Coffee Appreciation

Yeah, but something doesn’t have to be the same thing to make a comparison between them.

Ordered a "proper*" tamper for the ROK presso, determined to get a good shot out of this thing.
Will dust off the Ascaso grinder and nail this once and for all.
(or will be selling it all on by the end of Feb)

*cheap 49mm off the internet for £12, rather than £45 for the official 49.7mm ROK one.
Got to be better than the shitty spoon/tamper supplied with the machine.

*cheap 49mm off the internet for £12, rather than £45 for the official 49.7mm ROK one.
Got to be better than the shitty spoon/tamper supplied with the machine.

Possibly a controversial opinion here, but expensive/fancy tampers are a complete waste of money. As long as the thing can allow you to tamp properly (basically, is it a metal disc with a comfortable handle), everything else is just about how it feels to hold. Think I've been using a similarly cheap one as you've ordered for my Europiccola for the past 3-4 years and another similarly cheap one for my Classic. We had all sorts of fancy tampers when I worked at LMNH, weird curved bottom ones, some fancy Reg Barber ones, those idiotic Chris King ones. Aside from pissing me off at the cost of those things, there was no difference that I could notice.

I'd add that I reckon the average Joe coffee enthusiast, let's say someone that owns an aeropress and goes to Workshop over Costa, would find it much easier to taste the difference between an average and great filter coffee compared to an average and great espresso. For espresso it's easy to tell the difference between bad and ok but going from ok to great, I reckon not many home baristas can do that. Whereas with filter there's much more room for getting different flavours. Knock out something passable in a hurry or spend a little more time refining it to something niceably better. And the kit to do that costs like £20 including the beans while an espresso machine to make really great, consistent espresso is like >£700 just for the machine.

I am hoping to be going from Diabolical to Acceptable.

Oh don't get me wrong, getting rid out that useless piece of plastic that comes with so many coffee machines is absolutely the right thing to do. My point was more that you shouldn't feel that you're missing out by using a £12 tamper!

Yeah it's a tricky one, I'm fairly sure I'm biased in my opinion in preferring filter, but I agree with you. Also given the fact that I so rarely actually make myself an espresso and my machine for milky drinks for my wife and in-laws, it's very possibly I'm churning out shite espresso and masking it with some decent milk!

Much like cycling I guess, it's easy to fall into the trap of "maybe if I just spend (much) more money, I'll get better"

Recently other half's employer (she works for a family) had their in-laws over. Dad of the family starts talking about how much he likes coffee and brother-in-law inadvertently called his bluff on it by getting really excited and basically strong arming him in to buying a £600 Sage fake-espresso bean-to-cup thing to replace his Nespresso machine. I laughed.

Sage fake-espresso bean-to-cup thing

"Fake" how? I've generally been quite impressed with the one that I've tried.

Didn't think Sage did anything bean to cup.

They have a Nespresso thing
And they have espresso machines that have a separate grinder, steam wand and make espresso. Some have a small heat coil in place of a boiler but they're all 'proper' espresso (and fairly well reviewed for it)

Ok fake was a bit harsh, it does make espresso coffees but for £600 you get a stepped in-built grinder and a machine covered in proprietary parts with a 19g basket.

Happy to report my Mara X came back from Bella Barista service... They replaced the one (I think...) of the temp sensors in the boiler (faulty) so it won't trigger the safety valve any more, hopefully.

Somehow a microswitch (for the detection of water tank) broke/shattered while in transit, don't know how or why, but had to pay a fair bit of labour for that one.

.

Is anybody using thes "drip assistants"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mbl2-WRlxg

What do you think?

Any interest in my Vario Baratza grinder for £100?

It’s currently running but is having issues maintaining a consistent grind size. Coffee hit can fix it for £79 or anyone who is in anyway competent with this kind of thing could probably fix what a berk like me couldn’t.

It has a brand new motor, burr removal tool and brand new gearbox.

I had meant to send it to coffeehit, then bought a niche zero and then had a kid and now I don’t have the time and it’s just sitting there not being used.

These go for about £300 on eBay so this felt like about right price

I’m enjoying using the Orea brewer for my pour-overs at the moment. Think I get more consistent results than I do with V60.

Looks like they’re about to release a polymer version which should be a more reasonable price over the aluminium. Definitely recommend if anyone is thinking of trying a new filter method.

Yes, I suspect Oatley went public at a multi billion dollar valuation because they were the first people to create a type of milk (Oatley Barista) that basically makes even shitty espresso palatable. It adds a nuttiness and creaminess, and disguises bitterness. Forgives mistakes like nothing else.

Yeah, this sounds dope. Super interested to hear other people’s experiences.

the Orea brewer

not sure whether this is rendered or an actual photo, but looks amazing..

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That’s how the aluminium one looks and drips so probably a photo.

I think the single piece of aluminium construction is aesthetically lovely but I like to give my brew a swirl and it gets so damn hot my fingers do not agree. Orea supply a silicon sleeve to fix this but then you’ve got this dust magnet cover that stinks of chemicals, gets coffee in between it and you’re covering up the aluminium anyway.

So I reckon the updated plastic version will be a much better material so you don’t have to think about any of that.

Dritz Thermal Thimbles-3/Pkg https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0055721OQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_RYK31E35J7P7YD5KVFYX

Hahaha, imagine!

i love using the Barrio Alto brewer as well as a kinto ceramic (one cup) its strange that the plastic 2 cup kinto i don’t get on with as its to slow.
there is now a ridged set of brewers that have different speeds (cant remember the name).
surely its just a cone to hold the filter?....

sad that Barrio Alto Air wasn’t more popular and they stopped making them

Has anyone tried odd coffee co? It was advertised to my girlfriend and we were thinking about trying it https://www.oddcoffeeco.com/

A colleague got the pods delivered last week and was happy! Looked like it was mostly original Nespresso pods. Hadn't heard of them before this though.