Coffee Appreciation

We tend to ask @stevepeel to send us some 1kg bags of beans, he knows the kind of things we like. Often we comment on a particular bag being especially awesome, they are invariably the most expensive beans. It’s weird as we can’t articulate a lot about flavour profile but we sadly just have expensive tastes.

I tried it for the first time three weeks ago. Can't believe it has taken me this long. Now on my second 64oz growler. Ha.

Good ones are delicious. Grown up sweet drinks.

Ahh gotcha.

I'm third wave all the way

Also having a clear out - a plastic V60 and 25 filters of use to anyone?

Yours for a bottle of porter/stout collected from SW12.

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Or maybe one of these?

https://www.option-o.com/lagom-p64

Even with a weak dollar $1500 is a little steep!

Well recommended from me too. Local to family in Devon, stumbled across them when visiting a friend who lives next door.

What does the Niche cost landed ?

£510 I think

Ok - so the ones on eBay are a total rip !

Yeah unbelievable. RRP is £500 plus postage 😃

Our coffee machine is plumbed in, the drip tray has a small gauge pipe feeding into a hole in the worktop, it then slots into a pipe that connects to the sink trap.

Today I noticed the drip tray was draining very very slowly, when I tried putting a jug of water in the pipe from the sink trap to the worktop just backed up. Considered putting drain cleaner down but thought I should investigate more. Turns out the milk residue poured down the sink has been coagulating over two years and had started to back up into the side t junction on the drip tray waste pipe. When I put a pipe cleaner into the drip tray pipe it was solidly backed up. With a little wiggle things got released and an 8 inch turd made of rancid milk and coffee grounds slid out from the pipe.

Grim but things will work fine and I know how to resolve it when it inevitably happens again.

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8 inch turd made of rancid milk and coffee grounds

dibs?

Out of interest, how is the mains water plumbed in? Or is it a machine that can specifically be connected to the mains?

Artisan cheesemaking at its finest.

It is designed to either have a reservoir filled by hand or be plumbed in. For the first few years it wasn’t in a location that could be plumbed in and we got through 2 or 3 5l bottles of water a week (our local water is bastard hard). When we built our kitchen we had a specific coffee/tea making area and we plumbed in the machine and put in a bestmax xl water filter/softener.

In the under sink photo there is the thin blue pipe that splits into two feeds- one goes to the tap and the other connects to the braided hose which attaches to the coffee machine.

This has massively reduced our plastic waste and that filter also gives us filtered drinking water and feeds the cold water/ice machine in the fridge.

For making coffee there is another benefit, as we can do pre infusion of the grounds, when the e61 lever is raised there is a point where the valve is opened but the pump isn’t active. So the mains water pressure can push hot water into the puck. Wait for 5-10 seconds and then fully raise the lever for the pump to press the water through.

My assumption is that during the pre infusion the grounds swell a bit and we appear to get much less channelling in the shots. We only use a naked portafilter and very rarely get any little sprays coming out.

My Hario pouring kettle is still available in exchange for a bag of nice coffee beans

New coffee corner setup

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Called someone about fixing the grinder - £180 which seems ludicrous. Any suggestions for other places which might be able to help me?

dreamy setup - getting all the dreamy shots of the new house bathing in that spring glow

Yeah now the stress is wearing off and the sun is coming out we really are getting a lot of payback for all the hard work.
Back to the coffee setup I think it'll stay this way for a good while now.

I'm planning to get an internal drawer for underneath the machine so I can keep the tamper and towels out of the way.

I haven't had professionally roasted beans in almost a year now (though I got a small back of locally roasted stuff at xmas which was honestly no better than my own) and I'm terrified to go back. Though my little roaster has now paid for itself in money saved buying green coffee, so I can treat myself now and then to some proper stuff without guilt.

https://eos-products.com/shop/niche-zero-the-best-conical-burr-coffee-grinder/

Surely can't be legit?

Tell me more. What is this little roaster?