Coffee Appreciation

You should still be able to get OK coffee with that method. As Rodabod says it's just underextracting, especially from beans that I assume are med/dark roasted so not very acidic?
So try making it a touch finer until you can get the same output in 28-30s.

Camden Coffee House looks promising. Using Has Bean and feature on the London's Best Coffee app. Surprised there's such a lack in the area!

I go there a lots, great little place near the railway bridge to have a quick coffee in.

Camden Coffee House can be a little hit or miss in my opinion, especially when they get busy.
If you are out and about in Camden i would suggest heading up Kentish Town Road to Doppio, just by Pizza Express. I had a pretty decent flat white there the other day on my way home from the pool. Also the place is stacked to the rafters with coffee machines and all sorts of gubbins.

it easier to distribute the grinds in the PF if it's overfull no?

Yeah. It's a bit wasteful though.

Also watch that your machine is pouring at the optimum temperature. If its a cheaper machine like a Gaggia Classic, then try brewing when the machine's "brew ready" light has just illuminated, after a good twenty minute warm up.

Super market beans generally aren't very good. There are some which are ok (like Union, some Waitrose and M&S beans) but if you buy them then you really need to know how to read the super secret packing date code on the bag in order to ensure freshness.

I'm temperature surfing on a super cheap delonghi for now.

Thanks for all the advice. I think I can eek out a pleasant enough shot for now. Good to know that a little longer extraction isn't a problem. It'll be more worthwhile dialing in all the parameters with some fresh beans. Can't wait.

Camden Coffee House can be a little hit or miss in my opinion, especially when they get busy.
If you are out and about in Camden i would suggest heading up Kentish Town Road to Doppio.

Ah thought we're talking about the one in Balham, my bad.

Camden Coffee House can be a little hit or miss in my opinion, especially when they get busy.
If you are out and about in Camden i would suggest heading up Kentish Town Road to Doppio, just by Pizza Express. I had a pretty decent flat white there the other day on my way home from the pool. Also the place is stacked to the rafters with coffee machines and all sorts of gubbins.

agreed, decent flat white in there. they stock a wide range of machine spares and gubbins like descaler, backflush powder, portafilter baskets etc. they were able to source a new seal for my grouphead when I'd drawn a blank elsewhere

Sorry if posted elsewhere but here's a coffee + cycling evening event taking place at LMNH on Thursday 9 May 2013: https://www.facebook.com/events/449464718473117/ - free entry!

If you're in Camden Town and not in a rush, my advice would be to head up to The Fields Beneath underneath Kentish Town West overground station. Fantastic little cafe serving Square Mile (amongst other tasty guests) and a great selection of unhomogenised milk. Super friendly dudes who know what they're doing.

On an unrelated note, my Silvia has been leaking around the PF lately. I was already turning it easily to 5 o'clock so I'm hesitant to push it much further and decided it was time to replace the gasket. After a very exciting evening studying Miss Silvia's innards, I went to pull a shot this morning and got my feet pissed on by high pressure water spraying out the sides of the portafilter.

Any suggestions? Everything was clean on that first shot, so I'm putting it down to worn lugs on the PF, but that does seem a little unlikely.

Install error? If not then did you adjust the shot for the new gasket? I mean that as in - did you use the same amount and grind of beans as you normally did before?

Just found green beans on sale at a local mid-eastern supermarket. Gonna fry them up and see what awfulness occurs. £3.50 for half kilo.

^ Don't use the best china!

Install error? If not then did you adjust the shot for the new gasket? I mean that as in - did you use the same amount and grind of beans as you normally did before?

Pretty sure I installed it properly. My flatmate pulled a non-pissy shot after me. Same grind and roughly the same dose (I've never been that scientific about it).

(I've never been that scientific about it).

Was one side of the new gasket beveled? Sometimes they are not profiled the same on each side.

+1 to davey pants suggestion of the field beneath, up by kentish town west overground good coffee and cakes and snacks done by the forums very own greasyslag.

Just a bit off the beaten track but worth it..

A coffee / V-Sprint competition if you fancy..

http://www.lfgss.com/thread105902.html#post3570018

1/2 price coffee beans from yourgrind.com with code camdencoffee (first order only) - 250g bag for £3.47. Got mine in the post yesterday.

new hasbean blend is hitch hikers themed. 80% decaf might hurt a bit!

you get a free towel though...

I've got some of theat Meridiano Decaf. Nice as Aeropress, not so nice in my opinion as espresso.

^ my gf really rates the decaf, again in aeropress. Tempted to use this as filter blend as that element is so dominant at 80%.

Was one side of the new gasket beveled? Sometimes they are not profiled the same on each side.

+1 for this, make sure your tamping is level. if it's not, sometimes there's a pressure discrepancy/build up which results in the spray from the PF. along the same lines, it helps to make sure your tamped basket is free from any superfluous grounds (give it a blow/wipe/quick flick before you twist into the group head - everyone's got their own method but as long as it's free from excess and the tamping is level it doesn't matter how you do it, really). should eradicate that pesky spray. obviously if you're not in a rush backflush the group head using a blind filter basket to remove any old grounds too, before you put the shot on.

https://www.facebook.com/events/473357756071216/

Ok, so I don't post in this thread cos I know nowt about coffee, but what I can't help but wonder when I see things like this^ is why is it always about the "latte art"? Surely just producing milk of the correct texture is the kind of be-all-and-end-all, and whatever patterns happen to be on the top is surely just the icing on the cake? Or is "latte art" just a nice shorthand for "milk of the correct texture"? I really don't know.