espresso making mags?

[zion zig zag]

Shout out to tgapp for offering, and wife for delivering espresso beans to me today!
I'm trying to picture my wife's reaction if I asked her to meet an internet stranger at a gas station to hand off coffee beans

[Doremite]

damn that's legit, you won't ever need a new machine. that'll last your entire life.

once you master that i would think about adding flow control to it, for $150, it's a stupid good upgrade. then you'll be able to do all sorts of really cool shit.

--

on another note, does anyone have an e61 with knob control for steam and hot water (not joysticks, like cantdog) that would like some really amazing bubinga burl brew control knobs? these were well over $100 custom, and they're stunning. they look like well-pulled shots of espresso. plus, you pretty much can't get them in this wood anymore, it's too rare

Attachment 352796

the knobs are a friction fit designed to go over a square post that is ~6mm, and the brew lever screws on for about the same. i'll send em to any mag for the cost of a $whatever donation to your local foodbank, they're fucking sweet, they just don't fit my machine

Tempting..... Need to measure.

Post looks to be ~5.6mm. Will take ‘em if you think they’ll fit??!!

[tgapp]

Tempting..... Need to measure.

Post looks to be ~5.6mm. Will take ‘em if you think they’ll fit??!!

I think so man

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[Doremite]

Hmmmmm. My steam and hot water knobs have a screw through the center of them and the brew lever screws on. Are the knobs threaded or do those silver caps pop off to slide the screws through. I should probably measure the brew lever too.....

[tgapp]

Hmmmmm. My steam and hot water knobs have a screw through the center of them and the brew lever screws on. Are the knobs threaded or do those silver caps pop off to slide the screws through. I should probably measure the brew lever too.....

The silver part is a friction fit. No screw or threads on the handle itself. I think this works with the nut holding the handle in place?

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[Doremite]

I can take a closer look in morning but could also just ship them back to you - or someone else here - if they don’t work....

[Benny Profane]

Yay. I found a roaster nearby. Just bought two half pounds of her espresso blends, and, if the first hit is any indication, I'm pretty much set for a good coffee supply. It's right next to an excellent supermarket and liquor store/wine shop, so one ten minute drive in the country gets me to all three major food groups. I'm happy. Been there over fifteen years, so no fly by night hipster operation.
She recommends against freezing anything at all. Looks like at least a monthly visit.

This is fucking me up for Starbucks.

[pureantigravity]

Yay. I found a roaster nearby. Just bought two half pounds of her espresso blends, and, if the first hit is any indication, I'm pretty much set for a good coffee supply. It's right next to an excellent supermarket and liquor store/wine shop, so one ten minute drive in the country gets me to all three major food groups. I'm happy. Been there over fifteen years, so no fly by night hipster operation.
She recommends against freezing anything at all. Looks like at least a monthly visit.

This is fucking me up for Starbucks.

Freezing is fine. It really is.
Try it. I don't think you can tell in a blind taste test.
I buy fresh, just because freezer space is precious.
But fresh is *ever so slightly better* but no biggie.
If you get a good price, buy extra and freeze it.
I suppose if you freeze for 1 year or longer it makes little sense.

Not that you asked but she is a fresh roaster, so she doesn't want people to freeze. She wants good traffic in the store.

[jm2e]

I got the same thing from a “local” roaster here. Asked him about pricing on 5lb bags because: 1) Money 2) he’s out half the time I stop in 3) he’s 45min from my house. He said I should just buy the 12oz bags by mail. I asked if they had free shipping or lower prices for subscriptions. He just stared at me.
Fuck off. I’ll get better coffee from Dragonfly, for less money, and freeze it.
/rant


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[tgapp]

you can read about freezing coffee here from the biggest coffee nerds in the world:

https://www.home-barista.com/store-c...n-freezer.html

tl;dr: it's 100% fine to do. you don't lost anything. or you lose extremely little. i can't tell a difference, and i'm snobby af

[Benny Profane]

Freezing is fine. It really is.
Try it. I don't think you can tell in a blind taste test.
I buy fresh, just because freezer space is precious.
But fresh is *ever so slightly better* but no biggie.
If you get a good price, buy extra and freeze it.
I suppose if you freeze for 1 year or longer it makes little sense.

