Coffee Appreciation

I don’t think you can go far wrong with something making batch filter like a Moccamaster.

I dunno how much more efficient a Robot is going to be if you’re constantly boiling a kettle for it anyway? And surely it would be a pain in the arse if you’ve got lots of shots to do. Especially if you’re having to do milk separately as well.
For a basic milk option, I genuinely rate the Aeroccino milk frothers. You’re not getting super precise flat white micro foam, but it means you could pull your shots and have drinkable frothy warm milk to go with it (even suggesting this is probably sacrilege tbh, but I’ve never been a microfoam purist).

I often wonder about the super minimalist set up. Offer as few options as possible, black filter, white filter, espresso, espresso with frothy milk.
This whole scheme is for a pizza spot rather than a cafe in my version of this fantasy, and it never gets past the fantasising stage, but maybe one day!

The Lakeland milk foamer/chocolate makers are pretty good too shhhh

Haha, given the option I’d rather give my money to Lakeland than Nestle!

Can’t imagine that the Robot would shine in a commercial setting, though I have read about a place in Taiwan? where they’re apparently using multiples of them.

I've had 2 Lakeland milk jazzers
1st lasted 3 uses the 2nd 2.
Absolute shite.

Damn! I must have just got lucky, ours lasted 6 months before I broke it. I dropped it down a flight of stairs, so I’ll forgive that.

Out of interest, genuine question — Why do you want to do it?

This was my thought too: I had set it flush so the rotor could not spin and then back it up a bit which then caused metal bits. I tried to backed up a bit more and it appears that there is no more metal grinding. Now the plan is to properly clean it and see if the setting is good enough for an espresso.

For fun

Ok cool! I just worry when people think they can make money doing coffee.

I’d personally not bother doing frothy coffees unless you can do it pretty well. It sounds like it’d be really nice baking off a bunch of stuff and having some batch filter and tea. You can also spend more time chatting to people instead of faffing around, setting up and cleaning down.

^^^^^ that! ^^^^^
Put a couple of different coffees in pair of Chemex and away you go. I really funky natural and and a green apple bright washed? Maybe if you’re feeling reckless an aeropress and warmed milk for that Café au lait vibe. I think the main thing is to do what ever you do well, offer people what you’d want to drink, what ever that is and not what the chains say they want. Don’t shoot me, but most people don’t really like espresso, you just have to see how much shit they put in it to hide its taste on the high street. Someone I know did ok at a couple of small venues without a machine in sight by selling a banging filter of Ethiopia Rocko Mountain Natural and nothing else other than the option for cold milk, but he also kept the sugar in a locked box and made such a fuss if somebody wanted it… maybe don’t do that bit.

Well it’s a super quiet village, so I’d expect to get virtually zero trade the few times, definitely not a money maker that’s for sure. But it’s a very under used space so anything is better than nothing.

Might just use the classic as it ticks a lot of boxes.

New grinder has arrived (ahead of machine and beans) so this mornings dog walk took me past my local coffee shop to buy some beans..

It all seems very easy, dialled in per the instructions for espresso which involved the machine clogging so set it back a couple of notches and have had 3 lovely shots using same amount of ground as usual but different coarseness this morning, plus 3 more I’ve put down the sink as otherwise I’ll be bouncing off the walls!

much sweeter and ambit thicker in consistency than the pre ground lavazza I usually but I’ll save any further playing until the new machine as I suspect much more refinement will take me way beyond the capabilities of my little dualit!

The hand grinder is faff though, so we’ll see how long I put up with it for before going mental and buy a grinder…

Which hand grinder did you get?

https://microcosm.app/out/UMQNi

This one, no complaints with the grinder, it takes about 30 seconds of grinding to get my coffee, and I need to let myself chill a bit as I current weigh the beans in and out, and the collector fits nicely inside my basket, so almost all of the faff is just weighing stuff which would exist with a machine or hand grinder!

I hand-ground my coffee for a couple of months whilst waiting for my electric grinder and it was old by the time it arrived.

It’s arrived! I’m at real risk of getting carried away and having too much coffee here!

This was attempt #2, number 3 with one setting finer on the grinder and it took 48 seconds, all other things being roughly equal , presumably I should try upping the dose slightly on attempt number 2 to slow the extraction down a little - the grinder is stepped so I don’t think I can do an in between?

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Try tamping harder first. Do you have a WTD tool? They definitely help with shot consistency.
Set up looks great though. Got me thinking about one of those machines now.

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Anyone have direct experience with the DeLonghi Dedica Style?
Looking for a £200 espresso machine and this often comes up high in reviews.

Would likely do a Silvia wand upgrade in the future

I did plan on making my own, but will need to wait to drink something nice to have a suitable cork, on a paper clip at the moment!

I also really need a decent tamper, the one it comes with is way too small, but waiting for shades of coffee to reopen so I can get a slim drip tray, the glass ramekin dish is presumable sacrilege, but is the only thing that fits between the scales and portafilter… although - naked portafilter would solve the same problem in a different way!

I’m debating getting the plumb in kit for my Micra in order to be able to have a go with the pre infusion which it can do when it has mains pressure.

I had one and I did the wand upgrade too, it was decent enough for me but if you've got a couple of hundred quid to spend you'd be better off buying a 2nd hand gaggia classic imo.

Unless space is an issue, the good thing about the dedica is that it's very compact.

Cheers, space is part of the motivation.

Will not be used daily.

I liked mine, I was more than happy with the shots I was pulling. It was also a relatively cheap way for me to find out I couldn't really be arsed to make espresso at home 😂

ha! maybe I should dig out my ROK presso and try to get something passable from that before spunking £200 on a new gadget to clutter the kitchen