Coffee Appreciation

Thanks for your replies.

@Jonny69 - Yeah I agree with you to an extent. I'm not looking for that perfect shot every time. Reading the forums, I'm not going to switch the machine on, wait an hour for it to heat up and reach equilibrium...etc etc...
Having that baseline of a decent tasting espresso is where I'm trying to get to.
Forgot to add, basket.

@useless - Yep, from what I've read, under extracted. Can't go any finer on my grind, don't have a picture to hand sorry.
No to the coffee shop question but I guess that's an option, at least then the grind size is fixed and I can work on the other variables in order to get something that tastes OK.

Did you mention which grinder you’re using?

Budget.

Niche also ordered in my determined effort to make this work.

@IamNotACrook My silvia I usually dose 17-18g of coffee.

If I'm struggling with shots, I'll normally go finer on the grind if it's choking then bring that down.

Ah you have a Silvia, yes! I'd forgotten your reply earlier in the thread, sorry.
A few questions:
Is that with the standard basket I linked above?
Do you have problems with the indentation into the puck?
Are you weighing in and out and also temperature surfing?

I use the double basket that comes with it - which im pretty sure is what you linked to.
Don't have any problems with identation (but our dosing levels seem q different + grinder accuracy).
If I'm drinking espresso/machiato I'll weigh coming out, although for milk drinks I know what 34-38g of coffee looks like in our cups so often don't bother. Temp surfing, nah

Thanks. I'm surprised you don't have any indentation at 17-18g, but like you say, grinder accuracy might come into it.
Your espresso/macchiato is obviously palatable too - jealous!

Forgot to add, basket.

Ok, that's got quite a taper on it, top to bottom. So 16g-ish is about right for the dose. The Gaggia Classic basket has much straighter sides which probably accounts for the bigger capacity. You can get a straight-sided basket for the Silvia which holds 21g, so this makes sense.

Personally, I don't think it's a problem having the puck pressing against the top. If your grind is marginally too coarse and it's running a little too fast, you can use this as a bodge to correct things because it compacts the puck slightly and chokes the flow.

Try also letting the shot run for a bit longer. You'll get an idea if you're under or over extracting by the taste. Then if you can, adjust the grind so that the extraction and the concentration are correct. Not quite so critical in a milk drink though.

Coffee griders: sub £500 what is the default, espresso, grinder?
I have a eureka mignion, anything better for that budget area?

Cheers

Niche. End of story.

ah niche is a grinder brand

Yeah throwing in variable pressure and having a fixed volume of water to deal with make it a bit more tricky to dial in!

Not sure if I mentioned it previously, but I definitely had a lot more success once I dropped the pressure I was putting on the lever. Though it's still all by feel so hard to give any specific advice there!

At least you're not roasting your own 200g batches of beans to add into the chaos of dialling shots in!

I mean, that’ll do the trick. I hate to say it but no matter how fine you get it with that Krups, it’s not gonna be great IMO.

Last few days with no change to beans or grind or water (temps or volume) the resistance has greatly increased on the arms of my Robot. Could this be due to humidity changes? As we move into winter it gets much drier around here.

The ground coffee looks a little clumpier and doesn't tamp as easily - I'm using a Silenzio, cleaned about 3 weeks ago, doing 2-3 coffees a day.

Espresso is still tasty, but a lot more work!

I’ve had that this week too. Not sure what it is but it’s definitely harder! Weather has been pretty stable around here. Much colder in our apartment than it was last week, though.

Any humidity change?

Louder for the people at the back!

Just checked. Yeah. A huge increase.

2 Attachments

Decrease, right?

Increase. 6 days ago 35% humidity at 8am, 1 day ago 72%. Makes sense, the way my grounds are clumping together when I transfer them from grinder to basket would indicate that the grounds are full of moisture.

Ah, 08:00.
I was looking at 18:00.

So that's not helpful at all!
Checked our recent history and it's hardly changed.

Mystery unsolved.

Juuuust relax. Nobody needs to be measuring humidity to enjoy a cup of coffee.

25% off peak water this weekend

Worth it? sI prefer having a glass bottle and charcoal filter over a plastic jug, but if the filter makes a big difference then I might try it.

Do you still have to descale the machine if you use the peak filter?

where did you see it on offer btw?

By email. It's applied at checkout

Till 30th I think