Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

[youtube)AggdV3jOV9I(/youtube] ;)

£4.50?!? bah - i've got into the habbit of buying redbrick and sweetshop from Square mile almost exclusively now - £7.50 - £10 a bag (350g)... but if you compare it to, say starbucks, thats still very cheap a cup and infinitely better. If you want cheap coffee may i suggest this :p

loving the London Coffee week cups this year:

5epCmM1.jpg
 
Last edited:
I normally go for the more caramel/toffee coffees but thought I would try it. I love it the blueberry flavour. As the cup cools the flavour kind of mixes to a more fruity flavour so get it while it's hot! :)
 
Evening. :)

Day one of London Coffee Festival is over. I've spent the day tweeting what was going on. Not particularly easy when some of the the info is coming so quickly.

Best bit, I'm not tweeting from my personal account. I'm on the UKBC twitter feed. Oh yes... I'm an official tweeter. :D

So after day one, we've got a new UK Cup Tasting Champion and a new Coffee in Good Spirits champion. Both off to the World Championships later this year.

Tomorrow, Latté Art and Brewing championships. Again, I'll be tweeting using the UKBC account and the officially sanctioned hashtags. :D

There will be a live stream available for the UKBC on Saturday and Sunday. We tested it today and with the limited bandwidth that was available it was a bit jerky, but we're getting a dedicated line for us at the weekend.

It'll be streaming on http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ukcoffeeevents
 
Trust me on this, you soon get sick of that video. ;) Having it on 2 or 3 times an hour for 4 days... Still, London Coffee Festival was fantastic.

Now we a 3 time UKBC champion on John Gordon going to the World Championship in Melbourne. Shame, I was cheering for Estelle of Caravan Kings Cross tbh. But John nailed it.

The event itself was fantastic, found some really cool things there that I WANT... Rocket espresso machine, Ikawa roaster *they're doing a kickstarter soon for a home user version.. want want want want*.

My personal highlight was watching the 2008 World Champion, Gwilym perform in the Ibrik championship. Was chatting to him shortly before and it turned out that he had never made an Ibrik before, and had only turned up with coffee and teaspoons. So spent time wandering around the various stands borrowing some equipment he needed and borrowing other kit from other competitors. :D His performance was excellent though for sub 45mins prep and still managed to come 3rd in that championship.

I picked up a *more than a* few coffee's and have been sharing the beans around. So far, the outstanding one has been from Grumpy Mule, Brazil Serra Dos Crioulos. Just a really good drinking coffee. Union's Finca el Pileto has been going down well to.

Heads up time - Square Mile are doing a competition winning pack until Monday iirc, comprising of the coffee that won the UKBC, the coffee that won the brewers cup and the coffee that took 1st, 2nd and 3rd at the aeropress championship. It's not cheap at £30, but the coffees are absolutely cracking.

You can see some photo's of the UKBC events on Flickr from Glenn and Kate who were there and rocked.

The video's are also online still at www.ustream.tv/channel/ukcoffeeevents/ - I'd particularly recommend watching Gwilyms performance as it's astonishingly good. :D

Thats all for me now...

Actually, maybe not. There's anew coffee subscription service starting up soon called Blank Box Coffee. I believe it'll be a monthly subscription, and you get 2 125g bags of coffee a month. The interesting bit is that the bags are blank and just have a red or blue logo on. So you can taste them without knowing anything about them. Sounds like a great idea. The coffee information is on the web page so you can look it up afterwards, or before if you want to spoil the surprise.

Definitely it for now. ;)
 
Flibster said:
Cravendale isn't a bad milk. It's what I use at home. Partially, because it lasts so well *and I rarely have any milk in my drinks, it's mainly for the other half* and because it steams so nicely and it's so consistent. I can get it almost anywhere in the UK and know that I'll be able to get the same results.
Click to expand...

See i don't understand this attitude. The consumer will spend a fortune on hand selected, carefully crafted, perfectly roasted, responsibly sourced coffee beans, then finish off a milk based coffee beverage with bog standard, aggressively processed, more-close-resembles-water-than-milk tonic. Whats the point in going to all that effort on the coffee and finishing it with lager-wee water?


Please please don't ruin your coffee with the garbage that is cravendale! You want something wholesome, unhomogenized and quality like Guernsey. 300% more omega 3 than the mass produced holstein stuff.
 
Last edited:
BunnyKillBot said:
See i don't understand this attitude. The consumer will spend a fortune on hand selected, carefully crafted, perfectly roasted, responsibly sourced coffee beans, then finish off a milk based coffee beverage with bog standard, aggressively processed, more-close-resembles-water-than-milk tonic. Whats the point in going to all that effort on the coffee and finishing it with lager-wee water?


Please please don't ruin your coffee with the garbage that is cravendale! You want something wholesome, unhomogenized and quality like Guernsey. 300% more omega 3 than the mass produced holstein stuff.
Click to expand...


I have had a very good professional barista tell me that Cravendale is a good choice for steaming and it's what I use at the moment (the blue top). I can't really comment too much more on this but I'm sure Flibster will at some point. He didn't say it was the best milk, just very convenient in that it's easy to obtain, results are repeatable and it lasts a long time.

