Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

Anyone walked through Piccadilly Circus recently? I just spotted what looks to be a new coffee shop called Piccadilly Grind? Looks like they were still setting up but was full of small bags of beans, hopefully to buy!

If its any good I'd feel sorry for the new(ish) espresso bar just outside exit 1 as they're bound to take a lot of their business!
 
mingeroonie said:
Nice grinder:D
Your machine certainly looks nice and shiny, what do you clean it with?
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I ended up using flash kitchen cleaner to get rid of the water marks and giving it a good clean down with water and drying off to a polish with a fine cloth

Just ordered some coffee from rave, trying fudge blend and signature, I was part of a group that had a couple of coffee from them in the past, one great and one not so good but fudge has me interested.
 
Scam said:
Anyone walked through Piccadilly Circus recently? I just spotted what looks to be a new coffee shop called Piccadilly Grind? Looks like they were still setting up but was full of small bags of beans, hopefully to buy!

If its any good I'd feel sorry for the new(ish) espresso bar just outside exit 1 as they're bound to take a lot of their business!
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Opened today. Was dishing out free coffee this afternoon iirc.

Should be pretty good as it's the same guys as Shorditch Grind.
 
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Scam said:
On a sidenote, I guess it's the season but why is no-one stocking any nice full-bodied chocolately/nutty beans anymore? Everything is all fruit and floral whcih I'm guessing is great for espresso, but I only have an aeropress and like my coffee with milk dammit!
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I've noticed this too, the fashion now is for espresso to be so astringent it dissolves your teeth, because that's the only thing that punches through the amounts of milk people like in their drinks, and for brewed coffees to be delicate, floral, and transparent, because apparently the judges at the UK Brewer's Cup prefers weak tea to coffee! :p

I prefer full-bodied, earthy coffees both for brewed and especially for espresso, and thankfully Hasbean is one roaster that still caters to us. I don't have my list of ones I've tried and liked to hand, but if you filter his beans (no pun intended) to show Naturals and Honey Processed beans, you'll probably find something you'll like. His Jailbreak blend from last was also like this, not tried it recently though so don't know if he's still using the same beans in it.
 
Cool. I did look at Has bean but didn't see anything. I made do with some Columbian/Brazilian blend from my local Whittards. Just out of interest. Its pretty dire! Really oily beans, pretty much just taste of burnt coffee..

I went into Speakeasy just off of Carnaby St. What a laugh. £14 for a 250g of beans with flavours of vegetables, tomatoes.. Err what?
 
Is the Gaggia Classic still the recommended machine for around the £200 mark?

As much as I love my AeroPress I do have the need for something a little more shiny.
 
mingeroonie said:
Got my new grinder!
After a few recommendations from here I went with the Eureka Mignon.
Very pleased with it, cant believe how rubbish my old krups one was in comparison!
Not as big as I thought it might be which is a bonus, sits nicely next to my (rather dirty looking!) Silvia.

At the same time I added the PID, bought it direct from the U.S arrived in 2 days!
Wasn't sure if I was going to cut the front panel and mount it internally, so its stuck on with blu-tack at the mo:D
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How is that grinder compared to a Super Jolly mini?
I'm thinking of ditching my Krups grinder, although I don't know if it is overkill. Do these expensive grinders make a difference or is it just e-peen for the coffee enthusiasts?

Where did you buy your Silvia v3 from? It's time I ditched my Cookworks machine and went for something a bit more substantial :)
 
I'm using that grinder with my Cherub and it's been great, grinds fine enough to totally choke the machine (If you want to) and the shots are great from it.
 
majnu said:
or is it just e-peen for the coffee enthusiasts
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I had similar thoughts until I used it;)
It really did make my old Krups one seem crap in comparison!

I got my Silvia from Myespresso a couple of years back. I'm sure I read some bad reviews about them on here, but have used them a few times now for bits and bobs and have had no trouble at all.
(Although never had to return anything so...)
 
