Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

starfighter · 20 Sep 2008 at 12:00

Macdonald's coffee ***. no **** with a £300 machine you can make good coffee. Do it for £3 and then I will be impressed.

Flibster · 20 Sep 2008 at 12:12

starfighter said:
Macdonald's coffee ***. no **** with a £300 machine you can make good coffee. Do it for £3 and then I will be impressed.

The force is weak with this one.

MuckyD's coffe is bitter nasty stuff.

I make better coffe daily with a £18 machine and £5 of locally roasted coffee that I grind before work - that £5 woth of coffee will last me all week and the machine has lasted almost a year so far.

So....

Thats about 75P a day if my maths is accurate, and thats for a couple of cups a day.

starfighter · 20 Sep 2008 at 12:49

Flibster said:
The force is weak with this one.

MuckyD's coffe is bitter nasty stuff.

I make better coffe daily with a £18 machine and £5 of locally roasted coffee that I grind before work - that £5 woth of coffee will last me all week and the machine has lasted almost a year so far.

So....

Thats about 75P a day if my maths is accurate, and thats for a couple of cups a day.

Time is money my friend.

I am not 100% serious. I am going to get a coffee machine at some point. Probably not quite as fancy as some of these but maybe a basic gaggia as they do look well made, hate cheap plastic rubbish.

But I do also like Maccys coffee. Double sausage and egg mcmuffin and a coffee is the best thing they do, chuck the hash brown away.

titchard · 20 Sep 2008 at 12:56

starfighter said:
Time is money my friend.

I am not 100% serious. I am going to get a coffee machine at some point. Probably not quite as fancy as some of these but maybe a basic gaggia as they do look well made, hate cheap plastic rubbish.

But I do also like Maccys coffee. Double sausage and egg mcmuffin and a coffee is the best thing they do, chuck the hash brown away.

McDonalds coffee is terrible, it's not even on par with instant I don't think at all!

Also "Time is money" Probably takes you more time and money to get to McDonalds to get your coffee in the first place!

Rich

NickK · 20 Sep 2008 at 14:15

To make good coffee all you need is:

a) Good fresh coffee to start with.
b) Something to grind it, could even be a whirly blade (*shock*)
c) french press (aeropress is better although you need to grind smaller - flibster)
e) good technique (ie not pouring boiling water on it which will scold it and make it bitter!)

That's it.. You'll get the real taste of coffee.

For the Iberial - CoffeeGeek even has a review for that!
http://www.coffeegeek.com/reviews/grinders/iberital_grinder

aceface57 · 20 Sep 2008 at 16:08

On the recomendations in here I have bought the Breakfast Bomb and the Monsoon Malabar coffee's to try. I only currently have a cheap greek filter machine and a bodum cafetiere. Will get another espresso machine soon I think though. Love my coffee!

Siliconslave · 20 Sep 2008 at 17:21

NickK said:
Now I'm hoping this will tempt SiliconSlave into the world of levers.. and a new camera lens..

git! thats a lovely looking setup

Lens and lever wise it might be on the cards post christmas when i get the new car sorted and have a bit of free cash again...

ThriceNightly · 22 Sep 2008 at 20:37

NickK said:
The grinder is the most important part.
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. .

thanks have picked up a zass on the bay (from german dealer - cleaned and ready to go)

will let you know how i get on with it once it arrives

NickK · 22 Sep 2008 at 22:46

aceface57 said:
Monsoon Malabar

This may taste very different to what you're used to

Monsooned Malabar is a coffee that spends the monsoon (monsooned is actually a term about the ageing process) in special warehouses that they open the sides in the damp/humidity. The beans then swell in the bags and undergo a transformation in appearance and taste.
I has a distinct taste supposedly (I've not actually tried it yet as I'm still working my way through south america).

Also if the bean is only just roasted you may find that it tastes better after three or four days. This is because gases (CO2) are still coming out of the beans after they've been roasted for several days. If the bags didn't have valves on they inflate until they pop!
edit: I'd go with the cafetiere rather than the filter machine..

ThriceNightly - nice

it'll be interesting to see if you note a difference in taste.

