Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

Whoever recommended Hasbean Jailbreak can I just say a big thank you - it's nectar in a cup!

I knew as soon as I unzipped the bag it was going to be a nice cup; a nutty oak undertone with a sweet lift, smooth, not even a hint of bitterness anywhere and after notes of very subtle velvety caramel. Seriously, if you've not tried it or perhaps think your espresso is too bitter, try this stuff it's just lovely!

Very happy and will be ordering more! :D
 
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I think several people recommended it.

Jailbreak is my goto for Hasbean espresso blends, the others just didn't do much for me.

I am currently working my way though about a kilo of Square Mile Winter Espresso - it's almost sticky toffee pudding in a cup - Yum.

This time of year is great for coffee flavours that I love. Caramel, chocolate and sweetness. :D
 
Flibster said:
I am currently working my way though about a kilo of Square Mile Winter Espresso - it's almost sticky toffee pudding in a cup - Yum.
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and with that simple sentence you've got me hitting the Square Mile site for some beans :)


NeverWinter said:
Anyone got any recommendations for coffee to use in a Moka Pot?
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What ever you like - it doesn't brew quite like an espresso so purely espresso blends may not shine as much as they could do - but really it won't make much difference. Just get the grind right & use boiling water in the bottom half. Cold water over-extracts the coffee :)
 
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So much good Coffee :D

Square Mile have a Bourbon single estate and of course the Winter Blend. Hasbean have Bolivia Finca Machacamarca De Berengula 2011 and Fazenda Cachoiera. I don't know what to order first.

Jailbreak (Mk 2) and Brazil Fazenda Sol Nascente Natural are tasting so good too.
 
E61 Grouphead said:
So much good Coffee :D

Square Mile have a Bourbon single estate and of course the Winter Blend. Hasbean have Bolivia Finca Machacamarca De Berengula 2011 and Fazenda Cachoiera. I don't know what to order first.

Jailbreak (Mk 2) and Brazil Fazenda Sol Nascente Natural are tasting so good too.
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Don't order any of the Machacamarca.

Stick with Cachoeira and the Square Mile Winter Espresso. ;)

If everyone buys the Machacamarca there won't be enough for me to have later in the year!
 
E61 Grouphead said:
So much good Coffee :D

Square Mile have a Bourbon single estate and of course the Winter Blend. Hasbean have Bolivia Finca Machacamarca De Berengula 2011 and Fazenda Cachoiera. I don't know what to order first.

Jailbreak (Mk 2) and Brazil Fazenda Sol Nascente Natural are tasting so good too.
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the Square mile Finca Bourbon Espresso is truely wonderful if you like bourbons. I ordered a pack of that yesterday as well to go with the winter espresso :)
 
Flibster, how are you brewing the Square Mile Winter Espresso? Just wondering if, being a darker roast, it would be OK in an Aeropress or if it needs a machine to bring out the flavours.
 
Hamster said:
Flibster, how are you brewing the Square Mile Winter Espresso? Just wondering if, being a darker roast, it would be OK in an Aeropress or if it needs a machine to bring out the flavours.
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Aeropress should be fine. Just because it says it's the winter espresso, doesn't mean it has to go through an espresso machine. Hasbeans christmas blends for instance, prefered the espresso blend as filter and the filter blend as espresso.

I've actually found it really good as espresso, but also enjoyed it in the V60 and the Clever Dripper. V60 @ 32g/500g ratio and the Clever @ 34g/500g ratio - so slightly updosed from my normal. Same extraction times though.
 
After starting out with the Brazil Fazenda Sol Nascente Natural (gorgeous) and my shiny new Aeropress, I'm now on some Jailbreak mk2 and Costa Rica Finca de Licho. Thought I'd try something different with the Costa Rica, and the jailbreak is lovely, although quite smoky? :)

My question is, when using my AP to make (white) Americanos, why shouldn't I just fill the AP all the way and press more water through the coffee? :confused: Rather than making a single espresso and topping it up. Surely the more water that goes through the coffee; the better? I'm sure it's to do with the technicalities of brewing, will it be 'over' brewed? Can someone please explain why I should or shouldn't stick to a single shot measure?
 
