Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

arty said:
Having looked into it a bit more, I’m now being tempted by a MaraX - call it coffee scope creep :D
Click to expand...

its known as upgraditis, very contagious and potentially fatal to the wallet :)

Make sure you budget for a good grinder, in-fact do that first - for a MaraX you'll want to spend around £400 at least, probably either a Niche or Eureka Mignon Specialita (have just ordered myself one infact). **edit - just seen you have a Ascaso i-mini, that'll probably work pretty well for the classic but may hold you back later down the line...

If you don't want to blow £1500 to start with i'd suggest a second hand Classic (maybe ask Raymond nicely) and the grinder, get good on that first then upgrade when your happy with it (and have saved up some more money / self justified the upgrade ;)). If you look after it you shouldn't loose much (if anything) on the classic.

Worth also looking at water on the MaraX, hard water means you need to descale yearly at least and its not really recommended. Your best off buying either buying bottled water or getting RO water and adding specific minerals back in to avoid scale build up entirely, but thats another rabbit hole!
 
Theres defiantly a point where it just clicks - you go from it tasting of coffee to tasting of all sorts of different things.

Mid_Gen is right - try and get an extraction hitting the magic 1:2 (may vary depending on the coffee) in around 25 seconds (again depends on the machine and any pre-infusion) so 18g coffee in to 36g of espresso out, then immediately do another shot but turn your grinder up or down a turn or two and see what you get in 25 seconds.

Note down the ratio you get and taste them (remember to stir in the cream) try and thing objectively about which one you prefer, what sort of flavours you find in there - is it fruity, chocolatey, sweet, sour, bitter, bright (?!?) etc. Read the pack notes and see what its suggesting you'd taste. How does it feel in your mouth, is it thick, thin?

The coffee i've just had apparently has "Tropical fruits, brown sugar, rum" i can still taste the brown sugar on my pallet, not got any rum but there is a light fruity flavour to it, almost pineapple.

Theres no right and wrong, but just think about it and see if you agree / disagree with flavour notes & work out what you prefer :)
 
Begbie said:
Which is hard for an upgrade for a gaggia owner, as I paid £100 for mine. To upgrade, as you say, I really would need to spend close to £1k! I don't think I'll ever do that, so I'll probably end up keeping the gaggia until it breaks (if it ever breaks, and can't be fixed).
Click to expand...

best bet for a Gaggia upgrade is the grinder and adding a PID - stable temperature really helps. If you want a good machine but don't want to breach the £1k mark you can look at lever machines, a basic la pavoni europiccola is about £400 - it may not be an upgrade in stability (in terms of temp, pressure, repeatability) but you'll get better coffee from it - albeit one in every x shots :D
 
i'd be slightly hesitant with the Lelit Grace and Victoria at the moment, they've just released the updated Mara (the X) and Elizabeth so chances are that'll extend to the rest of the range as well - it sounds like the elizabeth is a very good machine now with some very neat features...
 
jpaul said:
The new lelit pump-x looks interesting , could probably replace the red/ulreka vibratory pumps that are in most other manufacturers equipment;
Grace already seems to have the pump pre-infusion from elizabeth.

Rancilio have to be thinking of adding a pid too - cost efficient microcontrollers and power transistors must be cheaper now, mecoffee pid had similar functionality, to grace pid, with bluetooth too to monitor temp, but didn't make it to the big time
Click to expand...

didn't realise that about the grace - the system does seem pretty impressive tech :)

There is the silvia pro which essentially seems to be a silvia with a PID and double boiler - albeit for £1500!! Microcontrollers have always been really cheap (you can diy a PID for <£50 retail) but most espresso machines have stayed away from them as I guess they don't want/need 'complex' electronics in a very hot, wet and steamy small box.
 
Good man, nothing like jumping in with both feet! :)

With that setup you'll start getting so much more from the beans, although that does mean if they aren't any good you'll notice even more :D I'm really rating black cat at the moment but there are plenty of recommendations throughout this thread.
 
jpaul said:
reverse osmosis is removing calcium carbonate ? forum search is broken so I can't see the earlier discussion on them, but Amazon reviews says
Click to expand...

