Coffee Appreciation

Looks like it was tough labour for you. Big respect for pushing that out though.

It was tough. We had a termination recently so this little one coming along so soon has changed our lives

Looks great in black, congrats!

Was gonna say. I’ve contemplated stripping and painting mine so many times.

Say hello to sleepless nights, and early starts!

It’s midnight blue but in certain lights does look black. Best of both worlds

Quality!

Need to buy a tamper. The plastic one that comes with the machine is terrible.

Thinking of a distributor/tamper but I think 58mm is the classic size

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Spend your money on a VST basket and a “competition” size 58.4mm tamper instead of one of those.

Thanks for the advice. There’s so many different options so some clarity is really helpful

Distribution tools are great, as @nefarious says get a 58.4mm job... Naked portafilter, VST basket and shower screen are also great upgrades... Once you've got your grounds in the basket give them a good mix up with a cocktail stick, distribution tool, tamp and in the machine... Perfect extraction every time once you get your grind and coffee/water/temp ratios right...

VST basket was a game changer, and a 58.4 tamper is a nice touch that you’ll definitely benefit from (especially if you need a tamper anyway) - you definitely won’t see a similar benefit from those fancy levelling tampers, as seductive as they are.

The problem with fancy levelling tools is I can't tell how much benefit they bring to the party... Since I started using the fancy distribution tool in conjunction with a hairpin/cocktail stick my naked portafilter has never been more well behaved, no channelling whatsoever... I should do an A-B test, with and without...

anyone having issues with their yellow bourbon order?

my card was declined and now I can't add a card, and got a bounce back from the subscription email address.

@StevePeel all ok at your end, dude?

I’d get a good tamper & a distribution tool - not convinced by the all in one jobbies.
You can get needle distribution tools but tbh I’ve always thought it was too much faff/another thing.

Vst basket was a revelation and mad that it took me so long to spring for one

Hello mate, sounds like an issue with Stripe. I’m on holiday rn, email it in to coffee@yellowbourbon.co.uk and they’ll sort it on Monday. I’ll get them to put your regular coffee in the post today 👍

No need to email I’ve told them what’s up.

Which vst basket is standard 18? Are they all 58mm

Think 18 is standard, that’s what I have (ridgeless). Pretty sure they’re all 58mm.

Brill, cheers :)

Why’s the gaggia basket so bad?

It's okay, the vst is just better...

The VST basket is a funny one, in that it makes no sense (or seems that way), and then you buy one, and it's like, fuck, this makes a lot of difference. It is a bit of a joke, that I have a £25 basket on a machine that cost me £55, but completely worth it.

Hoffmann included upgraded baskets in his "making good espresso for cheap" video - so even when on a budget, it was deemed a vital upgrade.

It makes dialling in easier, the shots are more reliable, you can grind finer etc - it's basically a magic little thing that makes the whole process nicer and easier.

same, our gaggias are almost identical in terms of mods and my (very much overpriced now the clones are everywhere) ONA O.C.D made the most noticeable consistency improvement as far as I can tell.

the other mods are about the end result, the distribution tool is just about avoiding those annoying shots that just fuck up for no noticeable reason.

What’s physically different about a VST basket? I know it has vertical sides all the way to the bottom because I can see it in the pics; I’m assuming the depth is optimised for the size of dose; and, what, are the holes different or something?

Holes are very uniform (to some ridiculous extent). So flow is consistent over the whole basket.