Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

manveruppd said:
If you want to spend more than £3/pack, order some freshly-roasted beans online: it'll have been roasted within a day or two of it getting mailed off to you, and the freshness alone puts it on a whole different league than any store-bought coffee. Try Hasbean's Jailbreak, it's (relatively) cheap and cheerful and works amazingly in a stove-top.
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I've read that freshly roasted beans aren't the best, and should be left a week or two to 'settle down' and for the gases released in the roasting stage to disperse.
Does anyone here do any home roasting?
 
Thought you guys would love this, Cory Doctorow waxing rabidly overenthusiastic about cold brew!:D
http://boingboing.net/2011/11/14/howto-attain-radical-hotel-roo.html

@Ahleckz: yeah it's true for a lot of coffees (not sure if for all), beans that are too fresh smell kinda fishy to me. They're at their best a couple of days after roasting. But supermarket beans haven't been roasted days ago, they've been in those bags for several months! If you order freshly-roasted stuff they'll usually be fine by the time they get to you.
 
can someone point me in the direction of a good quality small burr grinder please? im thinking of spending ~£30 give or take a bit
i want to start grinding fresh beans to use in my stove top pot before i splash out and get an espresso maker like the Gaggia

Edit: these ones seems about right.. http://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/Hario-Mini-Mill-Slim-Plastic-Coffee-Grinder.html and http://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/Porlex-Ceramic-Burr-Coffee-Grinder.html
any comments? im thinking the clear one would be nicer to use
 
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I'm gonna be awkward and say an old Zassenhaus hand grinder from ebay would be a better buy at that price. They're excellent quality grinders, especially if you go for the older models with the stepless adjustment, and you get the satisfaction of owning something really old as a bonus! :) Mine looks vaguely like the one you get if you search for item number 140633223184 on the 'bay (not sure if it's identical but it seems pretty similar), and I was using it for years quite happily. Only went electric cause of the time I was wasting grinding, not because I wasn't happy with the quality.

I'm sure those Hasbean ones will work just fine too of course.
 
I've been using the porlex for close to a year now and it is perfectly fine for my needs. Can be a little tricky to get dialed in to the right grind after a clean but I find it is fine for the chemex.

Although after months of deliberation I am finally getting the Rancillo rocky grinder. I weighted up all the pro's and con's of all the grinders in this sort of price range and felt this was a good starting point for a quality grinder. I personally wanted a grinder that will be excellent for filter coffee but will be decent enough for espresso when I eventually decide to go that route. Plus it will save me a lot of time grinding with the porlex. I've also noticed that this seems to be a fav for many first time buyers venturing into this level of coffee obsession.

Also what are people's thoughts on the eva solo? Seems like an interesting brewing method and was wondering what sort of results people are getting with it. As I have said usually have a chemex but would like to try out some other methods.
 
thanks dave, looks like il be taking the plunge and getting one in the next week or two
that rocky grinder is a bit rich for me though, looks good mind :)

edit, any thoughts on this electric one? Krups Expert, GVX231, Burr Coffee Grinder, at the rainforest place for £32.95 delivered. the reviews look quite mixed but maybe the people giving 1 or 2 stars just aint doing it right :p
 
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Quick headsup for anyone in London this weekend.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday is the Tea And Coffee Festival at the Southbank Centre in London.

For more info: http://www.teacoffeefestival.com/

I'll be there friday and will be wandering around London too. Need to drop in at St. Ali and Prufrock - I need more Coffee. :D
 
How was the festival? I wanted to go but had visitors this weekend and they're only interested in PG Tips :D

Anyone try the Costa Rica Zarcero Honey Process featured in last week's In My Mug? Lovely brew and the sticky sweetness reminds me of last year's Squaremile's summer espresso. Great as Americano with the Aeropress but totally ruined in milk. Definitely ordering some more next time.
 
Haven't tried last weeks yet have been working my way through a bit of a back log of in my mug coffee's

I think this means I need to drink more :p

I will be hopefully getting some coffee from both stumptown and handsomeroasters this week. The stumptown is a going to be the house blend that is used in 1ShotCoffee in Philadelphia. This should be exciting as I don't know whats in it or how it should taste I am blind tasting it.

