Soldato
FYI, I found I got the best grind with the Zass when the burrs are just touching and making a *healthy* metal to metal noise. Being uber metal it doesn't damage the burrs at all so I've read.
Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread
- Thread starter Siliconslave
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FYI, I found I got the best grind with the Zass when the burrs are just touching and making a *healthy* metal to metal noise. Being uber metal it doesn't damage the burrs at all so I've read.
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Zass 190 burr grinder
The Zass arrived from germany on tuesday and was in perfect working order and clean as a whistle. It was purchased on ebay for £23 plus postage and took a week to arrive.
This is my first grinder and the first time grinding my own beans
the grinder is quite dinky - smaller than i imagined but superbly sized for my requirements max 2-4 cups a day.
After running a couple of test grinds through it the action felt superb with the burrs rubbing tight together to produce a fine grind.
Enter hasbean toba sulawasi - my first purchase of freshly roasted coffee beans
I slowly grind 15g (one aerobie scoop) in approx 40seconds wow the kitchen (in fact the whole house) is immersed in the most gourgeous aroma.
At the moment I am only using an aerobie aeropress to produce black americano style coffee. It is difficult to give a proper review of the toba sulewasi as i only have brought prepacked before.
My first cup was very fragrant, very strong, bold and rich with loads of body...an almost overwhelming experience. I have since reduced the amount of grind per cup down to approx 8g per cup (almost half the size of the aerobie single scoop)which I am happier with for black americano and resulting in a beautifully fragrant, pleasant smooth tasting coffee with lots of body.
I've chucked my old filter coffee out into the compost bin and look forward to sampling many different types of freshly roasted coffee beans
After my experience I am never going back to pre-packed
The Zass arrived from germany on tuesday and was in perfect working order and clean as a whistle. It was purchased on ebay for £23 plus postage and took a week to arrive.
This is my first grinder and the first time grinding my own beans
the grinder is quite dinky - smaller than i imagined but superbly sized for my requirements max 2-4 cups a day.After running a couple of test grinds through it the action felt superb with the burrs rubbing tight together to produce a fine grind.
Enter hasbean toba sulawasi - my first purchase of freshly roasted coffee beans
I slowly grind 15g (one aerobie scoop) in approx 40seconds wow the kitchen (in fact the whole house) is immersed in the most gourgeous aroma.
At the moment I am only using an aerobie aeropress to produce black americano style coffee. It is difficult to give a proper review of the toba sulewasi as i only have brought prepacked before.
My first cup was very fragrant, very strong, bold and rich with loads of body...an almost overwhelming experience. I have since reduced the amount of grind per cup down to approx 8g per cup (almost half the size of the aerobie single scoop)which I am happier with for black americano and resulting in a beautifully fragrant, pleasant smooth tasting coffee with lots of body.
I've chucked my old filter coffee out into the compost bin and look forward to sampling many different types of freshly roasted coffee beans
After my experience I am never going back to pre-packed
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I've chucked my old filter coffee out into the compost bin and look forward to sampling many different types of freshly roasted coffee beans
After my experience I am never going back to pre-packed
Just remember to review them here!
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Caporegime
A work of art worthy of the Tate Modern 
Soldato
rarther then start another coffee thread i thought id ask here:
What size tamper would you reccomend for a Gaggia baby dose??? from what i can gather i want 57/58mm but i thought id ask the experts on here, at the min im using the plastic one that came with the machine and works ok but doesnt seem like its going to last, also it leaves about a 0.5-1mm gap all the way round after tamping.
EDIT: while im posting, i have another question... when heating the milk with the steam frother, as i have large drinks when i have them, i normally heat the milk in the jug slowly over a gas hob to about 50°C then steam the final bit, is this wrong should i just be more patient. (it takes about 4 -5 lots of steam as the heat light starts flashing after 20-30 seconds of steam (also is this normal))
cheers
Gary
What size tamper would you reccomend for a Gaggia baby dose??? from what i can gather i want 57/58mm but i thought id ask the experts on here, at the min im using the plastic one that came with the machine and works ok but doesnt seem like its going to last, also it leaves about a 0.5-1mm gap all the way round after tamping.
EDIT: while im posting, i have another question... when heating the milk with the steam frother, as i have large drinks when i have them, i normally heat the milk in the jug slowly over a gas hob to about 50°C then steam the final bit, is this wrong should i just be more patient. (it takes about 4 -5 lots of steam as the heat light starts flashing after 20-30 seconds of steam (also is this normal))
cheers
Gary
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A work of art worthy of the Tate Modern
Ooooh. Soggy.
Either:
Not enough coffee
Not tamped well or evenly enough
Or, the grind is a little too coarse.
Not much to play with there.
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Shiny, I like it! Mine is slightly older, I think I posted a pic of it earlier in the thread.
I slowly grind 15g (one aerobie scoop) in approx 40seconds wow the kitchen (in fact the whole house) is immersed in the most gourgeous aroma.
That's pretty much what hooked me onto fresh-ground: the smell! Most mornings it wakes me up more effectively than actually drinking the stuff!
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That's pretty much what hooked me onto fresh-ground: the smell! Most mornings it wakes me up more effectively than actually drinking the stuff!
