that you can use to even off the top of the grounds after putting them into the portafilter. The other end is flat, just like a normal tamper:
The trick is that, because the ends screw and unscrew from the body (and can be lock in place because of how it's all threaded internally), you can set it to the right depth so that when you put it into the portafilter, it compresses the grounds just the right amount, and more importantly, it always compresses them the _same_ amount (assuming the same weight of beans) and it always compresses them level. (both of which I have a heck of a time doing reliably with a normal tamper):
Second new toy was a christmas present, a Flair espresso maker. It looks like this in their publicity shots (our kitchen is not as photogenic):
and basically does what it looks like it does; the big metal thing in the middle gets preheated by filling it with boiling water, then you empty it out and put grounds into the bottom part which is a portafilter, put on a dispersion screen, then refill it with water; then pull the lever and a sort of piston inside the middle section forces water through the grounds and makes a shot of espresso. The one I have comes with the pressure gauge, which means that I can tell how much pressure the extraction is happening at, and change it by pressing harder / less hard. It's more effort than the HX machine in the previous post, and it definitely takes some practise to work out how to press on the lever hard enough, it needs a lot of oomph -- but it also makes a decent shot, and is more satisfying to use than just pushing a button and waiting:
I don't know how useful it is to have the angled bit for stirring the grounds up, to be honest, I don't grind right into the portafilter, I grind into the catch bin of the grinder and then shake things about before it goes into the portafilter so it's already fairly well loosened up before it gets tamped, I just got the two-in-one version because I figured I may as well give it a try. But I know that I can't tamp vertically for love nor money no matter how much I've practised..
[/quote]Someday I'm gonna have to just get a machine with a real 58mm portafilter... Someday... when I win the lottery. [/quote]
Yeah, I've had the same second-hand NS Oscar for a long time now and if it ever breaks I don't know what I'd do, most likely have to pay to get it repaired.
On which note, for grinders, I can heartily recommend Baratza as a company, because they make a point of making it possible for people to repair grinders; mine is 7 years old now and they still sell basically all the parts needed to repair it and have videos and detailed instructions on how to do so, which has been useful given how much I've been mistreating it.
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
Finally making cold brew for the first time this year. Went with 7 not-measured cups from the grinder for a gallon and a half of water. Wish me (and everyone else at the cabin) luck!
Finally making cold brew for the first time this year. Went with 7 not-measured cups from the grinder for a gallon and a half of water. Wish me (and everyone else at the cabin) luck!
How much are you going to dilute that?
Stump town suggests 12 ounces of coffee to 64 ounces of water, then cutting that with an equal amount of water when you're done steeping
But they also suggest steeping no more than 18 hours
I just got a Chemex today. Does anyone have any tips, or are the standard instructions good enough? I do have a programmable kettle, as well, which I think will help
Rinse the filter in cold water before putting it into the glass (opening the paper first helps). grind a little finer than french press, but not too much. I usually start at a 15:1 water/coffee ratio and adjust to taste from there. Water temp should be around 190F (88C). Pour a bit of the water (maybe 50-100g) over the coffee to soak it and let the coffee "bloom," i.e. give off carbon dioxide, for about 30 second then begin your pour. Keep all the grounds totally soaked and slowly continue pouring water. If your grind and pour is correct (and you're using the 8 or 10 cup Chemex) the process should take between 4-5 minutes.
I mostly agree with this, but I'd like to add that the best grind/water temp is going to be very dependent on your beans, so experiment around these suggestions. My everyday coffee (Pete's Major D) is at its best brewed at 200*F, with a grind a bit coarser than medium (auto drip), but nowhere near French press coarse.
You're starting off right with the programmable kettle; been using my Chemex for ~3 years, and the kettle allowed a quantum leap in coffee quality out of mine.
Senna1 on
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MegafrostLeader of the DecepticonsRegistered Userregular
Finally making cold brew for the first time this year. Went with 7 not-measured cups from the grinder for a gallon and a half of water. Wish me (and everyone else at the cabin) luck!
How much are you going to dilute that?
Stump town suggests 12 ounces of coffee to 64 ounces of water, then cutting that with an equal amount of water when you're done steeping
But they also suggest steeping no more than 18 hours
I need to adjust my ratio
I've been doing 6 tablespoons of ground beans in a quart-sized jar and filling it with water, then letting it steep for 48 hours. Works fine for me. But I also like my coffee to taste strong.
So I was gifted a French press recently. I have little experience with using one. I usually grind(manual burr grinder handheld) and steep my own cold brew, but I am not opposed to other methods. I just have little knowledge in using a French press. I don't know how much coffee/water to use, what type of grind size, or for how long.
"If nothing is impossible, than would it not be impossible to find something that you could not do?" - Me
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
Finally making cold brew for the first time this year. Went with 7 not-measured cups from the grinder for a gallon and a half of water. Wish me (and everyone else at the cabin) luck!
How much are you going to dilute that?
Stump town suggests 12 ounces of coffee to 64 ounces of water, then cutting that with an equal amount of water when you're done steeping
But they also suggest steeping no more than 18 hours
I need to adjust my ratio
I normally don't dilute but this is a majorly half-assed rush job so all bets are off
My wife just started working at Starbucks (they give benefits to part-time employees???) and she just texted me "they gave me three free bags of whole bean coffee today for some reason."
We already have an entire unopened bag from them on the counter.
So my friends the question is, just how much coffee can Arch drink?
When I discovered that it's possible to buy Starbucks coffee beans I've started a new chapter of my life :rotate: I have my own recipes, which are more delicious(in my and my friend's opinion) than the original Starbucks coffee. Recommend to try it, if you cook coffee yourself.
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Zavianuniversal peace sounds better than forever warRegistered Userregular
So I was gifted a French press recently. I have little experience with using one. I usually grind(manual burr grinder handheld) and steep my own cold brew, but I am not opposed to other methods. I just have little knowledge in using a French press. I don't know how much coffee/water to use, what type of grind size, or for how long.
Bigger and coarser is better for French Press than finely ground.
My question is whats the best 'light to moderate light' coffee in terms of region? I like to buy Starbucks whole bean for my French Press, but really have no idea what the difference is between say Kenyan, Guatemalan, etc. beans. I just know I'm not a fan of strong dark coffee
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SummaryJudgmentGrab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front doorRegistered Userregular
So I was gifted a French press recently. I have little experience with using one. I usually grind(manual burr grinder handheld) and steep my own cold brew, but I am not opposed to other methods. I just have little knowledge in using a French press. I don't know how much coffee/water to use, what type of grind size, or for how long.
Bigger and coarser is better for French Press than finely ground.
My question is whats the best 'light to moderate light' coffee in terms of region? I like to buy Starbucks whole bean for my French Press, but really have no idea what the difference is between say Kenyan, Guatemalan, etc. beans. I just know I'm not a fan of strong dark coffee
My wife and I have been trying to track how we like different kinds offered by our local supermarket
I think we found we like Mexican and maybe Guatemalan the best, but honestly it's difficult to tell from one cup to the next, more to do with how we're brewing it
If we controlled for everything else maybe we could parse it but ain't nobody got time for that
Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
So I was gifted a French press recently. I have little experience with using one. I usually grind(manual burr grinder handheld) and steep my own cold brew, but I am not opposed to other methods. I just have little knowledge in using a French press. I don't know how much coffee/water to use, what type of grind size, or for how long.
Bigger and coarser is better for French Press than finely ground.
My question is whats the best 'light to moderate light' coffee in terms of region? I like to buy Starbucks whole bean for my French Press, but really have no idea what the difference is between say Kenyan, Guatemalan, etc. beans. I just know I'm not a fan of strong dark coffee
I really like African coffees for lighter roasts, usually Ethiopian when I'm using my Chemex or French press. Do you like coffee with a fruity or bright acidity to it? Pure Kona is crazy expensive but does really well at light roast. Beware of "Kona blends" which are like 5% or less of Hawaiian beans and generally garbage. If you have a local roaster go visit them and tell them what you like in coffee and they will almost assuredly find something that will work just fine with your palate and the equipment you have at home.
