Coffee Appreciation

Say no more. Artisan Roast. My favorite roaster anywhere. I’ve now lived in London, NYC and LA (I know that sounds very wanky) and try a lot a lot of different roasters. I am yet to find a coffee as enjoyable as many of the coffees I’ve had from Artisan.

Lowdown was the best coffee I had there but in a very stark atmosphere if I remember rightly.
Fortitude was good coffee and much more welcoming, reminded me of 46b in Hackney. Really friendly.
(I don’t remember what roasteries either were using, which I realise is maybe what you’re after)

I had a very enjoyable flat white in Fortitude last week.

Snapsies. TBH everywhere was very welcoming in Edinburgh. I wonder what they put in the water over there…

Ah nice one, thanks :)

We have been getting beans from machina espresso, cafe isn't particularly wankery though. I've heard good things about costello too

Cult Espresso (food is really good here too), Cairngorm Coffee, Brew Lab. Can also recommend Lowdown, Machina and Artisan Roast. So much good coffee in Edinburgh!

Thanks all. Recommendations look great. I look forward to forcing baristas in these locations to listen to my opinions on the anaerobic process.

So yesterday, after about a year and a half of exclusively using the Robot at home I made a coffee with the moka pot. I never thought I’d say this about that style, but it tasted thin. I’ve been spoiled.

Are you starting with just boiled water and stopping the percolation as soon as the first steam bubble appears?

(He says while drinking a freshly pulled espresso)

Naw, I made it the same way I always have - start with cold water, stop when I see bubbles.

That’s like complaining about your espresso after not preheating the piston and jiggling the arms up and down mid pull to get every last drop through the puck. Go and brew 10 more mocha pots until you get it right, making a photo documentary of each attempt.

You should be able to achieve something between espresso and lungo if you nail the workflow. I got there after a few weeks and then went back to the robot as it is so much easier, both for brew and cleanup.

Yeah, gotta use boiling water. It’s never gonna be espresso but it should still be viscous. Should suit your taste in coffee perfectly, really.

@Ramsaye & @JB - I tried those techniques, didn’t do anything for me.
It really is a different animal to what the Robot produces and if I regularly made it exclusively I know I would love it again for what it is.
But I don’t need to.

Fair enough then. But yeah, my moka pot hasn’t been touched in years and will probably never be touched again!

They do look cute tho

There's some great spots in Edinburgh, spoilt for choice! My picks in no particular order would be as follows, hopefully giving you a fairly good spread across the city.

1. Artisan Roast
   
2. Caingorm (Melville Place branch - think it might have been an old bank)
   
3. Fortitude (opened a second branch not too long ago)
   
4. Cult Espresso
   
   

When I remove the Porter filter from my machine (gaggia classic) the coffee stays stuck to the shower screen, any idea why it’s not coming away in the Porter filter?

Sounds like you've overfilled the basket, try using less coffee (or a bigger basket). There is the "coin test" to see when you've reached enough clearance: https://www.baristahustle.com/blog/espresso-headspace/

Thanks for the advice I’ll check that out

Leaving weights/volumes/grind setting instructions for our house sitter....bit keen?

You’re not putting hiding everything???

Man alive it’s difficult to find somewhere to roast coffee round here. We’re full as an egg and there’s no industrial space that doesn’t look apocalyptic that our non driving roasters can get to in town. Really need to get this mess turned back over to customer seating asap.

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"So...this is where the magic happens....."

Quite. We got rid of all the seating during lockdown when mail order took over, now we still need the same production capacity but customers want to come back in. I imagined getting a 1000 sq ft industrial unit to put a big machine in and have nice efficient processes would be simple but no. So we’re overrun with packaging materials and slabs of oat milk. It’s not the best look for prospective new wholesale accounts.