Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

Hoping someone can help a coffee noob out.

Recently I’ve started drinking coffee as a result of having some Americano's & Flat White's when visiting a friend. I've always liked the smell but the taste never did much for me however recently this has changed.

Mostly I have instant during the week with a good cup at the weekend if I’m passing. We have some ‘poverty’ Kenco freeze dried instant at work which is passable but not as nice as the Azera I have at home. I picked up some Carte Noir instant yesterday which I’ve found to be total dross and Millicano Decaf (for the evenings) is quite frankly disgusting, a colleague is going to bring in some regular for me to try tomorrow. Now I’m far from a connoisseur but I know when something tastes like coffee and when something tastes like pap.

I’ll be trying some other instants for convenience when at work or at the weekend but would also like to try the cafetiere or aeropress approach. We have a Nespresso machine at work so I’m also tempted to try these out as a good middle ground and wouldn’t be opposed to getting one for at home. All the gadgets, grinders and extra involvement are a bit of an attraction too and I’m sure add to the flavour & taste, if not they're a nice placebo :p

Is anyone here been in a similar position recently and if so which method have you settled for?

To save me trawling through this rather large thread are there go to budget/value bits of equipment for each of the options that anyone could recommend? :)

Thanks.
 
BennyC said:
Is anyone here been in a similar position recently and if so which method have you settled for?
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the nespresso stuff will certainly be better than instant so that maybe a step up.

I used a hand grinder and clever dripper at work for a few years before i moved company and started working from home (now i use a clever dripper & electric grinder) but an aeropress works nearly as well.

I tried both and from my point of view the Aeropress lost out for a few reasons:
- I found it quite fiddly
- Aeropress took more interaction to brew (with the Clever dripper you load it up, leave it for 4min on your desk then put it on a cup).
- The grind on the Aeropress needs to be finer so takes more effort to grind.

Note that grinding in the office is pretty noisy so better if you can do it in a kitchen / away from everyone, or do it at home before you go in.
 
Aeropress or dripper (v60 or chemex get my vote) and a hand grinder such as the Hario Skerton is my recommendation.

Contrary to Siliconslave, I am going to suggest that the drippers are a little more fiddly than the aeropress, as simply loading them up is not the perfectionists way to brew with them (though you will certainly get a better cup than any instant or nespresso will ever provide). To get the most from them you'll need to workout and maintain a flow rate that works for you by slowly pouring in or stopping/starting.

With the Aeropress, you dump the grind in, load up with your chosen amount of water, mix, then press after your chosen time.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
Contrary to Siliconslave, I am going to suggest that the drippers are a little more fiddly than the aeropress, as simply loading them up is not the perfectionists way to brew with them (though you will certainly get a better cup than any instant or nespresso will ever provide). To get the most from them you'll need to workout and maintain a flow rate that works for you by slowly pouring in or stopping/starting.
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HOW VERY DARE YOU ;):p

The dripper, contrary to a V60, is immersion based so you dump pop the filter in, wash the filter with hot water, drop the ground in, add water approx the right level (marker on the side from a weighed amount if your being exact) and start the timer. 3-4 min later and you pop it on the mug and drain the coffee out. Filter and coffee lift out into the bin and rinse the dripper out :)

 
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Couple of questions:

I descale my Silvia once every 6 months using Puly Cleaner Descaler (I clean the head etc every month with Cafiza). These are about £6-£8 for 10 so not expensive, but is there anything better I can use?

I only ever use filtered tap water in my machine. Would there be any real benefit to using bottled water, such as improved taste (which would probably only be a placebo effect anyway :p) or a larger descaling window?

Thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Depends where your water comes from. Round here bottled water offers nothing over tap water, bottled would be a step down. Scaling also depends on your water, i never need to descale it doesn't build up in the first place.
 
Barry McFungus Pants said:
Would there be any real benefit to using bottled water, such as improved taste (which would probably only be a placebo effect anyway :p) or a larger descaling window?
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I have family that live in the mountains in the States, every week we would drive past this lay-by on a mountain road that had access to fresh spring water. Occasionally we'd see people pulled into the lay-by filling up gallon jugs and other containers of the water.

For quite a long time we joked between ourselves about how silly it was, and probably not worth the effort of travelling to this remote bit of road in the mountains to get a few gallons of water.

Eventually though, we figured we may as well give it a shot to see what all the fuss is about. We tested it on normal percolated coffee in the morning and also on one of the tassimo pod machines.

The difference was incredible...even on the pod machine coffee. It felt so much smoother, and full of flavour.

This was comparing it to the standard tap water we had in the house, which came in via a well and was treated via a system in a shed, so might not be as refined as mains water in a city. Due to this difference may have been accentuated, but there was definitely a massive difference.

After that we started collecting a few jugs of that spring water every week when we passed it, just to make coffee.
 
robj20 said:
Depends where your water comes from. Round here bottled water offers nothing over tap water, bottled would be a step down. Scaling also depends on your water, i never need to descale it doesn't build up in the first place.
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Agreed. Living in Manchester I'm quite lucky with regards to water quality.
 
In mid Norfolk. Not sure what our water is like tbh. Recently moved house and now on mains water. We were on a borehole before!
 
Barry McFungus Pants said:
In mid Norfolk. Not sure what our water is like tbh. Recently moved house and now on mains water. We were on a borehole before!
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Nawfuk... It's ******* atrocious! Almost as bad as London area. When I just used filtered water I was descaling every 3 weeks or so.

Spend a few quid on a 6 pack of Evian and try that. Reduced that to every 3 or 4 months.

Also, the flavour change was surprising. A lot more clarity of flavour.
 
My water is terrible. Tempted to get an RO filter system fitted, they can be had for a couple hundred + fitting for a 50gpd setup.
 
Flibster said:
Nawfuk... It's ******* atrocious! Almost as bad as London area. When I just used filtered water I was descaling every 3 weeks or so.

Spend a few quid on a 6 pack of Evian and try that. Reduced that to every 3 or 4 months.

Also, the flavour change was surprising. A lot more clarity of flavour.
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I visited Suffolk over the weekend and the water was pretty blah indeed :/
 
How do you judge if it need descaling since unlike kettle you cannot see element; I think it does
become more noisy during warm up with scale,
I do it once every 3 month so (puly caf) in Cambridge where water is hard and use a Britta filter for tea.
In the used descaler some calcium carbonate crystals seem to come out of solution and liquid
has blue tinge which is presumably some of (Audrey) brass boiler that has been dissolved.
After 15years of ownership I do not now bother to try and recharge the water tank inline filter with saline solution
Has anyone replaced pumps proactively before failure ? I read a review that suggested pressure may
get higher as pump ages, not reduce, as I expected.
 
Flibster said:
Nawfuk... It's ******* atrocious! Almost as bad as London area. When I just used filtered water I was descaling every 3 weeks or so.
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I'm amazed at how hard the water is round here - you can tell when the britta is getting to the end of its life as you start getting scum in the kettle :(

Will be buying a decent inline filter when we (finally) get a house sorted & might have to start buying bottled in the interim
 
I've recently moved house and there's a water softener. My God does tap water taste horrendous. I've only had one coffee so far with my AP, but couldn't find my scales so it was super strong. I wonder what the effect will be? :confused:
 
I know some of you look down at them, but im really liking my Nespresso machine, just takes all the messing around out of it for a pretty good espresso. The way i see it its 90% as good as the best machines but its 90% all the time, with pods that store well. I still use my Aeropress now and again but its become a chore in the mornings and only gets used when i have more free time.

Would i love a proper setup, absolutely but i doubt i would achieve the level of consistency of a Nespresso any time soon.
 
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