Coffee

keep the crazy espresso tips comin this is good stuff

http://imagecdn-0.findnsave.com/289/10039972-420

I will check it out.

I like to make a paste of the coffee and a lil milk and sugar first, smooth it all out adding milk til ive the right amount, then microwave that before adding the hot water, best coffee you'll ever taste #protip

good lord

gbx how many clicks do YOU use??

― Jennifer 8.-( (Stevie D(eux)), Saturday, January 31, 2015 4:43 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good q, no clue -- 3.5 thread roots visible on the adjustment screw

I tighten it all the way and untighten it 10 clicks, rly hope I'm doing the right number of clicks

no charge matt happy caffeine ;)

all of the coffee i make is perfect so i'm not sweating it

Thanks for la pavoni tips! I figured out a few of those on my own, like I just laughed at the tapered "single shot". And was just reading about bottomless porta filters! Seems like something to try. I don't like nu coffee because it kills my stomach but also I don't like how it tastes. We got a blend from the Faema store that refurbed the machine and it was good! But I have other coffee sources I'm going to experiment with.

Biggest issue right now is grinder and tamper. I was looking at the capresso abs or ss and the Gaggia mdf, hmm.

espresso tip - 30 pounds of pressure for legit tamping. get your shoulder squared over top & bear the fuck down. mr veg got me this little rubber pad that helps

oh and we have this stainless steel tray that goes under the grinder, it helps pull out any static - dark roast oily beans get crazy staticky & the tray stops the grounds flying all over the counter

not must-haves by any means, but are cool if yr so inclined

my favorite for espresso shots is def medium roast colombian, i got one from ritual roasters that was like GAME: CHANGED, my shots were like buttah lol

oh and seattlecoffeegear is the website i used - has tons of how-to videos, mad helpful imo

Is there a $500 torque wrench-like gauged tamper for the discerning espresso drinker? If not, let's get rich.

http://espro.ca/tamper/ Damn.

lol holy shit

ehhh that's for pussies

O_O

tampin' it

oh, man alive, what size bottomless portafilter and tamper go with the la pavoni ebr? i guess i could just ask the guys at faema store, but why not ask ilx, and i might buy online.
my bf got a standard portafilter for the machine rather than the pressurized one it originally comes with because he'd been told that was the way to go.

oh hang on, hang on, that's a diff model then I have, for some reason I assumed you were talking about a europiccola (lever machine) based on what you said. Don't know if all my tips apply then. Probably some of them don't. I do stand by bottomless portafilters in general though, don't know what would fit but most places that sell them tell you which models they fit.

my favorite for espresso shots is def medium roast colombian, i got one from ritual roasters that was like GAME: CHANGED, my shots were like buttah lol

― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 31 January 2015 23:44 (Yesterday) Permalink

Medium roast colombian is my go-to for espresso as well, it's the most bang for buck (I find that even with the cheaper beans you can get good shots out of it for whatever reason). I do like Stumptown's Hair Bender a lot but for a while for everyday use I was just buying bulk colombian from costco.

yeah it's p reliable even when it's not fancy $$$

oh those pavoni lever machines are so cool and beautiful. its design would make our quaint kitchen look shabby, haha.
i think my bf got this one because it was there at the time and an inexpensive refurb, checking the boxes of what we can deal with right now.

going to get a freakin grinder asap. and some mildly-fancy medium roast.

I'm still not in the market, but Breville makes a $600 machine w/ grinder and temp control, etc. built in - espresso people, predictably, think it's garbage. But the average drinker would probably think it's capable of making a good espresso, right?

I don't know enough about it but my strong suspicion is that espresso snobs are basically audiophiles.

$600 is too much to pay for a goddamn Breville imo, and that's not me being a snob

if you have that kinda scratch, get a good brand refurb or at least invest in something with replaceable parts & longevity

i have had a breville electric kettle for 1 year & it's already starting to rust ffs

The Breville is well designed and makes a good espresso but it breaks quickly and has electronic controls you will not ever need -- their customer service is lousy where I live and it isn't serviceable by folks who know espresso machines, so mine had to go in the garbage after a a year and a half, which suddenly makes $600 for a decent machine and a decent grinder crappy value.

The current value-for-money/snobs-will-not-mock-you champion is Lelit, an Italian company that is relatively new in espresso machines and thus not quite as well known, but which has been making industrial steam irons (!) for decades which are considered by industrial steam iron snobs to be top notch. You know how those industrial steam iron snobs are.

My espresso shop guy, who runs his own repair shop, started carrying the brand after opening one up and being seriously impressed by the build quality, and he insists he has not had to repair one in the two years he's been carrying the brand. I have heard that the non-European distributors kinda suck, but they are really good machines and make really, really good espresso if you are into practicing and getting it right.

