Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

Wow. I called 2 of the top 3 positions correctly. :eek:

Anyway, in reverse order.

6th - John Gordon, UNITED KINGDOM
5th - Miki Suzuki, JAPAN
4th - Javier Garcia, SPAIN
3rd - Matt Perger, AUSTRALIA
2nd - Pete Licata, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

2011 World Barista Champion
Alejandro Mendez, EL SALVADOR

First WBC in a producing country, and we get a WBC from a producing country, using coffee from his country. :D Storming performance and was so engaging. Wonderful. Was also using Hasbean coffee, so Steve may be a touch worse for wear tomorrow.

It's now officially party O'Clock in Bogota! :D

*edit* My top 3 were, 1) Alejandro, 2) Miki, 3) Matt
 
I thought it was ridiculously brave of Suzuki to just make an iced americano as her signature drink. She must've had IMMENSE confidence in her blend! How bizarre was John Gordon's drink though, with the hop bitters and the grape juice in it! Would have loved to taste that...

I also found it hillarious that half the finalists sported the shaved head and thick chin-beard look - guess too much caffeine accelerates hair loss? :p
 
There was some honey *iirc* added to it after the initial sip, so it wasn't just iced americano. But it was indeed brave, especially after some of the comments that Colin Harmon got last year for his sig drink at the WBC.

1 set of shots with soft water added - increased the floral tastes in the coffee.
1 set of shots with hard water added - increased the sweetness in the coffee.

Got one comment that was "Isn't this just an americano" Judge didn't understand it at all. IIRC got a couple of high marks and a couple of low marks. That shouldn't happen, head judge should have banged heads together for that one.
 
Well, it's whether the judge expects you to just do creative mixology or to use it as an opportunity to show how well you know your coffee blend. I think it should be a bit of a combination of the two with an emphasis on the former (just cause it seems a lot more fun tbh), but I don't think it's defined anywhere so you can't really blame a judge for only accepting one definition over the other.
 
The rulebook says about sig drinks:
2.2.3 Signature Beverage
A. A signature beverage is a freestyle espresso-based beverage created by the competitor.
B. It should be a beverage; the judges must be able to drink it.
C. Each of the four signature beverages must contain a minimum of one espresso shot.
D. The espresso must be prepared during the competitor’s performance time.
E. A dominant taste of espresso must be present.
F. The signature beverage can be any temperature.
G. Any ingredients may be used in the signature beverage with the exception of alcohol, alcohol extracts or by-products, or illegal substances.
H. The components of the signature drink should preferably be produced during the competition, i.e., the signature beverage ingredients should be assembled on-site during the competition time.
I. All ingredients must be disclosed upon request. Competitors must bring the original bottles and/or packaging of all ingredients used in his/her signature beverage.
J. No ingredients or substances other than ground coffee may be placed in the portafilters.
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Part E is the one that interests me most. Some of the sig drinks I've seen have so little espresso in by volume I'd be surprised if you can taste it at all.

Alejandros sig drink was amazing because it was 100% coffee. Coffee flower tea, cascara tea, the muslage reduction and espresso. That was just plain cool. :D

Most of my ideas are along the lines of Alejandros rather than some of the other who add all sorts of things to it. I'm a big fan of "Keep It Simple, Stupid" ;)
 
Flibster said:
Part E is the one that interests me most. Some of the sig drinks I've seen have so little espresso in by volume I'd be surprised if you can taste it at all.
Click to expand...
True, but you can get around that by choosing stuff that complements the taste of the espresso, so you can still taste it through the other stuff, or at least so you can THINK you can still taste it! ;) Besides, they're obviously not enforcing that bit too strictly cause then even Alejandro's drink wouldn't have passed - 2 different types of tea plus the cherry pulp reduction? There's no way there'd be more than a hint of espresso coming through all that! :D
 
So as my obsession with coffee progress I feel it is probably time now to look at getting myself a better grinder.

As much as I love my little porlex grinder I feel that it is not giving me a consistent enough grind to use in the chemex.

Although i am loving the filter coffee I wonder if I am missing something by not having espresso's.

So what sould I be looking at next should I look for a decent grinder or should I go for an espresso machine.

So that then leads me to what units should I be looking at.

I know this really depends on budget which I haven't though of yet but what would be a good first entry into the electric grinder or espresso machine.

For the grinder I was looking at something like the Baratza Maestro plus/ virtuoso be a better buy. Having said that if I was looking at the virtuoso would the Rancilio Rocky be a better buy for long term?

