Coffee Appreciation

Are you set on espresso? I don't think you'll find a machine out there that you can get a decent espresso from without a fair amount of trail and error (even once you get it, maintaining it is almost as much faff if you're only making 1 or 2 a day).

I'm not sure what their build quality is like these days, but I had a Gaggia Classic around 10 years ago which would be my recommendation for a first machine.

If ease of use is a priority, I'd be strongly considering filter (v60/Aeropress) instead.

Any recommendations for a single cup French press? Other half doesn't drink coffee and my current French press has a nice big crack in it.

James Hoffman has done a video
on Dalgona Coffee

If ease of use is a priority, I'd be strongly considering filter (v60/Aeropress) instead.

Thanks.

I’d look into the Robot as well, easy to use and even easier to maintain.

Bodum Chambord. They do 0.35, 0.5 and 1L. I have the 1L one which I fill partially for just myself and leaves me with some headroom if I have to make coffee for more people. They also do spares in case you break it again.

It'd be interesting to get the opinion of someone new to espresso brewing on lever machines.

I'd always written them off due to pressure being an additional variable to manage. Though you do generally get constrained on the volume of water put through so maybe there's a balance there.

Maybe the more hands-on nature is actually a benefit.

Maintenance definitely improved over pump-driven machines at least.

Home espresso is a massive faff and basically the dream you have of making beautiful lil flatties every morning before work very quickly goes out the window! However it’s a nice thing to have, especially in this lockdown period.

I’d be probably looking at one of the Sage all in one jobbies if I were doing it again like the one @duncs is selling.

Realistically, do you use yours very often? Gagging an espresso instead of a v60/aeropress...

Gagging an espresso instead of a v60/aeropress...

+1

Gagging an espresso instead of a v60/aeropress/french press...

+1

+1

I was quarantining at my better half's where I had only brought a small grinder and a French press, so I changed my coffee subscription to a filter roast. But with the pandemic situation I will be moving in sooner than planned, meaning I will have my Pavoni there next week but still a month's worth of filter coffee to go through. Torn between buying an aeropress for a slightly more exciting filter brew and using the filter roast for espressos.

Indeed, working in a coffee shop you normally spend a good 5-10 minutes getting the espresso dialled in, then monitoring it throughout the day making small adjustments where necessary. The odds of your first shot being bang on are slim. If you're having an espresso at home once per day, this is the only coffee you're going to drink.

Normally I go for filter, and when I do go for espresso, my wife's flat white gets made first. So I at least can have a decent estimate of any adjustments that need to be made.

I'd probably not bother with an aeropress if you have a french press and just try the filter beans for espresso (and hope they work...). I've been using the mocha pot more but it's not the same a real espresso :( #FWP

My first proper espresso machine was a manual lever, a Gaggia Achille HX lever. This was before I worked in coffee. I absolutely loved it and I think it shortened the learning curve by being able to rescue a channeling shot by modulating pressure. Gave me an intuitive sense of temp management too as flushing the machine by different volumes allowed fine tuning of brew temp. It’s a shame those machines were fatally flawed by an unsolvable hx leak as they made incredible coffee. The relationship between texture and pressure made me fall in love with lever machines. I’ve owned and restored a whole load of commercial levers since, I need to get on and fix my La Peppina for home.

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Someone new to the preparation of espresso certainly describes me!
In terms of pressure what the maker of the Robot says is that traditionally lever machines rarely attain the 9 bar that so many aspire to, and his machine for most users seems to produce great results in the 5-8 bar range.

You could buy my barn espresso beans that I bought in error, would that help? :)

Sounds right, we extract light roasts at 5 bar, reducing to 3 bar on our pressure profiling machine, 7 bar down to 5 for regular espresso blend.

Using it loads at the minute with me and San having been wfh for a month now. Before that once or twice a week. But if you have space and fancy a new hobby then I think they’re good to have. A steaming wand is nice for hot chocolate, chai etc and I use grinder for filter too. The Sage having all that in one neat unit seems like a sensible first point of entry to me.

Home espresso is a massive faff and basically the dream you have of making beautiful lil flatties every morning before work very quickly goes out the window!

I don’t agree with that. I make a flat white or other milk-based coffee before work almost every morning and it’s no faff if that’s what you want. I have the espresso machine on a timer so it’s warmed up ready to use when I get up.

Gaggia Classic is hard to go wrong with for a beginner. It’s reliable and consistent. Upgrade the steam wand to the Silvia wand and it does great milk too. Strong resale value too if you genuinely don’t get on with it.

That’s great but these are just opinions right? I think it’s a massive faff and you don’t. The timer is a good suggestion.

"is it good? no."

Making milk-based drinks definitely helps as a decent bit of steamed milk can easily cover up any imperfections in an espresso.

I make a espresso based drink (I aim for a flat white, but I have no idea whether it actually is) daily using a basic Dualit espresso machine (which I bought because it has a proper solid steam wand and to which I've fitted a proper non-pressurised basket) and a dualit grinder (that I tweaked to grind finer than standard). It's a bit of a faff, but not that much and the results are pleasing and a load cheaper than heading out for coffee. I've found that the key thing is getting decent fresh coffee (I use pact). When I visit my parents I use their Gaggia Classic and I can't get half as good results because they insist on buying supermarket coffee (their grinder isn't up to much either).

Beans > grinder > machine/method

So many very important opinions, wow...