Espresso machines?

[bungbung]

http://www.kwilson.fsnet.co.uk/grinder_tweaks.htm

[george formby]

http://www.kwilson.fsnet.co.uk/grinder_tweaks.htm

How handy.
My Mazzer requires a Pit Bull like grip to adjust, fortunately the burrs last a long time. The biggest impact on the extraction once the grind has been set is humidity, it can change constantly through out the day so instead of tutuing incrementally with the grinder I adjust the volume of coffee in the porta filter & tamping pressure to keep consistency. Makes life a lot easier & the coffee does not suffer at all.

[Drunken Monkey]

From Espresso Road are they not? How much he want for it..?

I think so, and I don't know I didn't ask. They're worth about three and a half grand new...

[Hopeful Bastard]

Obviously, The trick with the milk is to get it to "twirl" on itself. If i wasn't busy with work and other do dicky stuff when im not working... And also if i lived nearby, I would show you..

Its quite fun. Do it on my dads cheap $150 machine he picked up. Can never forget the skills i learned at college and chef school.

[Pedrostt500]

I'm not up to play much about the machines, But I recon it comes down to the quality of the beans, alot of beans on the supermarket shelves have been roasted months in advance, in my opinion the fresher the roast of the beans the better the coffee, all beans are not equal, where the beans a growen around the world makes a big difference to flavour, ie climate and soil types.
A mate of mine served me a coffee with beans from Ethiopa, it had a real nice fresh kick to it, but the bugger won't tell me where he got it from.

[slofox]

I think so, and I don't know I didn't ask. They're worth about three and a half grand new...

$3195.00 from Espresso Road according to their website.

[vifferman]

I've got an Isomac Zaffiro from Espresso Road. It's a little cheaper'n the Tea, and supposedly the best single-boiler machine available. The learning curve is a little steeper'n the Sunbeam it replaces, and I've managed to burn myself on almost every part of it, but I loves it.
Coffee beans are indeed the key to a good coffee (but a clean, well-maintained machine helps a lot too!). Even a stovetop machine will make a great coffee with good beans. The oils in the beans will begin to degenerate virtually as soon as they're roasted, and after a week or two are noticeably poorer in taste. For this reason, you should buy a coffee roaster's most popular blend - the turnover generally ensures they're fresher. However, I've given up buying them direct from the roasters, and have got some good beans from the supermarket. The trick is to look at the "Best Before" date - you can generally tell how old they with a bit of thought, even though they all seem to have different ideas of how long that is. For example, if they say "BB 10 AUG 2012", you can assume they were packed on 10/08/2011, and are still reasonably fresh.

At work we have a Swiss automatic coffee machine (Jura, IIRC), but I prefer to use it in manual mode so I can regulate how the coffee comes out. It's made over 50,000 cups of coffee so far, and has probably cost us twice the $6k (secondhand) purchase cost in servicing. Fresh beans are out of the question, as we go through nearly a kilo a day, so order about 12kg at a time.

[george formby]

Fresh is best & spotlessly clean is vital, screens, porta filters, baskets etc.
I do not get too hung up on getting absolutely still warm fresh roasted beans. They need 24 hours after roasting to release co2 or taste acidic. The oil which comes from the beans is the flavour but the type of bean & roast have a big part in how long it takes before they weep. A cinnamon roast will last a lot longer than a french roast (very dark) but the cinnamon will not develop a full flavour. The darker the bean the shorter the shelf life.
Once it is ground it will lose half it's flavour in 15 minutes, I kid yee not.

I spent a year roasting & pulling machines & grinders too bits, quite fascinating, and I realised their is a lot of bollocks talked about coffee. It is what it is so just stick to the golden rules, clean, fresh & not over extracted.

[Usarka]

Bring back percolated coffee.

[nosebleed]

... and I realised their is a lot of bollocks talked about coffee. It is what it is so just stick to the golden rules, clean, fresh & not over extracted.

It's the new "wine".

[Blackshear]

I hope he replies soon.

[zeocen]

Okay guys, say you were stuck with Breville and wanted to get a good (subjective) espresso machine. One that could pull a decent blend with the correct beans and good-enough burr grinder, but with a more-than-adequate steamer, out of all of these which would you go for?