Beans arrived in the post a few days before the grinder and i could smell the beans without opening the packaging. freshly roasted smells amazing
I'm grinding just before brewing and wow what a gourgeous aroma......
btw came across this comment on grinding when reading up on the subject
Grind just before brewing or as close to it as you can. When I
first became involved in coffee, I was once told as an experiment
to grind coffee, and smell it straight away. Then after ten minutes
return and smell again. In just ten minutes what was great coffee
had become good coffee. Just imagine what days and months can do to
it.
Caporegime
Ooooh. Soggy.
Either:
Not enough coffee
Not tamped well or evenly enough
Or, the grind is a little too coarse.
Not much to play with there.
A combination of 2 things, blade grinder and plastic tamper.
I need to find a nice taper pronto.
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Caporegime
looking to get a proper tamper, just wondering what makes a god tamper.
Also, how do you guys push it down hard, i don't want to put it on the worktop and put my body weight on it, for one thing i don't want to break the damn thing and 2, it don't want to dent my worktop and the portafilter is not exactly flat so it would be hard to do anyway.
Also, how do you guys push it down hard, i don't want to put it on the worktop and put my body weight on it, for one thing i don't want to break the damn thing and 2, it don't want to dent my worktop and the portafilter is not exactly flat so it would be hard to do anyway.
The MCAL's portafilter has inbuilt 'spouts' so I put a towel underneath and just push down reasonably hard. The MCAL is a spring lever so there's only a limited amount of force it will provide (and volume of water).
The force depends on the beans really. I find that older the beans get the less they work so usually require more force. However the narrower the band between gush or choke.
MCAL - short for Microcasa a leva.
The force depends on the beans really. I find that older the beans get the less they work so usually require more force. However the narrower the band between gush or choke.
MCAL - short for Microcasa a leva.
Caporegime
That makes no sense to me 
Hw much pressure i can't push it down without breaking the spout? And spring level? I don't see no spring....
Hw much pressure i can't push it down without breaking the spout? And spring level? I don't see no spring....
NickKs just showing off about his fancy pants machine and portafilter (jealous++)
Tamping wise you want to press down with ~ 30lb of pressure.
A good tamper is one that fits the basket well (although apparently a little gap is good to get a seal between the puck and the sides of the basket. Flat of convex based tampers are a matter of great argument.... convex is an American ideal iirc & flat is more traditional... personally i prefered the convex on trying it, but not enough to shell out for a new tamper
Beyond being the right size (58mm for a gaggia classic) and flat / convex based the rest is pretty much just visual... RB make very good, but expensive tampers, as do Thor...
Again how you tamp is something coffee geeks can argue over till the sun goes down, i go with leveling the basket with loose grinds (which is slightly overfilling it... but makes life a bit easyer) then tamping with about 20lb pressure, taping the tamper againt four sides of the PF then tamping down with the full 30lb, lift off slightly and turn a half to polish
nb i've never managed to damage or dent either the PF or my work surface while doing this... but you can get bits of rubber to go under the spouts while you tamp if you like...
(jealous++)Tamping wise you want to press down with ~ 30lb of pressure.
A good tamper is one that fits the basket well (although apparently a little gap is good to get a seal between the puck and the sides of the basket. Flat of convex based tampers are a matter of great argument.... convex is an American ideal iirc & flat is more traditional... personally i prefered the convex on trying it, but not enough to shell out for a new tamper
Beyond being the right size (58mm for a gaggia classic) and flat / convex based the rest is pretty much just visual... RB make very good, but expensive tampers, as do Thor...
Again how you tamp is something coffee geeks can argue over till the sun goes down, i go with leveling the basket with loose grinds (which is slightly overfilling it... but makes life a bit easyer) then tamping with about 20lb pressure, taping the tamper againt four sides of the PF then tamping down with the full 30lb, lift off slightly and turn a half to polish
nb i've never managed to damage or dent either the PF or my work surface while doing this... but you can get bits of rubber to go under the spouts while you tamp if you like...
It's also £199 in Whittards. They also have a burr grinder for £48 which is cheaper than the £60 I've seen on the 'net so I bought one
That makes no sense to me
Hw much pressure i can't push it down without breaking the spout? And spring level? I don't see no spring....
Sorry- I missed a sentence there! I find that the volume of the shot also depends on the volume of the puck (and how compressed it is). Hence my comment on the spring/volume of water...
Let me show you the portafilter and perhaps it'll explain:
You can get portafilter stands that hold the filter during tamping which takes the pressure off the spout.
The spring is because the coffee machine in the picture doesn't have a pump - it uses the pressure of the spring in the grouphead (the bit above the locked in portafilter) to push the water through..
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Caporegime
I am asking when i push down with the tamper, not when its on the machine.... ?
Do i get a tamping mat ? But then the pressure is still on the spout when i push down.
Do i get a tamping mat ? But then the pressure is still on the spout when i push down.
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as i say i've not had a problem in 2 years or so pushing down on the spouts... they are pretty well built and worse case you can get replacements
otherwise there are tamping stands around: http://www.coffeebumper.com/tampingstand.html
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Hasbeans delivery = fail.......been waiting since Friday for my last order