Coffee machine

[Frosty]

7g to 100ml for 30 sec ? What are you using to make that shot ?

 

7g should pull around a 30ml shot in 25 seconds from my experience or something is off

Thanks, I saw the mistake... my espresso machine's tank is 100ml, but that allows for a double espresso, with some water left over. A single shot is about 35-40ml (you loose some steam in the process).

[Frosty]

Some gold nuggets here guys, read up !

 

I struggle with my Bialetti, any advice on grind and how much to use ?

To me with an electric stove plate it seems a bit hit and miss in terms of the heat it receives, gas would be better ?

 

Also while most decent coffee shops in Pretoria make a good cappuccino, from the ones I've tried so far only Pure Cafe and the new LivLife (not sure what it's called) in woodlands mall makes a decent espresso. The others - Woolworths, Full Cream Cafe and Vovotelo's all produce sour underextracted shots in my opinion.

 

Maybe you need to go give them some lessons

If you have a grinder, try adjusting the size of the grind - it worked for me.

[Frosty]

Splat and Wayne - I haven't frothed milk on the stove for a few years, since I got a machine with a proper steam wand. I do remember that full-cream was better than low-fat with the stove-top-and-beater approach, but I don't think I ever used long-life/UHT that way.

 

With a steam wand it's different. UHT seems to work okay (at least it did, the one time I tried it) but, with fresh milk, the fresher the better. Colder is better, too - gives you more time to "stretch" the milk into micro-foam.

 

It may be useful to differentiate between the micro-foam that we aim for with a steam wand, and what you will get from other methods. Micro-foam has bubbles that are too small to be seen with the naked eye, so the milk develops a satin-like sheen. Also, the old days of producing a cap of stiff foam floating on a sea of milk are long gone - we now aim for all of the milk to have a light, creamy consistency, that you can part with a spoon but which immediately "heals".

 

To get this consistency, you'll often see a barista whacking his milk-jug on the counter top (settle down, boys!) to break up any remaining large bubbles - and then swirling the jug and/or pouring the milk from one jug to another to integrate the foam and milk. If you want to do latte art, you absolutely have to get your milk to the right consistency.

 

The other advantage of a steam wand is that you can control the temperature of the milk, which you do by touching the side of the steaming jug - when it's too hot to touch, it's ready. Too-hot milk is can have a burned flavour, and is considered a fault - even though quite a lot of people complain if their cappuccino isn't scalding hot.

 

But it's a bliksem to get micro-foam without a proper steam wand. In my experience, the best you can hope for is a fairly silky cap of foam on top of hot milk, but I must admit I haven't tried all the gadgets that are available...

In a previous post a few minutes ago, I referred to "technique".

I'm fortunate to have been shown how, although my skills are far from my "Journeyman".

[Frosty]

Some excellent points on a good coffee there.

 

I tend to store my coffee grind in the fridge, it helps to keep the staleness away as the fridge is a kind of dehumidifier, otherwise vacpac. I am 75 km away from decent coffee, so I have to store it up. Thankfully a local shop has started roasting, so I will definitely be keeping fresher beans.

 

I have realized that low fat is actually easier to steam, and yes, the coffee does have more flavor.

 

To make coffee you need to determine what you want. For me the process of making is part of the routine, it makes me relax. Taking a break to focus on creating a coffee often provides the interruption my mind needs to refocus freshly.

 

If you just want to drink it, get an automatic machine.

Make sure you keep the coffee in an air-tight container, otherwise your coffee can be "contaminated" by other stronger aromas.

[Frosty]

Okay, who wants some coffee...??

The Ariette "You & Me" is still my favourite (the red one)

[Frosty]

[Frosty]

Are the "Auto" machines (Bean to cup?) able to run on manual so to speak? I believe that the secret to a good cup of coffee is water temperature and exposure time of the coffee to the water. With a manual machine you can adjust the amount of coffe that you use as well as the lenght of time that it is in contact with the water/steam to vary the results. Are you able to do this with an auto/one touch machine?