I've never actually tried steaming unhomogenized milk. The local supermarket sells unhomogenized Guernsey milk. How well will that steam and taste compared to Cravendale? I always thought that stuff was too dense.

Please educate us!! :)
 
Hamster said:
I have had a very good professional barista tell me that Cravendale is a good choice for steaming and it's what I use at the moment (the blue top). I can't really comment too much more on this but I'm sure Flibster will at some point. He didn't say it was the best milk, just very convenient in that it's easy to obtain, results are repeatable and it lasts a long time.

I've never actually tried steaming unhomogenized milk. The local supermarket sells unhomogenized Guernsey milk. How well will that steam and taste compared to Cravendale? I always thought that stuff was too dense.

Please educate us!! :)
Click to expand...

Well for one, Guernsey milk has a higher protein content, and its the protein content that creates the stable micro-foam. It's also got a higher natural fat content, which means the whole milk breaks the less-fat-is-more-foam curve. I steam whole raw guernsey milk every morning for my morning coffee, and i easily double it.

Taste-wise, its beyond comparison.
 
Last edited:
BunnyKillBot said:
Well for one, Guernsey milk has a higher protein content, and its the protein content that creates the stable micro-foam. It's also got a higher natural fat content, which means the whole milk breaks the less-fat-is-more-foam curve. I steam whole raw guernsey milk every morning for my morning coffee, and i easily double it.

Taste-wise, its beyond comparison.
Click to expand...

Thanks Bunny! Will pick some up next time I'm out shopping and give it a go.
 
BunnyKillBot said:
See i don't understand this attitude. The consumer will spend a fortune on hand selected, carefully crafted, perfectly roasted, responsibly sourced coffee beans, then finish off a milk based coffee beverage with bog standard, aggressively processed, more-close-resembles-water-than-milk tonic. Whats the point in going to all that effort on the coffee and finishing it with lager-wee water?


Please please don't ruin your coffee with the garbage that is cravendale! You want something wholesome, unhomogenized and quality like Guernsey. 300% more omega 3 than the mass produced holstein stuff.
Click to expand...

See I don't understand this attitude. The consumer will spend a fortune on hand selected, carefully crafted, perfectly sourced coffee beans, and then go and stick milk in the resultant beverage. Just wrong :D
 
Been playing with some of my beans from the London Coffee Festival. I've got some beans in a bag with no label on at all. It's weird as hell, I ended up with a couple of bags of coffee dropped into my backpack by someone when I wasn't looking.

I'm pretty sure that it's a blend, and I'm positive that one of the beans in it is a Ethiopian Yirgacheffe that's been naturally processed. Just a huge smell of artificial strawberry flavouring, as is normal from a Yirg natural.

Now, I'm no natural fan. You don't eat other things that have been sat rotting, so why should I make coffee with it. ;) But, this as espresso is pretty spectacular. The strawberry becomes muted and this huge caramel and dark chocolate comes to the front.

I really want to know whose coffee it is and what's in it. I want more. :D The only information I have is a roasted on date... other than that, naff all.

Back on the milk debate, I've got some Waitrose Jersey milk and some Cravendale full fat. Not actually tried steaming either of them yet. But I'll give it a go tomorrow. Still got 1/2 kg of this coffee to use. :D
 
It sounds like it may be a Holy Grail affair. You may never know! Nice surprise though :)

Back on the milk. I tried steaming some Jersey gold top yesterday and.......no microfoam whatsoever. Just ended up with a flat flat white. Maybe the Classic just isn't up to the job but I'll probably give it another go tomorrow.
 
First impressions of Jersey milk.

It's a pain in the backside to get steaming well. I've gone through 1 1/2 litres of it today and got what I would call acceptable milk on around 1/3 of that.

Once it has steamed though, it holds itself up well. Made the other half a hot chocolate with some and she said the foam held up all the way through her drink. Taste wise, I'm not a huge milk drinker, but this is a creamier texture and seems to add a vanilla element. Will grab some more tomorrow and have a bit more of a play with some other coffee.
 
Hamster said:
Back on the milk. I tried steaming some Jersey gold top yesterday and.......no microfoam whatsoever. Just ended up with a flat flat white. Maybe the Classic just isn't up to the job but I'll probably give it another go tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Coincidentally, I also tried some Jersey gold top at the weekend. Used my stove-top steamer and was able to get decent microfoam, but I thought it was just too sweet and creamy. I stopped having sugar in my coffee (and tea) a couple of years ago but this tasted like I'd added a teaspoon or two. Too much for me, I'll stick with semi-skimmed (or occasionally full fat) Cravendale.
 
Been having pike place from Starbucks, mostly because its a little cheaper than hasbean but its not bad! It's a little more citrus than I'd prefer but plenty of crema and not bitter.
 
Flibster, how are you getting along with the Square Mile Competition pack? Struggling with the Vunga a little - really doesn't work in my Gaggia but getting a nice, but subtle sweetness from the Clever Dripper...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom