaul said:
single dosing,you do get problems with the grind uniformity, without the weight of the upcoming beans + pop-corning, albeit, less concerning,
that Niche site independant review discusses that a lot
... did wonder if I should stop single dosing, but, I'd then have to dose the pf, sitting on scales ?
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That's why they put the disc in, to remove the popcorning, and it works, mostly.
 
jpaul said:
single dosing,you do get problems with the grind uniformity, without the weight of the upcoming beans + pop-corning, albeit, less concerning,
that Niche site independant review discusses that a lot
... did wonder if I should stop single dosing, but, I'd then have to dose the pf, sitting on scales ?
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They seem to have fixed that with the disc to limit the popcorning that also regulates the flow into the burrs, making it have a more consistent weight behind the beans going into the burrs.
 
Siliconslave said:
its odd - theres no commercial single dose grinder really, but that a factor of the volumes going through coffee shops, your beans aren't sat out for weeks at a time before there ground (or shouldn't be)

Home (bur) grinders were/are just scaled down & compromised commercial machines.

Hobbyists then built crazy machined edifices to encompass commercial burrs and essentially introduced single dosing (see the monolith & HG-1 grinders)

Niche then tried to make that affordable and created their own, well, niche - mainstream manufactures don't even seem to be starting to get into it yet...
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the bit about commercial burrs and single dosing re HG-1. This is why I love the Niche, as it essentially does that by having a Mazzer Kony burr in it, from a £1200 grinder. The HG-1 does have a 83mm burr but manual grinding is not for me, not sure it requires that size burr when manual grinding anyway as surely there won’t be enough heat generated in the first place.
 
returning a full basket, before tamping, into a sprung pf's, not a bit delicate ?
- the occassional time, I eject the basket, with the puck, into the grinds bin, they can be a bit hot to recover too.
I have to engage the basket too, first where the break in the spring wire is, otherwise the spring wire can be pushed out
 
I"ve never had any of those issues, I just have my palm across the edge of the basket and push down.
Never had a basket come out, or have to do anything with the spring when inserting with either of my pf's

is your basket the correct size for the pf you have?
 
Surely when you seat the basket, now tampered with grind, the motion of it pushing it in and clicking to the wire causes vibration which could loosen then grind?
 
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