Coffee

[Chewylegs]

18 hours ago, Gaz said:

I've just bought a Wilfa Svart for £70 on amazon.

This?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016TKEJ38/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_ERF59S2431ZS789NFJHK

[Gigga]

That's the one yeah, I think it was £72 a few days ago.

It should come today so I'll post a review, but my mate has one and it does the job.

[Gigga]

Just a note on that, it's arrived and my understanding was it would have an EU plug, but that plug would have a UK plug that it clipped into, but it didn't come with that.

So I'm going to have to fit a new plug, or find an adapter.

[Hawklord]

4 hours ago, Chewylegs said:

This?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016TKEJ38/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_ERF59S2431ZS789NFJHK

 

Yeah that's the exact one I have, got for £78 a few months ago. I've seen them vary from £70-£130

 

27 minutes ago, Gaz said:

Just a note on that, it's arrived and my understanding was it would have an EU plug, but that plug would have a UK plug that it clipped into, but it didn't come with that.

So I'm going to have to fit a new plug, or find an adapter.

 

Strange, mine came with a sealed UK plug

 

Spoiler

 

[Chewylegs]

Being a noob to all this, I take it this grinder would be fine for a cafetiere?

[Hawklord]

22 hours ago, Chewylegs said:

Being a noob to all this, I take it this grinder would be fine for a cafetiere?

Yes but might be a bit overkill as you'll probably only be using on it's coarsest setting. Will future proof you for any other purchases though apart, from espresso 

[Gigga]

I'm actually pretty annoyed with myself for not getting a Wilfa sooner.

I've changed my brew method now I can grind coarser and I'm getting much better results, which probably means I'm just under-extracting everything but I really want that fruity acidity.

 

[dr_manhattan^]

I've started looking to buy my first burr grinder, as I've been using a blade for years now.

 

I want to eventually put together an esspresso setup, and gradually replace the bits as I go, but initially I'll just be using my aero press.

 

I was thinking of going with the Comandante C40 grinder if anyone has any experience.

 

I realise hand grinding for esspesso is hard work, however I don't know how bad it is, or if this grinder would suit Aero press.

[HarryBizzle]

I think the C40 can more than handle aeropress. A lof of the aeropress championship competitors use it and they often do very coarse, high dose grinds.

 

The thought of hand grinding espresso every morning is awful, though. I've been hand grinding 27g of coffee every morning whilst on holiday, around drip grind, and it has been ok but very tedious. That's not a C40, though. There wpill be loads of reviews online telling you how long it takes.

[Thor]

After loving Spiller & Tait's 250g bag of Italian beans I bought a 1kg bag ... VILE.

[HarryBizzle]

So, I broke my Sage Dose Control Pro bean hopper back in March, and yesterday (Thanks to lovely forum member Fallows), I finally got a replacement.

 

Sage seem to make pretty good coffee equipment, but I would warn anyone off buying anything from them as their support is horrendous. They don't reply to emails, most calls end with "I'll get back to you," they can't get stuff in stock in the UK which is available in other regions and actually advised me to order the spare part I needed to a friend in Europe and get them to send it to me, which I eventually did.

 

They also charge you 9 Euros for shipping and don't provide a tracking number, which was frustrating when the first one got lost in the post.

 

They have outsourced their UK support to a company that only fixes coffee machines and couldn't tell me who does their grinders.

 

Avoid at all costs.

[Gotters]

I always knew a year or 2 back that Hoffman was always going to get me off Nespresso pods and back ‘in’

 

[HarryBizzle]

3 minutes ago, Gotters said:

I always knew a year or 2 back that Hoffman was always going to get me off Nespresso pods and back ‘in’

 

 

Mad jelly. I was thinking about going for one when my grinder broke.

 

Thoughts so far? And I'm guessing you had to go on a waiting list or something like that - how long did it take to actually get one?

[Gotters]

I got very lucky, had been watching Hoffman's latest vid when he was looking at a rival and then went and watched the old reviews of this again, always liked the look of it.

 

I took a look at Niche and then eBay and saw what looked a reputable person selling one barely used in the colour I wanted, and the price wasn't anywhere near as high as the buy it nows on people selling them elsewhere. 

 

Watched the auction and put a last minute bid in only paying a pretty small premium over brand new, and avoiding waiting, the next batch of UK for August is sold out already via Niche. I took a tax refund coming in as a sign to go for it. It's brand new effectively, the tools and brush were still sealed in plastic and it came in all the original wrapping and boxes, person said they'd only had few weeks and apart from some grinds in the burrs its spotless.

 

I'm awaiting beans to give it a go, want to see the difference with what I've been buying ground and got a few others to try as well.

 

Curse bloody Hoffman, he's such a good salesman as isn't pushy, he educates and then I do the rest and fill in the 'need' !

[BedroomBusinessman]

6 hours ago, Gotters said:

I got very lucky, had been watching Hoffman's latest vid when he was looking at a rival and then went and watched the old reviews of this again, always liked the look of it.

 

I took a look at Niche and then eBay and saw what looked a reputable person selling one barely used in the colour I wanted, and the price wasn't anywhere near as high as the buy it nows on people selling them elsewhere. 

 

Watched the auction and put a last minute bid in only paying a pretty small premium over brand new, and avoiding waiting, the next batch of UK for August is sold out already via Niche. I took a tax refund coming in as a sign to go for it. It's brand new effectively, the tools and brush were still sealed in plastic and it came in all the original wrapping and boxes, person said they'd only had few weeks and apart from some grinds in the burrs its spotless.

