Coffee Appreciation

I try to descale on a regular basis too. The best crema is produced (for me) by the freshest ground oily bean style coffee. I do not grind my own but buy fresh ground from Harrods ( number 7 option on their pre-printed list of goodies) and store in freezer.
Might spring for a half decent grinder one day...

I'm seriously annoyed with Harrods right now...

Took your advice PF, and popped by to get some of their number 7, and asked for an espresso ground. Was all excited about giving it a go this morning, but when I opened the packet I could tell that the grounds weren't anywhere near fine enough - probably just slightly finer than a cafetierre grind.

Thought I'd give it a go all the same and it was awful - loads of channelling, spurters all over the place, and about ten seconds into the pull, the blonding started. It tasted pretty foul too - plenty bitter and no smoothness.

The worst thing is that the smell is heavenly, so I was really looking forward to it.

Now all I have to look forward to is cleaning the coffee-sprayed kitchen...

Zazzenhaus?

Ooooohhh close but no cigar. It's an Armin Trosser, very similar to a Zassenhaus. From around 1960 I think. Produces a great grind, better than any cheap electric grinder.

@Jacob: There's a single speed MTB in that clip. Is that you?

My home roasting setup:

Though I don't do much home roasting at all these days, I now work for one of London's coffee roasters.

BTW I started a blog. I've linked to LFGSS on it. http://bombcup.wordpress.com

Mooks, take your coffee back to Harrods. They should be happy to replace it. Pre-grinding for espresso is never going to be 100% accurate but it should be within the ballpark. Harrods' coffee is roasted by Andromeda coffee in Corby who take a lot of care over their product so it should be good.

So wait, you use a stovetop roaster, with some sort of heat distributor thingymajigger to evenly distribute the heat? And there is some sort of handle on it to turn the beans? BAD!

Bad good or bad bad?

I think it's bad. (good). :-)

Bombcup, since you're online thought I'd ask you a dumbass question:

My stove top is overheating, boiling the coffee. It sputters the coffee into the upper chamber rather than coming up all at once. What gives? Some sort of seal broken? Time to get a new one?

It's more likely to be the too much resistance in the coffee. If you're using pre-ground, use less of it and don't press it down. Just over fill the basket and level it off with your finger. No tamping or pressing.

If you're grinding, try a coarser grind.

This will allow the coffee to rise at a lower temperature (less steam pressure required), giving you a much sweeter cup. If it comes up really quickly and tastes thin then pack the coffee in a little bit more.

If this doesn't help then you may need to replace the seal, bu you normally see water bubbling from between the two halves if this is the case.

Hmm I'm buying it ground for stove top (from Monmouth) and I'm not tamping...

I'll try putting less in and see how it goes. Should it all spurt up at once? It's not doing this and never has done.

Cheers for the advice.

No it should start off slow and thick, and then gradually fill up the upper chamber. You will get an eye for when it starts getting very transluscent and flowing fast. Remove from heat when that starts happening

Also check all the holes in the filter and the basket are clear. I have a couple of Moka pots which just don't work and always boil and try to explode. It could be that. If you have no joy I can lend you a reliable old favourite, and you could ask Monmouth to grind it a little coarser than normal.

@Jacob: There's a single speed MTB in that clip. Is that you?
Nope. But both the bike and the comment about freezing made me post the video ;-)

Though I don't do much home roasting at all these days, I now work for one of London's coffee roasters.

Over the summer I have restored this little thing (still need to route a thermocouple trough the drum-axle and build some electronic logging and control), but I'm kind of backing out on this hole home roasting thing. My local micro-roasters do a fantastic job!

This weekend I have a dark (not that dark) roasted SO Idido, Aricha Lot 20, Yerga Cheffe form Ethiopia in the hopper - And that's for espresso - Extreme but still balanced.

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Bombcup you work for monmouth?
been buying finca la fany ground for cafetiere, tried finca sanfrancisco but went back to la fany when it was is stock. buying some more coffee this week any reccomendations to try?

Mr Smith, yes I do work for Monmouth. If the forum mods don't mind me putting up a blatantly commercial post then I must recommend the Costa Rica Los Manantiales medium roast and the Ethipoian Yirgacheffe. Read about the Yirgacheffe on http://bombcup.wordpress.com folks!!