I have all kinds of good, nice coffee from Bones and the fancy Chicago Starbucks and I keep saying "I'll wake up early tomorrow to make some" and I forget and then I just had bad office coffee at work.
I'm bad at coffee.
Edit: Question for you people who are better at coffee then me. I don't drink much, maybe 4-5 cups a week. I currently just use a Kurig with the fill with whatever cups. Should I just spend like $20 on a french press?
I love coffee but after I started having massive stomach problems and was diagnosed with GERD and Barret's Esophagus, and had to give it up! Had to give up coffee for like 2+ years!
Now: I started using a french press, because I heard that it took some of the acid out of the coffee, and I've been drinking coffee again for the past 8 or 9 months without issue.
I also use a hand-crank burr grinder because there's nothing fancier than hand-cranking your coffee grounds before every brew.
Hey Thawmus, if you want to reduce acidity, a French Press isn't really going to do it, but you can use the French press to make cold-brew coffee which really drops the acidity way down compared with brewing hot water. Also try aiming for darker roasts as light roasts (like I mentioned above) usually have more acidity which leads to the bright, fruity or citrusy flavors.
I've also read about people adding a pinch of (food grade) calcium carbonate or some other alkaline substance to their grounds before brewing to help regulate the acidity but I don't have any experience there other than suggesting further research.
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
I have all kinds of good, nice coffee from Bones and the fancy Chicago Starbucks and I keep saying "I'll wake up early tomorrow to make some" and I forget and then I just had bad office coffee at work.
I'm bad at coffee.
Edit: Question for you people who are better at coffee then me. I don't drink much, maybe 4-5 cups a week. I currently just use a Kurig with the fill with whatever cups. Should I just spend like $20 on a french press?
French press is a seriously great option for your use case, but admittedly only my second favorite.
I currently prefer making cold brew every two weeks. Then I always have coffee available on demand out of a spigot, it's never stale, and it tastes fine to me microwaved if I want hot coffee.
I use a big bucket with spigot and a nut milk bag and mix a bunch of coffee with two gallons water and let it brew for two days. Then it's ready to dispense! I don't know how to measure the amount of grounds and I'm running out the door but it's easy to experiment.
So I was gifted a French press recently. I have little experience with using one. I usually grind(manual burr grinder handheld) and steep my own cold brew, but I am not opposed to other methods. I just have little knowledge in using a French press. I don't know how much coffee/water to use, what type of grind size, or for how long.
Bigger and coarser is better for French Press than finely ground.
My question is whats the best 'light to moderate light' coffee in terms of region? I like to buy Starbucks whole bean for my French Press, but really have no idea what the difference is between say Kenyan, Guatemalan, etc. beans. I just know I'm not a fan of strong dark coffee
Hey man, I buy Starbucks beans for a while. I use this page for making a decision. If I'm not mistaken they update this page sometimes because there were different beans at the top.
So I was gifted a French press recently. I have little experience with using one. I usually grind(manual burr grinder handheld) and steep my own cold brew, but I am not opposed to other methods. I just have little knowledge in using a French press. I don't know how much coffee/water to use, what type of grind size, or for how long.
Bigger and coarser is better for French Press than finely ground.
My question is whats the best 'light to moderate light' coffee in terms of region? I like to buy Starbucks whole bean for my French Press, but really have no idea what the difference is between say Kenyan, Guatemalan, etc. beans. I just know I'm not a fan of strong dark coffee
Hey man, I buy Starbucks beans for a while. I use this page for making a decision. If I'm not mistaken they update this page sometimes because there were different beans at the top.
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Magus`The fun has been DOUBLED!Registered Userregular
So I'm kind of confused on the ratio for cold brew.
