Coffee Appreciation

They may want to watch this too if they haven’t already:

https://youtu.be/dn9OuRl1F3k

Comandante now do the Red Clix mod for the C40, which allows for more clicks, so more precision.

Hand grinding for espresso does seem like avoidable torture though haha.

In mild protest of Mr Hoffmann's assessment of the Helor, he used the standard burrs not the espresso ones. He didn't appreciate the handle being attached to the top - not sure why. He found that the wooden part of the handle didn't rotate easily enough while grinding - mine has never been a problem and even if it had been initially tight it would loosen up in short order.

Did you brew for V60 or AeroPress?

Both but it came out better for aeropress (250ml, 17g).

Dear LFGSS coffee overlords. I have a little Gaggia Cubika espresso machine and I think it’s great. However, I feel like I could probably be making better coffee.
To make better espresso, how much would I need to spend on a grinder to have decent control as part of my espresso making? I have a hario hand grinder, but grinding each shot by hand is too impractical for me. I could just bang a drill on it, but I’m not sure how wise this is.

In the hierarchy of home coffee making needs, what’s most important - grinder or machine. I understand that you need both really. But if I’m going to lay down some cash, would you say buy a proper grinder, or buy a better machine? I like the look of the manual pull machines - makes sense to remove the complicated mechanical parts and replace them with manpower.

Help me!

Start with the grinder. It's the most important thing for espresso. Electric burr grinder. Plenty of recommendations back up the thread.

See here: https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15219078/

I have a hario hand grinder, but grinding each shot by hand is too impractical for me. I could just bang a drill on it, but I’m not sure how wise this is.

I did the same with my Porlex for years. The steps between grind settings is quite large on those hand-grinders so you'll end up changing both dose and coarseness to get a good shot. As far as I'm aware the Hario grinder has a pentagonal bit on top so you'd need an adapter if you wanted to pop a drill bit on it (I can dig out the link for the steel adapter I have if you're interested).

I'd definitely prioritise the quality of the grinder over the machine (a sentiment I imagine will be shared here). I'm not too knowledgeable about the current flock of home grinders for espresso use, but I got a Baratza Sette 270 a year ago and it's wonderful. Stepless adjustment and very, very low grind retention (very important if you're going to be going almost a day between uses, you don't want yesterdays ground coffee being chucked in your portafilter!).

I also went for a manual lever machine (Europiccola) for much the same reasons you state (plus in my case, it's a very popular decades old design so spares are cheap and easy to come by). Just serviced it for the first time with nothing more than an adjustable spanner and some pliers to take of come circlips.

There's also a recent trend for manual lever machines where you boil the water separately and pop it directly into the portafilter just prior to extraction (Robot, Flair and Rok are all popular examples). I have no experience with these but there's a couple of folks in this thread who do. Even less to go wrong obviously, but you do miss out on a couple of nice-to-haves like steaming milk and I'd argue a bit more consistent in terms of water temperature (though the Europiccola does tend to overheat after a couple of shots back to back so some cooling of the grouphead is needed, either a wet cloth or just left alone for a few minutes).

Baratza Sette 270

Cheers man, super helpful. I think I need to talk myself down a bit. Fell down a YouTube wormhole and need to remember that my budget is not existent at the moment. Will deffo be a post covid purchase!

Cheers man, I’d been looking at the Wilfa as it fits the bill budget/function wise.

Does anyone in here use one for espresso primarily?

If it's the Svart, I'm fairly sure that's marketed as filter only, so will likely not go fine enough for espresso.

The Sette is definitely quite pricey so I can understand your reservations (I was in the same boat a year ago!). Not sure about the Hario, but my Porlex + drill combo was fine for home espresso for the year or so I used it (with the aforementioned caveat of coarseness steps being too big so needed to be offset by adjusting the dose also). I also had a Rhino hand grinder but didn't get on that well with using it for espresso, couldn't get it fine enough.

I've got an iberital mc2 I picked up off here for cheap - they come up every so often, but even new they are about £120

It looks the part and grinds well enough and will go as fine as anyone could need.

It is however very agricultural. Its loud and rattly. Its also messy, but I bought a little metal cup to grind into which solved that.

Its also impossible to adjust between espresso and filter and back again. Its about 30 winds of the adjuster, so dialing it in at either end of the scale is not doable. I have my old dualit grinder set up for filter.

If you can get a used one you'd be hard pressed to do better for the money.

+1 on MC2 experiences as described above.

I had a Porlex, then switched to a MC2 about 5 years ago. Had a little bit of bother with the MC2 a while back which I got sorted, but was using the Porlex while I was trying to fix it.

As others have said, the MC2 is not bad, but very noisy, and is a right faff getting the same 18-20g of beans out of the machine that you put in. The grinds get stuck everywhere. And if they don’t get stuck they end up all over your worktop.

Despite fixing mine I’m still using the Porlex.

I used to find this, but now have my system pretty much down. I bought a new spout as the one that came with it had somehow been partially melted. If anything this initially made things messier...

However I then got one of these dosing cups whch catches all the grinds. It also flips nicely into the portafilter, is ideal for putting on the scales to weigh beans before hand and sits on my gaggia holding my diy wine cork/paper clip grind disperser. Best stocking filler I've ever had.

Finally, as your grind is coming to the end, simply take the lid of hopper on and off a few times and the woosh of air pushes the loose grinds through the chute. I think I'm getting next to no grind retention doing this and still zero mess.

diy wine cork/paper clip grind disperser.

What a great idea, I'm gonna try this...

That's what I used to do and used to think worked. However, if you open the machine up you'll be amazed at the amount of grounds sitting in the catchment area where the grinder star rotates.

Dumb Sette question but I always forget - the micro dial on the 270

A = finest
I = coarsest

Right?

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Yep, is your one not labelled?

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Thanks. Always caught out by it being the opposite to the macro adjust

It is labelled but it’s not clear and it’s not completely clear in the instructions :(

Yeah the flipped direction is a bit counter-intuitive. Easiest way to remember is that when you screw in the bottom bit, it's in the direction of finer.

On that note, clean your grinders folks! One thing I love about the Sette is that I can change between the filter and espresso burrs in less than a minute with no tools. Damn handy design, also means cleaning is super straightforward.

I’ve never cleaned my Rhino hand grinder in the few years I’ve had it. Is it just a bit of soap and water? Or is this another coffee related wormhole

A relatively stiff-bristled brush (a small paintbrush is pretty common to use) should do the job fine, you're just trying to remove any old coffee grounds that have lodged themselves in around the burrs. If you haven't done it in a while, you might need something a bit stiffer (I've got some nylon-bristled brushes for cleaning the grouphead on my espresso machine that work great)

My Rhino and Porlex never really got too bad. Not sure if it's to do with my Sette being used for finer grinds, or the larger burrs and speed of the motorised grinders.

I used to have a Porlex and would take it apart weekly and wash it all with hot soapy water. Breaks down the oils that allegedly go rancid. If you do it regularly it takes five mins, plus air drying time.

I just brush mine out after every use. I've had this grinder about 2.5 years and have taken it apart once to switch out the burrs, cleaned them at the same time.

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Ah, you got my worried now. Problem is, if I investigate further I'll end up needing to spend £500 on a niche.

I'm content that I seem to be able to put 19g in and get 19g out. Whether it's the same 19g is the £500 question....