Ignore the prices since they're from an Australian website:

http://www.breville.com.au/beverages...cafe-roma.html

http://www.breville.com.au/beverages...o-machine.html

http://www.breville.com.au/beverages...o-machine.html

http://www.breville.com.au/beverages...chine-752.html (this one has a built in grinder, it's not a superautomatic though)

I'm struggling to find any difference to the internals between the second and third one. It's gonna be used for a) steaming milk, b) single shot espressos for i) flat whites, ii) mochas.

The one with the built in grinder is obviously the most expensive, reviews seem to suggest that it doesn't get hot enough in there to hurt the beans when grinding, but a separate grinder would be better. However it's convenient to have it all in one package.

The Cafe Roma/Cafe Aroma is the cheapest, but I'm not sure if there's any super significant improvement to the 800 series ones other than being programmable (which I probably won't use anyway). So it comes down to whether the steamer is as powerful as the 800 series ones.

What do you guys think?

Also, I've befriended an owner of a little coffee shop on Albert St in the CBD. He's the one that actually got me into coffee in my ripe old age of 29! Their website is http://meritoespresso.co.nz/ and they have little training suggestions. Considering that I'm a complete greenhorn when it comes to brewing my own coffee, would one of these be beneficial to me? Would having some experience on a commercial machine translate well to a (budget) home machine?

[Blackshear]

Jesus. And here I was thinking that all the chirpy 'I can make a coffee' people were just talking shit about a mundane task people are too lazy to do.

I sure am glad I can't stand the smell of the stuff!

[slofox]

Okay guys, say you were stuck with Breville and wanted to get a good (subjective) espresso machine. One that could pull a decent blend with the correct beans and good-enough burr grinder, but with a more-than-adequate steamer, out of all of these which would you go for?

Ignore the prices since they're from an Australian website:

http://www.breville.com.au/beverages...cafe-roma.html

http://www.breville.com.au/beverages...o-machine.html

http://www.breville.com.au/beverages...o-machine.html

http://www.breville.com.au/beverages...chine-752.html (this one has a built in grinder, it's not a superautomatic though)

I'm struggling to find any difference to the internals between the second and third one. It's gonna be used for a) steaming milk, b) single shot espressos for i) flat whites, ii) mochas.

The one with the built in grinder is obviously the most expensive, reviews seem to suggest that it doesn't get hot enough in there to hurt the beans when grinding, but a separate grinder would be better. However it's convenient to have it all in one package.

The Cafe Roma/Cafe Aroma is the cheapest, but I'm not sure if there's any super significant improvement to the 800 series ones other than being programmable (which I probably won't use anyway). So it comes down to whether the steamer is as powerful as the 800 series ones.

What do you guys think?

Also, I've befriended an owner of a little coffee shop on Albert St in the CBD. He's the one that actually got me into coffee in my ripe old age of 29! Their website is http://meritoespresso.co.nz/ and they have little training suggestions. Considering that I'm a complete greenhorn when it comes to brewing my own coffee, would one of these be beneficial to me? Would having some experience on a commercial machine translate well to a (budget) home machine?

Consumer NZ has a list of espresso machines tested. Of the Breville ones, they rated as follows in their test:

2nd (in test) Fresca
5th Venezia
7th Bar Vista
10th 800ES
12th Modena
16th Roma


I've already said I have a Roma. But its an old model - I've had it about 10 years or so. At the time it was new, it came close to the top of the Consumer tests.

The newer Roma model does not seem to fare as well.

Just a word about Sunbeam. I've had quality issues with several Sunbeam appliances in recent years. Once upon a time I swore by their stuff. Now I have severe doubts about them as a company. Last time I had issues with one of their appliances they were totally obstructive, bloody minded and obtuse about the problem. There was NO help forthcoming at all. Bunch of bastards IMO. Fukkem, I won't buy their stuff again.

[slofox]

If you like bright & zingy Slofox try some Kenyan Peaberry, allegedly an aphrodisiac. The flavour is often described as fruity & unusually it is a whole bean hence the name. I find it a bit too light so always blended it.

Got me Kenya Peaberry today! Local boys had some in stock...