Right now I'm using the Gator cold brew container. It holds 5.5-6 cups, as far as I can tell. Many of the recipes I'm reading state that there is a 4:1 ratio of water to ground coffee. However, if I put in 4.5ish cups of water and 1.125ish cups of ground coffee and let it sit for 8-12 hours, the result is both stupid strong and unpleasant, to say the least.
Right now I'm using Starbucks blonde roast with a coarse grind. A lot of recipes also said 2 cups of beans make 1 cup of ground coffee and it's more like 2 cups of beans make 1.9 cups of ground coffee.
We mix in heavy cream and sugar free syrup to make it our keto friendly caffeine source.
So my Gaggia Classic, which I bought second-hand is starting to get some issues and I don't know what I should do about it. Basically, I'm having issues with lime scale clogging a tiny hole in the 3 way solenoid. I've gotten pretty good at removing the solenoid in situ and cleaning it out but it's a pain and obviously not correcting the problem. The scale buildup in the boiler is pretty bad so just a plain descale won't solve the problem. I'm sure the original owner never opened the boiler up and the aluminum boiler and stainless bolts have seized together and resisted any attempts to get the boiler opened up. The other minor issues I have are an occasional loud clack sound after the machine has been on for a while, and a steam valve that doesn't close all the way and drips tiny amounts of water while the machine is on.
My options are: live with the scale issue and keep doing the maintenance I'm doing, buy a new boiler top, group head, bolts, gaskets, etc. needed which would probably run on the order of $200 and then keep up on maintenance going forward, finally I could take this as an opportunity to upgrade to a better machine. Mrs Mittens originally said she was okay with me getting a new machine until she found out how much they were, especially when upgrading to the next tier. So between the guilt of spending a large chunk of money (and probably upgrading my grinder as well) and analysis paralysis of deciding between a large number of very similar but oh so slightly different machines I'll likely just try to live with what I have, maybe take another crack at loosening those bolts with some penetrating oil.
Anyone have one of those higher end/prosumer devices in the $1000-1500 range?
m!ttens on
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
So I'm kind of confused on the ratio for cold brew.
Right now I'm using the Gator cold brew container. It holds 5.5-6 cups, as far as I can tell. Many of the recipes I'm reading state that there is a 4:1 ratio of water to ground coffee. However, if I put in 4.5ish cups of water and 1.125ish cups of ground coffee and let it sit for 8-12 hours, the result is both stupid strong and unpleasant, to say the least.
Right now I'm using Starbucks blonde roast with a coarse grind. A lot of recipes also said 2 cups of beans make 1 cup of ground coffee and it's more like 2 cups of beans make 1.9 cups of ground coffee.
We mix in heavy cream and sugar free syrup to make it our keto friendly caffeine source.
@Magus` it can be pretty difficult to figure out the ratio. Definitely experiment and trust your instincts. It should be repeatable once you've got it down
I brew concentrate and then dilute it, one part concentrate to three parts water
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Magus`The fun has been DOUBLED!Registered Userregular
Thanks!
We recently got a one gallon immersion tank and so far it works out pretty well. Now I need to see what the best coffees are in case the current one could be better and if I should be using filtered water.
Anyone have one of those higher end/prosumer devices in the $1000-1500 range?
I have a Nuova Simonelli Oscar (first version) which was used when it came to me and is still going strong, nine years later -- we have hard water, but it's survived on a pretty lax cleaning schedule. The gen 2 version is pretty much exactly in your price range.
Now, I can't comment on any other machines at the same sort of level, but I like mine a lot. It makes good espresso, and if you want to play around with latte art, it makes a lot of steam, to the point where I've had to use a toothpick to block two of the holes in the steam nozzle to keep it from getting away from me (it's is why I went for this one rather than other options). When it works out, it works out pretty well:
I love coffee but after I started having massive stomach problems and was diagnosed with GERD and Barret's Esophagus, and had to give it up! Had to give up coffee for like 2+ years!
Now: I started using a french press, because I heard that it took some of the acid out of the coffee, and I've been drinking coffee again for the past 8 or 9 months without issue.
