The Coffee Thread

Getting there, a little too fine but not far off, needs a slight tweak to get 36g in around 30s.

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Yes, that’s a cup made from coffee grounds.
 
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Shaun
How many grams are you starting with mate?
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18 in for a 1-2 ratio.

Nearly there just a few more tweaks to the grind and it should be good. My technique it’s getting more consistent thanks to the WDT and Spring Tamp as they make getting a nice puck every time.

Surprisingly the grinder isn’t retaining too much back either. I’m using the wet teaspoon to limit static and I’m either getting 18 spot on or 17.9 each and every time, so I’m happy about that.

The puck screen is keeping the shower head nice and clean too. Shame it’s a spouted portafilter and not naked as that would give me a bit more of a direct view if I’m getting channeling.

Espresso really sings to my OCD tendencies with getting everything perfect. :D

Steaming milk was doing my head in, until I realised I wasn’t steaming hot enough. I must have been stopping around 45° to 50° C

Really enjoying myself.
 
Sprite
18 in for a 1-2 ratio.
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Excellent, good starting point.
With time and trial and error you may find a little either way works too. Does depend on the beans though.
For my go to beans I put 21g in for 38-40 out over 30 seconds, however when trying new beans always revert back to 1-2 ratio for a starting point.
Sprite
Surprisingly the grinder isn’t retaining too much back either. I’m using the wet teaspoon to limit static and I’m either getting 18 spot on or 17.9 each and every time, so I’m happy about that.
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I think the grinder in your machine is the same innards as the Sage (Breville) smart grinder pro and I had the same experience of pretty low retention when using a SMP.
Sprite
Shame it’s a spouted portafilter and not naked as that would give me a bit more of a direct view if I’m getting channeling.
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You can most likely tell anyway without a bottomless PF, if you see the flow suddenly speed up or change speed erratically it's a good chance it's channelling. I think a bottomless PF can be bought for your machine if you wanted to go down that path. My machine came with one extra and it's very rare it gets used, only if I'm having all sorts of drama with new beans so I can see what's going on a bit better. Normally my bottomless PF has the blind filter in it for backflushing.
Sprite
Espresso really sings to my OCD tendencies with getting everything perfect. :D
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Oh it'll do that. :lol:
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Steaming milk was doing my head in, until I realised I wasn’t steaming hot enough. I must have been stopping around 45° to 50° C
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Steaming is an art in itself, once you work out how much of a whirlpool to get going and getting the temperature correct the rest comes pretty quickly. I pretty much had to retrain myself when I upgraded to my Rocket from the Breville all due to the time it took. With the Breville the steaming process was longer than pulling the shot so there was the opportunity to take the time steaming. It's the opposite with the Rocket, the milk is up to temp before the shot has finished being pulled so if your not on the ball it ends up being a bubbly mess :lol:.
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Really enjoying myself.
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Excellent, 👍.
 
Update on the coffee shenanigans

Now have the grinder spot on, it would be nice to have some half steps now just to tweak that little bit more.

Internal burr is set to 4 and side setting set to 10, so one either side should go a bit finer or coarser depending on bean, and then tweak the ratio or temp to fine tune.

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All the machine extras are now in play.

  • Spring loaded Tamp
  • WDT
  • Puck screen
  • Dosing cup
  • Dosing ring
  • Single dose hopper and bellows

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The last tweaks I could make are portafilter and basket. However these maybe done at a later date.

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Milk steaming is getting easier now so getting decent foam, however based on the size of drink the wife likes I may need a bigger jug. Also she likes the milk to be steamed to 75°

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Overall really enjoyed this first foray into espresso machines and it’s getting daily use at the moment.
 
Sprite
Milk steaming is getting easier now so getting decent foam, however based on the size of drink the wife likes I may need a bigger jug. Also she likes the milk to be steamed to 75°
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Sounds like your wife likes her coffee similar to how i do. I tend to use a 400ml mug, which means, after a double shot of espresso, and milk steamed to 70+ degrees fills the OEM jug as high as it could without spilling over gets me a full mug of latte. I've found, starting with milk poured up to the point where the spout starts internally, i aerate the milk for the first 15-20 seconds then drop the spout down to vortex it for another 40ish seconds, by which time its usually up to temp. So about a minute in total. Any more than 20 and you just end up with overly frothy milk, any less and it just ends up as warm milk. This proportion and you get nice velvety finish.

