Coffee Appreciation

Is that @StevePeel 's place?

yep :)

Banging, just ordered too much coffee - very exciting.

I'd never buy this for myself, but as I have a manual Rok, Mrs JB thought she'd surprise me with a Breville Milk Frother for my birthday. It didn't work that well with standard almond milk, but my god, with actual milk it's really impressive. I mean, you're stuck with either 'latte' milk or 'cap' milk but the milk that it produces for each setting is really, really great. Haven't enjoyed/had any milk based espresso drinks in such a long time but now I envisage many more in my future!

Might be just what I'm looking for. I'm getting phenomenal results from the Robot so looking to get rid of the Silvia. My wife is the only one that drinks milk so possibly overkill, but if the results are good...

Never knew that existed, just watched a video on it and space issues aside that looks like a brilliant coffee gadget - steaming milk is hard especially when you only make one or two a day.

I was super impressed with the auto frother on the Breville/Sage Oracle machine.

I've got one of them. Might have to dig it out of the back of the cupboard for tomorrow mornings coffee

depends on a number of factors. But if the coffee has been dried and stored well, then 9-12 months from picking should be possible. old coffee exhibits what we call fade in the green coffee business (i work qc and logistics for a small import/exporter) and the characteristic taste is a lack of sweetness with a papery/wheaty flavout.

if the coffee is roasted dark, this will make no difference. you can also hide coffee in blends.

I bought one of these for my wife a few years ago, probably not as good as the Breville but does pretty well for her purposes.
https://kuissential.com/product/deluxe-automatic-milk-frother/

On the milk topic, I recently replaced my 'DIY acorn nut with a hole drilled in it' steam wand tip with a proper CNC'd single hole tip and it's noticeably worse. That was pretty disappointing!

It is much bigger than she anticipated, especially considering I'm the only coffee drinker. I fill it up to the 'Minimum milk' line, which is still quite a lot of milk. But I've been very impressed with the results. Much easier than heating milk up in the microwave/a pan and then frothing with a whisk/wand type thing or a French press.

@withered_preacher yeah - basically does the same thing as that. Except its bigger and more expensive!

Seems to have temp options as well, ours just has cold or warm.

They've got them here:

https://www.slurp.coffee/en/product-category/coffee-grinders

and here:

https://beanbros.co/collections/wilfa-grinder

Yeah, that's a nice feature - though I'm not sure why you'd want really hot burnt milk or tepid milk? Either way, mine is dialed to the higher end of the 'optimum' setting. Fahrenheit creeping me out though...

Maybe both of those issues have to do with 'murica.

Well, it's designed by Australians, so who knows ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Any recommendations for a metal milk jug/pitcher that’ll fit an aeropress in to the top? Always feels a bit dicey brewing on my fave mug, and like something I can pour well out of.

Designed by Australians for sale to Brits? Probably saving 5c per unit by not having variable temperature or maybe it's for the "extra hot, wet latte" types?

So I've fallen down the coffee scales hole. Thought I'd get a cheap set with timer. Turns out any of the discerning reviews note that the scales are inaccurate/drift badly over time

Thought I could maybe stretch to the Hario ones - but people don't seem to rate those either.

Was hoping to use for filter and espresso. Anything in the £20-50 range?

I got the Hario one as a gift and I'm more than happy with it. But I didn't look at other options and haven't since to avoid giftee's remorse.

Yeah. I think I'll just use the scales I have, with a phone timer until I know what I need/want.

We've had a £50 amazon voucher burning a hole in our pockets for a while but trying to find exactly what you want on amazon is equally frustrating.

Are the Hario ones any more/less durable than the cheaper alternatives?

I had a cheap one and it died. I don't like buying shit that ends up in landfill so I'd rather pay $fuckloads for something that was almost certain to last.

This is how I feel. I currently have a set of disassembled Salter scales on my desk that I need to replace a switch on. Can't part with the cash for something that sounds like it'll have a short life, but also don't have sufficient cash or knowledge to buy something too bling.

Maybe I should go old fashioned and get some balance scales. Set them up with normal coffee weight and there's no shitty erectronics to fail

I bought this one for the same reason and it fits perfectly.

I'd rather pay $fuckloads

https://acaia.co/products/acaia_lunar