(GPGT)Espresso machine hoot

IntelFlash

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The ristretto I make are double ristrettos. 15 ml x 2. Did I say 7g cannot make a single ristretto? No I did not. 10 grams can also make a single ristretto, 4 grams can also make a ristretto. But I don't because I don't like the taste. An 18g double ristretto is what I like.

So....care to enlighten me what was your point exactly? :)
My question is quite clear earlier, just that you go OT with a WOT.

What can i say? haha

20 grams of grounds could get you 2 drinks....but they are espressos.... not the ristretto you saw in the video

I'm not sure how you define Ristrettos though
 
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IntelFlash

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Holy sh*t, 18gm on a single basket? Did you manage to get all of the grounds in?
After distribution, yeah i did or i think i did..

But no flow. lol

In fact, i could not even get the basket in the grouphead at first.

Don't know if i spoilt the gasket
 

IntelFlash

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Lazy_Tiger

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Actually, most Italians are complaining that the TWC are over extracting and over dosing.
Not the other way.

Anyway if you do read alot, the Italians do make a point and they are not talking about maintaining the culture. And it seems that the FAQ is why so much coffee?

Whose Espresso Is Better: Third-Wave Cafés or Traditional Italian Espresso Bars? | Serious Eats: Drinks

Clearly you are confused between updosing and over extraction. Noodz is correct. The Italian style espresso have a higher possibility of over extraction precisely because they use less grounds for the same amount of water.


Anyway it's a pointless argument over whether Italian style 14g is better or updosing is better...... Italians like it that way so be it. Their blends are different. palate is different.
 

Lazy_Tiger

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ok... I will bring Atas beans .... $120/kg grade

:love:

TS, this is the kind of setup I LOVE to have at home. it is orgy to just hear the machine grind and the smells it makes, with one sip, it gives the tongue wonderfulous sensation of sweet acid with a twing of bitter after taste oooooo.....fweels like cloud 9

Wow what beans are those? Taka basement is selling some blue mountain coffee. I bought a pack. Nice but I guess not really what I would go for again lah haha

Jamaica Blue Mountain
 

Lazy_Tiger

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Tried drinking espresso from a glencairn whisky nosing glass (the glass in the slayer video).

Haha no difference in smell. I guess espresso unlike whisky does not have the alcohol to carry the aromatic elements into the nosing area.

I still think the best is still to serve in white porcelain. For heat retention and visual effect of espresso against white.

The Glencairn Glass
 

Lazy_Tiger

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thecoffeebarun.com.au

artisan blend beans. they change their beans seasonally

a lot of Jamaica blue is "fake" I feel. :( :s13: but that's me talking without basis.

not everyone can appreciate blue mountain, so good to give a try but not try to act atas for some ppl,

[oh~~~ I only drink blue mountain cos its the best] :s8: yeah right


Yah Loh. I am happy to be able to taste it in my lifetime e but It's really quite expensive and for the price the buyer is not really sure of the beans are really from blue mtn or even from the good grade crop. Reminds me about the Darjeeling tea industry. Actual annual production is only 10million kg. but 40million are packaged and sold as "Darjeeling":eek:
 

derazor

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I would suggest sticking to the stock basket and "levelling up" before changing to a VST. In my opinion, VST because of the sheer number of holes there are, you require a really good distribution technique compared to regular baskets in order to make use of it. (Read this guy's experience to understand what I mean CoffeeGeek - Can These Filters Change the World of Espresso?) Don't be caught up with the gear masturbation, a stock Silvia can give you a pretty good espresso without all the fancy PID, Motta milk jugs, 4 hole steam tips etc.

I read about the 4 hole tips but I think Silvia cannot tahan the exhaust out.

