Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

A couple of pages back I asked about the Rancilio steam arm for my Gaggia classic.
Happy donkey want £38 for one, however I've just fitted mine from Here
£20 delivered;)
It certainly makes a difference!
 
I've really been enjoying the Raja Batak coffee - full flavoured and really tasty. I find a lot of the specialist beans have an overpowering (imo) nasty 'stewed tea' over bearing taste (some of which can be eliminated by tweaking the temp) , but the Raja beans much less so.

What other beans would be recommended?

Espresso machine and own grinder :)

Many thanks :)
 
Vanquish-Storm said:
Thanks, I was looking at Russell Hobs :confused:
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Avoid the cheap drip filter brewers.

Coffee is brewed at the worng temperature- tastes rank
Electric hot plate on these brewers turns your good Coffee to filthy tar in minutes.

Cheapest, easiest (imo) quality Coffee is:

Hasbean beans
Porlex Hand Grinder
Aeropress

I have yet to try the V60 or others that Flibb recommended though :)
 
Vanquish-Storm said:
Can anybody suggest a coffee machine for around £35?? Doesnt have to grind as i have a grinder already.
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Just to throw another one in, on a budget I would go for an Abid Clever Dripper (£15-20) with which you can use cheap Melitta filters from the supermarket (£1 for 40). Very hard to get bad results with it as long as you follow a few simple steps.

Also you must use good freshly roasted beans with any method such as you get from Hasbean as E61 suggests. They roast the coffee on the day they send it to you and can't really get much fresher than ready roasted. Squaremile are good too. Avoid supermarket beans; you can't polish a turd as they say. As for grinder, a burr grinder is much preferred over a blade grinder.

Check out the following site for guides on brew methods and techniques:
www.brewmethods.com


If you're thinking espresso machine for £35, improbable unless you get an absolute bargain second hand. Also E61 states good reasons not to get a perculator!
 
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I decided cleaned the case and cup warming plate on my Silvia last night.

Looking around for the best method to clean the brushed steel I came across a US forum and they recommended a product called Windex (for cleaning windows).

We have some Mr Muscle glass cleaner here so I gave it a go and my machine looks pristine now, as good as new!

I even rubbed out some light scratches using a sponge scouring pad and being careful to go with the grain of the brushed steel.

Couldn't see this mentioned in this thread so I hope it's of use to people.
 
davetherave2 said:
Round one of WBC live at the moment.
http://www.livestream.com/worldbaristachampionshiplive

Have only just started watching and just amazed at how skilled some of these people are. They really have taken coffee to a whole new level.
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I completely forgot to mention the WBC yesterday. 2nd day is now on.

Monika rocked, but was sadly 68 seconds over time.

Wanted to go, but costs of going to Bogota were a touch high. :(

UKBC John Gordon should be on at 20:15. That is, if they are running on time, which is highly unlikely. :D
 
WBC 2011 Semi finalists are:

Javier Garcia, SPAIN
Jose de la Pena, GUATEMALA
HyunSun Choi, KOREA
Miki Suzuki, JAPAN
Lina Zea, COLOMBIA
Matt Perger, AUSTRALIA
Alejandro Mendez, EL SALVADOR
Pete Licata, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
John Gordon, UNITED KINGDOM
Stefanos Domatiotis, GREECE
Yakup Aydin, NETHERLANDS
Ricardo Azofeifa Mora, COSTA RICA

First competitor up at 11:15 am local time - works out to be 17:15pm UK time.

Stream online may well start before then.
 
Just grabbed the Porlex grinder to accompany my Aeropress (kitchen isn't big enough for a proper coffee machine). Wanted some decent beans to test out the improvement from grinding so opted for some Monsoon Malabar, which I figured was a classic and had decent ratings on the site (all of this is from Hasbean).

I was happy with the grinder but I found the beans to be a little flat and blunt tasting. I enjoy fairly intense, rich italian-esque coffee - could anyone recommend any beans that fit that description?

Thanks in advance.
 