ThriceNightly · 22 Sep 2008 at 22:58

NickK said:
ThriceNightly - nice it'll be interesting to see if you note a difference in taste.

taste and experience

this will be the first time i will be grinding my own beans

have also ordered 250g of this

http://www.hasbean.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=315

NickK · 22 Sep 2008 at 23:18

ThriceNightly said:
taste and experience

this will be the first time i will be grinding my own beans

have also ordered 250g of this

http://www.hasbean.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=315

Hehe you're going to have to review that!

bigmouse64 · 23 Sep 2008 at 00:07

Seems like an awful amount of time spent on a tiny cup of coffee. Guess there's quite a following in this interest.

The machine things do look awesome though.

Bossk128 · 23 Sep 2008 at 08:59

bigmouse64 said:
Seems like an awful amount of time spent on a tiny cup of coffee. Guess there's quite a following in this interest.

The machine things do look awesome though.

True, but they taste really quite different from hifh street espressos, much smoother not bitter with a syrupy feel to them. Really nice. Plus you choose the beans, so you only make your favourites, plus once you figure out it's nowhere near £3 a cup like the high street charges, you have loads of them!

aceface57 · 23 Sep 2008 at 11:19

Well I ordered on the friday and they have turned up today yay! Going to try out a cup of monsoon malabar, won't touch the breafast bomb just yet as I have to go to sleep soon. I could smell the coffee even before I opened the package.

titchard · 23 Sep 2008 at 11:34

bigmouse64 said:
Seems like an awful amount of time spent on a tiny cup of coffee. Guess there's quite a following in this interest.

The machine things do look awesome though.

It's not just a tiny cup of coffee though - as that shot is the base for a lot of coffee beverages.

The coffee is WORLDS apart from the stuff that you get in jar.

Rich

NickK · 23 Sep 2008 at 11:59

aceface57 said:
Well I ordered on the friday and they have turned up today yay! Going to try out a cup of monsoon malabar, won't touch the breafast bomb just yet as I have to go to sleep soon. I could smell the coffee even before I opened the package.

When was it's roasting date?

If it's the previous day then the reason for so much coffee smell is because the CO2 is still 'degassing' from the beans. I'd give it a few days as it can alter the taste of the coffee.

Siliconslave · 23 Sep 2008 at 12:02

just splashed out on a 6 month subscription to square mile - 6 lovely bags of random goodness - can't wait to see what i get first

The bag of WBC Espresso blend i got from them was fantastic (as you'd expect... http://www.squaremileblog.com/2008/07/13/the-last-of-the-wbc-blend/)

Anyone used a Chemex drip filter thing at all? i'm strangely tempted as a cheap second brewer for larger quantities but i'm worried that my step less grinder will make it a pain to maintain two grind profiles

maybe time for a hand grinder as well

BigBoy · 23 Sep 2008 at 12:58

/me Is a trained Barista and your coffee is looking good. But to be honest you are putting to much ground coffee in the portafilter basket you should be using no more that 7.5g a grounds but this can very a little with each machine. The Gaggia you have is one of the best home espresso machines you can buy and for the money is very good value.

Your Crema looks a little dark for my liking, and you should see a light spot on the top of the crema where the last drop of liquid entered the glass .

Get some Diamond scales of coffee scales (They are the same thing just one has a different shape basket to the other) for measuring the amount of grounds you put into the portafilter.

Some would say your grind is a little too fine. But I could not comment as unless i can feel and see it properly i could not tell to be honest.

Other than that its looking good.

Siliconslave · 23 Sep 2008 at 13:22

hey, thanks for the comments

i know i'm over filling the basket slightly... but for ease of leveling & with a lack of decent scales i'm not too worried.

grind wise i'm constantly adjusting the grind based on the Time : Volume ratio of 25 seconds : 30ml (or 60 on a double) and i do get a bit of blonding at the end of the pour... you can just see the light spot on this americano (pulled into hot water from the bottomless)

out of interest where did you train & where do you work at the moment?

NickK · 23 Sep 2008 at 13:46

This was a photo from my first night of MCAL ownership and with trial beans to help a complete novice home-barista get the grind dialled in, the pour temperature right etc. Also explains the complete mess!
MCAL is known for it's slightly anaemic amount of crema compared to other machines. This is a single basket too.

I should take another photo at some point as the recent pours have been a lot better with deep reds, some blonded shots and a bit more crema.. but above all the taste is a lot better than those shots!