Can't answer the "Auto" question, don't have one...

 

Other factors:

Bean size - once ground

Bean freshness

[jannosmit]

Okay, who wants some coffee...??

The Ariette "You & Me" is still my favourite (the red one)

 

I have have a Russell Hobs 3-in-1 like that, second to right! So far so good!

[jeremyd]

Thinking of getting a DeLonghi ECAM 23.450 (around R6500)... anyone heard any good/bad?

There are 2 things we take when we go on holiday, our bikes and my delonghi ecam 23.450 machine. Life is waayyyyy to short for bad coffee. The ease of use (cuppucino in seconds and cleaned just as fast). I haven't had 1 bad cup of coffee. We use Illy beans. It was the first machine that gave me a trully hot cup. You can set heat of your water and the size of the cup. Rand for Rand it is the most cost effective machine and compares really well to the more expensivemachines. The guy who said he had a weak cup of coffee..who did the demo. You can set your strength from weak to very strong with the push of a button. (so the wife can have a weaker cup followed by you with a much stronger brew.) We don't go anywhere with dragging our whole machine with us. Best investment we made.

[walkerr]

There are 2 things we take when we go on holiday, our bikes and my delonghi ecam 23.450 machine. Life is waayyyyy to short for bad coffee. The ease of use (cuppucino in seconds and cleaned just as fast). I haven't had 1 bad cup of coffee. We use Illy beans. It was the first machine that gave me a trully hot cup. You can set heat of your water and the size of the cup. Rand for Rand it is the most cost effective machine and compares really well to the more expensivemachines. The guy who said he had a weak cup of coffee..who did the demo. You can set your strength from weak to very strong with the push of a button. (so the wife can have a weaker cup followed by you with a much stronger brew.) We don't go anywhere with dragging our whole machine with us. Best investment we made.

Looks like a nice machine for the price, good feedback

[lloydkayak]

Any good how to's or something on milk frothing?

I make such a mess, its quite an art

[MTBcrazy]

Buy a JURA, cost is about R10k for entry level ones, but it will be the last one you ever have to buy...

 

my thoughts exactly!! if you cant afford the 10K then wait until you can. I first went with a R3.5k model and was hugely disappointed. took it back and upgraded to a 10k model. over 500 cups later still no issues. my Jura rocks

[V12man]

@lloydkayak - youtube is your friend - there are many good clips to teach you how to froth there - just do a search - it's a lot easier to watch the technique than to try and figure out how to do it from text, but if you really must, www.home-barista.com has several how-to's.

[Lukep]

I was in market for a machine and also considered that one - but I read a few poor reviews on it, forget exactly where but vaguely recall it being an Aussie site. Also the Krups that DIon sell, and DeLonghi at Boardmans (I think) around the same price didn't get great reviews on Amazon

 

I ended up with Saeco which Dion sell (picture and link earlier in this thread). Similar price to the above, but had more favourable reviews on Amazon. Been pretty good so far for me.

 

most reviews seem postive

http://www.productreview.com.au/p/breville-fresca-espresso-machina.html

[walkerr]

most reviews seem postive

http://www.productre...so-machina.html

 

Ah cool, that does seem better feedback than I read

[HaydenWilson]

@lloydkayak - youtube is your friend - there are many good clips to teach you how to froth there - just do a search - it's a lot easier to watch the technique than to try and figure out how to do it from text, but if you really must, www.home-barista.com has several how-to's.

 

I found that just fiddling helped the best for me. and what type of milk you are using also makes a huge difference! I use either low fat from checkers or that boskruin full cream from spar. Sometimes if your milk is a little old it will not foam, regardless of what you do.

 

when you are foaming, listen to your foamer. it should hiss gently when a decent vortex is getting created. ensuring that the steam and milk are mixing. if it bubbles, either reduce pressure or change the depth that thte foamer is in the milk. I tend to foam with one hand holding a cup and another on the valve constantly adjusting the pressure of the steam depending on the vortex.

Edited May 30, 2012 by HaydenWilson