Coffee Appreciation

Got this little vacuum / blower (idea courtesy of @nefarious)

Genius little gadget - keeps the grinder and doser much cleaner. Bargain too.

1 Attachment

Got a link?

Anyone else tried the Mont58 coffee? I did 250g each of espresso blend, Guatemala, Honduras and Mont58 Blend. All billed up as medium/dark roasts as I don’t like lighter roasts. All run through the espresso machine and mainly in milk drinks.

Comments:

Overall: their roast level is lighter than described. I’d say their medium/dark is nearer the lighter end of medium. Overall good value and would recommend.

Espresso blend: very similar to YB espresso, so fairly light roast for a medium dark and I’d call this the lighter end of medium in my own opinion. Similar looking beans, similar roast, similar nose, same grind needed for espresso and similar taste in a milk drink. Good value with our discount.

Guatemala: a little darker roast but still more of a medium in my opinion. Very drinkable as an espresso in milk and smooth as Aeropress.

Honduras: now this was quite light. Not my taste as espresso. I still enjoyed it but I’m not a big fan of lighter roasts. It did an amazingly smooth black americano in the espresso machine at work.

Mont58 blend: struggled with this one a little bit. Bit darker roast but it had a lot of acidity which was difficult to balance. Ok as espresso in a big milk drink but not so much in a small drink. Was not so good in Aeropress as the sourness dominated a bit but was actually not bad in a big americano with milk and sugar (as I usually have it).

I got it off Amazon. Brigii Vacuum.

I ordered some little silicon bellows and a single doser thingy for my new grinder last week, looking forward to new espresso toys... 🤓

We find the Guatemala to be excellent in a cafetiere or filter machine. Really moreish.

New grinder is ace, super heavy duty, weighs an absolute ton and is performing way, way better than my Vario ever did... Only took two shots to dial in and produced a fantastic result right off the bat.. Very happy with it, thanks to those of you that chipped in for the advice! #fuckthosetiles

1 Attachment

What grinder is it?

Eureka Mignon.

It's the Manuale, which is the cheapest in their range, perfect for single dose espresso...

Excellent, I love mine too.

Nice one! Love it when a plan comes together.

Nice one, glad you’re happy with it :)

Thanks for the recommendations for FCB coffee at Denmark Hill. I can’t remember who said it and can’t find the old posts. Enjoying their flat white.

I was definitely among them, excellent little spot. Definitely came in handy when my daughter was born at the hospital across the road!

Yes, you were!

Based on the above Mont58 chat, I ordered some of the Guatemala (stove top grind) . Ordered yesterday, came by bike today as I'm in SE6.
Excellent service.

1 Attachment

New VST basket and a kg of YB espresso beans - so good. Machine is definitely happier with the new basket, and although my shots have been a little fast, they've been tasting great. Everything else I've had recently was coming our sour AF, and then I tried some cheap dark roast which was a mistake.

The YB espresso is definitely better than the other blends I've had recently too, and the addition of the VST basket today is noticeable. The tricky bit now is resisting the urge to keep making and drinking them.

Cheers @StevePeel !

Ah wicked, thanks, glad you’re enjoying it so much.

Shoutout to the decaf too - just pulled a shot for my wife and it came out almost exactly like the espresso in terms of time/weight. Noticed it's a little darker and seems to work really well, was pulling watery nonsense with the other decaf we've had in recently, so it's nice to get back to half decent shots.

Coming to an end of the Passalacqua Mehari and we’ve enjoyed every drop. Not exactly subtle but delicious if you like that style. Just needed one small adjustment to the grind towards the bottom of the tin. Might do the Mokaflor next.

My junky old Faemina doesn’t appear to have left Italy yet, looking at the tracking number. Will be fun to get that working again for some side by side lever comparisons when it eventually gets here.

1 Attachment

Rather handsome, I think... Waiting for my Gaggia to warm up so I can try some beans through the doser..

1 Attachment

Works great, zero retention... 💯

VST basket has been great and made much better spros- dunno why I waited so long !

How bad can retention be in some grinders? I've only owned two low to mid end grinders and both had a little bit of retention but easily less than one gram. On our Sage probably closer to quarter of a gram. Are there grinders out there that dump a tablespoon of previous grind out?