Coffee Machines

[christo]

Re: Coffee Machines

My wife is the coffee junkie in our house.

I'm sure i'll be labelled a blasphemer but.....

She bought a Tassimo coffee maker for those one or two cup days. The Gevalia Crema pak makes a tasty cup to me.

My boss has a steam driven expresso machine and the lattes that come out of that are wonderful - the machine is bigger than my microwave!

Christo

[james]

Re: Coffee Machines

Pizza, coffee and a good baguette -- the staples of life. :-) That and red wine.

I have a four year-old Rancilio espresso machine, and got a Rancilio grinder a few months ago. Grinding fresh beans as you need them makes a big difference. But finding good beans at a reasonable cost is difficult. The Italian coffees (Illy and Lavazza) seem to be stale by the time they get here. I've been experimenting with U.S. blends.

Getting great crema and perfect milk froth is as hard as making pizza napoletana. :-)

James

[Ken524]

Re: Coffee Machines

Coffee Gurus:

I received a 9 cup Moka Express and Cuisinart blade grinder for Christmas. I've tried different sizes of grind (fine to course) but always seem to get a bit of powdery coffee grinds in my cup. Is that the norm or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks!

[sammy]

Re: Coffee Machines

Great gifts! That is awesome!!!

I think that might just be one of the downfalls of some blade grinders. Blade grinders chop at the beans at high speeds where burr grinders shave the beans at lower speeds. Due to the way they work, the blade grinders introduce some heat and inconsistancy in the grind. Just like anything you put in a grinder, you will have some stuff that gets pulverated while some is still chunky.

Before I got a burr grinder, I would pulse the on-off switch while I shook (lightly) my grinder to try to get a more consistant grind. I also would wait about a minute before I started to drink my coffee (to allow the grounds to settle and the coffee to cool) and then I just didn't drink the last sip or two (since there would be grounds on the bottom).

I think you are going about it right, though - you want to go fine enough that you get a full extraction while not so fine that you get a ton of grounds escaping and settling in your cup.

I am at a conference, but pass on your mailing address and I will send you a pound or two of some really good coffee to celebrate :-) ssiegel@amesic.com

[Ken524]

Re: Coffee Machines

Thanks Sammy! I'll play with the grinder a bit. I also noticed that I can let the Moka sit for a bit and let some of the powder settle before pouring.

Thanks for the offer of the coffee! Where do you get it? Do you roast your own? Do you sell coffee?

[sammy]

Re: Coffee Machines

I do roast....for a handful of local customers (and myself, of course). The offer is open if you want some... :-)

[james]

Re: Coffee Machines

Sammy,

Let's trade coffee for Caputo flour. Why don't you offer you your coffee in the Barter section? I'm in.

James

[gjbingham]

Re: Coffee Machines

I do home roasting with a Hot Top Roaster. I order my beans from Sweet Maria's (.com). It's pretty easy to do, but the roaster puts out tons of smoke and cleaning it every six or so roasts is laborious, especially when you can only roast 500g at a time. It sure is nice to have truely fresh coffee every day though.

[sammy]

Re: Coffee Machines

Huh....I guess I never really noticed the barter section. I will go check it out. Do you still spend time in the states from time to time?

[vseprosto90211]

I really like coffee and I've been dreaming about gaining a coffee machine for a long time. I've been saving money every month and finally bought EspressoWorks All-In-One Barista Bundle Set coffee maker. I used to brew coffee every morning and it was a little bit time consuming for me, but now, my morning coffee routine is a real contemplation.

[MarkJerling]

I recently bought a EMC Technika V PID espresso machine. It's very, very pretty and I'm slowly learning to make good espressos with it.

[deejayoh]

I've got a Behmor 1600 - bit of a step down from the Hottop, but works pretty well. Two things I've noticed from home roasting
1) almost all of the commercial beans you buy have been over-roasted. If it's got that oily shine on it, the beans are basically charcoal briquettes.
2) it's hard to get beans that have been roasted in last 7-10 days, and older than that I really notice a drop off in the crema in my espresso.

A roaster like mine pays for itself in about a year - green beans cost $6-8 per pound, roasted are $14-16 for 12 oz (which is what a pound yields). We use about a pound per week, so do the math. Also, green beans keep pretty much forever, so you can buy 20+ pounds at time which keeps the shipping costs down.

[MarkJerling]

I wonder if I can use the pizza oven to roast beans? Maybe with some kind of rotating basket?

[Gulf]

I wonder if I can use the pizza oven to roast beans? Maybe with some kind of rotating basket?

There has been a lot of discussions and some pretty cool hacks over the years.

Roasting green coffee beans.

[MarkJerling]

I'll have to investigate this further! Thank you for the link!
Come to think of it I have a brand new (but 20 year old) BBQ rotisserie kit which I've never used. Maybe I can use that to create a rotating roaster.....