Not that you asked but she is a fresh roaster, so she doesn't want people to freeze. She wants good traffic in the store.

Well, she's going to get the same "traffic" because I'll probably buy two pounds at a time and freeze one like I have been in the plague time since March, and that lasts a decent amount of time. It's a nice road trip through quasi old farm country up here (cycling circuit) and, as said, the supermarket and wine shop make it a multi purpose trip. This is cool. Of course, just another ten steps up the ladder to coffee snobbery. Now, about that grinder....

[Benny Profane]

you can read about freezing coffee here from the biggest coffee nerds in the world:

https://www.home-barista.com/store-c...n-freezer.html

tl;dr: it's 100% fine to do. you don't lost anything. or you lose extremely little. i can't tell a difference, and i'm snobby af

That's pretty awesome. The internet is an amazing place.

But, yeah, even he admits, the average person doesnt have such a cold freezer, and all this was done on very fresh roasted beans by a home roaster. Still, very informative, and from what I can tell, it would be worth trying something almost the same by buying very recently roasted espresso and immediately freezing one of two pounds. That would fit these freshness time frames really well for my use. Thanks.

[pureantigravity]

^^^ Good luck on the grinder. Most important purchase.
I got a Baratza Virtuoso.
It stopped working after 2 years. But I emailed them (Baratza at their 'GRINDER REPAIR PROGRAM') and they sent me a new motor for FREE along with detailed instructions.
It has been nearly 3 years since and it still works fine. I think the reason the motor burned out was that I ran it a very long time (a few times) pre-grinding a lot of beans (half the large bag) and then freezing them as pre-ground. I only freeze them as beans now.
I take back what I said about freezing, pre-ground frozen isn't as fresh tasting as frozen beans.
I just make 2 or 3 scoops at a time now, and always grind fresh. Good on them for backing up their quality. If I bought another, I'd go one model up to the ceramic burrs option. It is small, heavy, not too noisy, and seems quite bomber overall. You get what you pay for.

[snoboy]

you can read about freezing coffee here from the biggest coffee nerds in the world:

https://www.home-barista.com/store-c...n-freezer.html

tl;dr: it's 100% fine to do. you don't lost anything. or you lose extremely little. i can't tell a difference, and i'm snobby af

You can get the opinion of another coffee nerd on freezing here on youtube;

[tgapp]

You can get the opinion of another coffee nerd on freezing here on youtube;

yeah I agree with Hoffman. freezing works but you gotta do it right. for me that meant 5lb bag > 8oz servings vacsealed > one out at a time. others just spoon from the bag and it works fine too.

Hoffman makes great content too. His style is basically ultra high end without much pretense; very practical stuff.

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[neufox47]

Yo coffee snobs, what do you think of the Ascaso I grinder?


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[Yonder_River]

Yo coffee snobs, what do you think of the Ascaso I grinder?


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I've had the Ascaso I-mini for 10 years now and it's a solid grinder. Well worth the purchase and I'm assuming they still construct them the same. It also takes up little counter space which I like.

[jm2e]

When comparing grinders, what qualities do people think of when praising them?
What changers when you go from a $200 grinder to a $400 grinder?
What changes when you go from $400 to $700?
How about the $1000-$3000 category?
FWIW, I’m not asking about manual grinders. I’ve noticed you get the same vague variations in those, and it’s too simplistic to just say all manual grinders are good. That’s a talk for another day.


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[bagtagley]

Baratza sells refurbished grinders for decent money off. IMO, best bang for your buck is a Breville with 20% off coupon from Bed Bath and Beyond (they never question the coupons). Can always return if you don’t like it and they’ve got your back if you have issues.

[tgapp]

When comparing grinders, what qualities do people think of when praising them?
What changers when you go from a $200 grinder to a $400 grinder?
What changes when you go from $400 to $700?
How about the $1000-$3000 category?
FWIW, I’m not asking about manual grinders. I’ve noticed you get the same vague variations in those, and it’s too simplistic to just say all manual grinders are good. That’s a talk for another day.


