Coffee Appreciation

Hey friends, two questions...

First - where might I be able to purchase large, basket filter papers for drip coffee machines in London? I've looked at the usual suspects and even gone to Nisbets, but nothing doing...

Secondly - does anyone have a reliable source on where to find good Chicory coffee, ala Cafe du Monde, preferably in bulk? I am happy to buy this online....

not arrived yet but this sounds like the most ambitious hasbean guest espresso blend yet...

http://www.hasblog.co.uk/baked-beanz-guest-blend

Somebody has been paying attention to Matthew Purger's efforts in the 2013 World Barista Championships I think.....

Might be worth a buy.

My only 'problem' with a moka pot is that it can overheat if your not paying it full attention.

Wait for that special moment I refer to as the 'Java Jizz'. Have the lid open one the coffee starts coming through.
Miss it, and you've burned the coffee.
If you can hear bubbling, you've burned the coffee.
If you feature the image of a bubbling Moka pot in your TV ad or Film, you're a cunt.

Here's the Java Jizz.

...and here it is in GIF format.

'Java Jizz'

'Mind bleach'

Ah. Cheers Fred and jdp. Making more sense now.
The hilarious Microsoft-Word-1987 packaging suggests that Aeropress is The World's Greatest Double Espresso Device, cleverly disguised as a penis enlarger.
I'll have a mess about with it in due course.

I don't currently own a grinder, so I usually get the shop to grind it for me, or (gasp) buy ground coffee in supermarkets.
Have been tempted to buy a Hario Ceramic Slim MSS-1B though.
Any good?

a decent hand grinder (Hario, porlex) will change your life.

Mine's changed.

I think it's probably worth doing an A/B to compare.

I will do. Looking forward to it!

How short are we talking? Whenever I made very short drinks with the moka pot, I struggled to avoid a lot of sourness. That's even with very fine grinds (note that this also causes the grinds to see water at probably over 100 degrees which isn't good).

60ml (a double shot basically – no water added to the portion from the pot). I've wondered about the high temps.

If you can hear bubbling, you've burned the coffee.

Ok, I probably have been slightly overcooking it then, although not to boiling/adworld extremes.

Also... repped for the gifs.

Wait for that special moment I refer to as the 'Java Jizz'. Have the lid open one the coffee starts coming through.
Miss it, and you've burned the coffee.
If you can hear bubbling, you've burned the coffee.

I need to get a decent steam wand for my Gaggia Classic - is it the Rancilio Silvia that's the best option? i.e., this guy: http://www.happydonkey.co.uk/hdr0001.html

^ yup, does the trick

my baked beans have arrived. cupping 12g of each will be fun, as I have never gone to those depths of tasting before. Considering like 4 like aeropress brews instead - would that = fail?

I need to get a decent steam wand for my Gaggia Classic - is it the Rancilio Silvia that's the best option? i.e., this guy: http://www.happydonkey.co.uk/hdr0001.html

There's a cheaper place to buy. Let me look in my emails... And yes, as far as I know, it's the best option. Serious temp surfing required to steam milk with the Classic though!

http://www.myespresso.co.uk/product.php/419/rancilio-frothing-arm-2008-version-fits-gaggia-classic

Nice one roddy, that's basically half price! Is it hard to fit?

Hey friends, two questions...

First - where might I be able to purchase large, basket filter papers for drip coffee machines in London? I've looked at the usual suspects and even gone to Nisbets, but nothing doing...

Secondly - does anyone have a reliable source on where to find good Chicory coffee, ala Cafe du Monde, preferably in bulk? I am happy to buy this online....

Good question - have you tried Whole Foods? Small outside chance there otherwise try any Czech shops, I've seen chicory coffee there as well. As to filters, no idea. Amazon may be your second best option.

Wait for that special moment I refer to as the 'Java Jizz'. Have the lid open one the coffee starts coming through.
Miss it, and you've burned the coffee.
If you can hear bubbling, you've burned the coffee.
If you feature the image of a bubbling Moka pot in your TV ad or Film, you're a cunt.

To avoid burning the coffee in a Moka pot take it off the heat once the water starts to percolate through the top. The residual heat will finish the brewing and you get zero bitterness (see page 17 of this thread for further discussion)

best tip I was ever given for Moka pots to avoid bean burn and bitterness was to always use just boiled water in the moka pot instead of cold water [the beans are exposed to heat for a significantly shorter time]. Just make sure you hold the base with a cloth when you're assembling the pot as it's pretty toasty with the boiling water in.

makes a hell of a difference to the brew

[apologies if this is old news to most of you]

There's a cheaper place to buy. Let me look in my emails... And yes, as far as I know, it's the best option. Serious temp surfing required to steam milk with the Classic though!

http://www.myespresso.co.uk/product.php/419/rancilio-frothing-arm-2008-version-fits-gaggia-classic

Nice kw roddy, that's basically half price! Is it hard to fit?

I think the myespresso one requires you to re-use the nut from the original wand which requires a small amount of effort/bending to get off. the happy donkey one is ready to fit. just unscrew the old one and put the new one on.

this is going off of what i read on coffee forums not first hand experience (other than I fit a HD one and it was indeed a straight swap as it has a nut on it already).

the hasbean baked beans arrived yesterday but i was fasting for a blood test so haven't had chance to test it yet but am well impressed with how much effort went into the packaging.

That reminds me how I dread Ramadan

^^^^^^^^^ and ^^

Let me know what you think of the Baked Beans. I might give them a try also.

I think the myespresso one requires you to re-use the nut from the original wand which requires a small amount of effort/bending to get off. the happy donkey one is ready to fit. just unscrew the old one and put the new one on.

this is going off of what i read on coffee forums not first hand experience (other than I fit a HD one and it was indeed a straight swap as it has a nut on it already).

That's correct. You unscrew the old nut and the old wand pops off. The bend on the old wand is slightly to tight to pass the nut over, so you bend it slightly and it pops off. Then just screw the old nut onto the new wand.

The trick with steaming on the classic is to start steaming before the thermostat gets a chance to turn "off". This basically means going to steam mode, flushing wand after mabe 5s, and then start steaming as soon as the output looks consistent and dry. If the thermostat switches "off" during steaming then your steam power drops.

Just spent 1hr making shots where only adjustment was to tighten grind by half turn on the mc2 after each shot. Shots remained at 17s despite massive overall adjustment by the end. I conclude the adjuster is fooked. Not impressed, it's less than 6 months old.

it's more likely to be something I'm doing wrong... any ideas?

pull the top off - you should be able to see if the worm screw is working when you turn the knob (turn off the power first...)

I have also found that 1/2 a turn on the knob is very little, and for different roasts i have to make several turns to dial in the grind - I think it is just very fine grained adjustment

Cheers, have had the hopper off and it all seems to be turning ok, simply more turns needed per adjustment I think!

In other news anyone else getting errors for hasbean:

This Connection is Untrusted

      You have asked Firefox to connect

securely to www.hasbean.co.uk, but we can't confirm that your connection is secure.

      Normally, when you try to connect securely,

sites will present trusted identification to prove that you are
going to the right place. However, this site's identity can't be verified.

      What Should I Do?

        If you usually connect to

this site without problems, this error could mean that someone is
trying to impersonate the site, and you shouldn't continue.

    www.hasbean.co.uk uses an invalid security certificate.

The certificate is only valid for the following names:
*.myshopify.com , myshopify.com

(Error code: ssl_error_bad_cert_domain)

^ Ordered from them yesterday without any problems.