I also use a hand-crank burr grinder because there's nothing fancier than hand-cranking your coffee grounds before every brew.
Anecdotally I had bad reflux and cobblestoning in my esophagus and a couple months on a low acid diet was enough to “reset” that I could enjoy coffee and so forth again
I still get minor symptoms every now and then but thankfully long term changes seem to have helped
Make sure you get a blind basket for your Gaggia and backflush at least once a week or so. The holes in the 3 way solenoid valve are teeny tiny and clog up pretty easily.
I have the Encore and it's held up to intermittent use for 8? years.
I'm hoping it won't actually be necessary. Grinders are pricey!
My current one easily chokes out the delonghi with ~10 or more finer settings left so I'm hoping it'll be up to snuff.
They are! An old saying when it comes to espresso machines is to spend as much on the grinder as you do on the machine. That's not strictly necessary, but a good grinder can carry you through a couple of machine upgrades and will generally last a good while longer.
As far as clogging a machine, thats not so difficult, even with an expensive espresso machine. My grinder (a Rancillo Rocky grinder) easily clogs my machine on its finest settings (< 5 on the grinder). The size of and consistency of size of the grind are both factors that need to be considered when purchasing a grinder. More expensive grinders are usually more consistent, and require less tinkering to tune in to your machine.
Steam - Synthetic Violence | XBOX Live - Cannonfuse | PSN - CastleBravo | Twitch - SoggybiscuitPA
Make sure you get a blind basket for your Gaggia and backflush at least once a week or so. The holes in the 3 way solenoid valve are teeny tiny and clog up pretty easily.
Already got a blind basket coming with the machine as well as the Gaggia brand solution. Figured that'd be important.
I think our water in this area is actually not too hard also, and tastes good out of the tap in general, but I'm going to run it through a Britta filter jug before filling the machine I think.
I'll probably be asking in here if I have any trouble with the new setup haha. But hopefully I'll figure it out pretty fast.
Make sure you get a blind basket for your Gaggia and backflush at least once a week or so. The holes in the 3 way solenoid valve are teeny tiny and clog up pretty easily.
Already got a blind basket coming with the machine as well as the Gaggia brand solution. Figured that'd be important.
Cafiza by Urnex works really well too. Cleaning ~1 time a week, I can get about a year out of a container of it. You put 10g or so in your blind basket, flush 5 times, then remove the portafilter and run for a few seconds, the reinstall the rinsed portafilter and flush about 5 times or until clean.
Soggybiscuit on
Steam - Synthetic Violence | XBOX Live - Cannonfuse | PSN - CastleBravo | Twitch - SoggybiscuitPA
I bought a big jug (maybe half a kilo?) of Cafiza off Amazon. It's mostly trisodium phosphate, an awesome degreaser that dish detergent used to be made with before we learned how bad it is for the environment, and some other cleaning compounds. I descale using pure food-grade citric acid, maybe every 6-8 weeks since we have pretty hard water and my machine wasn't in perfect shape to begin with. About a tablespoon of the citric acid in the tank, run it through a cold machine, about a cup at a time turning off the machine and letting it sit off for 5-10 minutes between cycles.
Whole Latte Love has some great teardown and maintenance videos if you need to fix anything or feel free to come here for help!
I really want to get the new Lelit Mara X but uhh... it's almost $1500 and that's quite a bit of scratch. Plus I would need to upgrade my grinder so that's another few hundred as well. I keep checking CL but only see junky steam machines, very tired looking Gaggias or SIlvias, or absolutely beat to hell commercial machines. Is it too much to ask for rich people in my area to buy something nice then decide that a semi-auto machine is too much work and sell it cheap to me? :biggrin:
I have the Encore and it's held up to intermittent use for 8? years.
I've got a Preciso which gets used probably two or three times a day, and while I've had to replace some parts due to wear, Baratza have a lot of info about how to maintain and repair stuff, their parts store sells everything you need, so it's cost me probably $20 or so in parts over the last five years to keep it running as good as new. Highly recommended just because I really like their company policy -- I actually got a sticker saying "repair not replace" in with the most recent burr holder ring I got from them.