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mostly it's a question of manufacturing tolerances, materials, and burr size

basic grinders (under $200) will have a ton of variance in the burr set, and the bearings used will be of lower quality, leading to wobble and play in the drive shaft, and they will use smaller, less precise burrs (usually 45mm or smaller) this creates an uneven particulate size, which means that, on a microscopic level, some of the coffee will be over extracted while some of it will be under extracted. they also tend to have retention, which is when static electricity makes the coffee stick to the sides of whatever exit chute, and if you're not careful, you're getting old coffee. this is a problem for espresso, as it won't extract properly.

mid-tier grinders ($200-2000, i know that's a huge range) have bigger burrs, better tolerances, and better motors, too. many of these are cafe grinders that get repurposed for home use, but more and more, the prosumer market is evolving to market directly to consumers who want god-tier coffee at home. these machines usually have burrs in the 40-60mm range, and you'll start to see some of the "name brand" burr sets (Etzinger, SSP, Mazzer) appear in this product class.

the highest quality grinders ($3k+) will have uniform grind that is created by very high precision burr sets (the best burrs come from speciality, coffee burr specific manufacturing companies in Switzerland and Korea and can cost upwards of $500 for the burrs alone), and they will also be titanium-coated so that they don't dull as quickly. higher quality grinders almost always have bigger burrs (between 70 and 90mm - called 'titan class'); bigger burrs grind faster, heat up less, and have better particle distribution.

there's also a question around flat burr grinders vs conicals too - most people who brew only drip coffee prefer flat burrs (the distribution of particle size on a flat burr is unimodal), while people drinking espresso tend to like conicals because they create bimodal distribution (big particles AND little particles). i use a conical for everything (Niche Zero - cannot recommend it enough), but i'd like to get a flat burr for brewed coffee - likely an Orphan Espresso Apex at some point.

[Doremite]

On grinders my current experience is in the $400-$700 range and firmly in the middle w/ my latest investment. Typical for this budget range, you are buying more of a grind setting range (fine tuning) and accurate dosing weights which is really just a convenience/ efficiency thing. Higher end you are getting commercial grade components so longer life span. Think cafe ripping 100s of shots a day vs home use in the single digits. A cafe would burn through $700 machines but ~$2K machine are build for heavy use.

In the $200-$400 range you aren’t likely going to get each grind particle uniform and even absent tweaking the grind setting you’ll get variable extractions. This can be maddening to the anal and precise. Is you want “good enough” you’ll be fine in this dollar range.

I’ve gone from a Baratza Encore (sucked for espresso due to the inconsistency factor), Rancilio Rocky which was a huge upgrade but limited grind settings (have to mess w dosage weights due to too wide of a swing between coarseness settings) to a Baratza Sette 270Wi which has solved for the above limitations for me. My life has improved along this gradient. There may be another step through the looking glass I’ve yet to experience

[tgapp]

^^ i agree with doremite, the $400-700 range is money if you can afford it. i fucking love my niche, and i think that sette's are also great (way more user friendly than my niche, walk up, push button, get coffee). the niche and the sette are the two prime examples of grinders in this range that punch above their weight; the sette focuses on super easy workflows and makes very good coffee, the niche focuses on coffee quality at the expense of literally any other feature.

i'm sure i'll get upgraditus at some point but i'm just happy as a clam with my niche, and i imagine i'll get many more years of service out of it. it's a great piece of kit.

[tgapp]

also if you want to see an insane example of no-limit spending for coffee, check out this grinder:

https://www.wholelattelove.com/produ...coffee-grinder

jesus

[old goat]

also if you want to see an insane example of no-limit spending for coffee, check out this grinder:

https://www.wholelattelove.com/produ...coffee-grinder

jesus

I like the one review. "Good".

[cravenmorhead]

Satisfying early results with the Flair. I'm still really inconsistent, but working on it.