Espresso / coffee enthusiasts?

[enjoythemusic]

Originally Posted by mjm700

This forum provides therapy and recognition that I'm not alone...

And our friends on TRF truly understand us.

7d.jpg

[Easy E]

This is entire too much effort for a cup of coffee. I’m a hard stop with a French press.

[timesnotup]

Manual will always be the best.

[Mendota]

I'm relatively new to this thread, so I haven't had a chance to read all of the other comments and see everyone's sweet gear yet, but I'm happy we have a great thread going here. I'm very new to espresso and last year my wife bought me a Gaggia Classic Pro for my birthday. For Christmas she got me the Eureka Mignon Specialita. I'm loving it. It really is a rabbit hole. I've upgraded my OPV valve spring to reduce my pressure down to 9 bars and that has really helped improve flavor. The next upgrade I'm going to make is to add PID control.

I can already see how I'm going to want to upgrade my machine in a few years to a hard plumbed machine that will offer a lot more consistency and dual boiler control, such as a Lelit, Rocket, or La Marzocco.

It's taking a while to really learn all of the nuances and I love all of the finnicky details that will take ages to master. I thrive with hobbies that I can really dive into, such as baking, woodfire pizza, watch making, car detailing, and now espresso!

I'm following some great channels on YouTube, including James Hoffman and Lance Hedrick, plus lots of others.

Here's my sad attempt at some latte art today! Ha ha!

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[OmegaJJH]

Originally Posted by uscmatt99

the aftercare matters as much as the product itself, unless you flip a lot (and many espresso enthusiasts do!). It would be a royal pain in the rear to ship this out, or very expensive to get a local repair person to do a job like this if I could even find anyone.

Just before Christmas my Jura bean to cup machine developed a fault. It’s a good few years old.

The process of sending this back to Jura HQ was flawless. It’s a big heavy machine remember.

They send a ‘flight case’ to your house with all the necessary instructions on how to package it safely.

Next day a courier collects.

A few weeks for service with a steep discount if the machine has completed less than 10,000 coffees.

Gets returned looking like new safely in the flight case.

As far as service levels go… truly excellent.

Jura (although not manual and certainly not cheap) is bloody excellent for consistent coffee day in, day out for our busy hectic lives we all lead.


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[BraveBold]

Originally Posted by Mendota

I'm relatively new to this thread, so I haven't had a chance to read all of the other comments and see everyone's sweet gear yet, but I'm happy we have a great thread going here. I'm very new to espresso and last year my wife bought me a Gaggia Classic Pro for my birthday. For Christmas she got me the Eureka Mignon Specialita. I'm loving it. It really is a rabbit hole. I've upgraded my OPV valve spring to reduce my pressure down to 9 bars and that has really helped improve flavor. The next upgrade I'm going to make is to add PID control.

I can already see how I'm going to want to upgrade my machine in a few years to a hard plumbed machine that will offer a lot more consistency and dual boiler control, such as a Lelit, Rocket, or La Marzocco.

It's taking a while to really learn all of the nuances and I love all of the finnicky details that will take ages to master. I thrive with hobbies that I can really dive into, such as baking, woodfire pizza, watch making, car detailing, and now espresso!

I'm following some great channels on YouTube, including James Hoffman and Lance Hedrick, plus lots of others.

Here's my sad attempt at some latte art today! Ha ha!

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

I love learning new things so my list of hobbies is pretty absurd. I think there is a hobby thread somewhere and I remember noting I had every item checked and it only covered a small slice of my active hobbies.

Only item from your list I don’t do is watchmaking but I have repaired some of my lower value watches and have an entry level tool kit. Detailing is a hobby of mine and I love the ability to bring a car back to (better than) its dealership condition. Espresso and coffee generally has a lot of elements I enjoy - precision, creativity and customization, and then a final product as well. Recently got into amateur woodworking, building some household items that we now use regularly. Wife got me a very nice woodworking set of chisels for Christmas.

Great fun.

Also, well done on the latte art attempt.

[Mendota]

Originally Posted by BraveBold

I love learning new things so my list of hobbies is pretty absurd. I think there is a hobby thread somewhere and I remember noting I had every item checked and it only covered a small slice of my active hobbies.



