Coffee Appreciation

Have been enjoying Echelon recently.

Dark Arts
Hardlines
Friedhats

This London based eBay seller has an unbelievable amount of stovetop coffee makers for sale:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Percolators-Moka-Pots/116012/

Some very aesthetically pleasing stuff.

EDIT:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/zoe8812/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

You've linked to a category not an individual seller.

Thanks for all the roaster suggestions, I'll stay working my way through them.

If people are inclined more towards the value end of the scale (I particularly am at the moment as consumption has gone through the roof) I'd recommend Redber coffee. They are Guildford based and as cheap as I have found fresh roasted coffee. Quality seems great, though their range is improbably large. As I'm Kingston based, they are almost local. Also been a fan of Rave in Cirencester. Similarly good value.

Origin Magwila. Yum.

Well, my YB order came on Monday and currently experimenting with the Mantiquiera de Minas, adjusting grind etc and drinking far more coffee than is healthy for me.

Anyone had this happen and have an idea of the cause? When I start pulling a shot i'll get liquid through the spout then it'll slow down to a dribble as if I ground too fine. Coarsening up the grind helps a bit but you can see from the pic I'm already getting too coarse for espresso and getting weak extraction. When I take the portafilter out it looks like the puck has tried to climb out of the sides... in the pic it's a ~15g dose in a silvia basket and it's reached the top of the basket when it should be about halfway down.

My hunch is that it's the gasket not giving a perfect seal. When I backflushed a week ago I had some leak from there until I cranked the portafilter in really tight. I only replaced it 3 months ago so maybe it's a dud one. I also pulled the solenoid valve apart but it was surprisingly clean for such an old machine.

That looks way overfilled. What does the empty basket look like and what diameter is it on the Silvia?

Yeah like I said, there's only 15g in there. when I tamp it it comes about halfway up the basket, then after pulling a shot it's climbed right up to the top like it's trying to escape.

New gasket sounds like a good place to start, has it ever been changed?

Ok, so it's a fairly small basket on the Silvia.

Is it a matter of that very light roast acting like a sponge and the grounds swelling up? Instead of grinding coarser, have you tried dropping the dose right down and grinding a little finer to slow the shot back down? Maybe as little as 14g (or less) at your previous finer grind is what it's looking for so you work the puck a bit harder. Could do something like a quick pre-infuse, pause to let the grounds swell, then pull the shot - which might help stop the finer grind blocking the holes in the basket and slowing the shot down too much.

I've been using this machine for about 3 years and it's only in the last ~3 weeks that I've had this issue which is what made me think it's a problem with the machine rather than technique. 15g is already down on my usual 18g dose and I did that before going coarser on the grind.

Interesting point about the light roast though, I mentioned earlier I had trouble extracting the El Oso beans which were a really light roast. I'm now on the Ethiopian Hambella which are also light. Prior to these I pretty much only drank the costa rican from YB or a local Sumatran that were both medium roast. Might see if I can get some random med/dark roasted beans to see if that's a factor, I'll try a pre-infuse too.

Here we are then I've now officially run out of caffeine. A rundown of how this has happened, starting 5 weeks ago:

-12 week confinement begins because of medical conditions in the household, so I can't go to the shops.
-I had quite a lot of coffee here, but no shopping delivery available for 3 weeks. I just had enough to last to the delivery. I only have the espresso machine here, Aeropress is locked up at work, so I have to have a specific brand of coffee if it's going to be a supermarket one or it doesn't work. Had that coffee on the shopping list.
-That went out of stock and got substituted off.
-Immediately ordered some from YB to cover until the next shopping delivery slot.
-Switched to tea and the sachets of Nescafé that came with my emergency food box, assuming this would be for a few days to a week.
-YB coffee went AWOL in the post.
-Next shopping delivery substituted off my coffee.
-Down to the final couple of tea bags and 3 sachets of Nescafé to last a week.
-Final hot drink made this morning.
-10:00am turned away the emergency food box which arrived because we're now sorted for a recurring food delivery, but in hindsight wish I'd taken the teabags or instant coffee...
-12:05pm thought about that again. WHAT DID I DO!!!

There was a knock at the door while I was typing that. I’M SAVED!

@StevePeel !

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A rollercoaster for the ages - Timeout

That whole tale...

Get yourself an agent.
Richard Curtis is looking for C-19 good news stories to work up into film scripts.

I can't decide what was worse, running out of food and going hungry for a day so my family could eat or running out of coffee and tea!

Jeebus, and out here they're okaying the opening of hairdressers after the weekend.

Anyone else noticing a lack of whole beans in supermarkets? Lots of ground coffee but whole is either none or a very reduced range.

Have the major suppliers cut back on whole as most of it would go to the (now closed) coffee shops?

Might have to get a subscription. If only I knew of someone doing that kinda thing...

Not sure that many people on here buy beans from a supermarket.

Have you tried going as fine as poss?

tbh sounds like the gasket/seal but could be worth a shot

Green Jersey edition from Tin Donkey has made a great aeropress brew these last few days.

https://tindonkeycoffee.co.uk/collections/tin-donkey-coffee/products/green-jersey-edition-filter-roast