Sorry for the double post but dang this steam wand will scorch your milk but fast if you aren't careful.
Still tasted ok to my palate though, but I seem to keep getting a bit of channeling in my shots where it'll start coming mostly out of one side of the portafilter than the other for like 10 to 15 whole seconds. It's not super noticeable on taste but then I had milk in it this time and the puck looked good to me. I think maybe I'm not getting it perfectly level. I need something to brace the portafilter against to tamp evenly.
Posts
This is a two-in-one palm tamper / ODC-clone grounds distributor. What's one of those? Well, it's a two round chunks of metal that fit in a standard 58mm portafilter -- one end has little sort of vanes on it:
that you can use to even off the top of the grounds after putting them into the portafilter. The other end is flat, just like a normal tamper:
The trick is that, because the ends screw and unscrew from the body (and can be lock in place because of how it's all threaded internally), you can set it to the right depth so that when you put it into the portafilter, it compresses the grounds just the right amount, and more importantly, it always compresses them the _same_ amount (assuming the same weight of beans) and it always compresses them level. (both of which I have a heck of a time doing reliably with a normal tamper):
First try seemed to work out okay:
and basically does what it looks like it does; the big metal thing in the middle gets preheated by filling it with boiling water, then you empty it out and put grounds into the bottom part which is a portafilter, put on a dispersion screen, then refill it with water; then pull the lever and a sort of piston inside the middle section forces water through the grounds and makes a shot of espresso. The one I have comes with the pressure gauge, which means that I can tell how much pressure the extraction is happening at, and change it by pressing harder / less hard. It's more effort than the HX machine in the previous post, and it definitely takes some practise to work out how to press on the lever hard enough, it needs a lot of oomph -- but it also makes a decent shot, and is more satisfying to use than just pushing a button and waiting:
It seems like whenever I find a 51mm one on amazon it disappears before I feel up to jumping on it.
Someday I'm gonna have to just get a machine with a real 58mm portafilter... Someday... when I win the lottery.
ebay seems
to have
a few options (all of which look like exactly the same item, just from different sellers, mind you)
I don't know how useful it is to have the angled bit for stirring the grounds up, to be honest, I don't grind right into the portafilter, I grind into the catch bin of the grinder and then shake things about before it goes into the portafilter so it's already fairly well loosened up before it gets tamped, I just got the two-in-one version because I figured I may as well give it a try. But I know that I can't tamp vertically for love nor money no matter how much I've practised..
[/quote]Someday I'm gonna have to just get a machine with a real 58mm portafilter... Someday... when I win the lottery.
Yeah, I've had the same second-hand NS Oscar for a long time now and if it ever breaks I don't know what I'd do, most likely have to pay to get it repaired.
On which note, for grinders, I can heartily recommend Baratza as a company, because they make a point of making it possible for people to repair grinders; mine is 7 years old now and they still sell basically all the parts needed to repair it and have videos and detailed instructions on how to do so, which has been useful given how much I've been mistreating it.
How much are you going to dilute that?
Stump town suggests 12 ounces of coffee to 64 ounces of water, then cutting that with an equal amount of water when you're done steeping
But they also suggest steeping no more than 18 hours
I need to adjust my ratio
You're starting off right with the programmable kettle; been using my Chemex for ~3 years, and the kettle allowed a quantum leap in coffee quality out of mine.
I've been doing 6 tablespoons of ground beans in a quart-sized jar and filling it with water, then letting it steep for 48 hours. Works fine for me. But I also like my coffee to taste strong.
I normally don't dilute but this is a majorly half-assed rush job so all bets are off
When I discovered that it's possible to buy Starbucks coffee beans I've started a new chapter of my life :rotate: I have my own recipes, which are more delicious(in my and my friend's opinion) than the original Starbucks coffee. Recommend to try it, if you cook coffee yourself.