Mods please delete if out of order.

Jacob you seem to have your very own Probat sample roaster in your kitchen. You lucky, lucky bastard. Don't stop roasting, you are in no way limited by your equipment like most home roasters. Keep practising, you will be roasting like a pro.

We just took delivery of a Probat sample roaster. It's still in the box until the engineers come to install it. I think its 2 x 500g. Can't wait to have a play with it, they wont let me on the 60kg version for some reason.

If you do give up I'll throw you a tenner for it.

i asked, you answered. i can't see anyone having a problem with that.

i'll try one of the two you mentioned this week. cheers.

Ok - so my espresso's getting much more consistent (when I'm not trusting Harrods with my grounds), but my filter stuff, after a promising start, is just tasting acrid and dull.

Any tips from anyone on dosing for a Krups Pro Aroma? At the moment I'm going from too strong to too weak without any sign of a middle ground. I'm using medium roast supermarket bought grounds - ok so results won't be perfect, but surely I should be able to get something acceptable?

It's probably the grind of the coffee. I got some good stuff out of a friend's Krups dripper thing after spending some time finding the correct grind.

Forget supermarket coffee. Get some good fresh stuff from Algerian, Square Mile, HasBean or Monmouth, have it ground for filter and your troubles will be over.

FWIW I found filling the filter paper to about 2/3rds was about right for 4 cups. Keep filling it until it overflows and dumps cack into the jug when brewing then back the dose down a bit until it doesn't and you've found your dose. Drink right away, don't leave it stewing on the hotplate. If you need to keep coffee warm put it in a thermos.

Pour-over filter cones that sit on top of your mug make the best filter coffee.

Jacob you seem to have your very own Probat sample roaster in your kitchen. You lucky, lucky bastard.
I wasn't ready for it, but you can't turn down a thing like that.

Don't stop roasting, you are in no way limited by your equipment like most home roasters. Keep practising, you will be roasting like a pro.
Maybe - In a couple of years, if I got talent! But just as the lightest bike won't make me the fastest rider, the pro gear only provides a better potential.

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Well it doesn't look like you're doing too badly so far. You are right though, I ruined a lot of beautiful green coffee without even realising it. Making it look good is the easy bit. Manipulating the flavour profile is where the years of experience comes in. You have to drink pro stuff occasionally to stop yourself thinking you're getting good at roasting!

It is still a very worthwhile thing to do and gives you a vastly greater understanding of coffee. When you nail a roast and really do the coffee justice it is incredibly satisfying, don't you think?

I only did 20 or so batches before taking it apart (and never nailed anything), but I hope so!

The coffee in my hopper is selected from I don't know how many samples of coffee, roasted, blended and cupped by some of the very best in the industry.

• I would never reach this level in my kitchen!
  

My Gaggia has stopped working. The pump sounds, but no water comes out. Either the pump is knackered or limescale (London is a hardwater area) has got the better of it.

Anyone had this problem? If so... how did you solve it?

I could probably swap the pump if I knew it was that... or limescale remover, but I guess coffee machines require something specific so that it's non-toxic and has some very specific way of rinsing it out afterwards.

VB, you can get descaler for your Gaggia from John Lewis, or if you can wait you can grab some from me on Thursday at westies

your pump produces more pressure than needed for brewing and the excess water is routed back to the tank. If there is no water coming back to the tank, my guess would be that you have a defect pump. If there is allot of water returned to the tank, my guess would be that your system is blocked.

I reckon it just needs descaling - the Gaggia stuff works well (being designed for Gaggias and everything). It takes a while to do, but follow the instructions and you'll be fine - get plenty of water in the tank to flush everything through and you'll be good. You'll be surprised just how much scale there is - even if you're descaling regularly.

Handy tip is to get a water filter and only fill using that - it's much cheaper to buy one of those and get a new cartridge every couple of months than having to replace the parts in your machine on a regular basis.

Just made meself a cup with Monmouth Balmaadi Estate beans, bit more floral than my usual roast but nice nonetheless, bit of lavender in there and quite smoky

I'll do you a grind of the Guatamelan for ya and bring it to westies tonight Elguapo

Elemental - Cup Of Brown Joy

by Moog

I bought some coffee from whittards

it tastes like burnt toast

i want a refund