Coffee Appreciation

to go back to the people contemplating improving cheap machines, I struggled with the cost/space of espresso machines and went for an aeropress and haven't looked back since. Best advice I ever received of lfgss.

One down side of the aeropress is if you're trying to make more than a couple of coffee's so on the look out for a decent sized french press that can make 6-7 coffees in one go. Any particular brands to go for or avoid?

It has to be a machine. If there's no risk of explosion or severe burns where's the fun?
waits for bombcup to post vid of that crazy vacuum method

We use a Bodum frenchie at work and it seems to work fine. Can get spare glass for them too. Office use means they tend to get broken a bit..

hippy. i have anice gaggia babyD that works fine if you need a stop-gap machine :-)

Ha. I still have a Gaggia Classic in the office so I'm ok for now.

The machine I want is stupidly expensive and far beyond my capability to make and taste the difference in coffees.

What is going on with that, hippy?

What is going on with that, hippy?

Our office is full of complete fucking mentals.

to go back to the people contemplating improving cheap machines, I struggled with the cost/space of espresso machines and went for an aeropress and haven't looked back since. Best advice I ever received of lfgss.

One down side of the aeropress is if you're trying to make more than a couple of coffee's so on the look out for a decent sized french press that can make 6-7 coffees in one go. Any particular brands to go for or avoid?

Bodum Chambord, I have the small one and it's been doing regular duty for over five years. Still good.

http://www.bodum.com/gb/en-us/shop/detail/1923-16/

I also have an unbranded one which is the same size but of lower quality (gift from a friend) which doesn't perform as well- the plunger has worked loose in the lid so it allows the filter to move a bit when plunging, so sometimes some grounds get free and make the coffee taste muddy.

I also have the medium sized cafetiere that Ikea sell (equivalent to the 1L bodum) but it cost around £12-15. Pleased with the quality of that one, for sure, so it's a good budget option but I imagine that when the glass goes, the dream's over and it gets retired.

I also want an Aeropress. Starting to get fed up of so many people telling me to get one, so they must be good.

Also need to locate a spare rubber sealing ring/ gasket thing to get my moka pot up and running again.

i tried some coffee brewed in an aeropress. i prefer a cafetiere TBH.
i always think it tastes a bit papery same as filter coffee.

Really? Interesting. I've had some insanely good coffee brewed through a pourover filter though...

There is an easy way to improve the Aeropress - buy a Swissgold filter, cut out a circular filter the size of the paper filters. No more paper flavour, no more buying replacement papers. Easy to wash up as well

Vac pot vid you say?

YouTube - The Siphon Brew Method at LAMILL

^ Vac pot, yeah.

I've cleaned the short water level probe (it didn't seem to need it).
There is another probe (a longer one, I assume low water level?) but it doesn't actually have any wire connected to it?!

I had another look and the overflow into the drip tray is definitely pumping water out for no apparent reason, ie. when simply heating with no coffee stopping water flow etc.

This machine's internals look much neater than mine.
http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1276132432

has anybody got one of these they ould like to sell

just the bits pictured. thanks

Happy Donkey have a large range of portafilters if you wanted to shell for new.
http://www.happydonkey.co.uk/gagbotdom-gaggia-classic-bottomless-portafilter.html

thanks had a look but they dont have one for a europicola. i thought i had one somewhere, guess i need to find it.

Ah, sorry, didn't know what you were after exactly, HD said: "Sorry we do not currently supply baskets for the pavoni domestic machines." Doh

Is there anywhere in London that uses the Aeropress or do I have to find a friend to find out what it tastes like?!

Does anywhere stock those Swissgold filters for a 1X2 cone in Central-ish London or SE way?

Sorted, I thought Whittard had gone completely bust not just a little bit.

Rich, I've just checked both baskets with my verniers and they're both 53mm straight sided. They don't seem to taper at all. I think what's more annoying is that the tamper that comes on the machine is a rather rounded 51mm which, when in the basket, seems to be about a cm too small!!
What type of tamper did you buy? Could you file it down a little, or would that pretty much ruin it?

Issue solved (sort of!).

I don't believe any of the 53mm baskets I could find online are going to fit the portafilter. So, I'm returning my 53mm tamper.

Next step is to buy a 52mm tamper (such as this one: http://www.myespresso.co.uk/product.php/151/motta-52mm-tamper/0ba5fb758c7c673b3d721bbf5c23941d )

I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. Probably because I didn't know that tampers of this size were available, and I don't feel like shelling out for a custom made one. 52mm won't be an ideal fit but it's a lot better than no fit at all...

Everything else about the performance of the machine was covered by bombcup's earlier post so I'll not repeat it here.

Does anyone know of any coffee places in central that are taking people on? My problem is that I'm reasonably inexperienced when it comes to being a barista (I don't think making capps at home really counts!) and I don't know where to look to get a job where I'd be trained as well. Also, I'm only available part-time and most jobs look to be full-time.

Is there anywhere in London that uses the Aeropress or do I have to find a friend to find out what it tastes like?!

dose in long lane.

Does anyone know of any coffee places in central that are taking people on? My problem is that I'm reasonably inexperienced when it comes to being a barista (I don't think making capps at home really counts!) and I don't know where to look to get a job where I'd be trained as well. Also, I'm only available part-time and most jobs look to be full-time.

Why not ask them all? If you walk into all of them with a CV at least they know you already have some enthusiasm.

Why not ask them all? If you walk into all of them with a CV at least they know you already have some enthusiasm.

That was my next step, just thought I'd ask on here just in case there was somewhere taking people on.

^+1 Most places don't advertise, they prefer those who take the initiative to bring a CV in. Enthusiasm is everything, they would rather not to have to unteach bad habits from chain stores

It's funny isn't it that you can feel like you couldn't stand working in the chain stores, even though on paper they're by far the most successful.

I'm about halfway through a DeCaf Nespresso..

I hoped this day would never come.