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Ordered some Machacamarca yesterday, hopefully it'll arrive tomorrow. It's my first bag of coffee since Christmas as I seemed to get distracted by Yorkshire Tea!
 
Scam said:
After starting out with the Brazil Fazenda Sol Nascente Natural (gorgeous) and my shiny new Aeropress, I'm now on some Jailbreak mk2 and Costa Rica Finca de Licho. Thought I'd try something different with the Costa Rica, and the jailbreak is lovely, although quite smoky? :)

My question is, when using my AP to make (white) Americanos, why shouldn't I just fill the AP all the way and press more water through the coffee? :confused: Rather than making a single espresso and topping it up. Surely the more water that goes through the coffee; the better? I'm sure it's to do with the technicalities of brewing, will it be 'over' brewed? Can someone please explain why I should or shouldn't stick to a single shot measure?
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I'm not sure but having used both of those methods extensively, and now having switched to the Hasbean method (an inverted method), I can tell you that I much prefer to brew the Hasbean way :)

Hasbean method: http://www.hasbean.co.uk/aeropress/AeropressGuidefinal.pdf

Try and get away from the milk if you can. You'll get more of the tasting descriptors without it :)

Flibster said:
Don't order any of the Machacamarca.

Stick with Cachoeira and the Square Mile Winter Espresso.

If everyone buys the Machacamarca there won't be enough for me to have later in the year!
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Oh oka... Wait a minute :p . Yes, on second thoughts, steer well clear of the mentioned Coffees. Terrible stuff ;) :p

Siliconslave said:
The Square mile Finca Bourbon Espresso is truely wonderful if you like bourbons. I ordered a pack of that yesterday as well to go with the winter espresso
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I do indeed. The Finca La Fany Bourbon was great :)

As much as I love my Andreja Espresso machine I'm still loving the Aeropress, and just recently the Espro Press plunge pot. I'm thinking about picking up a Hario Skerton, V60, and perhaps a Clever Dripper soon. The Hario Woodneck (with Cloth) also looks tempting.

If anyone here is just starting out in real Coffee (this very thread got me interested) then I would go for an Aeropress and another brew method or two before considering an Espresso machine. As much as I love my machine, I really don't want to be La Finca La Fannying around with it in the mornings :p . It seems I spend more time cleaning up and maintaining than I do drinking Coffee at times.
 
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Flibster said:
Aeropress should be fine. Just because it says it's the winter espresso, doesn't mean it has to go through an espresso machine. Hasbeans christmas blends for instance, prefered the espresso blend as filter and the filter blend as espresso.

I've actually found it really good as espresso, but also enjoyed it in the V60 and the Clever Dripper. V60 @ 32g/500g ratio and the Clever @ 34g/500g ratio - so slightly updosed from my normal. Same extraction times though.
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Thanks.....again Flibster :) I'll try the Winter Expresso when my latest Hasbean bag is finished.
 
Scam said:
My question is, when using my AP to make (white) Americanos, why shouldn't I just fill the AP all the way and press more water through the coffee? :confused: Rather than making a single espresso and topping it up. Surely the more water that goes through the coffee; the better? I'm sure it's to do with the technicalities of brewing, will it be 'over' brewed? Can someone please explain why I should or shouldn't stick to a single shot measure?
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If you put more water through to the same amount of coffee, you will overextract the grounds and end up with something very bitter. This is to be avoided.

Brew ratios for the aeropress seem to be around 17-19g coffee to 200g water. This is much higher than other brew methods, but produces some lovely coffee.


E61 Grouphead said:
Oh oka... Wait a minute :p . Yes, on second thoughts, steer well clear of the mentioned Coffees. Terrible stuff ;) :p
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Damn... :D

*edit* Just realised that I've gone through a whole bag of Machacamarca in 3 days purely as espresso - no wonder I've been wired...
 
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So, I've been enjoying fairly decent espressos and filter coffee for about 2.5 years with my quite average machine (DeLonghi BCO255) but it's dreadfully prone to leaking everywhere. I mean, all over the counter, floor etc. It's just got worse, and the filter boiler seems to be sucking in a lot of air too, so I'm thinking limescale/loose pipe is the problem, though it was fully descaled not long ago.