Bigger and coarser is better for French Press than finely ground.
My question is whats the best 'light to moderate light' coffee in terms of region? I like to buy Starbucks whole bean for my French Press, but really have no idea what the difference is between say Kenyan, Guatemalan, etc. beans. I just know I'm not a fan of strong dark coffee
My wife and I have been trying to track how we like different kinds offered by our local supermarket
I think we found we like Mexican and maybe Guatemalan the best, but honestly it's difficult to tell from one cup to the next, more to do with how we're brewing it
If we controlled for everything else maybe we could parse it but ain't nobody got time for that
I really like African coffees for lighter roasts, usually Ethiopian when I'm using my Chemex or French press. Do you like coffee with a fruity or bright acidity to it? Pure Kona is crazy expensive but does really well at light roast. Beware of "Kona blends" which are like 5% or less of Hawaiian beans and generally garbage. If you have a local roaster go visit them and tell them what you like in coffee and they will almost assuredly find something that will work just fine with your palate and the equipment you have at home.
I'm bad at coffee.
Edit: Question for you people who are better at coffee then me. I don't drink much, maybe 4-5 cups a week. I currently just use a Kurig with the fill with whatever cups. Should I just spend like $20 on a french press?
I love coffee but after I started having massive stomach problems and was diagnosed with GERD and Barret's Esophagus, and had to give it up! Had to give up coffee for like 2+ years!
Now: I started using a french press, because I heard that it took some of the acid out of the coffee, and I've been drinking coffee again for the past 8 or 9 months without issue.
I also use a hand-crank burr grinder because there's nothing fancier than hand-cranking your coffee grounds before every brew.
I've also read about people adding a pinch of (food grade) calcium carbonate or some other alkaline substance to their grounds before brewing to help regulate the acidity but I don't have any experience there other than suggesting further research.
French press is a seriously great option for your use case, but admittedly only my second favorite.
I currently prefer making cold brew every two weeks. Then I always have coffee available on demand out of a spigot, it's never stale, and it tastes fine to me microwaved if I want hot coffee.
I use a big bucket with spigot and a nut milk bag and mix a bunch of coffee with two gallons water and let it brew for two days. Then it's ready to dispense! I don't know how to measure the amount of grounds and I'm running out the door but it's easy to experiment.
Hey man, I buy Starbucks beans for a while. I use this page for making a decision. If I'm not mistaken they update this page sometimes because there were different beans at the top.
Hey man, I buy Starbucks beans for a while. I use this page for making a decision. If I'm not mistaken they update this page sometimes because there were different beans at the top.
Right now I'm using the Gator cold brew container. It holds 5.5-6 cups, as far as I can tell. Many of the recipes I'm reading state that there is a 4:1 ratio of water to ground coffee. However, if I put in 4.5ish cups of water and 1.125ish cups of ground coffee and let it sit for 8-12 hours, the result is both stupid strong and unpleasant, to say the least.
Right now I'm using Starbucks blonde roast with a coarse grind. A lot of recipes also said 2 cups of beans make 1 cup of ground coffee and it's more like 2 cups of beans make 1.9 cups of ground coffee.
We mix in heavy cream and sugar free syrup to make it our keto friendly caffeine source.
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
My options are: live with the scale issue and keep doing the maintenance I'm doing, buy a new boiler top, group head, bolts, gaskets, etc. needed which would probably run on the order of $200 and then keep up on maintenance going forward, finally I could take this as an opportunity to upgrade to a better machine. Mrs Mittens originally said she was okay with me getting a new machine until she found out how much they were, especially when upgrading to the next tier. So between the guilt of spending a large chunk of money (and probably upgrading my grinder as well) and analysis paralysis of deciding between a large number of very similar but oh so slightly different machines I'll likely just try to live with what I have, maybe take another crack at loosening those bolts with some penetrating oil.
Anyone have one of those higher end/prosumer devices in the $1000-1500 range?