Nice additions to your kit 👍

The single-dose hopper is interesting. My wife can only drink decaf due to her PoTS. I tried to get hold of a second OEM hopper and lid for ages. Sage's own website had them listed as spares, and at a reasonable price too, but for about 18 months they were never in stock. In the end i bought a lightly used one off ebay, but it cost four times as much. It's a bit of a faff swopping them over each time, so i might have to look at the single-dose one you bought. where did you find it?
 
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TheCracker
Sounds like your wife likes her coffee similar to how i do. I tend to use a 400ml mug, which means, after a double shot of espresso, and milk steamed to 70+ degrees fills the OEM jug as high as it could without spilling over gets me a full mug of latte. I've found, starting with milk poured up to the point where the spout starts internally, i aerate the milk for the first 15-20 seconds then drop the spout down to vortex it for another 40ish seconds, by which time its usually up to temp. So about a minute in total. Any more than 20 and you just end up with overly frothy milk, any less and it just ends up as warm milk. This proportion and you get nice velvety finish.

Nice additions to your kit 👍

The single-dose hopper is interesting. My wife can only drink decaf due to her PoTS. I tried to get hold of a second OEM hopper and lid for ages. Sage's own website had them listed as spares, and at a reasonable price too, but for about 18 months they were never in stock. In the end i bought a lightly used one off ebay, but it cost four times as much. It's a bit of a faff swopping them over each time, so i might have to look at the single-dose one you bought. where did you find it?
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I ended up shooting myself in the foot as I didn’t research enough. I picked this one up from Canada on Etsy from a seller “Cafe Fabrique” it cost about £60 with shipping! Which at the time others were about that.

It wasn’t until I hit Amazon and found some similar ones which were a little cheaper. However I knew the money was going to a small indie retailer rather than Bezos so I felt a little better.

It’s a 3D printed affair and was a tight fussy fit, however once on, it’s not going to come off without a little effort. The bellows are silicone and the lid is aluminium. Overall I’m pleased with it and it’s a bit better than the huge hopper.

If you do pick one up from the Etsy seller, they gave me a 10% code THANKYOU10 hopefully that works fine.

Weirdly Sage haven’t taken the money for the machine yet. I paid via PayPal and this using a credit card (I do all my online purchasing this way) and they haven’t taken the money yet, it’s just sat waiting for them! Very odd.
 
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Inevitable I guess. 250g bags are just not cutting it, so here comes the 1kg bag.

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A more espresso focused coffee.

@TheCracker do you have any recommendations? I know you posted a local roaster to you a few pages back. Is there a bean you’re partial to?
 
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Inevitable I guess. 250g bags are just not cutting it, so here comes the 1kg bag.

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A more espresso focused coffee.

@TheCracker do you have any recommendations? I know you posted a local roaster to you a few pages back. Is there a bean you’re partial to?
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After trying a few of their other roasts, i've bean ;) having 1kg bags of this delivered every other month.

I prefer the chocolately, nuttier roasts over the fruiter ones, but you may prefer otherwise.

They're local to me in the grand, GTPlanet scheme of things, but they're even closer to you.
 
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Arrived this morning and was roasted on Tuesday, although they’re 12 months ahead of themselves. :lol: Not shabby.

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Arrived this morning and was roasted on Tuesday, although they’re 12 months ahead of themselves. :lol: Not shabby.

View attachment 1249858View attachment 1249859
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Give it 5-7 days to de-gas before trying it if you can wait. :lol:

One of my favourite things with coffee is trying the myriad of quality beans that can be had now from roasters nearby. The whole scene has come a long way in a relatively short period of time. Quality beans have always been available but the choice now is huge.
 
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Well colour me impressed, a new roaster has opened in my home city. If I was still daily travelling to Leeds then this would be on my walking rout from bus stop to train station.

Next time I’m in, I’ll have to check them out and pick up some beans.

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Nice, it's always nice to have a roaster near by.
We are kind of spoilt in that sense with quite a few to choose from.
 
Holy moly that’s some pricy coffee machine. However it does look cool and from the review does exactly what it says on the tin. Still 20k for a machine like this is nuts.

 
So my 1KG of Darkwoods is nearly done. So it was about time to get a new bag, as the roasters had opened in my local city I thought I’d give them a go and grab a bag.

A nice decent selection on offer along with all the normal coffee paraphernalia and a roaster going.

Decided on their Kenyan and a batch was just in the roaster about to finish. So this bag is still warm straight from the roaster. We had a nice chat about local roasters and coffee etc. and the wife and I got a free cup of coffee to boot.

I’ll certainly be going back.

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