Coffee Appreciation

I meant to include a terrible photo

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You don't need to plumb in a Silvia :)

This was a few years ago but I was lucky, the guy had really looked after it and put a LOT of effort into packaging it up well and making sure it got to me in one piece. He even wrote a welcome note type thing. Sweet.

Seriously though I haven't used that particular frother, it's probably better than the one I used.

We can certainly agree that the frothed milk at most chain coffee shops is fecking awful.

That sounds like a right faff.

Why not keep a dairy cow in a nice warm room then shake her vigorously before milking?

You'd have to be up early every morning to do it but you'd have frothed milk for days AND you'd get to listen to Farming Today.

Keeping dairy cows in London has to be the next big thing, chickens are over because everyone got traumatised when foxes ate them. I can see bearded men in their early 40s taking Daisy or Buttercup for a walk around London Fields, using the attention to meet women.

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

Hmmm

It's the artisan dairy free milk scene that'll be huge in 2018. Acorn milk ftw.

When presented like that I can't defend the technique.

Ah that's great, where is it exactly? I'll stick it on the insta if that's ok with you.

Coffeehit doing 25% off Baratza grinders right now

Thanks, didn't know that about Silvia.
Agreed.

The issue.

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I'm excited!

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Urgh. After nearly ten years of service (minus a new gasket seal, drop tray and solenoid) my trusty Gaggia Baby Class has gone the way of the dodo. A sudden electrical pop which blew my circuit and its dead.

Which means it's finally time to invest real money into a real machine.

I am thinking the Rocket Apartamento. Anyone have an experience of that little guy? Anyone have a view on that over the R58? A friend of mine has the 58 and swears by it. But it is quite large esp. for a small cotttage kitchen. That said I will be buying someplace bigger out of town next year. Hmmm.

Any and all views appreciated. Thanks in advance!

My current v60 set up is Ascaso grinder > Bosch variable temp kettle > v60.

I can brew 18g at two mins no problem.

The spout on the bosch is wide and imprecise. Are most people on here who make coffee with a v60 using one of the hario kettles and swirling it around. Does this make much a difference?

TLDR do I need a hario kettle as my kettle has a choad of a spot.

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/13994414/

I got myself one of the Bruno kettles a few weeks back and it definitely makes the process much easier than with a regular kettle!

With a gooseneck kettle you'll have much more control over the rate you're pouring and can get a steady amount of agitation throughout the pour. Also it's much easier to make sure you're water is hitting the coffee bed evenly. It makes a big difference compared with a standard kettle.

I'm using a hario at the moment but have a Bonavita temperature variable kettle on the way, might be worth looking at that one too.

Nice choice to make.

I'm no expert, but have been reading up recently as I'm looking to purchase soon myself.

The main difference between the two machines is that the Apartment is a HX and the R58 a dual boiler. In case you haven't, it's worth having a read about the difference between the two and the pros and cons.

I found this useful -
https://www.bellabarista.co.uk/coffee-machine-guide

If it were my choice, I'd go dual boiler R58 as I use bottled water and would be unhappy with the waste involved with cooling flushes on a HX. I also think they're more stable in terms of temperature.

Got some of The Barn's Kenyan AB espresso from Rapha on Brewer St. God damn. It's so good.

You’ll still need to flush the group on a dual-boiler R58 as it uses the ancient e61 grouphead design which cools down and robs heat from the water when it’s been idling. I used to use the multi-boiler R8 commercial machine and even that couldn’t manage temperature, I always pulled a shot into the drip tray after it had been idling which is worse than just pulling a cooling shot on a hx, hence why it got updated to a saturated group, La Marzocco style.

Tl;dr: water wastage issue is moot.

I see. Told you I was still learning.

So, would you recommend a higher quality HX machine over a similarly priced, and therefore arguably lower quality DB machine?

I dunno really. Yeah, probably. None of it really makes any difference to the ultimate quality of the coffee, the most important thing is that whatever you buy you learn how to get the best from it. A dual boiler isn’t going to allow you just to walk up to the machine and pull a great shot, unless it’s something like a GS3 but neither will a HX, so yeah, probably I would go for the HX.

What appealed to me was always the feel of the controls and the sturdiness of the construction which is why I always liked the ECM machines much more than the Rockets. Their HX machine is great.

@Vince Brought me back one of the Prismo espresso attachments to use with an Aeropress. Currently prohibitively expensive to order for delivery from America but if you speak to him nicely he might be able to bring some back again soon..

Will report back with espresso results.

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I'm sceptical, but interested to hear how you get on with it!

I am sure it won't match a machine but I was intrigued.

I remember popping into a coffee shop in Greenwich and asking for an espresso. They made it with an aeropress by putting about 50ml of water in. That was an odd experience.

Genuinely interested to hear how you get on though, my main concern would be the lack of pressure. Check out this video with a huge lever used to try to get around that issue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIfZ84qtBOc