Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

Funny, I've just bought my first espresso machine and was choosing between the exact same pair. I plumped for the gaggia, my radon being reliability. There were a couple of telling reviews on the icona, upshot, down the line they leak/break. I receive mine soon, review to come when I get it.
 
Ahleckz said:
Discovered a coffee shop in Edinburgh (http://www.list.co.uk/place/103309-wellington-coffee/) that uses Square Mile coffee. It was really good - much better than the chains/generic indies I've bought from in the past. Quite bitter and sharp, which was great for a lunchtime pick me up. Thinking of buying some of their stuff for home use.

Though £1.90 for a single espresso (take away) doesn't please me.
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weirdly i've been there - stumbled across it while in Edinburgh for a long weekend and dragged the misses half way across town every morning for breakfast there :D I do love how mixed up the review is... "and a guest grinder often featuring Has Bean’s Red Brick, of World Barista Championship fame"
£1.90 isn't too bad for a very small indy - how much does a double espresso go for in starbucks these days? Purfrock is only £1.40 for a single but they get enough trade that they can offer such good prices :)


Oh and always go for the Gaggia at that sort of price point, unless you want to splash out for a silvia or the like...
 
Nah man, £1.90 for a single is pretty bad. There's an indie place near me charging £1 for a single! And yeah, they use mostly SqrMile and some Hasbean coffees, and they're near the train station so their rent must be pretty high.
They do more than make up for it by overcharging for pastry items and sandwiches to hungry commuters though. :p
 
manveruppd said:
Nah man, £1.90 for a single is pretty bad. There's an indie place near me charging £1 for a single! And yeah, they use mostly SqrMile and some Hasbean coffees, and they're near the train station so their rent must be pretty high.
They do more than make up for it by overcharging for pastry items and sandwiches to hungry commuters though. :p
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arr - miss read it as £1.90 for a double - for a single thats pretty shocking (and i'm used to london prices!)
 
Didn't get back to that coffee shop today, probably go again tomorrow though. I didn't even see their guest grinder so might sample that and see if it's any good. £1.90 for a single, aye.

How much is a good price to pay for a Gaggia Classic? Are they these things that are often on offer and best to wait for one? I just remember that I paid off my credit card the other week so could give myself a wee treat. ;)
 
I received my gaggia classic yesterday, the machine itself is nice, however, I've not been able to get a good shot out of it yet.

I'm using pre-ground supermarket coffee (Lavazza-Qualita-Rossa, left over from using with a moka pot). The extraction time (correct terminology?) is quick, 4-5 seconds for a 1oz shot.

What do i need to do to improve the quality of my espresso?
 
From a quick Google it looks like that is a pre-ground coffee "For all coffee machines" which I would presume isn't really as fine as a good espresso grind? If the coffee isn't fine enough the water will get through the gaps too quickly and extraction won't be very good.

The other big variable with extraction time is tamping (pressing down on the coffee grounds to create a puck). The little plastic tamper that comes in the box with the Gaggia isn't really up to much, it's worth spending a little extra and getting a metal one that fills the basket properly.

This is the tamper I ended up buying

It's also hard to tell visually how good your shot is with the basket that comes with the Gaggia - if you have the "crema perfetta" pressurized one that is (the basket will only have a single hole on the bottom then a little plastic thingumy underneath). A proper basket is only a few pounds and will let you see the shot as it actually is, without fake "crema". You can get a decent shot with the stock basket but might find it's a bit more trial and error.

Fresh ground coffee is the way to go though if possible, although I found the Illy stuff in tins isn't bad at a push - needs using up quickly though. Places like Hasbean and Square Mile turn orders round nice and quickly :)
 
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the tamping will help but it won't make near as much a difference as a grinder
(£30 for a hand Porlex hand grinder, £115 for a happy donkey IBERITAL MC2 if you only do espresso - there are other suggestions in the thread....)

to get the best out of the shockingly poor plastic tamper try tamping the four 'corners' of the basket to get a more even distribution & yes, get rid of the crema maker thing if you have it
 
Thanks for your suggestions, I put a bit more muscle in to my tamp and allowed the machine to heat up longer and noticed a slight improvement. Enough to please me after a long day at least.

Have invested in a non pressurised basket and the manual grinder. Will get some beans next time I am in London, I heard there are some good shops around 7 dials?
 
