London Fixed-gear and Single-speed

I want to get my girlfriend a coffee tamper for Christmas, Raphaisque but not too pricey, any ideas?

Reg Barber is the Chris King of tampers.

I'm sure she'll be thrilled, Ed...

I was delighted when I was given the original Rapha tamper. The OG ones have a painted pink bolt at the top, second generation ones have an anodised bolt.

She always insisted on making coffee every morning, always get excited, reckon something like that would be great with her expensive machine.

Reg Barber tampers are a metric fuckton better than those Rapha Chris King ones!

Looks like my coffee plant is going to die this time - if anyone knows how to rescue it please let me know!

He's dropped most of his leaves:



And those that he has have done this:

^ food water temperature root-space? gotta be one of those I'd guess #nogreenfingershere

Been mixing (blending) some single origins, have stumbled upon a v.sweet espresso that's too sweet like that, but delicious when drunk longer I.e. Americano. I don't use milk so not sure how it'd go in milky drinks. Happy Days tho for now, will aeropress it tomorrow.

WANT!

Sams 99p shop in streatham have cafe direct kilimajaro coffee beans 250g bags in at the mo.

Or the baby for £117

http://www.philips-shop.co.uk/store/...GB/en?pfilter=

There should also be a link to top cash back.

Do you have the heating on a lot? Mine are getting a bit like that at the moment and I think it's the increase in heat.
I'd prune back any dead leave or branches, repot if it hasn't been done in a while and then feed with Baby Bio. Pruning is a bit scary when there isn't much of the plant left but it seem to re invigorate mine when i did it.

Love how neat this setup is, but 65 quid for a scale!

http://www.coffeehit.co.uk/hario-v60-drip-scale/p1067

That's what you're paying for. Having the scale and timer integrated nicely together. I'm not saying I'll rush out and buy one now but maybe at the start of February when I'm feeling a bit flush I'll cave.

Wife's buying me new grinder for xmas if I donate the Dualit to the in-laws to pair with their £125 Gaggia Classic thanks to this thread. Rocky from Rancilio to go with my Silvia or Mahlkonig Vario. Where's best to buy, I usually go with Hasbean but I've spent a small fortune there and have yet to be mailed any discount codes?

Looking for a manual espresso maker

http://ecoutlet.co.uk/rok-espresso-coffee-maker.html

Or is La Pavoni the only way to go?

Has anyone seen Porlex grinders actually on sale in the London outlets listed on Coffeehit?

Dose 70 Long Lane, London. Nr Spitalfield Market
Prufrock Coffee Leather Lane, London
Grind Coffee Bar Westfield Stratford & Putney
Taylor St Baristas At all their London stores

Prufrock has them. Result.

I've just ordered the ROK machine from santa :)
Is the porlex grinder adjustable? I might need to get the coarseness just right with the manual machine, but at the same time I quite like the idea of going all manual.

Yep, totally adjustable.

Got to say that ROK machine is floating my coffee boat..

Will it make proper good espresso? I want proper good, or not at all. Barely drink any espresso other than my weekly treat at Present

Regarding the ROK. In theory, you have control over the main variables required to get a good shot: grind size (assuming you have a grinder), dose and head pressure. I wonder a) whether you will lose too much heat in transferring from the kettle to the head and through the machine - with a La Pavoni once the machine is warm, there are tiny losses so you are getting very hot (circa 95C) water straight from the boiler into the pressure head. And b) whether it is solid enough to permit proper pressure to be applied through the levers. If it does these things right it should make a good shot with a bit of practice.

I'd break it on my first attempt...
#badmechanic

Looks like the water goes into a glass thing, then in to a metal thing. If only for a few seconds, I'd imagine that temp would drop significantly?

Is that a major issue though?

You just have to preheat the whole shabang in boiling water.

Keep it in your AGA

Yes preheating with a water-only run would help.

I don't mean this in the bad way that it's definitely going to sound, but can you make proper good espresso, given all the best equipment and beans? Remember people like the Prufrock guys are trained up to their eyeballs.

You can make stunning filter coffee at home, I just make the most of that. We're lucky to live in London where we can pretty much cycle for ten minutes in any direction and get a bangin' espresso from someone who is bangin' out shot after shot of bangin' espressos.

