Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

^ I've got the Kingrinder K6 that is the 'top budget' option in that Youtube video and talked about it in this thread. I think generally it's very good, echoing the points made around the burrs and the ease of use. I paid £84 so not as cheap as some of those above me although that was same-day delivery. That said there are two things I would flag.

1. To be portable you have to remove the lid and handle, so I think there are better options for that.
2. For cleaning you have to remove a small c-clip and then take it apart (once a month) and that can be a pain to get back in (maybe it gets easier as you do this more often).

But for me as an introduction to hand grinders and for my decaf coffee it has worked very well so far.
 
We still haven’t got our Barista Express fixed. I opened it up and it all looked OK but I didn’t have the tools to try and repair it myself. The shop is still saying about 4 weeks if we send it in

So I’m tempted to use Black Friday deals and get a new one. If this happened at any other time and we had more money I always wanted to upgrade to a dual boiler model but they have the Barista Pro for £535 on Sage at the moment.

Is that machine still worth getting today? I was always happy with the BE apart from the time to change over to the streaming and the general power from th stream. The Pro looks like it addresses those issues but also seems it almost the same machine other than the heating element being more efficient
 
Raymond Lin said:
I just came back from Japan, with the Aero Press and 1zpresso Q Mini with the metal filter.

A couple of thoughts.

1 - The metal flter was a great idea, everything was together, and I didn't have to go and find the 30 paper filters I had with me (which I did bring as well)
2 - Coffee was good, no different.
3 - 1 house we rented didn't have a mug/cup quite large enough, it was tilter and made a very awkward and scary pressing process.

Going to HK next Friday and I think I will take the metal V60 folding one to try this time.
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I’ve been using a coarse metal filter on my Aeropress for some time now (I think 0.2mm holes). At the moment I’m really into the additional texture and mouthfeel over paper filters.
 
went for the Pro over the express as with discount it felt like a decent deal. Do wish I had the spare cash for the dual boiler machine but it’s now quick enough between pulling a shot and steaming the I don’t mind it too much.

Though using beans that are 3-4 months old probably didn’t do the machine any favours. Will need to start getting fresh beans again now we have a machine
 
Thought I'd join in the coffee fun :)

Currently enjoy my coffee as espresso and filter depending on the day of the week!

Usually my week days are filter coffee with an Aeropress, I use a Fellow Ode gen2 for grinding my morning brew and I take a hand grinder (1zpresso K Ultra) and pre weighed doses to work.



Fridays (WFH day) and weekends are almost entirely espresso. Usually a short black coffee in the morning and a cortado or flat white in the afternoon.

I use a Niche Duo grinder paired with an ACS Vesuvius, I use a profile that uses a long pre infusion of 18s at 2bar, then up to 10bar which follows a declining pressure profile for the remainder of the shot. Essentially it mimics a lever profile.


Bean choices are varied, for espresso I like medium dark to darker roasts, from a variety of roasters with traditional flavour profiles such as:
Rave Chatswood (black)/Mocha Java (White)
Coffee Compass Java Jampit

But I do get the odd (rare) god shot from lighter roasted coffees when the stars align! (Pressure profile, temperature, ratio etc)



With filter I tend to try a variety of flavours and processing methods, preferring single origins from roasters such as Rave, BlackCat, Wogan, Django etc.

Happy to help if I can!
Cheers
 
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BAcon said:
Thought I'd join in the coffee fun :)

Currently enjoy my coffee as espresso and filter depending on the day of the week!

Usually my week days are filter coffee with an Aeropress, I use a Fellow Ode gen2 for grinding my morning brew and I take a hand grinder (1zpresso K Ultra) and pre weighed doses to work.



Fridays (WFH day) and weekends are almost entirely espresso. Usually a short black coffee in the morning and a cortado or flat white in the afternoon.

I use a Niche Duo grinder paired with an ACS Vesuvius, I use a profile that uses a long pre infusion of 18s at 2bar, then up to 10bar which follows a declining pressure profile for the remainder of the shot. Essentially it mimics a lever profile.


Bean choices are varied, for espresso I like medium dark to darker roasts, from a variety of roasters with traditional flavour profiles such as:
Rave Chatswood (black)/Mocha Java (White)
Coffee Compass Java Jampit

But I do get the odd (rare) god shot from lighter roasted coffees when the stars align! (Pressure profile, temperature, ratio etc)



With filter I tend to try a variety of flavours and processing methods, preferring single origins from roasters such as Rave, BlackCat, Wogan, Django etc.

Happy to help if I can!
Cheers
Click to expand...
Fair play on taking a grinder to work. I’m a touch lazy - tend to brew a couple of double espressos in the morning and put in a zojirushi flask with 65 degree water and then top up at work with the hot water tap. Sees me through the day and a neat £8 saving on buying coffee round the office.
 
