Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

alex24 said:
I think there are other factors too. As my beans age the ground weight for a given time changes.
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Pretty much this. As beans age you have to grind finer as your initial dial in settings slightly change. Weighing and timing enables repeated consistency.
For example I lob my beans into a small airtight tin. As I work my way through the beans, by the time I've reached the bottom I'd have made a small tweak to the grinder so I can keep to my 18.5g in, and 36-37g out in 30-32secs.

Raymond also mentions flow in his post. Some of these scales will give you a flow rate. Thanks to that feature I can tell in seconds if my shot is flowing too fast or slow and immediately stop it.
 
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Kainz said:
Really good. I’ve stopped using Rave as a result and they know it - got so many coupon codes lol. I am still sifting through Redber’s single origin stock but their Columbia Excelso beans are delicious. Haven’t tried their monsoon beans just yet!
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Based on an earlier recommendation in this thread, I also gave Redber a try recently (after my long-time xmas+birthday subscription to Square Mile expired) and have been very happy and will continue to order from them for the time being. The beans are dispatched the days after roasting. Last week I ordered 500g each of:-

COLOMBIA EXCELSO HUILA (for espresso)
KENYA PEABERRY (for filter)
Plantation Rum-Infused Colombia Finca Sofia (In the freezer - not tried yet but hey, I wanted free delivery!)
 
jpaul said:
in what way then ? doesn't the aesthetics of the lever and pre-infusion really carry it ...... no knock box in close proximity ?
a rotary would be nice too kinda like havinga 6cylinder car.
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Heat-up times and overshooting temps on first run in an attempt to warm the grouphead is a pain. Granted it's faster than most e61s but compared to the 4mins of Oracle, it's still a faff. Water tank placement needs the removal of the top tray. Wand arm position is awkward. Drip tray volume is poor. The oracle just has significantly nicer refinements for a 10yr old design. Knock-box was in the kitchen needing a wash.

Will continue trialing it. My friend has the 700 and rotary version and it is fantastic.

I've cut down some panels to give a view of the internals and installed a little lighting:

8mnpGwA.jpeg


Raymond Lin said:
This is the one.

It's built much nicer than I expect for the money. Battery life is amazing. I don't think I've charged it once since owning it. I would say the nit pick would be the on/off switch feels cheap and the rubber cover slides around a bit.
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I'm still a huge fan of the scales Ray!
 
DarkShadow said:
Heat-up times and overshooting temps on first run in an attempt to warm the grouphead is a pain. Granted it's faster than most e61s but compared to the 4mins of Oracle, it's still a faff. Water tank placement needs the removal of the top tray. Wand arm position is awkward. Drip tray volume is poor. The oracle just has significantly nicer refinements for a 10yr old design. Knock-box was in the kitchen needing a wash.

Will continue trialing it. My friend has the 700 and rotary version and it is fantastic.

I've cut down some panels to give a view of the internals and installed a little lighting:

8mnpGwA.jpeg




I'm still a huge fan of the scales Ray!
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Nice set up.

The scales is probably my best Aliexpress find.
 
Raymond Lin said:
It was one of the criteria when I was doing my search, it has to be USB-C, not even micro USB. There is even a rubber cover on it, so it's water proof to an extent.
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I have some Timemore scales for pour over that look very similar but are a bit to big to fit on the drip tray of my Silvia so hopefully these will fit in nicely.
 
GTanny said:
I have some Timemore scales for pour over that look very similar but are a bit to big to fit on the drip tray of my Silvia so hopefully these will fit in nicely.
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If it's this Timemore then it's 26mm. The Funny scale is not much thinner, 24mm with the rubber mat or 22mm without. I guess 10% thinner.

sigmacoffee.co.uk

Timemore Black Mirror Plus V2 Coffee Scales | Sigma Coffee UK

Brand new released Timemore Black Mirror Basic Plus V2 Coffee Scales. UK stock dispatched within the UK. Free Tracked Delivery with Royal Mail Tracked.
sigmacoffee.co.uk
 
Raymond Lin said:
If it's this Timemore then it's 26mm. The Funny scale is not much thinner, 24mm with the rubber mat or 22mm without. I guess 10% thinner.

sigmacoffee.co.uk

Timemore Black Mirror Plus V2 Coffee Scales | Sigma Coffee UK

Brand new released Timemore Black Mirror Basic Plus V2 Coffee Scales. UK stock dispatched within the UK. Free Tracked Delivery with Royal Mail Tracked.
sigmacoffee.co.uk
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I have V1 of this but its more the length than the height as it hangs over the edge of the drip tray and sits at an angle so hopefully this would fit nicely just under the portafilter
 
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Afternoon all.
I have £400 of John Lewis vouchers burning a hole in my pocket, I’d like an Oracle Jet but they’re not in stock (luckily and probably a little bit exuberant anyway)
So is there any appreciable difference in terms of functionality between the Barista Touch and the Barista Pro?
 
NoNameNoNumber said:
Afternoon all.
I have £400 of John Lewis vouchers burning a hole in my pocket, I’d like an Oracle Jet but they’re not in stock (luckily and probably a little bit exuberant anyway)
So is there any appreciable difference in terms of functionality between the Barista Touch and the Barista Pro?
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For that kind of money, I'd buy a refurbed (older) Oracle from idoodirect on ebay, they're regularly between 5-600.
 
Raymond Lin said:
He doesn't have money, he has John Lewis Vouchers, I think he wants to use those. Unless you can spend JL vouchers on eBay?
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The touch is about £800 iirc, so he's spending £400 on a pretty basic machine when an Oracle can be had for not much more and end game territory (can upgrade grinder along the journey).
 
So the Oracle is justifiably more expensive. How long does it take to warm up?
£835 gets me an excellent condition one, that's the direction you guys would recommend?

I'm trying to get away from the espresso machine/separate grinder combo at the wifes request.
 
NoNameNoNumber said:
So the Oracle is justifiably more expensive. How long does it take to warm up?
£835 gets me an excellent condition one, that's the direction you guys would recommend?

I'm trying to get away from the espresso machine/separate grinder combo at the wifes request.
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From cold between 3-4 minutes. Usually warm by the time, I've got the milk and PF ready. The grinder is the same as the smart grinder pro which is a decent entry point. There's always scope to use a separate grinder but you're still netting a dual boiler for the same footprint and generally cheaper than a dual boiler.

I'd personally hold fire until the 15/20% voucher drops and check in daily. They regularly drop between 5-£600. Some machines drop even lower. The auction style ones missing parts yield even better deals:

FG7o1q0.png


Will add a warning: Please learn the basic maintenance required, especially changing the O-rings on dual boilers. On the older machines, they need servicing and they can cause a lot of grief.
 
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DarkShadow said:
From cold between 3-4 minutes. Usually warm by the time, I've got the milk and PF ready.
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the bottom of the portafilter and even the head can't be up to temp in that time unless there is a discrete electric, or thermo syphon there ?
my bezerra hx machine is a good 15mins ... and with two heat-ups / 4 doubles a day is taking nearly 1unit of electricity a day, when I had monitored it a while back
(was considering additional boiler insulation following starmers mantra)

e: bought some of the waitrose colombian today - on offer - roast date showed start of Nov - tastes fine and had to tighten grind significantly
 
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