Coffee Appreciation

Am sure there's a James Hoffman review out there on this. Seem to remember a smaller brew capacity being a key difference. That said seem to remember it packing up neatly so if space is an issue...

https://youtu.be/U_hwYVboAVQ

I would consider it to be a small strong coffee, rather than espresso style.

Right

As are Moka pots; I’ve never had a coffee from an aero press though, how do they compare?

Fuck I wish I hadn't watched that. Almost as bad as that Darko hifi guy for disappearing down a YouTube khole.

(but in all seriousness, cheers. That's really helpful)

making espresso at home

There is an irony to spending ages making a coffee in a format originally designed (or at least popularised) as a mass production / fast food.

Just to contain the controversy in one post I'm going to share two discoveries that may make some readers cry;

1. Fortnum & Mason breakfast blend. I know that blended coffee is now equivalent to putting ice in claret, but it has probably given me the most around pleasurable cup of coffee I've had since drinking coffee in CR and Colombia via those baggy stand filter things. Not sure you can get it outside of a hamper.
   
2. Kenco Americano. Great for having in the house to give to other people, but also... 1tsp of coffee, 1tsp of sugar, boiling water, splash of milk and you've got the coffee equivalent of a McDonald's cheese burger.
   

There is an irony to spending ages making a coffee in a format originally designed (or at least popularised) as a mass production / fast food

Nicely put. That’s my problem with it, but I totally get being drawn into it as a hobby, especially if nice espresso isn’t available close to home.

Nothing wrong with blends, good ones are greater than the sum of their parts and should deliver consistency, predictability and ease of brewing. Fortnums buy good coffee, you sure pay for the branding though.

Kenco Americano, yeah, nah that can fuck off.

Bialetti

I haven't used a Bialetti specifically, but I have never consistently got a good cup out of those stove top things.

What I like about the AeroPress is the ease of making nice short coffee. Personally, imo on balance a cafetiere still makes the best coffee practically. Pour over edges it for flavour for me, but I cba with the extra faff and my cafetiere is a thermal one, which is useful.

So…. a long black then? :)

I do love Espresso, especially little ones. It’s the coffee equivalent of micro-dosing. I get three, perfectly satisfying, little hits a day. No way I could do that with a cafetière. If I lived in Italy, I probably wouldn’t bother making them in the house, just stroll down to a local bar.

Wouldn’t work here, mainly I’d go broke, but I’m also not fussed about the local roasts. I enjoy the ritual of making it too - I can see why people get a bit keen. (Up to a point….)

Nothing wrong with blends, good ones are greater than the sum of their parts

Its the same with whisky. Plenty of whisky snobs out there who won't touch a blend...and as a result are missing out on some cracking whisky.

Hold the phone - how does this relate to your YB ‘aeropress grind’ setting - I generally do 17g /250ml / 2.5 mins plus a 30 sec press (basically Hoffman’s) with it.

Yes I need a grinder.

Yeah tricky that one. YB aeropress grind is for a filter style brew, we dial it in using 18g/200ml/90sec. Aeropress is the most versatile piece of kit going so if you want to go for a short fast brew or a coarse long steep then you’ll need a grinder. You need a grinder whatever you’re doing tbh.

claret

Which in itself is a blend of (typically) Cab Sauv, Merlot and Cab Franc

It cost me £360 + getting a mate to drive it down from Leicester + filter and some funky pressfit plumbing. That was 10 years ago and its been in use here ever since. It could do with a strip down and clean as it's a little noisy we assume due to some scale in an o-ring, but we just got used to it.

So I guess a price somewhere between a used Gaggia Classic/Ranc Silvia and what I paid would be fair. £200?

If I lived in Italy, I probably wouldn’t bother making them in the house, just stroll down to a local bar

This is why I love visiting Italy, in a city, you are never more than 10 metres away from an espresso and they are almost all great and will only cost you €1.

A couple of years ago i was in Rome, walked down to get the tram into town, just missed one, 4 minutes until the next one, so walked into a random little shop, ordered an espresso, drank it at the bar, walked out and still had to wait for the trolley to arrive.

Ha!

I did pause before choosing that as an eg. But ultimately it was the shortest red wine I could think of (and spell) off the top of my head.

I’d deffo be interested if jsabine isn’t. How onerous a task is the strip down? And does it have to be plumbed in?

As a very trendy third-waver having never been to Italy and had a 1€ espresso from a street corner, can someone explain to me how it can be good coffee? I’m guessing it’s super roasty with wide margin for error so doesn’t have to be particularly carefully prepared? Or is it more a sense of place/experience?

Or is it more a sense of place/experience?

For me it is. My espresso isn’t as good as the stuff I get in the forward thinking coffee shops I buy my coffee but I prefer it over what I drank in Italy.

So I guess a price somewhere between a used Gaggia Classic/Ranc Silvia and what I paid would be fair. £200?

Seems fair to me. I'll PM

(I am now probably open to expressions of interest in a two-group Gaggia D90, which also needs a strip down and some new seals.)

I kinda think of it like this - it’s like wine or bread in Europe, eg France with bread or Italy with wine: the standard day to day stuff is noticeably better than what we get here at the same level. Of course you can now get a better loaf of bread from a specialist artisan baker in the UK vs a boggo bakery in France, but the main thing you notice is that a baguette that costs a euro from an entirely standard bakery in France is a world apart from the equivalent in the uk. Same goes for drinking the cheapest/average wine in a normal cafe or bar in Italy vs the UK. I’d happily order a wine in an Italian cafe without much thought, but I’d probably be a lot more trepidatious ordering one at a standard street corner cafe in the UK.

Good bread, wine or coffee tend to be the exception in the UK, compared to them being the standard over there. Or at least the baseline is a lot higher.

So of course the €1 Italian espresso isn’t going to be world class, but at least for me it never fails to surprise me how reliable and drinkable it is - which is an experience completely different to buying coffee in the UK.

My experience has been that the espresso got better the further south I went in Italy. Sadly I haven’t been beyond Rome yet but I’ll get there!

Sant'Eustachio cafe just around the corner from the Pantheon is the place to go. Amazingly busy place which used to have a metal counter that was completely dented from patreons slamming down extra coins as tips to the baristas so that they would get their coffees quicker!

Sweet, one day…