Coffee Appreciation

Tell them, don’t just not go back, could be a QC problem they’re not aware of. They should offer to replace your coffee. If they’re pricks about it, that’s the time to not go back.

do the pods actually work ok in the machine?

In my experience, no. Aluminium ones are much better. The machine we had didn't pierce the paper on the compostable very well. Figured out wetting the paper helped, but never got as good results as Alu.

That makes sense. Thanks.

Friend of my wife's came to stay at the weekend and brought a Playdoh ice cream toy for our daughter. Daughter was very happy to get her own "coffee machine".

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Aeropress mod…

I've heard it's how you make a real espresso with an Aeropress ;)

Turns out the pain in the base of my thumb I've had when trying to grip things is because I've had a scaphoid fracture in my wrist for about a month. Electric grinder time I think! Don't fancy grappling with my hand grinder once they put a cast on me. What are the current forum favourites for pour over/cafetiere focussed grinders? I don't do espresso (yet) and reckon I can spare £200-ish as payday is next week.

Annoyingly the two I mainly know of straddle your price range. The Wilfa Svart is about £130, and The Wilfa Uniform £270.

Baratza Encore is about £140 I think too.

Encore and Svart are probably a goer, and there'll be a market for them if you don't want them longer

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The beauty of the robot. Staying in an Airbnb. This thing was on the counter. Not anymore 😅

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The Polish deli in Lewisham that was knocking out kilos of Monmouth espresso beans for £12 has bumped the price to £18, exactly £10 less than Monmouth

going away for 4 nights on monday, i'm taking my full gaggia setup. did it last time we went on a mini break and was saved from the instant coffee in the on-site cafe and the eye blisteringly expensive nespresso pods they sold for the pos machine they supplied in the cabin.

Precisely why I have both a flair pro and a Rok presso. Though I've not gone anywhere in aaaggees

Ha! Nicking that.

Yeah it is a bit of an in-between budget unfortunately. The Svart and Encore seem pretty even quality-wise from what I can gather; I prefer the dimensions of the Encore for my countertop space but think it isn't as nice looking, shallow as that is. Could also have a good hunt around for a Uniform on sale and stretch my budget a bit, but maybe for filter the quality jump wouldn't be as noticeable as when you fork out for a good espresso grinder.

If I wanted to put my Gaggia Classic away for around 6 months, what’s my best line of attack for preparing it for storage? I guess my key concern is how I get the residual water out the boiler (assuming it’ll do it no good if it’s left wet inside).

Blow it out the steam wand?

Tbh I didn't prep mine for storage. Should check it is OK still, useful nudge.

My cheapo dealer scales got wet and have gone bonkers.

Before I go like 4 like what're folks finding good lately?

Baratza Virtuoso might be a nice balance between ‘looks nice’ and ‘does good’. I think v60 tastes better out of mine than my Kinu (although that was before Kinu burrs had time to season).

Need some advice with a delicate situation. New cafe has opened near me. A one man band so far, but hiring a staff member soon. The guy has real Jamaica Blue Mountain beans and a £4k machine.But I don't think he's had proper training. The first JBM espresso I had was good, the second was sour and horrible. (I drank it, and said it wasn't as good as the first. He didn't say anything.)

I'd really like the cafe to succeed. Real JBM at an affordable price on my doorstep is quite an asset. Would the sour taste definitely be because it was under extracted, because he didn't adjust the grind to allow for the beans absorbing moisture? And how can I nudge him towards training? Is there a good free training video somewhere? I don't want to give bad advice, and I don't want to give good advice in a patronising manner.

It’ll be fine if you don’t drain it as long as it’s not going to freeze, you’ll just need to flush a load of water through when you get it out again. If you want to be conscientious you would be best off removing a fitting from the top of the boiler and siphoning it. I’d probably be happier doing this than having stinky water smell coming out the steam wand for a day or two with the former option.

Could be all sorts of things. JBM is usually dark roasted so it would more normally be bitter rather than sour. He could be getting it from a roaster who doesn’t get that it’s a low grown coffee and needs some development and the cafe guy doesn’t know better either. Owner possibly had heard that JBM is THE BEST COFFEE and that’s all there is to know, could be a random bad shot and he’s actually thoroughly conscientious but he just needed you to ask for it to be remade.

Whatever I wouldn’t suggest to him, however tactfully, that he needs training, it’ll just sound bad unless you can go to the trouble of actually making friends with the guy first. I am constantly surprised at the people (and it’s the vast majority) who open coffee businesses with no technical knowledge or prior experience of their biggest revenue item, just think that if they make it look right or have some mal-informed gimmick it’ll be fine, and it often is, but in a shit way.

Ir's roasted in Jamaica. (It's the real thing - I checked the labels on the bags.)

I am becoming friends with him by helping him get on Google Maps. Also said I would write reviews for Tripadvisor and Google Maps. But this was after the first good shot. After the sour shot I'm not so keen. I think I'll send the next bad one back and hope for the best. Maybe the coffee machine rental people will steer him in the right direction?