Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

For around that mark, ish:

Grinder around £400 - the mignon Specialita is a decent espresso grinder (there are other options in the range to increase or decrease the price), you can go up-to the niche (£500) or sideways to the DF64 depending on your preference.
Espresso machine around £1200 - the ECM Classika (single boiler - a friends just got one and seems very capable but not sure about steaming), MaraX ('intelligent heat exchanger' - very happy with it personally and option of adding flow control relatively cheaply), or Profitec Pro 400 (don't know much about this, but well respected brand) - the Lelit Elizabeth is also worth a look for £1150 if you want a dual boiler (better for temp stability and steam, but bulky)
 
Last edited:
the Sage is well designed, but defiantly built to be disposable and on a budget where as the mignons feel like you could throw it off a large building and it'd just dent the pavement. The burrs and burr carrier on the mignon are very solid and with a few bits of foil you can easily align them (if its even needed) - link. The Sage uses plastic burr carriers which are harder to adjust and keep in alignment generally.
 
Might be that your not getting the flavour from the beans if the grind and ratio isn't right, have you tried cupping both - could be they end up being close enough that you can't taste much of a difference but it's more likely that they need a bit of tweaking to get the full flavour out of both.

The other thing I find is the I initial taste can be really missleading, takes time for your taste buds to adjust (the reason pepsi wins all the taste tests but is constantly outsold by coke...)
 
the Mignon isn't great for turning from espresso to filter and back so i'd look at the niche zero / duo, fellow opus or Timemore Scuptor.

Profitec is a decent dual boiler and once you have everything dialed in shouldn't be too bad to use without tinkering, but to get the best out of it you will always have to have a play with it.

Very jellies of the Decent ownership, again I get the impression once its setup you could have a 'just make me coffee' button pretty easily, but the devils in the setup
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: OG
Scam said:
What do we all think about robusta in blends? I have a sub with Hasbean for my single origins and occasionally top up with one of their blends (all arabica), but occasionally I've been to a local shop; https://doppiocoffee.co.uk/ Most of their blends are 20-30 percent robusta which is interesting. Their coffee is cheaper though, for my first early morning one it's fine. But definitely not as nice as Hasbean's for example.

Is robusta cheap filler, or does it have it's place for making better espresso etc? :) I only ever drink white americanos via Aeropress or moka pot.
Click to expand...

Robusta is an easier coffee to grow, it survives in worse and less stable, doesn't get hit by as many diseases, grows in more climates and yields morer than Arabia (which makes up the vast majority of specialist coffee). Everyone knows that harder is better so historically Arabica was deemed to be the better coffee, even the likes of maccy-ds advertises 100% arabica beans :rolleyes:. Arabica tends to have a softer and fruitier flavour vs Robusta which is generalised as being more woody and earthy.

As Robusta is easier to grow it tends to be cheaper. As such it was used to bulk out instant and bad ground coffees before the whole 2nd wave of coffee kicked in (ie starbucks appearing everywhere).

All that being said arabica now makes up just over 1/2 the coffee grown world wide and so the general quality has dropped (don't get me wrong, the good arbica is still good, but the good stuff isn't going into instant coffee).

I guess in summary there good Robusta and bad Robusta, good robusta is better than bad arabica, but harder to find.
 
Last edited:
Mr_Orange said:
I've inherited a mocha pot. I'm experimenting with whatever ground coffee I can get from Lidl as a cheaper way of seeing what I like best and then I can go down the rabbit hole a bit.
Click to expand...

step 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfDLoIvb0w4 & check the seal & pressure release valve, both are easy to replace but if they fail you can have a very bad day

step 2:
hand grinder (~£50 for a timemore chesnut is a pretty good start)
or
electric bur grinder (~£130 Wilfa Svart. ~£200 Fellow Opus / Eureka Mignon Crono) You'll also see the sage grinders for around £160 but there are better grinders on the market from a longevity and grind quality point of view.

step 3: v60 / aeropress / jump up to a full blown espresso machine :D


Scam said:
Cheers. So no need to be a snotty elitist and turn my nose up at a 30% robusta blend. I had it this morning from the AP and it was actually very nice. Not bad £7.50 for a 250g which is cheap nowadays (London shops, hence why I buy online). They had other blends that were more like £6.50 too.
Click to expand...

oh, but snotty elitism is fun :D Like with most things if you enjoy it then great - thats all that matters :)
 
Last edited:
I buy most of my stuff through the LSOL community subscription thing, works out around the £9 mark for 250g but you get some fantastic and unusual coffees, I then top up with random coffees anywhere up to around £15 for 250g (although have spend more on some of the more interesting fermentation processes which are amazing as a treat)

The way I see it is its about £0.75 a cup (20g per cup + a filter or espresso machine heatup) but for that i'm getting a better cup than i'd pay 3-4x more for in a generic coffee chain (or machine)
 
Last edited:
Profitec GO seems like a pretty good option from the reviews, single boiler with same footprint as a gaggia classic but with a built in PID and shot timer + pressure gauge (no adjustment but thats not surprising sub £1.5k) & about £770 so a little budget for a cheap stop gap grinder.
 
Last edited:
The Pulsar is a combination of zero bypass and immersion brewing from the looks of it, very different to the pressure extraction you get with the aeropress.

The zero bypass brewers are more of an evolution on the V60 / pour over brewers, using a flat base with a filter on it, and then the pulsar has a 'flow control' so you can run it as an immersion brewer - seems pretty neat but expensive :)
 
most anything will be an upgrade, try stuff from union or Taylors but ultimately look out for anything with a roast date (thats not too long ago)

Also tried the Samo Bloom pour over thing from Btone above - promising first try with less bitterness on the aftertaste so will keep trying it :)
 
Last edited:
Think bellabarista may have gone a little off their trolly with their newest coffee:

vexNeS3.png

:eek:
 
the big difference between espresso and filter grinders is usually the motor power and cooling, espresso grinds (and finer) put more stress on the motor so you end up burning it out - good filter grinders (like the Ode) will grind down to espresso once in a while, but not back to back.

I think there is also different bur designs for filter as well, but i'm not sure if that means espresso burs are better than filter burs
 
Last edited:
Cadder said:
I watched the demo video on that link and I don't agree with grinding based on time over weight.
Click to expand...

Totally, grinding by time is nonsense, different size bean and different roasts grind very differently, some will be super fast, some super slow!

Tamping wise, level is the main thing, well that and clumps...
 
The big things that help your espresso are:
  • Bean and roast quality (partly down to taste)
  • grinder quality - more even particles means less over and under extracted stuff
  • machine quality - consistent temperature and pressure mean you can make adjustments to the grind level to get the right level of extraction
  • Bean & puck prep
    • Spritz the beans with water to minimise static
    • WTD (stir the grinds with one or more needles) to get rid of lumps and even out the distribution
    • tamp to pre-compress and level out the grinds - gives more even extraction across the puck (so the water flows more evenly through) - as mentioned before the most important thing is its level, not exactly how hard you compress.
    • puck screens or paper above and below also help even out extraction
Beyond the above your into the more experimental stuff like pouring over frozen balls to manage the volatile compounds but your into diminishing returns around the puck screen phase imho.
 
Last edited:
tom_nieto said:
Further to your advice - when would you advise spritzing the beans? Just before putting them through the grinder? Worried that any moisture on the beans might affect the grind.
Click to expand...

just before putting them in the grinder, your only putting around 2 little spritzes of water, max of around 0.2g water for 18g of espresso. Apparently it doesn't effect the grinder long term and while yes it'll effect the grind its not going to make it a soggy mess or anything!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom