Coffee Appreciation

the foundation has been pissing me right off... super dark, has that real burnt roast flavour and my grinder which grinds into the portafilter basket spits it fucking everywhere (6 inch radius around the machine) whereas every other bean I've run through it just falls straight through.

One thing I've noticed with it (and other very dark roasts) is that the beans have quite low density, ie. for an 18g dose of beans, it's a lot of volume.

I've dropped down to 16g as 18g was overfilling my basket, and it also tames the very strong flavour of the blend.

It's pouring well for me. Pretty much entirely crema until it's settled for a few seconds.

Sounds like both in long run then, grinder Xmas, pid come birthday in March.

Ta for ideas both.

Without having tried ths in practice, I think PID-control is better reserved for machines with bigger/better boilers like Rancillios as opposed to Gaggia Classics. I believe you can prove this because the Gaggia Classic can't maintain nominal temperature while pouring due to cold water intake, even with the element permamently on (steam switch on).

I started with a Porlex with my Classicm, and it was great, but you'll appreciate the consistency of the grind from a commercial grinder (I use a Cunill).

Roddy

Fixed my weeping steam wand, which is nice

Mine does this sometimes, what did you do?

A quick visit to the STD Clinic will usually sort that out for you.

One thing I've noticed with it (and other very dark roasts) is that the beans have quite low density, ie. for an 18g dose of beans, it's a lot of volume.

I've dropped down to 16g as 18g was overfilling my basket, and it also tames the very strong flavour of the blend.

It's pouring well for me. Pretty much entirely crema until it's settled for a few seconds.

Roddy

good call. having been quite eager with the discount code when it was closing I now have 3.5 bags of this to get through thanks to my second order arriving today so i should persevere with it :]

the increased volume thing is spot on though, I tend to use 19g too so am probably overdosing the basket by a lot.

darker roasted = less moisture in beans = lower weight per volume ?

#amateurhour

darker roasted = less moisture in beans = lower weight per volume ?

I'm not sure. I bet Bombcup knows. The beans certainly become less dense when the are roasted darker, but I would have expected there to be very little moisture in any roasted bean. Could be something to do with caramelisation maybe?

HatBeard, I'd put whatever you aren't using in the freezer. It realy works! I'm generally happy with beans that are up to ~ 3 weeks post-roast, but by takig them straight out the freezer, I can have batches of say, 100g at a time, 1 week post-roast. Perfect.

no space for a chest freezer in the flat unfortunately and we went for a decent sized undercounter fridge rather than one with a piddly little freezer box.

I was playing with the beans again last night and I just don't find they behave at all. it's not even that I'm getting a shot but it tastes bad I just can't get repeatable results that I'm happy with. just gushers, wet pucks, sad trombones the whole nine.

I'm 3/4 way through the first bag and I've had one 'decent' shot so far and that was only drinkable in milk. it just seems like that burnt coffee taste you get in coffee shops where they've superheated your drink to 5000degrees before handing it to you.

I actually have an unopened bag of it with me now, if anyone would like to meet me on my way home tonight (I change trains at balham just after 6pm) I'm happy to let someone else have it so they can try it.

it just seems like that burnt coffee taste you get in coffee shops where they've superheated your drink to 5000degrees before handing it to you.

Isn't that just because its a dark roast? I know when I did some cupping at a roasters in the summer - they put out a dark roast and a robusta to try and compare with the lighter roasts more typical of speciality coffee. The robusta was actually better than the dark roast - which tasted like that burnt rubber nasty taste of very dark roast

i don't think so as the flavour just seems to be all roast, there's no subtlety to it at all. i might as well be drinking ground embers from a spent fire.

I did manage to tease a single shot that had potential (one of the first ones) but the exact same settings the next time round behaved totally differently again and there was no noticeable difference in tamp/dose or anything.

I think I'm just going to write this off as a bad bean for me. I have plenty others to get through that i was holding on to for christmas (they all have a nice 3 week window that'll see me through to new year).

Maybe you just don't like the taste of coffee, HB? ;)
#obvioustroll

could be worse I could be allergic to caffeine.

#zing

How much of this 'bad' bean have you got left?

a couple of bags (they were only ~£2.50 a bag though because of the union discount code) I bought a couple of each type I liked the look of to stock up for christmas

and by bad bean I mean for me, obviously other people enjoy it just fine. I'm a light roast man and this has proved it for me I think #coffeeracist

#zing

#snore

^u need a coffee TS

Just having one now, perfect shot first time...

Pretty easy this making coffee lark...

Defo light roasts here in the main. That Licorice flavour dark roast posted on last page is intriguing though...

My Cousin's just sent me a stove-top coffee maker: on my second pre-ride cup: champing at the bit...

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Ordered a Reg tamper from HasBean, turn out it got a HasBean logos on it that I wasn't aware of.

brilliant.

Get it powdercoated...

It's wood.

So?

Maple Delron, Maple Short and Bubinga Delron all feature the Has Bean logo on the top of the handle. The Stainless Steel Red handle has the Has Bean logo printed on the side in white.

.

Good to see it's not just here that Ed refuses to read before acting.

Nothing groundbreaking here, but an interesting read nonetheless:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/dec/19/hot-coffee-britain-fell-in-love-with-bean
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/dec/19/whats-best-way-to-drink-coffee?intcmp=239

The stuff Eva Wiseman says about latte in the second article made me chuckle. Seeing people drinking a litre of lukewarm, watery starbucks 'coffee' first thing in the morning makes me feel a bit sick

My Cousin's just sent me a stove-top coffee maker: on my second pre-ride cup: champing at the bit...

These are the way forward. Make the best home brew espresso.