Coffee Appreciation

I am on this train too. Doubt it'll be June though!

I've got a Niche grinder, reading through the Decent website it looks like quite the contrast to my Factory 105!

It does look good.

My concerns when previously looking at Decent machines in particular the DE1 were a lack of UK repair agent and the general longevity of the machine. There is absolutely no doubt it’s geek heaven.

Anyone been to London Coffee Festival today, or planning to over the next few days?

Yea, there's no way is there? Looks like they've a massive production run ahead of them

Yeah longevity is a valid concern. My gaggia class D was manufactured in 2006, had god knows how many previous owners and it lived until 2022 before it became uneconomical to repair. Touch screens become redundant every few years...

I'm driving from Glasgow to London tomorrow. A chap who is making me a custom tamper is going to be there, thought it would be nice go say hello to him but I also can't be arsed with traveling into proper London. If I can be bothered, I might have a nosey on Saturday.

My concerns when previously looking at Decent machines in particular the DE1 were a lack of UK repair agent and the general longevity of the machine. There is absolutely no doubt it’s geek heaven.

Anyone been to London Coffee Festival today, or planning to over the next few days?

Whatever I buy is going to be situated in Singapore, and I have no idea what that's going to be like for repair/parts. There are a lot of the usual suspects there in terms of big Italian machines in cafes, but whether that translates to support for domestic machines I do not know.

Hopefully will be getting more info on the 078S from the SCA expo in the next two days, Timemore have a stand there.

Really the Robot is capable of full on espresso, and since most every part comes from Hong Kong it should be no problem keeping up with repairs, except that there is so little that can go wrong.

I've had a lever machine for something like 14 years, I'd quite like to try something a little more, well, complex.

I've had a lever machine for something like 14 years, I'd quite like to try something a little more, well, golf club worthy.

If I was to get a semi auto machine I'd probably go for the Lelit Bianca. The best bang for your buck if you want to be able to do pressure profiling on. The next step from that is a massive jump, thanks probably not worth it.

Good stuff! Let us know how you go

I play golf for the articles.

I've had a 9Barista machine since last year and it's really impressed me, the espresso it makes (using the same beans) is noticeable for being more complex than the shots I can make from the lever machine. I'd like, therefore, to be able to play around with the variables in a more controllable way, or maybe more repeatable.

What lever machine do you have?

Gaggia Factory 106

Oh not me, just the youtubers!

Having been looking at some videos on YouTube I have to say that the 30 minutes to warm the thing up requirement of some rule them out for me - I'm simply too impatient and I'm not putting a 2kw element on a timer plug because that way a smoking crater lies.

This is my current setup:

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What beans are you using? I've found that to be the biggest factor in terms of how the coffee tastes.....

Your setup looks perfectly fine to me!

(but yeah, warmup time is a bit of a pain, especially if someone asks for a coffee and the machine isn't warmed up)

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@mmccarthy - have you replaced the steam wand tip on yours for a single hole one? If so, did it make a difference + which one did you go with?

I have the stock wand and I really struggle with my milk / any latte art that doesn't look like a scrotum.

Yep, stock 3-hole tip is useless with the small amount of pressure this machine makes. It's ridiculous that a company as old as La Pavoni are still shipping these with 3-hole tips.

I tried a few different single-hole options and to be honest none of them were that great. So I just got some M6 acorn nuts and drilled a hole through one (I cannot vouch for the food-safety of this solution). Works much better and is super easy to remove for cleaning. This was an issue I had with a few of the off-the-shelf ones, was impossible to find a torque that was tight enough to prevent a lot of steam/water flying out the sides, but loose enough that it could actually be removed for cleaning.

Looks like James Hoffman has been following this thread...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBdiBV-yzlk

Generally speaking different grinders or burrs will have more of an effect than changing machines.

The Sage Bambino Plus warms up in 3 seconds apparently, that might be of interest.