Only item from your list I don’t do is watchmaking but I have repaired some of my lower value watches and have an entry level tool kit. Detailing is a hobby of mine and I love the ability to bring a car back to (better than) its dealership condition. Espresso and coffee generally has a lot of elements I enjoy - precision, creativity and customization, and then a final product as well. Recently got into amateur woodworking, building some household items that we now use regularly. Wife got me a very nice woodworking set of chisels for Christmas.



Great fun.



Also, well done on the latte art attempt.

Kindred spirits! I have a cheap set of basic watch tools to tinker around with Chinese automatics. I'm very interested in trying a watch kit that another member here tested out. There's a website that sells a wide variety of really nice looking watches that you build yourself. They send you everything you need to build it, including the tools and video instructions.

That's funny you mention woodworking. I just dabbled with making wooden spoons. I have Norwegian heritage and a college friend of mine, who is Norwegian, teaches traditional spoon carving classes. We were up in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area last summer on a trip and he brought along some of his carving tools. Over the course of a few days I learned how to carve my first spoon. I enjoyed it, so I've been thinking about picking up a basic carving kit myself. I'd really like to learn how to do finishing work, such as baseboards and trim, furniture or cabinets, etc.

Thanks for the compliment about the rudimentary latte art. My milk is always too foamy or too thin. It is really hard to make anything come out decent looking with all of the variables, so I have a lot of respect for those people who can just casually whip out a pretty swan or beautiful tulip or heart. Just doing the milk steaming alone is really hard to get the right texture, so that's taking a lot of practice. I'll get there eventually!

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[albertf]

Originally Posted by Mendota

Thanks for the compliment about the rudimentary latte art. My milk is always too foamy or too thin. It is really hard to make anything come out decent looking with all of the variables, so I have a lot of respect for those people who can just casually whip out a pretty swan or beautiful tulip or heart. Just doing the milk steaming alone is really hard to get the right texture, so that's taking a lot of practice. I'll get there eventually!

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

I use a pitcher that has measurement lines on the inside so that it's a little easier to gauge whether or not I should be adding more or less air when i'm steaming my milk

[Mendota]

Originally Posted by albertf

I use a pitcher that has measurement lines on the inside so that it's a little easier to gauge whether or not I should be adding more or less air when i'm steaming my milk

Yeah, I definitely must be doing things wrong because I have a small stainless steel frothing pitcher just like that. It has the measurements going up the inside and from watching videos, I'm filling it up to just beneath the spout indent like they recommend. I'm putting my steam wand against the side of the pitcher, at an angle, and I'm even purging the wand before steaming. That was my first mistake when I tried my first few steams. I didn't purge and suddenly the volume of liquid in the pitcher ballooned due to all of the hot water that had built up in there. Now that I purge that out, I'm at least only getting steam.

I'm sure my angle is off and I'm not adding the steam properly, so my results are really inconsistent. It definitely requires a lot of practice!!



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[BraveBold]

Originally Posted by Mendota

Yeah, I definitely must be doing things wrong because I have a small stainless steel frothing pitcher just like that. It has the measurements going up the inside and from watching videos, I'm filling it up to just beneath the spout indent like they recommend. I'm putting my steam wand against the side of the pitcher, at an angle, and I'm even purging the wand before steaming. That was my first mistake when I tried my first few steams. I didn't purge and suddenly the volume of liquid in the pitcher ballooned due to all of the hot water that had built up in there. Now that I purge that out, I'm at least only getting steam.

I'm sure my angle is off and I'm not adding the steam properly, so my results are really inconsistent. It definitely requires a lot of practice!!


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I believe the biggest challenge is incorporating the foam consistently so to avoid a too much separation. The idea of getting your volume increase correct and then getting that distributed so that the last part of the pour isn’t just foam / isn’t just liquid.

I face the same challenges :-)

[OmegaJJH]

Originally Posted by BraveBold

I face the same challenges :-)

I press the cappuccino button




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[BraveBold]

Originally Posted by OmegaJJH

I press the cappuccino button




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Haha. In fairness I make an excellent cappuccino.

Latte art is hit or miss. Does your machine draw pictures with the foam?

[OmegaJJH]

Originally Posted by BraveBold

Latte art is hit or miss. Does your machine draw pictures with the foam?

No.

It does however make excellent coffee. ☕️

I have black coffee and my wife flat white.

