Coffee Appreciation

I've been using a drip filter for the last few years since my Gaggia Classic went bang. Tempted to get back into the Espresso game soon, still have an Iberital EC2 grinder.

What are my options for an espresso machine in the £100-300 range and what about the £300-800 range? I'm guessing most sub £500 machines are the same crap packaged up in a different type of shiny box?

I remember this coming up but cant find it.. Can anyone tell me what the style of mug this is and where i can buy plain mugs from? Ideally UK source.

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like this, no?

Boom! Thanks, they are called Earthenware diner mugs

https://www.coffeehit.co.uk/classic-diner-mug-10oz.html

Here too.

Here's a new thing; Ikawa digital home roaster

https://www.instagram.com/ikawahome/

https://www.ikawacoffee.com/at-home/

£1200 is a hell of a lot of money for something that can only roast 60g of green beans at once.

Just get @StevePeel to sell you his current roaster so he can upgrade to a larger one!

Just get @StevePeel to sell you his current roaster so he can upgrade to a larger one!

I have a DeLonghi Caffe Corso bean to cup machine. I think it makes pretty good espresso with the right bean, but I am struggling to get decent milk using the steamer. Anyone have any tips/hacks? Is it just because I am shit at it?

It's got a panarello(sp?) rather than a steam tip you see on expensive machines so you'll be limited in how good you can get your milk. With those you don't really have any control over the output, just stick it in the milk and it does its thing. They're good for easily getting warm frothy milk consistently but when I had one I could never get latte-art quality microfoam from it. I know there are aftermarket kits for some machines like the Gaggia classic that lets you fit a proper steam tip but I don't know if it's possible on that one.

is £18 for 250g of beans a bit pricey, or have I just lost my sense of bearings in the london coffee market?
Popped into espresso rooms, and was confronted with the price as I'd run out of beans and thought I'd purchase some in person, and got spooked by how expensive (to my mind) their square mile coffee was. To be fair Look Mum were selling the same coffee at the same price...

Sounds very expensive, unless it was a special single origin?

£70 per kg seems a bit spendy

is £18 for 250g of beans a bit pricey

Yes. I pay under £10 (posted) for 250g of single origin stuff.

Square Mile package their coffee in 350g bags so that brings it down a bit, but very high quality single origin coffees are regularly hitting those price points and higher. We have a natural process organic Costa Rica at £15/250g, it’s very expensive and risky to produce and economy of scale is low for those intensively quality-controlled lots. There’s still lots of great blends and S.Os between £5 and £10 a bag though.

It's used as a test roaster isn't it? To figure out profiles etc that you then use in a bigger one

^ amateur talk

I thought there was a reasoning behind it, it just didn’t know why the price point was so high.
No point buying beans that expensive to use on the stovetop so I’ll keep buying beans in the £8-10 range..

Red Brick is £10.50 on the webshop

Think there were some flask talk upthread but can't find it. Is this good?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017IJF3AM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

I got a klean kanteen for xmas as it was recommended on here.

I have the 300ml one, they are excellent at keeping stuff hot/cold respectively if you 'charge' them before putting the beverage in with hot or cold for 10 minutes beforehand.

the lid is not the most secure (just a rubber bung that stops the hole, held in place by the locking mechanism) have had drips when it was stored sideways (in a bag sidepocket which i stupidly laid in overhead storage on eurostar).

it's the same one that square mile rebadge for their own ones and sell for £30.

verdict: very good, but only if you keep it upright.

Was looking at these recently and thinking they look like a nice design.

https://www.kanukatea.com/product/kinto-travel-tumbler-in-stainless-steel/

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Looks like it doubles as an Aeropress plunger ;)