They remove everything the re mineralise to add in a little calcium and magnesium as otherwise the water is too pure and isn't great for drinking / espresso. Not sure theres anyone/many people on here but allot on uk coffee forum, in-fact the keep doing group buys there.

Personally i'm using RO water from a local fishkeeper with some Sodium bicarbonate and Magnesium Sulphate added back in.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
Some models remineralise, yes. Under-sink units can be had for a fraction of the price of the Osmio, too.

I'd be keen to try out straight RO vs remineralised myself just to see what difference I can taste, personally I don't expect I'll notice a difference.
Click to expand...

the osmio is tiny in comparison though, normal ro units have a pretty big tank to go with the filters, plus you get hot and warm (?) water from it - still i'd prefer an under sink system i think
 
New Specialita turned up too late for coffee yesterday so have started dialling it in this morning - a little way to go still but have run about 250g of old decaf through to start seasoning (as i had it sat around) and around four shots to dial it in, its not far off but not perfect and I have work to do :( still the last shot (40g in about 20seconds) is pretty drinkable :)

MunBnQ4l.jpg
 
RobTi said:
Well after a few years of not weighing, usually just level off the basket, I’m back to weighing with the maraX and I have found that I was using around 20g pressed into a 18g basket so now with weighing the coffee is so more smooth and not as bitter
Click to expand...

See - totally worth weighing, into the basket and out of the machine ideally - gives you some measure to go from.

Theres another Origin 20% code at the moment - SUNGOD_ORIGIN - from their marketing e-mails but not visible on the site. Valid till the 13th September
 
Last edited:
It kind of depends what you want and value from a machine, I'm not convinced the Silvia is a great idea based on the above.
The ACS minima may be worth a look if you like the e61 style. If your not keen on the e61 your best option seems to be the Elizabeth.

One of the things I like with the MaraX is the option to add pressure profiling later down the line. The temp stability is great as well.
 
if your using bottled water then the filter won't be doing anything really - guess it may prevent any bits that make their way into the tank getting sucked up, but don't see it as too much of an issue.

Btone said:
i had looked at the minima as on paper it looked great value. but when i contracted Bella, they basically said there work shop was full of them in for repairs and he didn't think he get them back in
Click to expand...

Thats a shame.

In all honesty there are a few downsides to the MaraX, but for the price i'm very happy with it. Feels solid and well built - only real concern is the amount of electronics have packed in for long term maintenance, but the result in terms of thermal stability is fantastic.
 
jpaul said:
devils advocate - its the weight of brass and thermal inertia that carries it during the brewing process, can the boiler heating/electronics really contribute during those 20s or so ?
I've never heard if there is much variation in PID type algorithms.
Click to expand...

It's less about the thermal inertia of the components and group head and more about the temperature of the water in the brew pipe.
In a Heat Exchange machine the boiler heats the steam water to about 127C, the brew water passes through this boiler in a coper pipe, if its sat there too long it will get to 127C when you really want it at 90C.
This is why you typically need to do a cooling flush on a heat exchanger to purge that 127C water in the brew pipe, wait for a bit for the brew water to hit 90 and pour.

I'm not sure what the MaraX is doing to keep the temperature in the brew pipe down, but it seems to work according to all the tests i've seen...
 
jpaul said:
which is why 5 posts ago I had said marax does have a distinctive feature in that respect -
Click to expand...

yes, sorry missed that :)

I'm in the same boat, in so far as I don't do milk. The dilema is that single boiler machines tend to be lower end, HX tends to prioritise the steam and you have to faff to get the brew water right and dual boilers are large & expensive when your ignoring the steam boiler. The Sage is probably the cheapest but they seem to treat them as throwaway so if anything breaks your out of luck.

I kept an eye out for the ecm puristika but there have been no updates all year so gave up waiting.


timebomb26 said:
Sorry if this has been covered before, but I've been handed down a DeLonghi EC680M coffee machine and I'm now looking for a grinder to go with it. I don't particularly want to spend a fortune, but am open to anything based on the merits. Anyone got any tips or recommendations?
Click to expand...

depends on the budget, i'd be looking at the MC2, the lelit fred (which is the same machine with a different body) or a Mignon Manuale - if your happy to go second hand then your options open up a bit but Grimley is right, second hand Mignon is a good bet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom