Coffee Appreciation

I did use a Porlex + drill for a while for espresso and it did the job fine. Got myself a Baratza Sette in a decision based almost wholly on it's low grind retention. Definitely a step up from the drill + Porlex, but not the cheapest upgrade

I did one of these espresso and tonic things today. Light roast Ethiopian and Waitrose full sugar tonic (second to Fever Tree IMO). I don’t know, I’m not sold.

My kettle gave up at the beginning of the lock down and after a few days of microwaved water while trying to get a replacement, I opted for the 1.2l one of these.

https://www.highstreettv.com/home/drew-cole/redikettle.html

I wasn't expecting much, but have been reasonably impressed.
The keeping hot for a while is handy, but really it's minutes rather than hours. Practically 10 to 15 minutes maximum without needing to reheat for a specific temp.

Temp settings seem reliable and within a couple of degrees when checked with a thermometer

Decent pour, although you have to depress the lever to open the thermos stopper.

Having to remove the stopper to fill is my biggest gripe with it.
Being twin walled, it's a bit heavier than some kettles.

Couple of grinders going if any one fancies?

Ascaso - good gateway into espresso grinders, the little plastic bit broke off the grind size axle, I've still got it, just never been bothered to fix it (picture makes it look pink but it's red) . £60

Krups - boggo grinder but perfectly good for filter/v60 etc. Yours for a couple of decent beers.

Pick up E7

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On the off chance you'd be willing to post I'd be keen on the Krups.

I use that Krups, can confirm it's good enough for v60.

Just made an espresso tonic with Pact espresso blend and Fevertree tonic. Likewise, I'm not sure about it. It seems rather like a drink that someone has invented just because they can and it's gaining a lot of hipster points. It's not horribly bitter as such, but there's a weird, almost metallic harshness somewhere in there due to an unfortunate combination of flavours.

Might be the COVID talking, but I’m entertaining the idea of an electric grinder for the Robot. Maybe something in the Mignon or Sette 270 range?
Any strong opinions at that price point?
What about maintenance?
Thanks.

I have a mignon and it's been great so far. Not done any maintenance as yet; it doesn't get heavily used.

Can't comment on the others but I had a Mignon too. No complaints, only thing it struggled with was when I tried to grind a whole 250g bag at once, it got too hot.

Thank you both @ChasnotRobert and @Sumo.

Coffee’s got a really good market share of beverage worldwide. It should leave the cold drink sector alone.

I've mentioned a few times that I've got the Sette 270. Primarily bought due to the low grind retention which is great for single-dosing.

Downside of that design is that it is very noisy (not an issue for me, but can be for others).
Another small upside is the speed of grinding. 15g of espresso in less than 5 seconds or so (again, those 3-5 additional seconds aren't turning my life around, but it's nice).
Cleaning is very simple as you just rotate burr-holder as if you're making the grind coarser and it pops off with less than one full rotation.
Baratza make two burrs for it, one for espresso, and one for filter. Apparently the espresso one (which initially was their only offering) would provide too many fines at the coarseness required for filter. Think it cost around £25 or so and swapping them out takes probably around 40 seconds or so.

Probably goes through around 50-70g of coffee per day so not exactly pushing the limits, but I've had it for a year and am very happy with it. Feel free to fire over any questions you might have.

Also @ffm

What I did with mine was pulled the espresso into a small cold glass, put some clingfilm over the top and put it straight in the freezer for 20 minutes to chill down. It was on the brink of freezing at that point and still had its crema sat on top, completely intact. I wasn’t expecting that!

I don’t know what ratio of tonic I was supposed to use. I started with 2 parts tonic to one part espresso and worked from there. It became palatable at about 3:1 but not exactly what I’d describe as ‘nice’. Any more tonic than that and the espresso was getting lost.

My conclusion: simply too many flavours going on in one place, a lot of which didn’t go together.

Oh, and the caffeine absorption rate was brutally fast. I enjoyed the temple pounding buzz but wouldn’t do it on an empty stomach!

Excellent, thanks for making the decision that much harder.
Heard about the noise issue, that may be a factor with my wife working from home these days and still abed as I make my espresso...

Sorry not at the moment. If it doesn't go then I might consider it later.

Usual coffee order not arrived in post, so bought some Union beans from sainsburys. Seems to be quite a dark roast which is not working well with my V60. Any tips for getting the best out of these beans (grind size, temp etc) for a v60?

Made a few aeropress of this in the woods yesterday and it was reaaally nice. Kind of annoyed that I waited for just past the end of July to try it and find out (they had a discount code for July) but I'll probably get another bag anyway. Thanks for the tip!

Sounds great, I didn’t buy for myself but sent a bag to a friend. What recipe are you using for the Aeropress and this coffee?

I have a 25% discount code actually, I’ll PM it over.

The recipe was quite approximative due to the environment, but was something like (with an aeropress) :

• ~20g of coffee (probably a bit more in reality)
  
• brought water to a simmer/boil, poured water to cover the beans, waved the aeropress around so that water got everywhere and waited for ~30s
  
• poured more water until aeropress was full, put the (metal) filter and holder on, waited for about 1:30 to 2 minutes
  
• invert, press & enjoy
  
  

Thanks for the code, but I actually got a bag already, someone else should use it :-)

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Coffee guys! Sorry to say Corona has taken my business victim, and as such I've been clearing out some pro level coffee equipment.

All I have left now is a lightly used Mythos 1, if any of you happen to be in the mood for an absolute workhorse of an espresso grinder. Very lightly used, compared to most (low volume cafe situation)

£1000, happy to discuss delivery

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Hey Jammy very sorry to hear that your business didn’t make it.

I’d be interested in taking the grinder, whereabouts are you?

Don't know if you've solved this already, but a somewhat industrial/agricultural method would be to run a hard pipe with a tap that emptied directly into the reservoir.

I'm sorry to hear this, Andy.

In the mountains at the moment. Quite high up. Water boils at 93 degrees here. Its playing merry havoc with my ability to make a good coffee. Good tea is a total write off too. How is an Englishman expected to operate under these conditions?