We leave the art for the walls


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[Madman37]

Originally Posted by OmegaJJH

Just before Christmas my Jura bean to cup machine developed a fault. It’s a good few years old.

The process of sending this back to Jura HQ was flawless. It’s a big heavy machine remember.

They send a ‘flight case’ to your house with all the necessary instructions on how to package it safely.

Next day a courier collects.

A few weeks for service with a steep discount if the machine has completed less than 10,000 coffees.

Gets returned looking like new safely in the flight case.

As far as service levels go… truly excellent.

Jura (although not manual and certainly not cheap) is bloody excellent for consistent coffee day in, day out for our busy hectic lives we all lead.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They have rubbish service in the uk

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/juraproducts.uk

[OmegaJJH]

Originally Posted by Madman37

They have rubbish service in the uk

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/juraproducts.uk

Like most things, people are quick to complain / post about it when things are going wrong but unlikely to feel the need to report when things go well. I’m the latter.

Wouldn’t dream of going to trust pilot to tell the world the service that I received was exactly what I’d expected and paid for.

Jura are clearly having some aftercare issues based on the link you shared but from personal experience (and that’s all I’ve got) it was bloody marvellous.

The coffee machine has been bullet proof too!

I wouldn’t hesitate buying another one in future.

Now, try dealing with a house builder when your house is 4 years old. Now that’s rubbish customer service !


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[Maleg]

Originally Posted by OmegaJJH

Like most things, people are quick to complain / post about it when things are going wrong but unlikely to feel the need to report when things go well. I’m the latter.

Wouldn’t dream of going to trust pilot to tell the world the service that I received was exactly what I’d expected and paid for.

Jura are clearly having some aftercare issues based on the link you shared but from personal experience (and that’s all I’ve got) it was bloody marvellous.

The coffee machine has been bullet proof too!

I wouldn’t hesitate buying another one in future.

Now, try dealing with a house builder when your house is 4 years old. Now that’s rubbish customer service !


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In general, with any review or customer survey, the opinions are usually all or nothing. People have to really hate it or really love it to put any effort into writing a review.

But if the negatives are more than 5% of the reviews you can generally presume that there is a real risk with that product or service.

[Beary Little Xmas]

What are the best secret menu drinks at Starbucks?

[enjoythemusic]

^^^ trick question?

[piratfisk]

We have a Gaggia Classic Pro. Recently, the spent grounds (pucks) have been really wet after a shot pull. Like, they won't knock out of the basket... Any ideas why? Are the grounds not fresh enough? Ground too fine? Too coarse? Machine error? User error? I use 14g of grinds per double shot.

[BraveBold]

Originally Posted by piratfisk

We have a Gaggia Classic Pro. Recently, the spent grounds (pucks) have been really wet after a shot pull. Like, they won't knock out of the basket... Any ideas why? Are the grounds not fresh enough? Ground too fine? Too coarse? Machine error? User error? I use 14g of grinds per double shot.

New beans? I find that you need to recalibrate grind for each new batch.

How long does it take for flow to start? My guess is ground too fine…

[Easy E]

Originally Posted by Beary Little Xmas

What are the best secret menu drinks at Starbucks?

Directions to the closest local coffee house down the street.

[Rock]

My concept of the Home-based coffee scene is that people generally tend to buy equipment that is appropriate to where they are in their "coffee journey" and consequently are relatively happy with the result they are getting - whether it is from a French Press, Mocha Pot, Pod machine, Automatic or Manual Espresso machine.
Some folks get to a particular spot on their journey and stop there. They are happy with what they are getting.
Other folks become aficionados and spend their lives seeking better coffee. Usually means better (and more expensive) machines and better bean and personal technique.
If you prefer milk-based coffee it is easier to find your point of satisfaction. Milk (and sugar) hide a multitude of sins. With straight shots and black coffee there is nowhere to hide. Any faults in equipment, bean or technique will be obvious to the discerning palate. I have no problem with milk and/or sugar and occasionally enjoy a Piccolo Latte myself as a soothing milk-based drink.

[piratfisk]

Originally Posted by BraveBold

New beans? I find that you need to recalibrate grind for each new batch.

How long does it take for flow to start? My guess is ground too fine…

I am mildly ashamed to admit we don't grind our own beans. We buy espresso-ground. We don't have the counterspace for another large appliance. I can't really change the size of the grind unless I buy whole beans & ask the roaster to grind them to not espresso-sized.

