Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

mmmm..... hehe :)
I know what I want now - The Ascaos iMini grinder and the Europiccalo but with a house move coming up it's not going to bless my presence just yet..

Is the splatter at the start, end or all the way through?
 
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NickK said:
mmmm..... hehe :)
I know what I want now - The Ascaos iMini grinder and the Europiccalo but with a house move coming up it's not going to bless my presence just yet..

Is the splatter at the start, end or all the way through?
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that would be a great combination.... the Europiccola is gorgeous and the iMini is an amazingly well formed little grinder. Maybe next year sometime once i've got the rest of my tech/car lust out the way :D

The splatter seems to be only at the start.... i think it might be cause my tamper doesn't fit exactly, the basket that came with it is about 2mm larger than my current one which i tried on the second shot... the second was a lot better but still had a bit.
 
Our business is mail order / online fresh coffee beans

How do you know they're fresh? We stamp the roast date on every pack. Not the 12mth forward 'best before' date that the 'big boys' put on for amusement value. Damn right its best before then, a long while before!

We think our coffee is at its optimum up to about 8 weeks while sealed in the one-way valve bags that we pack all our coffee in; 12mths is a bit of a stretch! Also needs a few days to rest after roasting - perhaps 10 days in the bag. Will start to stale noticeably 10days after the bag is opened - not in the sense that it will taste poor, but the crema will drop off if preparing as an espresso.

Have posted elsewhere on this forum at length this morning, so wont repeat, send us an email or Skype if you have questions




Reiss.
http://LondiniumEspresso.com
 
Just bought myself one of these:

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Now, to Hasbean for some more beans!
 
Actually one point hit me that wasn't stated here and that's extraction at too cooler temperature. The taste is sour.. (as opposed to the other extreme of bitter/burnt)
 
I just had to go and make a coffee with my Gaggia after reading through this. Sitting sipping a frothy latte right now! \o/

I have a blade 'grinder', keep eyeing up proper burr grinders, what are hand grinders like as I've noticed they're a lot cheaper. :)
 
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i want to grind my own beans

burr grinders are quite pricey :(

are there any cheaper alternatives that anyone can recommend

i am currently using a £20 aerobie plunge pot which makes a smashing cup of coffee compated to my previous bodum

looking for a grinder ideally around the same price
 
Gaggia for me is Saeco,eheh

http://www.saeco.uk.com/
great expresso makers

Portuguese are one of the people most addicted to express - a normal person drinks 7 / 8 per day
I only drink one after lunch - too much caffeine is not the best for health:eek:
 
ThriceNightly said:
looking for a grinder ideally around the same price
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An old used Zassenhaus off ebay, there's loads. I managed to snag one for 18 Euro inc postage from Germany. The older models are actually better than their current ones (which cost around £30) because they have a more finely-graded adjustuble grind. The mechanism itself is steel so there won't be any rust or anything.
 
The grinder is the most important part.

The perfect grind is one where the resulting coffee grounds are:
* uniformly sized depending on the setting - this means the extraction is even and the rate of extraction is defined and can be used in the coffee machine design.

* grinds the bean quickly but with little heating effect which means only a small amount of the oils and volatile compounds evaporate.

Whirly blades we'll not cover here.. but they're ok for french press but it is commonly accepted that a burr grinder will give better taste - even in a cafetierre.

There's different types of burrs:

Conical - the majority of manual and the 'cheaper' burr grinders are of this design. Basically it is two cones with the centre cone rotating. The cones have teeth which do the grinding - like a pepper mill.
The output is good enough for espresso. Although the grounds themselves aren't as uniform as flat burrs.

Flat burrs - are like a set of mill wheels which grind the coffee quickly and more uniformly. These appear on mid range grinders in varying sizes from 50mm, 58, 62 and 68 on the big expensive grinders (83mm in the case of the $1800 Mazzer Royal).

The top line grinders like the Robur are a hybrid that have teeth on the inside too.. The design of the teeth and the burr itself is a major factor.. but just acknowledging that.. we can move swiftly on.

Arabic mills grind to powder, further than espresso.. so they're of no use to us.

The level of grind also plays a part in selecting what we'd need. So a Gaggia - we're looking for an espresso grind and for the aeropress we're looking at a medium grind.

Both can be done by conical and flat burr.

Next is how adjustable it is. This makes it harder or easier to switch between the sizes of grind. In short there are two types:
Stepped - think of this like discreet selectable distances between the burrs. It makes it easy to select but also means you can't get anything between them.. which may cause a problem.
Stepless - think of this as an infinitely adjustable distance. Better for fine tuning but more of a pain if selecting between values.

Last but not least is the term "doser"/"doserless" which is basically if the grinder has a second hopper that stores the grounds until you dispense them using the lever.
A doser breaks up the clumps of grounds making a easier distribution of coffee in the portafilter basket.

I have a stepless and doserless. So basically I can fine adjust it and the ground coffee comes straight out of the burrs and down a chute - into the portafilter basket in my case but this can also be a bag if I'm grinding medium for french press. Although the stepless makes it more time consuming to alter the size of the grounds.

Now with that... back to grinders.

Zassenhaus is the daddy for manual grinders. Have a read of this thread on home-barista about handmills. The OP of that thread has lots of experience with handmills.
However this guy is great - don't put up with second best. Take the burrs out of the Robur (very expensive) and make it into a hand grinder.. topped with a zassenhaus lever for rotating it.. here

Going electric will see a jump in price to get over the whirly-blade shredders.. certainly not £20 for a new burr grinder. Second hand just look out for the known burr models and snap them up. Nothing stopping you from replacing worn out burrs and getting a bargin (assuming you can get the burrs!).

Ascaso iMini
Rancillo Rocky

There are people out there that use £1000-2000 grinders with inexpensive presses and espresso machines.
 
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As this is the official coffee thread of OcUK.. I suppose I'd better post this for completeness.

Macap MC4 on the left. You can see the chute which is really designed for bag grinding but works well for single shots too.

IMG_0517.JPG


Now I'm hoping this will tempt SiliconSlave into the world of levers.. and a new camera lens..
 
NickK said:
...for the aeropress we're looking at a medium grind.
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Always used esprsso grind in my Aeropress. Found that the water passes straight through on anything less and you end up with a real weak and watery coffee.

NickK said:
One last point about Zassenhaus. I remember that someone got annoyed with the manual effort and made the the Zassendecker with an electric screwdriver.
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I like that idea. So much better than doing it by hand. :D
 
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