@Magus` it can be pretty difficult to figure out the ratio. Definitely experiment and trust your instincts. It should be repeatable once you've got it down
I use this recipe, from KitchenAid
https://kitchenaid.com.au/blogs/kitchenthusiast/cold-brew-coffee
I brew concentrate and then dilute it, one part concentrate to three parts water
We recently got a one gallon immersion tank and so far it works out pretty well. Now I need to see what the best coffees are in case the current one could be better and if I should be using filtered water.
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I have a Nuova Simonelli Oscar (first version) which was used when it came to me and is still going strong, nine years later -- we have hard water, but it's survived on a pretty lax cleaning schedule. The gen 2 version is pretty much exactly in your price range.
Now, I can't comment on any other machines at the same sort of level, but I like mine a lot. It makes good espresso, and if you want to play around with latte art, it makes a lot of steam, to the point where I've had to use a toothpick to block two of the holes in the steam nozzle to keep it from getting away from me (it's is why I went for this one rather than other options). When it works out, it works out pretty well:
My main concern is I hope my breville smart grinder might not be the best match in the world for the better machine.
https://baratza.com/
I have the Encore and it's held up to intermittent use for 8? years.
Anecdotally I had bad reflux and cobblestoning in my esophagus and a couple months on a low acid diet was enough to “reset” that I could enjoy coffee and so forth again
I still get minor symptoms every now and then but thankfully long term changes seem to have helped
I'm hoping it won't actually be necessary. Grinders are pricey!
My current one easily chokes out the delonghi with ~10 or more finer settings left so I'm hoping it'll be up to snuff.
They are! An old saying when it comes to espresso machines is to spend as much on the grinder as you do on the machine. That's not strictly necessary, but a good grinder can carry you through a couple of machine upgrades and will generally last a good while longer.
As far as clogging a machine, thats not so difficult, even with an expensive espresso machine. My grinder (a Rancillo Rocky grinder) easily clogs my machine on its finest settings (< 5 on the grinder). The size of and consistency of size of the grind are both factors that need to be considered when purchasing a grinder. More expensive grinders are usually more consistent, and require less tinkering to tune in to your machine.
Already got a blind basket coming with the machine as well as the Gaggia brand solution. Figured that'd be important.
I think our water in this area is actually not too hard also, and tastes good out of the tap in general, but I'm going to run it through a Britta filter jug before filling the machine I think.
I'll probably be asking in here if I have any trouble with the new setup haha. But hopefully I'll figure it out pretty fast.
Cafiza by Urnex works really well too. Cleaning ~1 time a week, I can get about a year out of a container of it. You put 10g or so in your blind basket, flush 5 times, then remove the portafilter and run for a few seconds, the reinstall the rinsed portafilter and flush about 5 times or until clean.
Whole Latte Love has some great teardown and maintenance videos if you need to fix anything or feel free to come here for help!
I really want to get the new Lelit Mara X but uhh... it's almost $1500 and that's quite a bit of scratch. Plus I would need to upgrade my grinder so that's another few hundred as well. I keep checking CL but only see junky steam machines, very tired looking Gaggias or SIlvias, or absolutely beat to hell commercial machines. Is it too much to ask for rich people in my area to buy something nice then decide that a semi-auto machine is too much work and sell it cheap to me? :biggrin:
I've got a Preciso which gets used probably two or three times a day, and while I've had to replace some parts due to wear, Baratza have a lot of info about how to maintain and repair stuff, their parts store sells everything you need, so it's cost me probably $20 or so in parts over the last five years to keep it running as good as new. Highly recommended just because I really like their company policy -- I actually got a sticker saying "repair not replace" in with the most recent burr holder ring I got from them.
Still tasted ok to my palate though, but I seem to keep getting a bit of channeling in my shots where it'll start coming mostly out of one side of the portafilter than the other for like 10 to 15 whole seconds. It's not super noticeable on taste but then I had milk in it this time and the puck looked good to me. I think maybe I'm not getting it perfectly level. I need something to brace the portafilter against to tamp evenly.