Originally Posted by Easy E

Directions to the closest local coffee house down the street.

Hear, hear! Support local & stay away from the double-mocha-frappe-cinnamon-half-caff-macarena-with-whipped-cream drinks. If you want to hold that much sugar in your hand, get an icecream cone.

[SearChart]

Originally Posted by piratfisk

I am mildly ashamed to admit we don't grind our own beans. We buy espresso-ground. We don't have the counterspace for another large appliance. I can't really change the size of the grind unless I buy whole beans & ask the roaster to grind them to not espresso-sized.
Hear, hear! Support local & stay away from the double-mocha-frappe-cinnamon-half-caff-macarena-with-whipped-cream drinks. If you want to hold that much sugar in your hand, get an icecream cone.

If you can't grind at home you can't dial in properly. Buying an actual espresso machine is an absolute waste then IMO.

Get a small sized grinder for espresso, there are some slim profile machines on the market.

[Maleg]

Originally Posted by piratfisk

I am mildly ashamed to admit we don't grind our own beans. We buy espresso-ground. We don't have the counterspace for another large appliance. I can't really change the size of the grind unless I buy whole beans & ask the roaster to grind them to not espresso-sized.
Hear, hear! Support local & stay away from the double-mocha-frappe-cinnamon-half-caff-macarena-with-whipped-cream drinks. If you want to hold that much sugar in your hand, get an icecream cone.

Coffee flavor decays quickly after grinding. You need a grinder with an adjustable grind. There are good grinders that have a small footprint. Look at Baratza, for example.

[uscmatt99]

Originally Posted by piratfisk

I am mildly ashamed to admit we don't grind our own beans. We buy espresso-ground. We don't have the counterspace for another large appliance. I can't really change the size of the grind unless I buy whole beans & ask the roaster to grind them to not espresso-sized.
Hear, hear! Support local & stay away from the double-mocha-frappe-cinnamon-half-caff-macarena-with-whipped-cream drinks. If you want to hold that much sugar in your hand, get an icecream cone.

Don't be ashamed, this is why we have the Open Discussion Forum! The grinder is as important or more important than the espresso machine. The Niche Zero is a popular home grinder with a small footprint and works well for espresso and drip grinds. You'll notice a world of difference, even with the same beans you're currently using, if you grind them to the correct fineness immediately before pulling a shot. Alternatively there are many hand grinders that fit in a drawer, but require some effort for each shot. I did that for a few months until my electric grinder arrived.

[Rock]

A burr-grinder is pretty much an essential accessory to an Espresso machine and should always be factored into the coffee budget. I know people are resistent to this idea and I get it but you handicap yourself in terms of coffee quality and production utility if you don't.
Breville (and others) build budget machines with built-in grinders for precisely this reason.
Not the best idea to have a grinder as an integral part of the machine but if you feel you can't spring for even a cheap ($100.) grinder then maybe a solution worth the risk.
I usually advise new enthusiasts to buy a cheap grinder and see what you think of the coffee you are producing with your set-up over the next 12 mths.

[BraveBold]

Originally Posted by piratfisk

I am mildly ashamed to admit we don't grind our own beans. We buy espresso-ground. We don't have the counterspace for another large appliance. I can't really change the size of the grind unless I buy whole beans & ask the roaster to grind them to not espresso-sized.
Hear, hear! Support local & stay away from the double-mocha-frappe-cinnamon-half-caff-macarena-with-whipped-cream drinks. If you want to hold that much sugar in your hand, get an icecream cone.

There is a middle solution / compromise.

If you don’t have counter space you can grind every few days in multi-day batches and then store in an airtight container. Not ideal but it will allow you more control without permanently taking up counter space.

I’ve owned a few grinders and really like the Eureka mignon specialita.

[Stewart_88]

I make coffees over and over on a daily basis and love it!!

[Watchdoyouwant?]

Originally Posted by SearChart

If you can't grind at home you can't dial in properly. Buying an actual espresso machine is an absolute waste then IMO.

Get a small sized grinder for espresso, there are some slim profile machines on the market.

This is good advice. Optimum grind size changes over time with the same bag of beans, and every bag is slightly different and needs to be dialed in.

I'd even venture to say you are better off spending bank on a super high quality grinder and doing pour over brewing versus a quality espresso machine and previously ground beans.