Coffee

T.L.E. Sharp said:
My wife doesn't get coffee at all, so there's no differentiating between Maxwell House out of a Mr. Coffee with tap water and a properly made cappuccino with Kona and filtered water. She just asks when the bacon will be ready.

I need an espresso machine. John seems pretty fond of that Gaggia unit. Anyone else have a recommendation?
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The Gaggia Classic is a solid machine at the ~$400 price point. Can't go wrong with the Rancilio Silvia though, but it's gone from ~$500 back years ago, to almost $700 now. That's what I have (PID control added), and can't recommend it enough, even with the price hikes.

GotSteel said:
I was recommended the Gaggia Classic or Breville Duo Temp on another forum (although I've still not made a purchase), there's a place in my city called Whole Latte Love (dot com for their website) that sells machines and has some refurbs, they have a live chat feature too if you wanna chat with them but they seem cool and 2nded the Gaggia as a decent reliable workhorse on a budget
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Whole Latte Love is a solid company! I've been a customer for many years. You're fortunate to have them local. Might find out if they have a retail location where you could go to check stuff out before you buy. A refurb might be the way to go, as many times they've been gone over with a fine-toothed comb, so less likely to have problems down the road. Less expensive too!

Monofletch said:
The BRC AK might be my new favorite. It is good in the drip and makes excellent espresso with huge creme.
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Been wanting to try their stuff. I'll keep that in mind! :thumbsup:
 
I'd recommend the Crossland CC1 it's on the same level as the Rancilio but has built in PID at the same price point. It also has a secondary thermocouple for steam, and a slightly larger boiler (if memory serves) so you can go from steaming to pulling shots and not worry about heat dispersion issues. The only downside is that parts will be more readily available for the Rancilio than the CC1, but I've had fine luck contacting the manufacturer for any extra parts I want. If you're willing to spend 400 you should do yourself a favor and save until you can spend 700 on the Rancilio or CC1. Also gonna need 200-500 for a grinder. Anything in the Baratza series is perfect for home. I like the Baratza Sette series personally, you can get one that doses by time or weight depending on the kind of control you want.
 
Y'shua said:
If you're willing to spend 400 you should do yourself a favor and save until you can spend 700 on the Rancilio or CC1. Also gonna need 200-500 for a grinder. Anything in the Baratza series is perfect for home. I like the Baratza Sette series personally, you can get one that doses by time or weight depending on the kind of control you want.
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Good call on all points here! :thumbsup: A good grinder becomes even more important for espresso than with other brew methods. Another recommendation for Baratza from me. That's the brand I've always used, and I don't think you can do better for the money for a multi-purpose grinder. If you want a good grinder for a variety of brew methods, look no further.
 
My new favorite coffee drink......
1 double shot espresso in 2 oz of steamed Tru Moo chocolate milk!!!
 
Lol! ;)

So I just caved and placed an order at Sweet Maria’s. They currently have an unusual Gesha coffee, that’s not nearly as expensive as other Geshas usually are. It’s called “Guatemala Volcan Acatenango Gesha Longberry”, and is under $10/lb. :cool: You home roasters might want to give it a try! ;) They also have a full-blown Gesha from Guatemala, but at nearly $20/lb, I passed.

I also ordered a new Clever Coffee Dripper. Mine is from one of the first few batches, and the plastic has been getting a lot of little cracks all over it. Well I took it to Wyoming a week and a half ago, and it really cracked. :(
 
I haven't been around as much lately since I've been busy with other stuff. Totaled my 12 year old truck a while back and had to get a new one. Work has been crazy also with all the holidays landing on top of each other this year.

Still working my way through that bag of Haitian Blue I posted a while back. Snapped a couple pics to show my extremely basic setup since I roasted some more beans today. It's just an electric popper, crank sifter, and a non-galvanized duct reducer to fit the two together. I use a glove to hold the sifter handle because it gets pretty hot.



I got a little carried away and went to a full on second crack with these. Definitely darker than I normally do, but it will be nice for a change of pace. You can see some of the chaff still on the table to the left of the colander. That's why it's good to do this outside if possible, or at least in a garage, shed, etc.
 
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Beautiful. I am waiting for my new addition. I just ordered a new pm2 in s110v and I purchased some hand made Wenge wood scales from a fella in Lithuania. Can’t wait, but one of the joys of living in Canada means I do a lot of waiting for shipments. Will probably take close to a month for both to arrive. I’ll post a pick when they come though.
 
I like Cook's Illustrated. They tell you why things work and why they don't. I usually by the older issues at the library. (25¢ each, 5 for $1) Anyway, today
I bought a Dec. 2005 issue that had an article on supermarket coffee. They sent samples of the 8 coffees to a lab. They did two tests. One is called Agtron.
It is an instrument that measures how much light the beans reflect. The other is a count of the Quakers. Quakers? I never heard that. They are under developed
beans that give the coffee a spoiled peanut taste.

The top rated coffees?

Medium roast were Green Mountain Our Blend and Eight O'Clock original. Darker roast were Millstone Columbian Supremo and Starbucks House Blend.

Millstone and Starbucks had only 1 quaker each.

This is just FYI. I thought that it might be interesting. Maybe not.
 
I remember watching the America's Test Kitchen episode where they had that taste test and talked about quakers. There was another episode where they mentioned adding a pinch of salt to the grounds when making coffee. I have tried it and can't tell a difference. Guess I'm not a supertaster like Chris K....................

They've done some reviews on other coffee gear like Moka pots and Coffee Joulies also.
 
Great info. I have read about adding salt too. Nothing beats fresh roasted. I can tell a huge difference running it through my Gaggia machine. Old coffee doesn't have any creme and tastes old.
Bought some more Goshen and got a new knife! Doug Marcaida/Jason Knight MK Ultra Kukri folder.
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