BAcon said:
Thought I'd join in the coffee fun :)
Click to expand...

Welcome, nice setup :) I've had a bit of a mixed experience with Rave, just cracked open a new bag of theirs for the first time in a few years but a little early to pass judgement yet... Although i do also have this to try:

Screenshot-2025-12-04-at-10-31-56.png




Very glad not to have to do work coffee any more, but I do have a flat pack V60 thing and timemore grinder for trips - and a Yeti flask with the HotShot™ Cap which is incredible. Keeps drinks warm for ages and is actually nice to drink from :)

Alex_L said:
So, after a bit of a wait my zerno z1 arrived. Significant upgrade on my df64 even after a single evenings tasting session. Glad I didn’t jump all the way to a Kafatek flat max just yet.
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The Zerno looks an amazing grinder, very jealous! Personally I can't justify changing my grinder for now, and your getting into seriously diminishing returns when you get over the £1.5-2k mark (not that I wouldn't sell a kidney for a weber EG-1)
 
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Siliconslave said:
The Zerno looks an amazing grinder, very jealous! Personally I can't justify changing my grinder for now, and your getting into seriously diminishing returns when you get over the £1.5-2k mark (not that I wouldn't sell a kidney for a weber EG-1)
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Definitely a really quality product and I’m staggered how compact it is. I’m definitely well into diminishing returns now given the df64 was £399 vs the zerno which was a shade under £1500 landed in the end. In comparison to the solo:

- it’s clearly made to a much tighter tolerances and with more thought to every element of design and workflow e.g. burr alignment is perfect (checked yesterday)
- Support wise feels much more behind it than the solo.
- as a platform for burrs it feels much easier to change burrs for different coffee and brew methods
- grind consistency between adjustment feels much more reliable - which as a decaf drinker is nice to be able to precisely switch back and forth daily.

Whether that’s worth £1100 is another matter .
 
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Alex_L said:
Fair play on taking a grinder to work. I’m a touch lazy - tend to brew a couple of double espressos in the morning and put in a zojirushi flask with 65 degree water and then top up at work with the hot water tap. Sees me through the day and a neat £8 saving on buying coffee round the office.
Click to expand...
Taking the grinder to work was a breakthrough. The main hurdle was being seen as "that nerdy coffee guy".... But I have managed to recruit a few fellow coffee lovers around me and was able to normalise grinding coffee at work over a few weeks.... I stopped short of the scales by bringing measured doses in!

Zernos look like a great piece of engineering, so good choice :)
 
Got a stupid question about cleaning my Sage machine. Do the cleaning tablets that you put into a blanked portafilter basket descale? Or should you also descale via the water tank?
 
manic111 said:
Got a stupid question about cleaning my Sage machine. Do the cleaning tablets that you put into a blanked portafilter basket descale? Or should you also descale via the water tank?
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My Sage Bambino Plus requests cleaning and descale cycles separately, with different combinations of blinking lights. Cleaning powder goes in the basket, descale tablets go in the water tank. The cleaning cycle is preset to something like every 200 shots, and can't be dismissed, so if you're about to pull a shot or steam milk you can't....:mad:

I don't know what prompts the descale cycle, but this can be dismissed and will remind you when next powered on.
 
manic111 said:
Got a stupid question about cleaning my Sage machine. Do the cleaning tablets that you put into a blanked portafilter basket descale? Or should you also descale via the water tank?
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The cleaning solutions, such as Caviza or Puly Caff that are put into a blind basket in the portafilter, are for back flushing.
The purpose of back flushing essentially is to clean and remove coffee oils from the brew group, the solenoid and the vent pipe that ends up in your drip tray. It's a powerful detergent. Note you should back flush with water once you've done several back flushes with detergent.

I am not sure what tablets you are using exactly, but descaling is facilitated via the water tank, unless of course you do a manual descale by disassembling everything.
 
If you have a machine at home with a solenoid valve, I would back flush weekly with detergent.

My back flush method would be 10s of pump on, 5s off, then repeat for a total of 2mins ISH.
Then do the same with water, maybe for a minute, then remove the blind basket and portafilter, and pull some water through the group finally to clear it out.

If you have an e61 group with cam lever, then I would do it much less frequently, I do mine monthly, and ensure to lubricate the cam and group internals thoroughly after back flushing via disassembly of the group lever, and using some molykote 111, food safe grease.
 
backflush - can often hear and see in drip tray when solenoid valve is opening cleanly and dumping dirty detergent;
after first running pump for 10/20s I often wait for a minute before running pump again to allow detergent to sit/act in the 3-way valve/tubing;
and then leave the detergent residue in the drip tray to clean that, too.

.. and every couple of months soak whole pf in boiling water with some puly-caf to clean that too for a few hours (spout on mine has always been unscrewable - loc-tite)
 
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