^ very true, I couldn't. But what's the point of espresso equipement if you don't even have a chance to make really good coffee

yeah I'm never going to be on par with the London baristas, so I'm just going to go for a quirky, elegant way to make decent espresso, just when I'm bored of the moka-pot.

I'd like to know how it compares to making it on a stovetop, as the stovetop is never going to get the pressure of a machine anyway so if this gets closer then it'd be a good thing..

I think I'd die too if you plonked your dirty sports/cycling kit that close to me.

Haha I only just saw that ROK device – I just chimed in thinking you were talking about a domestic espresso machine. Soz kboy.

I imagine it'd be similar to a stovetop, just a short strong coffee but not an espresso as such. Just watched the video and the output looks fucking gross... Bet it would take a lot of adjustment with the grind/dose to get something nice.

All of that belongs to my girlfriend

I looked into that ROK thing a while back, and wasn't encouraged by feedback. Went for a more portable option, now superseded by a machine at home, but still doing the business at work. Takes a while to get things consistent, but once you've established a methodology it's good for a single shot (but will never achieve more ristretto-like results).

what was it, Mypressi?

Nah, it's the Handpresso. Went fully manual, with no disposable cartridges etc. You can see the pump handle bit behind the mini Porlex.

wow, that's a cool product, do you get it with a pump bracket for your bike? ;)

^^ would like one of those. Do need to get a decent proper espresso machine for home first though. Fingers crossed Nick can plumb his Vivaldi into my kitchen...

after consulting someone who knows a lot more than me about these things I have decided to order the PID that controls shot temp and steam, but will not pay the extra for the pre infusion device. the assessment was that the pre infusion section is not reliable enough.

so just waiting for a response from Auberins, it appears that buying it from their ebay shop is going to be about $10 cheaper than via their webshop, but I need to confirm the one on ebay is for my silvia model.

I seem to recall that fitting a PID is a worthy upgrade for Rancilios as they have the capacity to keep the water temperature up when the thermostat kicks in. This doesn't quite work for the smaller Gaggia Classic as even when the boiler kicks in during a brew, the boiler can't keep up with the temp of the incoming cold water.

DP!

Did the OPV mod on my Classic last night ; it takes about 2 mins really is a piece of piss. Slowed the shot down and crema looking much better.

Once I'm allowed to play with my Porlex I can see what fresh ground beans do.

http://travel.cnn.com/fine-art-perfe...-coffee-684001

interesting approach, especially the comparison of coffee to whisky and how you should savour it.

So, after using a French Press or stovetop espresso maker for my morning coffee needs for the last ten years or so, it's time for me to upgrade a little.

I've ordered a Gaggio Baby (there's good deals on Amazon) and a Krups grinder along with the necessary accoutrements.

I'm going to start reading through the thread but, in the meantime, is there any basic advice to using these pieces of equipment to make good coffee better?

Thanks!

Was it a burr grinder? You need a grinder that is capable of making an espresso grind.

Other than that, you need to be consistent in the brewing process, and try to use beans which are fresher than say, four weeks post-roast.

Find out exactly how your machine works, and how to know what stage of the cycle the boiler is in while it is on so that you can pour at consistent temperatures.
Do you have scales to weigh coffee? If not, try just levelling to the top of the basket. I'd probably avoid that crema device if your basket is fitted with one. You can get by with the plastic tamper, but you'd be better off with a proper one like a Motta.

Cool, thanks for that.

I've already ordered a better tamper/tamping matt and some scales. The grinder is indeed a burr grinder and has enough settings to keep me confused (and grind beans fine enough for espresso) so I'm sure it's fine.

Quality beans are already on their way also. (A selection from Has Bean and Square Mile to start.)

Nice one. There are some online guides as to the sort of brew durations / dose weights / extraction volumes to aim for, and you can use that as a starter.

If you bought Square Mile's Red Brick, be aware that it is quite acidic. It's amazing in a latte, though I was trying to tame the acidity further by brewing for about 35 seconds IIRC. Hasbean is usually on the lighter side of roasts too. I'd try a classic dark espresso bean like something from Climpson's if you get a chance too.