My question is - does anyone have any experience of this machine (or indeed similar) and is it likely to be easy enough to fix? Secondly, if it's not, what should I replace it with? I got this machine new on sale, was around £100 but managed £35 as it was EOL and with a bit of a discount :). So, budget is between those figures I'd say, being reasonable here. I'd love to have cash to burn on a £300+ machine, but I just don't right now.
 
Was in Dublin on Thursday and went to Third Floor Espresso. Can't remember the beans we tried (lots of drinking was subsequently done) but it was bloody fantastic. I've always been a fan of coffee, but wasn't aware that it could taste that good.
We also got a free jug of a tea made from the coffee cherry. That was also very good, and a nice contrast to the espresso before.
Bloody fantastic!
 
Hi guys,

I am making my first venture into decent coffee after a couple of trips to Italy in the past year. To start me off I have just had a shiny new Moka pot delivered and just to begin with I am experimenting with supermarket ground stuff until I get my method right so I don't worry about making trial pots and chucking most of it away after a taster.

I don't have a grinder yet so am looking to get some Hasbean ground coffee when my current stock runs out.

Can anyone recommend the best ready grind type from Hasbean (I.e. Espresso, filter etc) for using in a Moka?

Thanks,
Paul.
 
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Ahleckz said:
Was in Dublin on Thursday and went to Third Floor Espresso. Can't remember the beans we tried (lots of drinking was subsequently done) but it was bloody fantastic. I've always been a fan of coffee, but wasn't aware that it could taste that good.
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Excellent. :D

Ahleckz said:
We also got a free jug of a tea made from the coffee cherry. That was also very good, and a nice contrast to the espresso before.
Bloody fantastic!
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Cascara - Highly caffinated. ;) Really nice if made cold with carbonated water - really refreshing.
http://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/El-Salvador-La-Iluson-Cascara.html
Brew guide - http://blip.tv/play/hpwJgfvodQA.m4v
 
That's the one Flibster, it was fantastic. I've been wanting a decent coffee machine for a while, but can't afford them. Going to get my hands on an Aeropress shortly though. Bit closer to my budget.
 
I just though I would share my two favourite Aeropress methods. I've found it quite difficult with methods requiring a long brew time, possibly because my grinder doesn't do the best job for a coarser grind. Neither of these are my idea but they definitely produce the best cups of all the methods I have tried and they have both won awards in Aeropress championships. They produce a very clean cup without bitterness or smokiness.

I'm using a Hario Skerton hand grinder and the grind I use for both methods is finer than espresso (takes around 90-95 turns with the Skerton to fully grind 17g)

1) Kanji's Method
Firstly, Kanji's method from the Tokyo Aeropress championships (I use water at around 85C instead of 90-95 shown in the youtube video)

??Grind 17g of coffee for just paper filter coffee.
??Soak and rinse for filter. After that, attach filter and caps for chamber.
??Put in coffee and pour hot water(sooner after boiling) until No.?. It takes 13-15sec.
??Stir for 10sec.
??Coffee go down around No.? because Brew from filter by itself.(this method is not upside down) Therefore, add once more hot water until No.?
??Press and serve.

(edit-The above was copied and pasted from the following website. I'm sure the translator's English is better than my Japanese though ;))
http://worldaeropresschampionship.wordpress.com/

And a video:


2) Marie Hagemeister’s Method
The second method is Marie Hagemeister’s method which I now just prefer over Kanji's. It produces a similar clean cup with more body and flavour.

1. Boil the water (so it is 80 degrees when you pour it over the coffee)
2. Grind the coffee, slightly finer than filter grind (20 grams)
3. Aeropress upside down and soak the filter paper with hot water
4. Put in the coffee and pour the 80 degrees water over it, almost to the top.
5. Stir for 10-12 seconds
6. Heat the cup, and then slowly push the coffee in the cup – stop before you hear the air.
7. Serve

http://sprudge.com/aeropress-champion-marie-hagemeisters-winning-brew-method.html
 
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