Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread
- Thread starter Siliconslave
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Soldato
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I might pick that Christmas blend up.
Is the hasbean £20 tamper going to okay for doing the job? It is replacing a plastic tamper so I can not see it being worse!
Is the hasbean £20 tamper going to okay for doing the job? It is replacing a plastic tamper so I can not see it being worse!
Been a while since i last posted in here, still read regular and as always i think this thread needs more photos
Anyway thought i should post incase anyone is contemplating at the moment, i recently fitted a Rancillio Silvia arm to my Gaggia Baby Dose and as many have said it has improved my milk steaming quality massivly
i also gave the unit a good descaling which helped a lot.
Im going to get a full set of seals and give it a good strip down and going over as i also have a bad leak around my basket.
next stop is after Christmas is out the way im going to get some good coffee from hasbean, maybe look into a auto grinder too as my hand grinder takes so long ive resorted to preground Illy... and even have some decaff as the local shop had run out of normal
Anyway thought i should post incase anyone is contemplating at the moment, i recently fitted a Rancillio Silvia arm to my Gaggia Baby Dose and as many have said it has improved my milk steaming quality massivly
i also gave the unit a good descaling which helped a lot.
Im going to get a full set of seals and give it a good strip down and going over as i also have a bad leak around my basket.
next stop is after Christmas is out the way im going to get some good coffee from hasbean, maybe look into a auto grinder too as my hand grinder takes so long ive resorted to preground Illy... and even have some decaff as the local shop had run out of normal
Starting to get the hang of it now 
took me probably 300g of beans though lol..
pressurised basket the gaggias now come with is proper crap every shot no matter what tasted sour...
with the non pressurised basket I could easily go from one extreme of sour to the other extreme of bitter and now I've found roughly where I need to be in order to make a nice cappuccino and a drinkable espresso.
I dont understand why anyone would ever want the pressurised basket, if you want to use pods why waste money on an expensive starter machine when you could just get a tassimo for £40.....
Btw is the only reason the manual says not to use the steamer for more than 60 seconds because the milk will get to hot or because it might damage the boiler ?
took me probably 300g of beans though lol..pressurised basket the gaggias now come with is proper crap every shot no matter what tasted sour...
with the non pressurised basket I could easily go from one extreme of sour to the other extreme of bitter and now I've found roughly where I need to be in order to make a nice cappuccino and a drinkable espresso.
I dont understand why anyone would ever want the pressurised basket, if you want to use pods why waste money on an expensive starter machine when you could just get a tassimo for £40.....
Btw is the only reason the manual says not to use the steamer for more than 60 seconds because the milk will get to hot or because it might damage the boiler ?
You should steam the milk up to around 65 degrees C. You can get a thermometer which will have that marked on it, and you'll eventually learn when to stop by feeling the temperature of the jug.
I would expect the manual says that because the boiler won't be able to produce steam continuously for more than that amount of time. I couldn't tell you whether that would damage the boiler or not though.
The boiler is only about 100ml so steaming more than a certain amount of time will run it dry. For this reason, a milk pitcher above 16oz is not recommended. If you have to continue steaming, you need to refill the boiler. I do this by turning on the brew and steam switch until water starts coming out of the steam wand again. As molinari says, aim for around 65c. Above 70c and the milk changes flavour for the worse (there is a scientific explanation for it but I can't remember what it is!)
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Caporegime
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I think you begin to split the milk, the fat from the water.
At this budget, don't even think about an electric grinder.
Either a Porlex or Hario Skerton are the ones to go for at that price. Both are capable burr grinders.
Caporegime
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5 bags ordered, hopefully get here by Saturday.
Associate
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25% off hasbean orders over £15 code naked73
Soldato
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Our Gaggia Classic is on the way. Got a £25 Amazon voucher so £125 all in.
Got a £25 Amazon voucher so £125 all in.Thx. The porlex looks good. Any difference in the tall and the mini?
I would go for the tall given no info.
Above that temperature, the proteins will start curdling very quickly, and it's all about the proteins when it comes to getting lovely creamy microfoam.
That 25% off code for Hasbean would have been handy a few days ago, oh well.
Yyea I can't belive that code comes out after I spent about £50 at hasbean in the last 2 weeks
I'd imagine It's just the size of it
I have the tall version and it probably only holds around 25-30g of beans at most.
It takes me about 1minute to grind 14grams going at super speed
3 clicks from locked is the setting I'm using for most beans btw, 2 clicks seems to fine and the pump in my gaggia new baby struggles unless I only tamp very lightly.
BTW a word of warning to new gaggia owners apparently the solenoid valve is a smaller diameter since 2010 and It will get easily blocked when backflushing so do it at your own risk.
Also make sure you get a non pressurised basket asap the pressurised ones they ship with make a really crap espresso unless your using pods
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Soldato
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Our Gaggia Classic is here! Unfortunately a bit late for coffee but I'll have a bash in the morning (and make some coffee).
5 bags ordered, hopefully get here by Saturday.
The top one - ordered something similar (Wote washed) back in September. Very hard to grind with my porlex.
The bottom one, beans are a fair bit softer to grind, I had to make sure my porlex was on the right setting. Good coffee though, I only drunk one cup so far but over Xmas its getting a hammering!
This. Anyone know how long the code is valid for?
Soldato
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It's expired already. Only valid on up to 3 bags of coffee anyway.
Caporegime
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The top one - ordered something similar (Wote washed) back in September. Very hard to grind with my porlex.
The bottom one, beans are a fair bit softer to grind, I had to make sure my porlex was on the right setting. Good coffee though, I only drunk one cup so far but over Xmas its getting a hammering!
I have a iberital so it doesn't bother me