OK I will level up first
 

derazor

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thecoffeebarun.com.au

artisan blend beans. they change their beans seasonally

a lot of Jamaica blue is "fake" I feel. :( :s13: but that's me talking without basis.

not everyone can appreciate blue mountain, so good to give a try but not try to act atas for some ppl,

[oh~~~ I only drink blue mountain cos its the best] :s8: yeah right

is coffee bean as jialat as chinese long jing tea?

how to verify this bean is from satki farm etc and also ensure that is not blended and also how to verify it's single source?
 

derazor

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I agree don't get the vst yet. For rancilio Silvia stock basket I use 14g because the top of the puck will scrape into the shower screen when locking in if use an up dose.

Hmmmm.....But actually it's not that ex. Can try also lah see how's your cup. Can keep the vst when u intend to upgrade your Silvia too.

I would recommend changing to a higher vst when u want to experiment with updosing.

any reason why I should maintain standard dosing or updosing basket?
 

Lazy_Tiger

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I read about the 4 hole tips but I think Silvia cannot tahan the exhaust out.

OK I will level up first

4 hole tip is better for commercial usage for a faster steaming with larger pitcher. But need bigger steam boiler to sustain.

So vbm used a 2 hole tip for their home machine but their 2 hole tip is notoriously not easy to steam actually. Have to be very specific whether to place the wand to get a good swirl.

I think if your distribution technique is already good and u are very consistent then no harm trying the vst.
 

derazor

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guys,

I did a pull on wednesday it was a little slow because I tune it too fine, so I did a quarter revolution coarser , then this morning friday it was a little faster.

So my thinking is if I didn't tune on wednesday I might have gotten it right today.

So is this a norm and it's a moving target daily?

Should I say if I can forecast that every day it's a quarter revolution for this particular bean, I can "forecast" the grind setting?

What if I re-start a new pack? How far back I need to tune?

Espresso is serious business.
 

Lazy_Tiger

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is coffee bean as jialat as chinese long jing tea?

how to verify this bean is from satki farm etc and also ensure that is not blended and also how to verify it's single source?

Exactly lah... A lot of blue mountain actually dunno from which mountain also.....

The Taka one at lease is from a single estate. Blue mahoe estate.
 

Lazy_Tiger

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any reason why I should maintain standard dosing or updosing basket?

Actually no good reason to maintain any fixed dosing except for convenience or until you are very sure you prefer the taste from a standard dosed or from an updose.

I generally like an updose but I regularly experiment with 15g to 18g especially when trying out new blends. :)
 

Lazy_Tiger

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Blue mountain cost $10 a cup in Singapore. I tried it 8 years ago. I am not sure if it still cost $10 this day.

I can only say it is a cup of coffee with very exquisite taste/notes in it. it can only be drank as short/long black. expresso MB is, IMO, wasted.

If u ask me if I wanna try again? meh. but I prefer Blue Mt blend with Columbia style :)

I am always a Columbian fan. there is no right or wrg way in coffee making. I was really laffing off quietly when I read the article intelflash shared.

How a drink is drank, depends a lot on culture and history. All u can say is, abcde is the authentic way this drink is being made and how it is being drank thus its authenticness in the given area.

Agreed. If they like it that way then good for them. Darjeeling estate workers drink their delicate tea with milk and spices as a great after work drink when the rest of world is lifting their delicate tea cups with their pinkies out and comparing the tasting notes of their Darjeeling kosong. :s22:
 

calbay

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Just muster the standard 7-8 grammes and try the double or triple dosage. Figure out yourself which do you prefer.

To be honest, most people like darkly roasted strong and thick coffee, particularly from amateurs.
As thickness and bitterness are often their interpretation of "aroma" and lighter roasted coffee are more sour.
You don't see a lot of people here talking about clarity and the aroma profile.

One thing is for sure, coffee producers, roasters and bean retailers will advocate that massive dosage is better. We don't have to think hard to understand why.

Italian cafes won't move on to massive dosage. The cost of 20 grammes of coffee powder will mean the cost price increase to almost 1 EUR a cup. Which means they have to retail at least double the present price of EUR 0.80.


