Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

OOooooOOOoo a coffee thread, i love my real coffee and esp my Gaggia - not fully into the espresso hits but love the latte, americano + cappa !

A burr grinder is something i have been wanting to get for a while, have been looking at the Krups GVX2 unless there is anything better around that price mark ?

And where did you get your tamper from - the plastic gaggia one is pretty useless !! ?
 
Shimmyhill said:
OOooooOOOoo a coffee thread, i love my real coffee and esp my Gaggia - not fully into the espresso hits but love the latte, americano + cappa !

A burr grinder is something i have been wanting to get for a while, have been looking at the Krups GVX2 unless there is anything better around that price mark ?

And where did you get your tamper from - the plastic gaggia one is pretty useless !! ?
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I paid £60 for my Dualit burr grinder from Whittards
 
melbourne720 said:
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Sweet ***** that's one expensive machine!
Looks nice though :)
How long have you had your classic?
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http://www.coffeeitalia.co.uk/products.php?cat=21&pg=3

Cheaper at £488..

Anyone had any experience of the Gaggia Baby (or Baby twin) rather than the Classic? It seems to give ok reviews but they're normally first time users (ie <1 month). I'm looking for something small that doesn't take much desk space.
http://www.coffeeitalia.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=gaggia-twin-demo&cat=21
http://www.wholelattelove.com/reviews.cfm?itemID=1346
 
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I used to be a professional barista and this guide is not bad, if you really want to be anal I would say that the air pressure can effect the grind also so take that into consideration. A great resource for this and more importantly correct milk steaming is coffeegeek.com
Now if only people like you and I worked in high street coffee shops I could drink coffee again ;)

Oh one other thing, using a spirit level, especially the round ones, is a good gauge of whether you are tamping properly and evenly. If you tamp one sided like a lot of people do the water will filter through that part of the grind more easily and leave you with half used coffee and a potentially weak espresso.
 
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Justin said:
I've been looking at the Gaggia Baby too, seems you can pick them up very cheaply refurbished.
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I'm considering it because due to a change at work we're now hotdesking so I'll be spending more time at home.. Although the coffeegeek reviews seem to indicate the baby isn't as well liked as the Classic.. although later it appears as good (although shares the same steam wand problem).


Actually I'll raise you:
http://www.coffeegeek.com/reviews/consumer/la_pavoni_romantica/boobopper

Thing of beauty! :D Although I think it's a bit OTT for a first espresso machine ;)
Oh noes... I've got an itch.. it's just like a Julies Verne machine.. (La Pavoni Professional Brass & Wood version). Must.... Resist....
 
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skiba said:
I used to be a professional barista and this guide is not bad, if you really want to be anal I would say that the air pressure can effect the grind also so take that into consideration. A great resource for this and more importantly correct milk steaming is coffeegeek.com
Now if only people like you and I worked in high street coffee shops I could drink coffee again ;)

Oh one other thing, using a spirit level, especially the round ones, is a good gauge of whether you are tamping properly and evenly. If you tamp one sided like a lot of people do the water will filter through that part of the grind more easily and leave you with half used coffee and a potentially weak espresso.
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yer, i didn't really go into dialing in the grind in too much detail, and it gets a little hard to perfect for home users due to the (relative) small quantity of coffe we put through, but you do really need to constantly adjust the grinder to keep the grind right :)

interesting point about the spirity level, i'm always worried my tamps is a bit lop sided... might have to give it a go when the misses isn't around (she already thinks i go too far...) :D
 
As much as I`d love to do proper coffee I could never justify the cost.
Will probably try an Aeropress though.

Didnt know coffee degraded quickly though.
 
Siliconslave said:
interesting point about the spirity level, i'm always worried my tamps is a bit lop sided... might have to give it a go when the misses isn't around (she already thinks i go too far...) :D
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If you have a naked basket you can tell by the colouring of the pour.

If you see blonde areas that's a good sign of channelling where the water has found the easiest path through the grinds leaving the other areas untouched. The blonde nature is because the excess channelled water has caused over-extraction leaving little to be extracted.
 
+1 for a request for info on a good naked PF for a Gaggia Classic. I've seen some Gaggia ones for sale (Happy Donkey I think) but they stated they were not for home machines (i.e. wouldn't fit).
 
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