Coffee Appreciation

First coffees from my new Bialetti this morning. So much better than the cheap knock-off I bought from Sainsbury's a few years ago.

What size? I find the 3 cup mokas are the sweet spot.

Went for the six cup because I 'need' that much coffee in the morning. Though in hindsight, I probably won't need that much once I've got my espresso set-up on the go.

They’re cheap, get a 3 cup and experiment!

It's likely to happen. I'll only need half the current amount if I have a double espresso beforehand.

Speaking of Mokas has anybody tried the Bialetti induction? I’m getting feed up using our camping stove when I fancy one.

I have the 6 cup induction. Works perfectly well. I use JH's method.

Ground near the station serves Pharmacie, not much sitting space though.
Tigermoth is a good roastery as well, if that is too far out I believe the Sip serves their beans but haven't been there yet.
Trading post if you're on the high street.

thanks, meeting someone off the train so we will wander about after a swim.

Cheers I’ll have a proper look later.

Maybe a bit late, but Mouse Tail coffee in Canada Water is lovely.

Thanks, I'll check that out next time I'm in the area! Our plan changed in the end, had to jump in a hire car and head to Andover. Spotted an interesting looking spot on the side of the road called the "Wild Bean Café" but didn't have a chance to sample the wares.

A strong warning to the Sage grinder owners who are considering doing the burr adjustment. From the factory, the burrs will almost be touching when the grind dial is at 1. Depending on tolerances, like my machine, they will actually make contact and you’ll be able to hear this if you run the machine with no beans in it.

If you adjust the ring on the top burr in the ‘finer’ direction, you are physically moving it closer to the lower burr. That means when you wind the grind adjustment dial towards the finer end, you will almost certainly make the burrs contact each other before the dial gets to 1. As I’ve just found out, you’ll force the burrs against each other and do some damage.

I suspected it would do this, but went ahead against my better judgement. So unless you are certain that your burrs are way out of whack, I would not recommend doing this unless you want to risk chewing up your burrs like I have just done.

Shit buddy! I did similar when putting in aftermarket ceramic burrs in an old grinder. I didn’t see the remove top shim before reassembly bit…

Any suggestions for decent coffee in Amsterdam? (Not stoner coffee shop)

Ideally near the Highlander Hotel

I went to quite a few good ones in the 9 streets area (which is worth a look), but near you maybe Hummingbird.

Cheers, it's for my wife who is out there at a conference. I have forwarded the suggestion.

Beginning to really settle into use, and more often than not making a coffee that I’m really happy with, although the beans I’m using are definitely not as good as when I get them… won’t be buying 1kg bags again!

I’ve had a couple of what I’d describe as bubbly extractions on my naked portafilter we here the flow is very aerated and instead of a worm sized flow, it’s more like a sausage, when I’ve made a babycino and then made a espresso straight after, is this a hot group head or something else? everything else is as equal as I can make it!

won’t be buying 1kg bags again!

You can try freezing beans in sealed bags to preserve freshness. That’s what I’m doing at the moment.

It begins!

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Nice one! Fancy distribution tool and everything!

I always recommend the ‘Best Coffee’ app. It used to be a subscription app and was more regularly updated but it’s still really useful.

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Very pleased, grouphead taken off, all run through the ultrasonic cleaner, seal all replaced and greased up, will do steam wand and boiler tomorrow but the machine is a completely different beast! Oh and steam wand upgrade installed as well, not tried that just yet!

2 nice looking little shots pulled and bed time now!

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Absolutely love the la pavoni, with the lever and group head serviced it’s a joy to use! The steam wand with one hole works perfectly too, I thought the hole I drilled might be a little large but it seems to be fine and for 20p worth of investment it’s a great little hack!

Managed to sort the washers on the steam wand and get the pressure valve off to give it a good clean as well, during a coffee break today, last phase is the boiler but that’ll probably have to wait for Sunday night.

Back on the Rocko Mountain tomorrow

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