Wow, seriously envious of the Europiccola and its spartan looks. Anyone have tips associated with the Gaggia Classic? After a few years heavy use, I just recently took the thing out of storage, disassembled, and thoroughly cleaned everything.

I'm still not in the market, but Breville makes a $600 machine w/ grinder and temp control, etc. built in - espresso people, predictably, think it's garbage. But the average drinker would probably think it's capable of making a good espresso, right?

I don't know enough about it but my strong suspicion is that espresso snobs are basically audiophiles.

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Sunday, February 1, 2015 6:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well paying $600 for a breville with everything built in is probably the equivalent of buying a $600 "all-in-one" stereo when you could get better individual components for the same total price. Buy the $100 Capresso grinder and spend $500 on a separate espresso machine and you'll be happier with the results.

Sure, I get that about automation and fragility and buying parts - but the espresso people are less "buy a receiver at the pawn shop" and more "my diamond-encrusted cable really allows me to HEAR this section of Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' for the first time."

Made a Moka Pot cup for the first time - medium roast from a local roaster, espresso grind on my grinder, boiled water then poured it in and screwed on the top, took it off of heat once I couldn't see the bottom anymore (was following half-remembered instructions I saw online) - it was very smooth, not nearly as heavy/thick as I was expecting. Not sure it will be a good option for bleary-eyed mornings given the need to clean quickly and the possibility of self-injury, but neither would an espresso machine - and I can always just down a couple of shots of my cold-brew concentrate if all I need is caffeine.

The thickness in espresso is about as much from your bean blend (more robusto = more thickness) as from the method, but moka pots make a really tasty hybrid that I like better than filter coffee.

Sure, I get that about automation and fragility and buying parts - but the espresso people are less "buy a receiver at the pawn shop" and more "my diamond-encrusted cable really allows me to HEAR this section of Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' for the first time."

Mostly no. The difference between the espresso you get out of a top-quality commercial machine like a La Marzocco and out of a substandard quality home machine is enormous. There are pricey but not insanely pricey home machines where you can get pretty close to the Marzocco quality with the right technique. And certain factors in making espresso are pretty well-established -- pressure, temperature, grind, tamping (not to speak of the beans themselves). The best machines are simply able to produce the appropriate pressure and temperature consistently, which is surprisingly difficult. Other bells and whistles can make a difference -- the bottomless portafilter, for example, but there's a pretty commonsense reason for that one -- in a normal portafilter oils from the coffee build up and are hard to clean away. The bottomless portafilter simply eliminates that problem.

meanwhile

http://www.unicefusa.org/press/releases/unicef-too-many-children-dying-malnutrition/8259

as someone diagnosed with scurvy due to a diet of only coffee and patisserie, i sympathize with their plight

momateurist

Are there double-blind taste tests between $200, $450 and $800 grinders?

Oh on the grinder I agree -- at some point your grinder is 100% adequate to make good espresso and it's other things driving the price (elaborateness of "dosing" feature, liability to break down etc.)

proud of rrrobyn's coffee journey, I may have seen her grab some pre-ground coffee out of a freezer once and said nothing

my grinder is the electric bodum one (uhhh I am sure I got a deal or something) and I broke the container that came with it so now I hold a cup under it and it still sprays grounds all over the counter

oh yeah, and my friend bought me some kona beans for christmas and they were delicious! even pulled out my french press.

milo on some great "I mash the beans on the ground with my boot and lick the grounds off the pavement" shtick

cowboy coffee or gtfo

Haha mh I know, I was a coffee heathen for real (my grinder broke and I took like 2 years to replace it...)

I just cleaned my cheap burr grinder and discovered it's not mod-able :/ so I may just go for the baratza in my price range. Oh this coffee journey...

I shave myself into my French press, just plunge the result and I'm good to go

godspeed on the way to the coffee promised land

Intelligentsia beans are apparently widespread enough here that Target is carrying them, if only regionally. Weird.

For crazy coffee shit, I do appreciate the HG-One, it looks like a futurist sculpture.

i was trying to get into coffee so i was drinking it pretty frequently and various types for about two weeks. then this weekend i decided to take a break. good lord. i felt ill and had a headache for 1.5 days.

how do you guys deal with the withdrawals?

drink coffee

i was afraid of that :'(

other stimulants

Can't go around it, gotta go through it. On day 3, the sun rises and the birds chirp.

Meth.

never withdraw

coffee is ride or die

quitting is the worst

if you have to, gradually cut back but dont cold turkey. it aint worth the death-feeling