Coffee machine

[GBguy]

Listen to WW and V12 - lots of good advice there. IMHO you should put both your scale and your singles basket away and forget them (last time I went to Origin Coffee in Cape Town their menu said 'We only serve doubles. If you want a single, drink half') Fill the doubles basket until it's heaped, and then sweep off the excess with a clean finger so it's level. For me, it works out to about 20 grams, so I get around 50 doubles from a kilo of beans.

 

The big thing with tamping is to choose a pressure and then stick with it - adjust your pulls purely with the grinder, otherwise you have two variables and you'll get yourself in a muddle. Actually, in my view you can throw away the timer, too. Watch the coffee coming out and stop the pump as soon as it blondes (which is a gradual process, so you need to exercise some judgement. No substitute for practice.)

 

In the Barista champs we used to penalise competitors if their pulls were shorter or longer than a certain time (20 - 40 sec, IIRC) but nowadays we only penalise them if their times vary significantly, one from another. So even the 'experts' have agreed that pull-time is not really a useful indicator. That said, you'll find very long pulls and very short pulls each have a particular flavour (bitter and acid, respectively) which you may not like - the best taste for most people is in the 30-60sec range, delivering around 30ml.

[cadenceblur]

Now you've really blown my mind! So many variables. Going to an Origin Home Barista course tomorrow, hopefully will come away much more enlightened!

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Who has seen these new Nestle pod machines in the shops recently. I saw one yesterday, you can make hot chocolate with it as well.

 

The machine is fairly reasonable at around 2.4 k so I recon it will be well accepted in the market. The pods are much bigger than Nespresso so not interchangeable but I had a demo coffee and my wife had a hot chocolate and both were surprisingly very good.

 

Not sure if Nespresso is a Nestle product, will have to check but if it is I thought it strange they are going into competition with themselves

Edited October 7, 2013 by GrumpyOldGuy

[Roulier]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leUEcBerHwU Edited October 8, 2013 by Roulier

[the nerd]

What an awesome ad!

[Frosty]

Very good.

[Dirtbreath]

Any thoughts on a Jura vs Melitta as a bean to cup. Not needing frothing as we drink Americano's. Looking for an easy to prepare good cup of black coffee.

[Weight Weenie]

Any thoughts on a Jura vs Melitta as a bean to cup. Not needing frothing as we drink Americano's. Looking for an easy to prepare good cup of black coffee.

 

Years of good service from our Jura if you want push and forget.

Coffee from it is drinkable but with no real setting you get what you get really.

[V12man]

Years of good service from our Jura if you want push and forget.

Coffee from it is drinkable but with no real setting you get what you get really.

 

Newer Jura's have more configuration possible for grind, dose and temperature - enough to get taste to reasonable usually.

 

Problem is finding someone to keep it in trim as the coffee changes...

[Weight Weenie]

Newer Jura's have more configuration possible for grind, dose and temperature - enough to get taste to reasonable usually.

 

Problem is finding someone to keep it in trim as the coffee changes...

 

The F50 we have has that but I have battled to get much from it with the changes. YRMV.

[V12man]

The F50 we have has that but I have battled to get much from it with the changes. YRMV.

 

Stop using stale coffee...

 

It's a question of taste in the end - I am not a fan of the air enhanced crema either ... and setting it to taste 'best' on stale coffee is not exactly a win win situation...

 

I usually start with max dose, finest grind and max temp as compared to minimum dose, course grind and min temp and setting everything in the middle - then seeing where I prefer it and fine tuning by halves - repeat until it works...

 

Remember to spit... and use sparkling mineral water between tastes to refresh the palette... otherwise you will never get anywhere with taste testing... it just gets confusing...

[GBguy]

Now you've really blown my mind! So many variables. Going to an Origin Home Barista course tomorrow, hopefully will come away much more enlightened!

How was the course, spinner?

[GBguy]

Stop using stale coffee...

If there's one takeaway message from nearly 100 pages, this should be it. And, BTW, coffee that's roasted overseas (no matter what kind of smoke they blow over it ) is automatically stale. The cheapest bean, freshly roasted by your LCR (local coffee roaster), will taste better than the most expensive pre-roasted bean, regardless of the method you use to make your coffee, IMHO. And don't get me started on pre-ground beans.

[cadenceblur]

The course was quite cool thanks.Quite a bit of theory around the origins of coffee etc.

Got to pull a few shots and practice some latte art ( as many times as possible)

It really depends on what questions you ask as well as everybody was at a different level if you know what I mean.

They actually said I would benefit from the 3 day course instead.

I got quite a bit out of it though.

My milk steaming for example improved leaps and bounds ( granted I had to get the hang of the increased steaming ability), steamed on new machine last night and I reckon I almost nailed it, whereas before I was cooking the milk - so now it's just down to more practice.

They all also do a "home" course - where they come to your house and work with you on your own set up.

[cadenceblur]

for sure on the freshness of beans - the smell alone is a give away!

[V12man]

And don't get me started on pre-ground beans.

 

Once they are pre ground they are not beans anymore - they are good fertiliser... keeps the snails away..

 

My pet peeve is stale Nespresso pods... i.e ALL Nespresso pods..