Coffee Appreciation

I've ridden past this place so many times without spotting it, and it was closed as I went past earlier.
Next weekend I'm making a beeline there!
http://www.kentishtowner.co.uk/2013/01/30/wednesday-picture-camden-coffee-shop-delancey-street/
Anyone been?

That place looks decent, never up in Camden but will check out this Sat for sure. Cheers!

@johnnyw +1 for porlex mini. give you a small workout as you grind too so you build your guns and get a brew all at once

Where?

Google was quicker, just past Subway?

I've been given some beans from there as a present and they were really good IIRC. Apparently not too pricey either

@eyebrows @jim1985 If you like a very traditional, hard italian roast then he's yer man. Cracking for a stovetop but it won't be the most subtle coffee you've had. The shop is great tho and he's got some interesting regulars

Project for someone in London. Mis-spelled title:

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=281903240108

Does anyone know if this machine is half decent to start with?
I could do with a project à la @StevePeel

Yes. Quick!

Question coffee thread - recently after pulling each shot on my Silvia the 'puck' of grounds left in the basket of the portafilter has had a thin layer of water on top, which hasn't passed through the coffee. Usually it's drier.
First impressions were that it might be the grind is too fine - but shot timing is pretty good (if anything a bit quick). Am I tamping too hard? What else could be causing the issue?

The grouphead/showerscreen etc is regularly disassembled for cleaning, machine is backflushed once a week and I only use bottled water. Machine is about 13 months old.

Does the basket still empty as normal when you back-flush?

Did anyone pick it up? My espresso machine restoration days are probably over, so I'm trying to avoid the temptation.

Has the dose dropped a little? Try increasing it and coarsening the grind a touch.

Bit of profit in that for someone. Probably needs about £200 of parts and about 20 hours. Might sell for around £600 but machine prices have been on the floor lately.

Tricky to say - I use the 'plug' backflush blind thing that fits into the portafilter itself - and remove the basket. There is water left over, but there always has been when using that.

Could be that. I usually do 19-19.5g but was having better results with Monmouth using an 18.5g dose with a finer grind. Could have messed my settings up a touch. Will try with more.

My first instinct would be to say you have slightly too much coffee in the basket.

That should be plenty in a double basket, but sometimes if you're using an auto grinder it can drop as much as a couple of grams over a period of time without you noticing, same if you dose by eye.

^^ I don't think it's that - I weigh every shot before putting it through the grinder because I don't trust the Iberital. The basket is quite small for a double and I'm nowhere near the top once it's tamped.

Every time you change coffee beans the grind will need adjusting, even different bags of the same beans.

I know - I'm normally pretty good at fine tuning. Could be I need to start from scratch again though.

That's worth doing every now and again.

I was unfortunately outbid

Does it still taste good?

If so, it's not an issue.