Jolteh said:
Just grabbed the Porlex grinder to accompany my Aeropress (kitchen isn't big enough for a proper coffee machine). Wanted some decent beans to test out the improvement from grinding so opted for some Monsoon Malabar, which I figured was a classic and had decent ratings on the site (all of this is from Hasbean).

I was happy with the grinder but I found the beans to be a little flat and blunt tasting. I enjoy fairly intense, rich italian-esque coffee - could anyone recommend any beans that fit that description?

Thanks in advance.
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Monsoon Malabar is a real funky coffee. It's a definate love or hate one.

I'd try:

El Salvador La Ilusion
Bolivia Finca Machacamarca de Berenguela Peaberry
Australia Skyberry
Could also try the 4 bean blend.

Anyway - #WBC2011 is going on now.

Spain has done his performance. Australia is up at the moment.

Unfortunatly, they seem to have a chimp operating the soundboard. Music so high we can't hear the competitor. Or hearing other competitors who are preparing over the top of the current one...
 
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John Gordon now up.

James Hoffman *his boss* is one of the MC's today and he's looking nervous as hell. He normally goes and hides when one of his friends competes. Don't think he can get away with it now. ;)
 
Thanks for the heads-up, I caught the last few minutes. Did you catch what else was in that blueberry/espresso cocktail Yakab made? It looked scrumptious!

EDIT: is there a mixology aspect to the UK championship as well?
 
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manveruppd said:
Thanks for the heads-up, I caught the last few minutes. Did you catch what else was in that blueberry/espresso cocktail Yakab made? It looked scrumptious!

EDIT: is there a mixology aspect to the UK championship as well?
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I think it was raspberry something. Did sound good though.

My favourite competitor performance from today was Yakup from the Netherlands. Amazingly good performance.

Most interesting sig drink had the espresso base, then a cascara tea and a coffee flower tea. Sounded beautiful. That was done by Alejandro Mendez from El Salvador.

Good chance of a producing country going through to the final as well. El Salvador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Australia.

What do you mean by mixology?
 
I actually meant those signature drinks - they are basically non-alcoholic cocktails most of them, so it counts as mixology in my book! :)

Did you watch the whole thing? I was in and out of the room the past few hours so missed a lot. I'm curious, did anyone make a cold/iced signature drink? Or did they all stick to warm stuff? A lot of cascara-based signature drinks, seems to be getting popular.
 
manveruppd said:
I actually meant those signature drinks - they are basically non-alcoholic cocktails most of them, so it counts as mixology in my book! :)

Did you watch the whole thing? I was in and out of the room the past few hours so missed a lot. I'm curious, did anyone make a cold/iced signature drink? Or did they all stick to warm stuff? A lot of cascara-based signature drinks, seems to be getting popular.
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I've watched the lot today. Will do tomorrow as well.

The sig drink can be anything, as long as no alcohol is involved, each sig drink contains a minimum of a shot of espresso and that coffee is the primary flavour.

There is another competition that can use alcohol - Coffee in good spirits.

There was a few iced drinks over the last couple of days, it comes and goes in waves. Cascara is definately becoming popular at the moment.


Finalists being announced now!
 
So, the 6 finalists are:

Matt Perger, AUSTRALIA
Miki Suzuki, JAPAN
John Gordon, UNITED KINGDOM
Pete Licata, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Javier Garcia, SPAIN
Alejandro Mendez, EL SALVADOR

The fun and games start at 18:15 tomorrow.
 
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Hot damn! Was the Greek guy actually brewing the coffee IN SYRUP instead of water??? That's amazing! I really wish I could taste that!

He didn't say what kind of berries he added to the Ethiopean coffee though. It looked like liquid though, so probably a berry-flavoured syrup rather than actual fruit.

EDIT: Gotta say that adding the coriander didn't surprise me that much, I sometimes add a pinch of spices when I make Greek coffee. I found a nice packet of spices that mixes cinnamon, cardamon, coriander and cloves, that does very nicely. Just the tiniest pinch is enough though.
 
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