For home, i suggest that once you figure out your preference, then move on. Practise on getting consistency, speed, etc.
 

Lazy_Tiger

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guys,

I did a pull on wednesday it was a little slow because I tune it too fine, so I did a quarter revolution coarser , then this morning friday it was a little faster.

So my thinking is if I didn't tune on wednesday I might have gotten it right today.

So is this a norm and it's a moving target daily?

Should I say if I can forecast that every day it's a quarter revolution for this particular bean, I can "forecast" the grind setting?

What if I re-start a new pack? How far back I need to tune?

Espresso is serious business.

Hmmm for me don't have to change grinder setting everyday to get the correct flow. More like after every 5 days then can really see a difference and need to grind finer. But usually I finish a bag in less than a week.

The difference could be due to inconsistent distribution or even brew boiler temp. If I recall u are using a Silvia? Need to do reverse temp surfing, flushing or pid to get the correct brewing temp. My Silvia will gush out :s22: STEAM :s22: with a lot of pressure when I immediately flush after the heater has turned off.

I also feel once the bean is 14 days post roast then it harder to get more consistent inter shot results. Not sure why. But could be the presence of co2 in the bean for fresh coffees helps with the flow rate maybe.
 

calbay

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Blue Mountain is mostly enjoyed in Japan as a brew coffee.
It has a distinctive woody notes.
You don't get a lot of REAL BM coffee nowadays.
They had a bad harvest last year.

I prefer some crops from Mexico, which has some magical effect on texture due to it's oiliness. As well as the smoky notes from Costa Rican beans. The flowery Ethiopian beans are nice for me too.
Recently I made friend with an Indonesian coffee producer, who shared with me some rare good quality Sumatran beans. They are damn good too but good quality beans are rare due to their poorer expertise in growing coffee. It's improving very quickly though.
But my preference, won't be the preference of average Singaporeans/Malaysians as i don't drink espresso dark.

Don't get fooled by any unknown retailers who claim that they have huge amount of variety. Whether common grade or exotic beans. When a roaster purchase beans from legitimate sources, they buy in sacks of 60KG and they do have a best before date even when they are in green.
If the roaster claim they get in smaller packs, then good luck cause god knows when the coffee greens were produced or how honest is the distributing agent.
A lot of roasters in the market, pass off common beans and claim they are from XX source. This is a very very very common way of cheating.

Another very important thing is, a lot of newbie roasters can't or don't de-stone well. This is one of the key reasons why grinders failing much earlier than what they can actually last. I will avoid amateur roasting companies like crazy.

Roasting itself is a skill, you need very accurate temperature control and knows when to stop. In fact, there's more to it than just turning, heating & resting, there's a few techniques involved ( Which i haven't seen written in any books yet).
The only machines that can help one to roast well, are the very high end roasting big machines or the drum roasting method which i do at home. Those microwave/oven style roasters, don't make sense that they can roast well.

If you are a dark espresso drinker. Actually you don't need to get very expensive exotic beans. When it's dark, most of the profile will be burned out and the end result won't be very different from one another.

Or if you are actually a milk recipe drinker, then more to say, don't waste your money on exotic beans.
You can easily be convinced even with common beans, so don't waste too much money on expensive blends first until you mature.

Buy blends for a bouquet of aroma.
Don't avoid blends with Robusta, particularly if you are drinking milk recipes. Of course, don't drink pure Robusta.

Hope it helps
 
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Lazy_Tiger

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does anyone of u here actually organise coffee drinking sessions? meaning drink and taste serveral different coffee beans in a session and discuss on the notes?

I only know there are some cafés here that organize cupping sessions and appreciation workshops. Did the idea to go chinkyblink house take off?

Honestly my nose is not that discerning especially for espressos. I prefer to use French press aero press or Americano when attempting to compare coffees.
 
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