I'm in love with the Simonelli Musica LUX. Was looking at the Silvia v3 with PID but the Oscar made more sense at around the same price bracket however it looks horrible with that plastic housing. The Musica is waaay overkill but my God, what a sexy machine. :D
 
Damn. Thought I'd posted this.

World Barista Championship is now on. *well, it's kinda finished at the moment, but there'll be more late on*

It's in Rimini this year, wish I could have gone. :(

http://www.worldbaristachampionship.org/

Livestreaming is also go this year.

http://new.livestream.com/worldcoffee

Oh yeah. Pete from 3fe in Ireland and Maxwell from Colonna & Smalls in the UK both got through to the Semi's. :D Hopefully they'll both get to the finals that are going on tomorrow.
 
Maxwell got through to the Final 6. :D

Finals start in about 30 minutes at the same address as above.

Running order is:

10:45 - William Hernandez - El Salvador
11:25 - Kapo Chiu - Hong Kong
12.05 - Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood - United Kingdom
12:45 - Craig Simon - Australia
13:25 - Hidenori Izaki - Japan
14:05 - Christos Loukakis - Greece

I've adjusted the times to UK time.

C'MON MAXWELL! :D
 
RESULTS NOW INCOMING!

Anyone can win it. All 6 of the performances were utterly superb. I simply haven't got a clue who's going to win.

[Edit]

If you watched Maxwells performance and want to know more about the water thing he's be working on, you can see his Tamper Tantrum talk here and read the scientific paper that they've published here
 
Results:

6th - William Hernandez, Viva Espresso, El Salvador
5th - Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, Colonna & Small’s, United Kingdom
4th - Craig Simon, Think Tank Coffee, Australia
3rd - Christos Loukakis, TAF, Greece
2nd - Kapo Chiu, The Cupping Room, Hong Kong
1st - Hidenori Izaki, Maruyama Coffee, Japan

First barista champion from Asia. Congrats to all who got through to the WBC.
 
Well although I didn't catch all the competitors the ones I did were outstanding as you would expect at this level.

Some interesting ideas and the first time I have ever heard/seen filtering espresso's which seems like an experiment to try some day. Maybe it's what I need to try and help me love straight espresso.

I think it was Kapo who did some crazy espresso atomization which seemed like a really interesting experience and I think he is going to a couple of places in London and Bath (wonder if he will be going over to Maxwell's place)

I wonder if Starbucks will get involved with WBC travelling over to Seattle next year?
 
davetherave2 said:
Well although I didn't catch all the competitors the ones I did were outstanding as you would expect at this level.

Some interesting ideas and the first time I have ever heard/seen filtering espresso's which seems like an experiment to try some day. Maybe it's what I need to try and help me love straight espresso.
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They'll all remain on Livestream afaik, so if you get some time you can dip in and out.

davetherave2 said:
I think it was Kapo who did some crazy espresso atomization which seemed like a really interesting experience and I think he is going to a couple of places in London and Bath (wonder if he will be going over to Maxwell's place)
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Was pretty impressive. Would love to try it. I've seen other things vaporised in those things. IIRC they're called Le Whaf. Stupid name, but it is french, so you can't really hold it against them. ;)

Things like that are sadly, becoming more popular in competition. I'd rather that they just did the espresso and cappuccino and replaced the sig drink with a brewed coffee. The sig drinks are mainly pretty revolting. *I've tasted more than a few of them* That said, there has been two that I really enjoyed. A flat white, made with popcorn infused milk and with caramel added which was then steamed. And espresso and vanilla custard. Both were fantastic, so it is possible.

davetherave2 said:
I wonder if Starbucks will get involved with WBC travelling over to Seattle next year?
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Oh god I hope so. Enter all their baristas in the heats, get knocked out immediately and then go back to claiming that they make no profits. ;)
 
Urgent!!!

Im about to move out of my uni house and I realised my classic's full of water, what do i do about transporting it? Can someone give me a step by step guide?

Cheers!
 
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