Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

Yeah, just snug it up and don't crank on the screw when fitting it back on. And good plan on buying spares - preventative maintenance is the way!
 
Just purchase our first coffee bean machine. Gone for something that hopefully should help a newbie out with it's assist. The Ninja Cafe Luxe Pro 701. Managed to grab it for £480 after discounts, so price wise. doesn't seem to bad. Hopefully can make some drinkable coffee's :-)
 
Nope, 57mm, the downside of the Lelit Anna is the unusual portafilter size (although maybe a blessing in disguise if it saves me from wasting money on accessories I don't need :p)
 
shroomz said:
I've got a sage dual boiler and smart grinder combo to play with for 6 weeks. I think I'm finally getting the hang of making tasty espresso and steaming milk. Currently on a single origin Brazilian from Blind Owl that was all the good stuff I brought with me, I've only made it in v60 and feel I've potentially made things harder for myself than I strictly had to for learning with a more traditional espresso blend.

Anyway, I'm having so much fun I'm considering buying one for home. I'm 90% set on a df54 or df64 for the grinder. For the espresso I think I'd go for the same sage dual boiler option it seems to have by far the highest features for the price and seems a really good modding community exists online. I've seen the Hoffmeisters video on the topic but was curious if ocuk had any other ideas to throw in the mix to consider? I might be able to stretch to 2k for the espresso machine, I'm slightly interested in the Decent but I think I'll only appreciate the options maybe 10% of the time, usually I'll just want a tasty consistent drink without extra faff so I'm probably not the right customer (much as I like the idea). Another option is the profitech 600 maybe or another dual boiler? Not sure having not seen it in person or worked it.

Do any of them get made for lefties?
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If you're already willing to spend £2k, get a La Marzocco Linea Micra for the extra ( though takes you closer to £3k, think they're about 2700 on black Friday usually).

I upgraded from the sage oracle and absolutely love this machine, absolutely just works, incredible steam pressure.
 
Any other Niche Zero owners here?
The retention on mine is the only gripe I have with this, otherwise fantastic, grinder.
18g of Indian Monsoon Malabar beans turns into 17.2g ground coffee. If I rock the grinder it might come to 17.8g but rarely hits the 18. I have to drop a couple more beans in (which makes dosing into cellars less time-saving).
I appreciate MM is a dry bean and is more prone to retention, but any other beans I use (all RAVE at the moment) have some retention. 18g in is never 18g out unless some of the retained ground coffee comes out suddenly on 2nd or 3rd pour in a session.

A little while later and there's a little mound of coffee on the wooden plate - clearly has fallen out after being retained so long.

I cleaned it out a month or so ago, maybe I need to do it again. I don't want to go back to RDT if I can help it, although it works well for me.
 
I have a question for the thread. In short, does it make as much difference buying fresh decaffeinated whole beans as it does normal whole bean coffee?

I've been looking over the usual UK speciality coffee sellers online; Ride & Grind, Rave, Wogan, Origin etc. To try and find some options to order. And the Decaf selection is sometimes uninspiring. Which isn't that different from the old Nespresso days. Often a lack of choice when compared to normal whole beans. I've been looking at single origin coffees and it seems like it might be worth prioritising trying different brands of normal coffee and maybe not worrying about decaf as much. I've also read certain comments that for some roasters decaf can be an afterthought and something they don't take as much care with. Just wondered what some peoples experiences were on here.

Thanks in advance.
 
Decaf actually degrades quicker than regular coffee and given that its less popular (especially in the fancy coffee world) it doesn't make sense for roasters to roast and store lots of decaf only for it to go off.

Its also harder to get 'right' and more costly to produce
 
Siliconslave said:
Decaf actually degrades quicker than regular coffee and given that its less popular (especially in the fancy coffee world) it doesn't make sense for roasters to roast and store lots of decaf only for it to go off.

Its also harder to get 'right' and more costly to produce
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Thank you.

I've only been at this for a few weeks now, but been learning on widely available supermarket beans (again I know, need to venture out in fresh roasters, which I'm doing) I have tried two different wholebeans of each: Tesco house-blend medium & Costa Coffee Signature blend No.3. On the decaf side; Raw Bean Decaf and Tesco Finest Single Origin Columbian. The normal coffee has more prominent flavours, which again is the same as the Nespresso. Which obviously makes sense based on what you've said, plus what I've read online.

So it just makes me think prioritise trying lots of fresh normal coffee and find something nice on the decaf side, but not worry as much. I don't always have a second cup so the decaf is less important in that sense.
 
lord filbuster said:
Wogan's 50:50 is also very good, it's half decaf half regular beans, although obviously it's only lower caffeine rather than fully decaf, if that matters for you.
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Wogan is on my list, but I'm close to putting an order in with Rave first tbh. But I will get to them.

Needs to be full decaf. I don't like to exceed even one normal coffee a day. I suffer from ocular migraines and its worked for years to keep my caffeinated brew down to one per day and it helps keep those a very rare event. However ty for the suggestion.
 
glitch said:
Owned one, never had that problem. Once the grinds had got into all the nooks and crannies inside after a couple of doses, 18g of beans in resulted in 18g of beans out.

I was always an RDT person though, so YMMV.
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I can confirm this is true. After reading your comment I stopped using this bellow thing and then after a few uses I checked the output weight, it is exactly the same that i put in.

How much is the exchange? don't know, but if I use the bellow, the difference is only like 0.2g at most anyway so that is not a lot of exchange being taking place.
 
Timber said:
I have a question for the thread. In short, does it make as much difference buying fresh decaffeinated whole beans as it does normal whole bean coffee?

I've been looking over the usual UK speciality coffee sellers online; Ride & Grind, Rave, Wogan, Origin etc. To try and find some options to order. And the Decaf selection is sometimes uninspiring. Which isn't that different from the old Nespresso days. Often a lack of choice when compared to normal whole beans. I've been looking at single origin coffees and it seems like it might be worth prioritising trying different brands of normal coffee and maybe not worrying about decaf as much. I've also read certain comments that for some roasters decaf can be an afterthought and something they don't take as much care with. Just wondered what some peoples experiences were on here.

Thanks in advance.
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Give Decadent Decaf a go. Not cheap, but I was impressed with all the beans I had from there.
 
batfink said:
Give Decadent Decaf a go. Not cheap, but I was impressed with all the beans I had from there.
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Ty again. Looks like they are based in Europe? Will check it out. Hadn't thought to look for a dedicated decaf bean seller. Although it's going to be easier to order everything from the same seller to reduce postage.
 
Going to start weaning myself off putting milk in my coffee, not only does my stomach don't really agree with it, it's healthier without. It turns out my stomach don't even agree with Oats milk either, Soya is okay but might as well cut it out if i can.

But boy....now you realise how much of milk can mask the taste of bad coffee lol. Luckily my roasting technique isn't too bad, my roasts are quite enjoyable.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
But boy....now you realise how much of milk can mask the taste of bad coffee lol.
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I used to be able to drink coffee without milk once, particularly with instant coffee years ago. It absolutely masks bad coffee. I do drink semi-skimmed which destroys latte art, or isn't as good as full fat milk, but it's what I'm used to.

Had a few bits arrive today, including the Hario Switch. Hadn't realised it came with some paper filters so now have an abundance of them. Will be trying this over the next few days.

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