Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread
- Thread starter Siliconslave
- Start date
Mrs actually likes the idea of a coffee machine so have the sage bambino plus turning up today or tomorrow 
Have a set of scales turning up to. She'll use it for milk based drinks and the hot milk thingy for hot chocolates.
Dreading trying to get the grinder to get the right amount of coffee out. got some starbucks coffee beans from tesco to try it out so i don't waste more expensive ones.
Have a set of scales turning up to. She'll use it for milk based drinks and the hot milk thingy for hot chocolates. Dreading trying to get the grinder to get the right amount of coffee out. got some starbucks coffee beans from tesco to try it out so i don't waste more expensive ones.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 20 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 76,168
- Location
- Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
Mrs actually likes the idea of a coffee machine so have the sage bambino plus turning up today or tomorrow
Dreading trying to get the grinder to get the right amount of coffee out. got some starbucks coffee beans from tesco to try it out so i don't waste more expensive ones.
You can weight the beans first before putting it in.
So....if you want 20g of ground, put 20g into it.
You probably won't get 20g out, you probably get 19g or under. You can either add 1g into it and get another 1g out or just wait until next shot.
Basically everytime you make a new drink 1g of old coffee will be in your cup. The way to prevent that would be put a few beans in, grind that and get rid. That is the "Exchange". Then you put your 20g in that you want to drink.
By measuring before you ground ensures you get exactly what you need out. (Which is why the Niche Zero is such a hit, putting 20g in, you get 20g or at least 19.9g out).
Last edited:
Yeah it's best to weigh your beans first so it's not a bad idea to get some coffee scales. I've got a Sage Smart Grinder Pro and the grinder retains a bit each time so I just account for that. If I rock it a bit after it's finished grinding then another 0.2g or so will fall out too. Not perfect, but didn't want to go blowing loads of money on a grinder just yet since I basically have no idea what I'm doing
With the Bambino Plus you'll get two sets of baskets, single wall and dual wall. I've not even touched the dual wall baskets as they're meant for coffee that's not ground fine enough but I also bought supermarket beans just to experiment before potentially wasting a bunch of more expensive fresh beans. After trying 4 or 5 different types of supermarket bought beans I have personally had the best results with Costa ones. I normally quite like Starbucks coffee but I wasn't keen on the coffees I was making myself, even after experimenting with different grind settings. Lavazza beans weren't great for me either so my suggestion, if you're not happy with the coffees you're getting out of it, is to try Costa beans.
I ordered some fresh beans last week, with a roast date of May 26th so they're only a week old. I believe it's best to leave them for around 10 days so I've still yet to try any of them out.
With the Bambino Plus you'll get two sets of baskets, single wall and dual wall. I've not even touched the dual wall baskets as they're meant for coffee that's not ground fine enough but I also bought supermarket beans just to experiment before potentially wasting a bunch of more expensive fresh beans. After trying 4 or 5 different types of supermarket bought beans I have personally had the best results with Costa ones. I normally quite like Starbucks coffee but I wasn't keen on the coffees I was making myself, even after experimenting with different grind settings. Lavazza beans weren't great for me either so my suggestion, if you're not happy with the coffees you're getting out of it, is to try Costa beans.
I ordered some fresh beans last week, with a roast date of May 26th so they're only a week old. I believe it's best to leave them for around 10 days so I've still yet to try any of them out.
they are good for chocolate - my current 12oz/350ml steaming jug is proving a bit small trying to contain the spray from a 200ml'ish/mug of chocolate,
- I'm looking to find either a 17/500ml or maybe 600ml - I'm sure motta is good but don't really want to pay £30
haven't reasearched if any coffeebean shops also do cocoa but that seems like a good market niche.
So I've had the coffee machine for a day... First shot produced a fair bit of water so can only assume it was some sort of initiation as i thought it was going to overfill the cup.
Since then I've got through a fair amount of beans messing with settings. I've used the single wall double basket, i can fit around 17.9 grams in fairly consistently using the grinder. I have gone from setting 15 down to 3 and back up to 6 on the settings on the grinder. 6 seems to be best for flow. Saved the grinder to grind for 12.4 seconds
After the first shot i thought it was a bit watery timed it and it went from pressing the button to out in about 12 seconds.
Made it finer and timed it, takes the machine roughly 9 seconds to start flowing out and another 20 seconds to fully come out on double shot settings. According to the manual 8-12 is expected until something comes out if ground properly.
When i went a bit finer on the settings it was a mixture of dripping and slow pour but according to the manual that's over extraction.
I've used the auto milk thing and it's doing its job. i can't do art stuff with it as it's to froffey at the end so just falls out rather than pour. some more practice needed.
Cappucino i made yesterday tasted as good as what i can get from costa so happy with that.
I'm going to grab a WDT tool as i'm just using a few toothpicks at the moment
Aside from that i just need get the hang of tampering it down as the odd time I've noticed it's gone down more at one side than the other suggesting i'm pushing it down at a slight angle.
Since then I've got through a fair amount of beans messing with settings. I've used the single wall double basket, i can fit around 17.9 grams in fairly consistently using the grinder. I have gone from setting 15 down to 3 and back up to 6 on the settings on the grinder. 6 seems to be best for flow. Saved the grinder to grind for 12.4 seconds
After the first shot i thought it was a bit watery timed it and it went from pressing the button to out in about 12 seconds.
Made it finer and timed it, takes the machine roughly 9 seconds to start flowing out and another 20 seconds to fully come out on double shot settings. According to the manual 8-12 is expected until something comes out if ground properly.
When i went a bit finer on the settings it was a mixture of dripping and slow pour but according to the manual that's over extraction.
I've used the auto milk thing and it's doing its job. i can't do art stuff with it as it's to froffey at the end so just falls out rather than pour. some more practice needed.
Cappucino i made yesterday tasted as good as what i can get from costa so happy with that.
I'm going to grab a WDT tool as i'm just using a few toothpicks at the moment
Aside from that i just need get the hang of tampering it down as the odd time I've noticed it's gone down more at one side than the other suggesting i'm pushing it down at a slight angle.
So has bean has changed their pricing, and whilst doing so cancelled my order. Does anyone else use a subscription? I'm considering just ordering a kilo at a time now, how does everyone else work it?
Also what's the current favourites? Rave have always been good for me in the past and the flavour: price is always decent too.
Also what's the current favourites? Rave have always been good for me in the past and the flavour: price is always decent too.
I'm a big fan of Wogan's Coffee but that could just be because it's about 15 minutes down the road from me.
They do offer an online subscription and out of my local choices (Blind Owl, Extract Coffee and Wogan's - all available online) I always return to Wogan's.
They do offer an online subscription and out of my local choices (Blind Owl, Extract Coffee and Wogan's - all available online) I always return to Wogan's.
Wogan are my go-to, now. My default option for years was HasBean but they noticeably dropped the bar when they were bought out by Ozone in 2018 and much worse when Stephen left in 2020. FWIW I used to work next door to Ozone's flagship branch in Shoreditch and always thought it was terribly undeserving. Even had a reputation in the office for moaning at any colleague who suggested going there lol.
Just ordered from Wogan for the first time I think. I always used to default to Hasbean but haven’t used them since Steve left, he was Hasbean for me so it’s not the same without him.
Rave tend to be consistently decent, but I’ve had some nice stuff from Crankhouse too. I tend to go for different stuff each time, although for some reason I quite often don’t get on with African beans so usually go South American.
Rave tend to be consistently decent, but I’ve had some nice stuff from Crankhouse too. I tend to go for different stuff each time, although for some reason I quite often don’t get on with African beans so usually go South American.
Wogans have a decent Kenyan Peaberry which is quite nice and always in stock. They had a few delicious monthly special beans from various parts of Africa that I quite liked. A Kenyan natural processed one which had notes of Turkish Delight, Hazelnut and Maple. A nice Ethiopian one but I can't remember the notes. My favourite was a Ugandan one which was red cherry, vanilla and tamarind. I went through a lot of that.
But you're right, South American beans reign supreme for sure.
But you're right, South American beans reign supreme for sure.
Soldato
- Joined
- 29 Dec 2004
- Posts
- 17,085
- Location
- Shepley
I bought a distributor tool off Amazon but it’s too shallow for a VST double basket. It could do with about 5mm more adjustment. Can anyone recommend an alternative that doesn’t break the bank?
I've suffered the same problem for a couple of years. I've only just realised I could have done this and it still works brilliantly.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 20 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 76,168
- Location
- Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
Air tight jar for short term (daily) and vacuum for long term (excess from a large bag)