Coffee Appreciation

Went to my first cupping yesterday at Lodestar coffee. I was having a chat with the owner last week about a few different things and he invited me to join.

Rob, from A Matter of Concrete brought most of his current catalogue plus one selection that he's bought a sample of but isn't yet available to buy.

Absolutely banging experience. Ended up buying a stupidly expensive coffee but it tasted incredible during the cupping, definitely a standout, so I had to buy some to drink at home.

I don't know enough to categorise it other than source, Colombia, and process, 280h Natural Anaerobic, and here's a link to it:

https://amatterofconcrete.com/product/wushwush/

Tangy fermented citrus flavours, without being overpowering in my opinion.

one hundred and sixty seven euros a kilo...I'd be scared of trying something that expensive in case it ruins normal coffee for me.

Wush Wush is my favourite, better than any Gesha from Ethiopia, in fact Gesha from South America is better than Ethiopian to my tastes.

What’s the most affordable option for electric single dose grinding for espresso these days? Those Timemore look great but at post kickstarter prices aren’t quite in the affordable category at the moment.

I’m very happy with my 1Zpresso JX Pro but since my girlfriend has gone caffeine free the different settings and double rounds of grinding (we defaulted to a double each while we used to have singles) have felt a bit faffy but not really in a place where we can justify chucking a few hundreds at the problem… 🤔

Iberital MC2 - if keeping it cheap is the main priority.

Probably the Wilfa Svart? (Filter only)

I can barely taste the difference between my Baratza Virtuoso and Kinu M47. I reckon the Encore ESP (same burr as Virtuoso) would be a perfect solution [edit: even has a dosing cup now!]

Square box dosing? I’m out.

This reminded me it doesn't have a square box thing anymore but a dosing cup. Thanks!

It's not good enough to do that but previously I was buying £50/kg coffee "as a treat" and now this has reset my price scale to seeing £18/100g as the new level of "treat".

Made it at home this morning on my humble Wilfa Svart and I used the Clever Dripper rather than the Sage Precision Brewer and it was brilliant. I was concerned I'd fuck it up somehow.

Was watching the myth busting Hedrick video last night and one of them was that you can’t really tamp too hard, or rather tamping over a certain amount doesn’t make an appreciable difference other than adding the potential for a skewed grounds bed. What’s the word on tamping too lightly? For my dark roasts on the Robot, I only use the weight of the classic tamper itself, putting zero pressure on it - set it in, make sure it’s level, spin it, take it out and slightly tap basket, repeat once minus basket tap.
This works well for me but most others use substantially more force than I.
Thoughts?

The guy who made the robot uses a two thumbs light pressure tamp. I use the weight of the self levelling tamper alone, place, turn, lift about 1cm, drop.

Classic La Pavoni tip for new owners is a really light tamp.

Yeah I've seen Paul's vids on it, I use less pressure than he does. I may try the self levelling one some day, though curiosity is the only driver in this case. What's the pressure that that one puts out?

Only for new owners?

I’ll weigh it, it’s quite a heavy lump.

In blind tests on a La Marzocco Linea Classic AV almost nobody could tell if a shot had been tamped at all just levelled with a finger, let alone how hard. Everything else being equal.

I would like a small, aesthetically pleasing, grind and brew drip coffee machine that makes 2 cups of coffee, with a timer so I can set it the night before and a warm plate incase I don't drink both cups immediately. Does such a thing exist?

Older owners probably figured a method to make more consistent shots already.

My sample size of 1, anecdotal data is that tamp too hard and you increase the chance of channeling significantly, can’t say I’ve encountered an issue with tamping too lightly other than the entire puck falling out when I span the portafilter, then felt very silly.

Ah ho

Hedrick talked about channelling as well...

Huge if true. Come on. No way

I think there's a couple more users on here with a Sage Precision Brewer, so for their benefit and anyone else that might get one in the future.

I'd noticed over the last few months that the lid of the carafe kept getting water stuck inside after cleaning and it didn't feel like a very hygienic situation as it was almost impossible to get the water out. So I did a bit of research online and it seems like an issue that Sage are aware of but they don't have a solution other than buy a whole new carafe just for the lid. I did some more research and found this handy solution on Reddit that has actually worked really well.

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