I ran out today and looking for some more.
I was using the house blend from small batch coffee which is one of my favs so far, really nice flavour to it.
Just came across this though so might try it, anyone had CoE before and is it worth the extra £5 compared to most?

http://www.coffeebeanshop.co.uk/colombian-excellence-p-997.html

What are peoples opinions on blends? I have had just the one, the house from sbc shop and it was great. Is just a single blend favoured more on here?
Do some beans work better with the aeropress than others? Nearly all I see they are great for espresso which isn't just a black coffee is it? Usually a base to something.
 
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I'm no subject matter expert on coffee but here's my 2c anyway fwiw.

Nothing wrong at all with blends imo. They enable a clever roaster to create a unique coffee with the level of acidity, fruitiness, sweetness and body that they are looking for.
Blended coffee has more kudos that blending whiskey in my mind.

I have not got an Aeropress yet but I would be pretty sure that some blends / coffees will work better than others.

In fact I just took at look at the link you posted as I have not bought from that company before (I used HasBean). What troubled me somewhat is that for every single coffee I read up on they say:-

This coffee works fantastically well in all brewing equipment, including espresso / cappuccino machines, cafetiere pots, paper / metal filter brewers, and turkish brewers.

Personally, I have yet to find a coffee that works "fantastically well" using all brewing methods. In my (limited) experience, a coffee such as those from Asia and some parts of Africa suit drip/filter/plunge methods far better than they do espresso methods, due to their higher acidity levels and fruity notes.

It is common for a coffee roaster to create and roast a blend of beans, specifically for use in an espresso machine. Generally, for espresso, you are looking for a darker roasted coffee (frequently using beans solely from Latin America) where the beans are roasted darker than the standard "full-body roast" to give body to the coffee and draw out the sweet/caramel flavors (without needing to have the life roasted out of them like $tarbucks seem to do to all their beans).

Ditto, for a french roast, beans are usually selected and roasted for use in a cafetiere where the darker roast will add body.
 
Whoop!

Well, for the last 2 days it's been the World Barista Championships, taking place this year in Vienna.

After many hours of heats, much coffee and quite a bit of interesting information being passed, the 12 through to the Semi Finals have been announced.

El Salvador, Daniel Mendez
Sweden, Per Nordell
Costa Rica, Ricardo Azofeifa Mora
Switzerland, Philipp Meier
Ireland, Colin Harmon
Japan, Miki Suzuki
Mexico, Fabrizio Ramirez
Guatemala, Raul Rodas
The Netherlands, Coen van Sprang
Greece, Stafanos Domatiotis
Croatia, Matija Hrkac
UK, Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood

UK and Ireland are both through. :D

Maxwell and Colin both did fantastic performances. Colin gets better every time. This is his third time in the WBC's and I'm hoping he gets higher than the 2 4th places he's got *personally a win would go down well - such a lovely chap.*

It's all on Livestream at the moment.

http://new.livestream.com/worldcoffee

Also going on is Hasbean Steve hosting Tamper Tantrum Live over the 3 days. There's also the Brewers Cup and Cup Tasters championships going on - we've got a couple of great people in both of them too.

Lynsey Harley in the Cup Tasters and in the Brewers Cup we have Prufrock's own James Bailey.

Finals are taking place on Friday - unfortunately I'm stuck in London for the next two days, touch annoyed, but it's all going to remain online at Livestream.

Watch - Learn - Enjoy.

:D
 
Running order: *nicked from Sprudge ;)*

Complete running order for WBC 2012 Semi-Finals, happening Wednesday, June 14th. All times CEST:

1. 11:17 Raul Rodas, Paradigma Coffee Roasters, Guatemala @raultigre

2. 11:36 Coen van Sprang, Lebkov & Sons, The Netherlands @lebkov

3. 11:55 Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, Colonna and Small’s, United Kingdom @Colonna_Smalls

4. 12:14 Per Nordell, Åre Kafferoster, Sweden

5. 12:33 Philipp Meier, Independent, Switzerland

6. 12:52 Matija Hrkac, Good Food, Croatia @kavica_org

7. 1:11 Fabrizio Sención Ramírez, Cafe Sublime, Mexico

8. 1:30 Colin Harmon, 3FE (Third Floor Espresso), Ireland @dublinbarista @3FE

9. 1:49 Stefanos Domatiotis, Taf, Greece @stefanosook @tafcoffee

10. 2:08 Ricardo Azofeifa, Costa Rica Coffee Institute (ICAFE), Costa Rica @ICAFE_COSTARICA

11. 2:27 Miki Suzuki, Maruyama Coffee, Japan @maruyamacoffee

12. 2:46 Daniel Mendez, Viva Espresso, El Salvador @vivaespresso1 @DaniMendezVE
 
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