A little birthday gift to myself - here earlier than expected 
Must be almost warmed up now....
Must be almost warmed up now....
Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread
- Thread starter Siliconslave
- Start date
yer, was thinking that when you bought the Niche, your supposed to go grinder really but the machine was a harder sell to the wife
haven't done any cooling flushes or temperature checks to be honest - still trying to get it dialed in. It does seem to drop a lot of water to maintain temperature levels though.
I'm using the glass cups on top for espresso and pouring into the measured glass at the moment. No means to check the temp at the moment so i'd have to pick something up to do so...
I am feeling the MC2 is holding me back a touch, need to work out a replacement asap
yer yer
next niche is due in September now 
Also thinking I need some better scales
yer, slightly disappointed the vacu vin coffee saver i've been using for years didn't do quite so well - although he missed the easy way to open it
would have been good to have a comparison to just keeping it in the bag...
very nice!
I do fancy some wood and a flow control kit but getting used to the machine before adding more stuff to it, the X also does a bit of pre-infusion and ramping as standard
MC2 is useless if you want more than one type of coffee - moving from espresso to filter is nigh on impossible. The sage isn't too bad generally - theres someone on the UK coffee forums who keeps trying to sell a Lelit Fred which is apparently not too bad (and very well built) for £120
Last order from Origin i had the resolute & i'm not sure if they accidentally gave me decaf, didn't taste like decaf but got none of the caffeine effect of other coffee from it
I'm onto some stuff from a little local Norwhich roastery now - Smokey Barn El Salvador El Molinito. They tend to come in a bit heavily roasted but some lovely background fruits and chocolates, couldn't be much different from the Origin tbh.
Hindsight and all, given the spectacular failure of several high profile coffee kickstarters £300 seemed a hell of a punt at the time unfortunately.
its odd - theres no commercial single dose grinder really, but that a factor of the volumes going through coffee shops, your beans aren't sat out for weeks at a time before there ground (or shouldn't be)
Home (bur) grinders were/are just scaled down & compromised commercial machines.
Hobbyists then built crazy machined edifices to encompass commercial burrs and essentially introduced single dosing (see the monolith & HG-1 grinders)
Niche then tried to make that affordable and created their own, well, niche - mainstream manufactures don't even seem to be starting to get into it yet...
Home (bur) grinders were/are just scaled down & compromised commercial machines.
Hobbyists then built crazy machined edifices to encompass commercial burrs and essentially introduced single dosing (see the monolith & HG-1 grinders)
Niche then tried to make that affordable and created their own, well, niche - mainstream manufactures don't even seem to be starting to get into it yet...
this is what i'm doing at the moment as well, mostly because i've got a small set of accurate scales, a ridge-less basket makes life a load easier
How does the b2c fall short convenience wise, surely that's the whole point? (Not being funny, just interested)
Personally I found the aeropress more of a faff than a v60, chemex or clever dripper... But I guess it's a different thing.
classic italian espresso was always a 14g double but since that post was made (and this thread started) modern espresso has a (bad?) habit of going larger on the dose - doubles around 18g is about normal. I'm experimenting with 19g at the moment but might try and bring that down a little - three tripples a day probably isn't good!
for filter, not really - supposed to be a great grinder for the money.
Not sure on the Krups, but the Wifa is a burr ginder as well.
you shouldn't really be measuring your espresso by volume, thats so 2008 the volume will vary massively with the extraction, temperature and beans - much better off getting a small £6 jewellery scale and going by weight.
Inspired by Hoffman's latest video I gave espresso tonic another go yesterday - had it in a cafe last time and it was horrible, but apparently that was down to the tonic and espresso being horrible - this was great:
Fever Tree Elderflower Tonic and a double Rwandan Peaberry from Black Cat (which so far i rate very highly - lovely fruity, blueberry flavours)
the volume will vary massively with the extraction, temperature and beans - much better off getting a small £6 jewellery scale and going by weight.Inspired by Hoffman's latest video I gave espresso tonic another go yesterday - had it in a cafe last time and it was horrible, but apparently that was down to the tonic and espresso being horrible - this was great:
Fever Tree Elderflower Tonic and a double Rwandan Peaberry from Black Cat (which so far i rate very highly - lovely fruity, blueberry flavours)
Sold out =
yes sorry - its a real shame as its a delicious coffee, after my first shot i was ready to buy some more but had already gone
their Las Margaritas Yellow Bourbon is supposed to be very good as well, but not tried it yet.
end of an era - the machine that started it all (well this thread that is) is going today
14 years old and still looking pretty damn fine
14 years old and still looking pretty damn fine
MaraX
taken a while to get round to selling the classic - its in the garage warming up for a pre-sale demo and maybe a cheeky last coffee!
yer - as far as i know its not supposed to beep for low water, just flash the low water led
Good to hear we have some more maraX owners - does seem like a popular upgrade route! Prices & demand for the classic are running high at the moment
So far the Mara has been a great upgrade, a few things to get used to but its a real joy to use!
Shouldn't be too bad - although it'll depend on the roaster & beans. If you can its worth getting direct from the roaster as your not lining Sainsbury's pocket and more gets passed down the chain to the farmers.
I tend to find some staples but experiment around that - been working through Black Cat's range recently as they are just down the road, but still have square mile on subscription...