As for espresso machines not really sure what I should be looking at. I guess like with everything the more you spend to point the better. As much as I would love one of the more expensive units and some of the dream units which are just simply out of my price range what would be a good buy. Is better to get it new or look for a decent quality second hand one? Thanks in advance for any help.
 
If you are enjoying the various types of filter coffee, there's no reason to go to espresso.

Any of the grinders you mention are good home grinders. Next step up is pretty expensive.

Espresso machines - £200 will get you a gaggia classic. Over that is the Rancillio Silvia which is a pretty good home machine. I'm looking at getting the Fracino Piccino for my next machine. Proper dual boiler machine for home use.
 
Also noticed that the prices of the Gaggia Classic had come down. The main issue that prevents me from buying one is the single boiler which limits the speed at which you can make multiple milk based drinks. After I've got over the amount I'm spending on my new PC, a nice dual boiler machine is definitely on the cards and the Fracino seems very good. Hopefully some reviews will crop up of this Italian sounding machine made in Birmingham :D
 
well have been looking into the maestro plus and the viruoso for the sake of some commercial grade burrs and a metal top I don't see it really giving me (an average home user) the extra that I need. Is it really worth the extra £30 or so over the maestro plus.

I think I may get the maestro plus as have seen it at A1 coffee for £114 + free delivery which does seem to be the cheapest by far. Just wondering if anyone has used them at all before I take the plunge.

As for espresso machine I think i will hold off for now. I just think some of the beans that I have ordered in the past would probably be better as an espresso rather than a black filter coffee. This again could be down to not finding the right grind level which has been so difficult with the porlex.
 
I only knew because I looked at some of their prices a couple of weeks ago. Personally I find it really annoying that some retailers make you go right through registering with their website and into the checkout process until you realise that there's VAT still to pay. They really should be up front and put 'ex VAT' and include the 'inc VAT' price on the product pages.
 
I'm about to place another order from Hasbean, need a coffee that I can use for both espresso and filter, but I fancy something different, something that tastes a bit unique and I haven't had before this time. Anyone got any suggestions? I'm tempted by either this honey-processed coffee here or by last week's In My Mug entry, which apparently has quite a malty flavour. Anyone got any other suggestions?
 
Quink said:
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 :)
Click to expand...

/edit - I've also now tried and liked the Ethiopian Agawa
Anyone :o
 
OK, I finally caved in and bought the £20 vacuum pot from ebay, and I need some advice from the syphon-meisters in here!

Used it twice, once last night and once today. Last night I was terrified of cracking it by heating too suddenly, or blowing the whole thing sky-high (blame this dude whose brewing guide I followed, he says that if the water in the bottom bulb gets too hot it might explode). Miraculously none of that happened, everything went well and the coffee tasted ok. (For what it was - I had used cheap Sainsburys coffee to practice with cause I didn't want to ruin the good stuff!:p)

Used it again about an hour ago, and even though I did everything the same way or at least thought I did it couldn't have gone more wrong!
Firstly, as soon as half the water from the bottom bulb rose to the top, it would fall again. Took a couple of efforts for me to realize that it was because the bubbling was forcing the rubber seal between the two open and the pressure was being let out. So I pressed the top bulb down tighter (against the Intelligentsia guy's advice in the video), and third time I managed to get the water to stay up. Added the grounds, stirred, waited 45" or so, stirred again, removed the heat, and it started dropping, except for one thing: the pressure of the rising water had dislodged the filter, and the grounds were falling through along with the coffee! Ended up with half a litre of mud essentially.

Now, I don't know what went wrong. My first thought was maybe I had overheated the water before sealing the top bulb into place, and hence the pressure of it rising too forcefully dislodged the filter. So you know, in the interests of science I had to test it out! :p Since I hadn't used a thermometer during the brewing I couldn't know it for sure (got a digital probe somewhere, but I can't find part of it!), so I decided to taste the coffee instead! I know the taste of overbrewed/boiled coffee VERY well, so I decided my mouth is a more reliable sensor than any thermometer! :p So I filter the muddy gunk through my Aeropress and have a sip, and nope, surprisingly enough it kinda tastes allright! Don't know if it's as good as it was meant to be (I was using different beans than I used yesterday, the last of a bag of Zamorana I bought from Hasbean last week, so I don't know what it's supposed to taste like with this particular brew method done perfectly), but it didn't taste as if it had been boiled.

So now I don't know, it doesn't seem like the water was too hot, so I have no idea what I did wrong anymore! Can anyone make any suggestions?
 
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