The Handsome coffee hopefully will be interesting and again not sure what I am getting but should be interesting none the less.

Also currently in the process of planning my next london trip so will hopefully get to go to some places that I didn't manage to last time I was down.
 
well only got one bag of coffee today from my mate as he didn't manage to go to New York to pick up the handsomeroasters bag for me.

So I have got a bag of the house blend from 1ShotCoffee in Phillie and have to say it is really nice.

Initial tasting seems to provide a nutty flavour with a deep but warm chocolately flavour.

This is also a hint of floral undertones as it cools and some fruit in there tasted a little orange but need to sample another cup to make sure that was in there and it wasn't my mind playing tricks. But highly recommended.

Shame it is only available in phillie but hopefully the barista Melissa will be in the UK so will try to convince her to bring some over for me. :p

Unfortunately they don't say what the blend is other than some latin american and some east african but I swear there is some bourbon in there or at least elements of it taste similiar to the recent el salvador's from in my mug.
 
I'm in London this weekend visiting a friend who is getting quite into coffee - any advice on a couple of places to go for a great espresso and/or ristretto please? Wouldn't mind trying one made with a siphon too for the theatre of it as much as anything!
 
Popped into Monmouth on Borough Market for a cappuccino this morning. It was good but I'm popping back to the Market to order some Christmas food this afternoon and think I'll give the filter a try this time.
 
Dunno if its cheating a bit using the pod coffee makers but a few of the Nescafe Dolce Gusto models are coming down in price.

The smaller version is £49 in Tesco and theres a bigger version in Comet for £49

Does anyone here have one of these? How do you rate them? Got any good places to buy the pods?

It looks as though there are more pods available in the US than the UK too :\
 
FINALLY got my Joulies as well, they took their good sweet time getting here!

They're way bigger than I expected, I think 3 of them in a mug would severely reduce my coffee intake! :) Took a photo of them next to my mouse and some real coffee beans for easy comparison here:

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Sorry about my mouse getting overexcited, it really liked its new mouse-shaped friends. But anyway they do seem to be doing the job, one day when i'm not feeling lazy I'll use my thermometer and do some proper experiments, see how long a mug of water will stay warm with 0, 1 and 2 Joulies in it.

I'm a little apprehensive about having something metallic in an acidic drink though. Especially if the stuff inside somehow leaks out.


Vanquish-Storm said:
Dunno if its cheating a bit using the pod coffee makers but a few of the Nescafe Dolce Gusto models are coming down in price.

The smaller version is £49 in Tesco and theres a bigger version in Comet for £49

Does anyone here have one of these? How do you rate them? Got any good places to buy the pods?
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My sister has one, tried it, didn't like it. Coffee's flat and stale (no wonder since it's probably been sitting in those pods for months). VERY quick and hassle-free machines though, take seconds and need almost no cleaning.
Don't be fooled by the low price, they gouge you on pods apparently. The good ol' HP inkjet printer method. I did read that there's a sizable side-industry of other companies making coffee pods for Nespresso machines about a year ago (some selling them for way less than Nestle, others using better coffee, single origin beans etc), but last I heard Nestle were moving against them legally, trying to shut them down.
 
Thanks again for the cafe recommendations. Went to Flat white and had one of the best espressos I have ever tasted - it was an absolute revelation, a wonderful little sharp note, very deep flavour but the eye-opener was an incredible sweetness that I have never known ot be so intense in a coffee. Great stuff! Had a flat white as well as it seemed appropriate, and it was nice, but I'm really not a fan of milk in coffee so can't comment too much, but my cappuccino loving friend was very complimentary about it. Went to St Ali as well, had another very good espresso and a Guatamalan coffee (can't remember the name of the bean) done in an aeropress that was also extremely good. Really nice barrista in there as well who I was chatting to as we sat at the bar, and very impressively precise way of making all the coffees - worth it for the theatre as well as the coffee, and the food was great as well.

Didn't make it to Purfrock as it closes at 4 on a Saturday, and an attempt to go to Monmouth was abandoned as the queue was stretching right out the door.

I can see this becoming a regular thing when I go to London, just need to do a bit of searching in Bath/Bristol now.
 
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