Coffee Appreciation

Portafilter arrived. The lugs on the sides fit nicely but the main body of the thing is too big.

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Looking at the measurements on amazon this has a diameter of 6cm. There are smaller options on there at 4.7cm but some of these are 54mm. How is the diameter smaller but the portafilter bigger🤷🏼‍♂️

Was of course a shame not to see @StevePeel but great to see it was busy and hopefully will be back soon

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Ah nice one Joe, thanks for popping by. Really sorry not to have been there myself today but a long way to go yet. Did get to sit in the sunshine and watch Dwars Vlaanderen though.

I’m actually struggling to enjoy coffee right now. I didn’t fancy it for a couple of weeks after the op and I couldn’t eat for ages so I was having sugary tea to get some calories which I’ve got really used to. After that all I can taste is bitterness in coffee. I’m persevering with it and getting somewhere now, I’ve cut the sugar from tea and I can eat most savoury stuff now so hopefully my palate will come back to me.

No worries mate - I asked after you and sent my well wishes. The chap working said it was odd not having you around and hopefully you would be back soon. Cafe was buzzing which was great to see and picked up a kg of beans for the road 🙂

Good to hear things are moving in the right direction buddy. Will be back up in a couple of months so will pop in again

heal up fella, I'm sure you'll bounce back just fine.

Hoping to pay the shop a visit next weekend. Clearing out my late mother in law's house in Wellingborough and planning on making the pilgramage for a coffee seeing as we're roughly in the area!

Thanks @HatBeard

@Stonehedge Nice one, yeah Wellingborough’s a 15 minute drive or 50 min bike ride. It’s where I live.

Its a long shot but let me know if you would be interested in buying a small shop, house or row of garages on Mill Road! Just struck me that you might be the sort of person who might need some storage to spill into...

Haha! Business is going well but we’re not at the property buying stage yet!

I’ve been using light roast Sumatra mandhelling in my bean to cup machine but will hopefully be using my new espresso machine. Will light roast still work well? The reading I’ve done online seems to point to using dark roast or medium.

Is there a reason for this? Is light roast espresso a big no no.

It depends how light you're talking. Worth trying it before ruling it out. If it's very light and you're making milky drinks the flavour could potentionally get a bit lost but a lot of espresso is fairly light rosted these days.

Far from a no-no, but extracting light roasts is harder. As dialling in espresso is a bit of an art, getting there with lighter roasts is even harder.

If you're new to home espresso, it may be better to find your feet with something a little darker - espresso blends are probably the easiest as you know they will extract well as espresso, and have been put together to make this happen. As it happens, the Yellow Bourbon espresso blend is (I think) on the lighter side of the espresso blend spectrum.

https://yellowbourbon.net/collections/shop/products/espresso-blend-2

That’s great news. I really like this coffee I’m currently drinking so it would be interesting to see how it goes. Lots of trial and error.

I see good things about yellow bourbon so will give them a try.

As dialling in espresso is a bit of an art, getting there with lighter roasts is even harder.

I would agree with this. There are quite a lot of YouTube videos discussing espresso and lighter roasts. Often suggesting a longer pull and a bigger espresso to counter the slower extraction.

As it happens, the Yellow Bourbon espresso blend is (I think) on the lighter side of the espresso blend spectrum.

It is and I've found it quite difficult to get right!

How do you pull a longer espresso on a basic machine?

Really dig the Thomson's Team blend at the moment for a good morning kick. Not overly fruity/acidic and a bit of a chocolate richness, medium roast. https://www.thomsonscoffee.com/products/team

What else is on rotation for people?

i'd start by grinding a little finer.

Just after some advice please. I've been using an aeropress with pre-ground coffee for a few months and am thinking of changing to whole beans. Been looking at grinders and don't really want to spend £200 on a Sage Smart Grinder.
Thinking to go for the Delonghi KG79 at £45 - does anyone have experience of using this with an aeropress?

Any other recommendations?

Had a KG as my first grinder (also with an aero press, I reckon that’s a common combo) and it was a great place to start if you can get one cheap. Biggest jump in quality you’ll get on your coffee journey. That said, mine didn’t last more than a year (although I did mess around with it a bit) and you’ll notice a big jump again going to something a bit more sophisticated.

Basically, if you can afford something like a Svart for an extra £50 you won’t regret it.

That sounds like a good idea- I did look at those, but wasn't sure how much difference it would make. You've talked me into it! Thanks.

I used a kg79 for a few years and it did a good job. However, I wish I had just bought a sage dose control from the start. The jump from KG to Sage was bigger compared to pre ground to KG imho.

I'll throw in the token Rhino hand-grinder + drill option for a cheap & decent filter grinder (to be honest, even by hand they're relatively quick for filter).

Thanks all - have just ordered the Wilfa Svart.

Could someone with better search skills than me please help me find a spare part for a friend?
Need a new mesh basket for a VonShef 13/163 coffee grinder/maker as the mesh gauze has had it.

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