Coffee Appreciation

How old is old enough for a baby to be taught to use a V60 and scales?

Out of interest, why don't you rate the hot plate version?

It's because constantly heating the brewed coffee causes the solid particles in the coffee to carry on brewing causing that heavy, stewy, bitter flavour which gave coffee from drip machines its bad rep. It's OK if you can drink it within a few minutes but it doesn't take long to have a negative effect.

Brewing into the thermal carafe just holds the temperature steady. The flavour does degrade but not nearly as badly as if it's stewed on a hotplate.

Looks good, thank you

My LCS has a new toy. Space age.

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Where's that? Blackpool?

I didn't know Conti were still producing machines. They made some of the most collectable lever machines

Posted these up on Instagram but a couple of machines I saw and was served from when I was in puglia...

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It's at the mighty Coffeefix this one. Pretty sure there's an older one (not lever) in the curry house* we tried last night too. It was hissing so needs some tlc. Will try get a pic of that one next time.

(*Best Jalfrezi had in years btw)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBpPQ3bSKI8

Question for the Gaggia Classic owners / experts -

a unit that has been working fine sat unused for three months, now won't pump water.
Everything else appears to be working fine.
Any tips what to check / do, before I disassemble the whole machine, please?

Thanks in advance!

Pump dead or is running but nowt is coming through?

If latter try the priming steps via opening steam wand nozzle but using both buttons not just steam.

Thanks for your reply!

Pump was running - but making a very loud, unusual noise at first which mellowed to the normal sound the Classic makes, alas without any water coming through.

Followed the priming steps a couple of times, now it seems to work again.

Thanks!

So basically working now, though got the impression the thing needs a good cleaning, as coffee tastes shit.

Do I need special coffee machine cleaning stuff or are there household remedies (pretty remote right now so no access to fancy stores)..

Thanks!

Puly caff - available online from places that also do beans..

i.e.: http://www.happydonkey.co.uk/puly-caff-powder/

Thanks man

Do you get any steam from the wand? If you do then it could be the solenoid is blocked especially if you are in a hard water area.

http://reedsmeals.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/overhaul-of-gaggia-classic-espresso.html

when my solenoid blocked the relay would only go one way - so I got water from the wand but not the shower screen. a fairly easy fix though

Been back on Has Bean for a little while. Cachoeira Natural is still probably their best bean for me.

Just got 2 boxes (48kg) of this natural process pacamara from finca La Esparanza, Colombia in for a special. I roasted a 2kg batch yesterday to try, I made it in a Kalita this morning and it's stunning. Tastes like Campino boiled sweets - all strawberries and cream. The sweetness and texture are something else, it's light and clean but still umptious. This is less than 24hrs post-roast so I'm going to save the rest for a week, should get even sweeter.

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Complete water filtration system:

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Bnib, free to the first person to come to SE23 to get it

Sounds like I need this!

I resurrected my gaggia classic last night, it had been sitting unused for over a year (maybe even 2 now) as it developed some annoying quirks and the waterflow was basically 3 or 4 sharp jets of water which cut straight through any puck I could make and I have a hunch my grinder lost its calibration so didn't seem able to grind fine enough to slow things down to pull a decent timed shot as well so I tinkered a bit ages ago with no joy then gave up.

But I'm on new migraine meds that i take every night before bed which make me feel like shit in the morning and I basically need a decent coffee to get myself into a human state before I can even think of getting to work and there's no decent coffeeshops within 3 miles of where I live so I thought I'd get it up and running again.

So I descaled it and then soaked all the bits in a strong puly caff solution (not sure if it's right but it says use hot water so I used hottest water temp from the tap and it barely shift anything, so i redid it with boiled water from the kettle and could then visibly see it effervescing away) so I managed to get 95% of the shit welded onto the shower screen and shower screen holder off and now flow looks much better through the holder itself and while the shower screen is still not perfect it's not as terrible as before.

I then removed the front of my mahlkonig vario grinder and fitted some shims I got sent from the guy who runs coffee forums to prevent it from moving settings while grinding. I then took the burrs apart to give them a clean and this morning I recalibrated the grinder to be back to factory settings but the sound it's making sounds a bit weak so I'm wondering if i might need to take it apart and look at the belt and make sure it's mounted correctly.

during my travels finding tutorials for all the above I also discovered you can now get a brass shower screen holder replacement which gives you much better thermal consistency than the alu one that comes as default and also IMS do "competition" level shower screens which improve the water flow tremendously according to the videos i've seen. so for £35 I should hopefully be at the point where the gaggia is working as best as it can without going down the pid route.

you can now get a brass shower screen holder replacement which gives you much better thermal consistency than the alu one that comes as default and also IMS do "competition" level shower screens which improve the water flow

Can you post links please? Interested for my classic.

Nice one. Good to give your machine a thorough once-over, tends to sort out a lot of niggly issues.