 

I'm awaiting beans to give it a go, want to see the difference with what I've been buying ground and got a few others to try as well.

 

Curse bloody Hoffman, he's such a good salesman as isn't pushy, he educates and then I do the rest and fill in the 'need' !

Interested to hear how you get on - I’ve been thinking about replacing our Mazzer with one. 
Are you brewing filters?

[Gotters]

17 hours ago, BedroomBusinessman said:

Interested to hear how you get on - I’ve been thinking about replacing our Mazzer with one. 
Are you brewing filters?

 

Yup using paper filters in a clever dripper.

 

First experiments just undertaken, got some of the same coffee we've been enjoying but buying ground in bean form (Spiller & Tait signature blend).

 

Kept everything the same apart from grinding the beans this time, first pass thru could see the grind was little finer so went coarser second time.

 

I'm interested in how much difference I'm seeing already over buying this pre-ground - taste is definitely different, its a bigger flavour somehow. First finer grind was a little more bitter than usual, the coarser grind for the second cup eradicated that and was delicious.

 

Got really nice clean drawdowns with both at about a minute or so and no clinging on the sides go the paper. 

 

The Niche itself is a lovely machine, super well made, very quiet in use and very clean dispensing into the lovely tactile cup. I had no mess at all to clean up on the worktop or machine itself. Again as per Hoffman did give the beans a quick spritz to eradicate static, but I'm just doing that to be as cool as James as don't know it's really needed !

 

I'm going to avoid words definitive judgements as expensive kit needs more than a snap judgement and I have to experiment more, it's a lovely thing to use though and means I can keep a few bags of different beans on the go easily grinding up doses as needed.

[Dr Nookie]

Morning,  coffee experts. Is there a go to cafetière that’s better than the 10 quid glass job my wife’s been using for 20 years?

Was looking at this snazzy affair based purely on looks and size but you can see through it which is a drag as it’ll mainly be for 1 or 2 cups only but capacity for 3 would be handy.  

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07HRR53XV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_EHCB2K5B6SCAHQZ8BG32

 

I can hear you all screaming Aeropress but I don’t think it’ll pass the aesthetic test unfortunately.  Anything under 40 quid price wise. 
 

this?

https://www.bodum.com/gb/en/1928-16-chambord?gclid=CjwKCAjwiLGGBhAqEiwAgq3q_hJ2RX-tFgPnNidaiRTsd-WrscXUxw_g8b_2_sRXVyG5EJKQN7xVwxoCRjAQAvD_BwE&___store=gb_en

[Blue]

1 hour ago, Dr Nookie said:

 

I can hear you all screaming Aeropress but I don’t think it’ll pass the aesthetic test unfortunately.

If it's aesthetics you crave, how about this?

 

[Dr Nookie]

3 minutes ago, Blue said:

If it's aesthetics you crave, how about this?

 

I was looking at that just now as it happens

[Blue]

10 minutes ago, Dr Nookie said:

I was looking at that just now as it happens

Or this?

[HarryBizzle]

21 hours ago, Gotters said:

 

Yup using paper filters in a clever dripper.

 

First experiments just undertaken, got some of the same coffee we've been enjoying but buying ground in bean form (Spiller & Tait signature blend).

 

Kept everything the same apart from grinding the beans this time, first pass thru could see the grind was little finer so went coarser second time.

 

I'm interested in how much difference I'm seeing already over buying this pre-ground - taste is definitely different, its a bigger flavour somehow. First finer grind was a little more bitter than usual, the coarser grind for the second cup eradicated that and was delicious.

 

Got really nice clean drawdowns with both at about a minute or so and no clinging on the sides go the paper. 

 

The Niche itself is a lovely machine, super well made, very quiet in use and very clean dispensing into the lovely tactile cup. I had no mess at all to clean up on the worktop or machine itself. Again as per Hoffman did give the beans a quick spritz to eradicate static, but I'm just doing that to be as cool as James as don't know it's really needed !

 

I'm going to avoid words definitive judgements as expensive kit needs more than a snap judgement and I have to experiment more, it's a lovely thing to use though and means I can keep a few bags of different beans on the go easily grinding up doses as needed.

The static thing is more about mess than actually making a better cup of coffee.
 

I was blithering on about this to my wife “someone on my forum bought that fancy grinder I was telling you about.” Unsurprisingly, she had no recollection of the grinder that I feel she should be equally keen on, because of how lovely it will look in the kitchen. 
 

Anyway, I was trying to explain to her that £500 on a grinder is perfectly sensible because it’ll probably last like 10 years. 
 

“Will it make better coffee than your one?”
…
”Marginally.”

 

[Gotters]

Been getting some lovely brews in the last few days and increasing my understanding of what I'm meant to be doing to achieve the flavour I want from the coffee going into the clever dripper.

 

The eureka eye opening moment for me was with a bag of Dark Woods coffee, my first attempt was horrible, we both agreed we didn't want to drink it, thin, sour just no coffee taste to speak of, I've brewed coffee like this before but didn't know why. Looks like under extraction was the issue so I ground a bit finer and brewed for a bit longer and bingo, the beans that had gone in the sink first time were now delicious - I'll tweak a bit more but its eye opening the sheer amount of change a few notches on a dial or 30s can make.

 

Also been enjoying this Spiller & Tait South American blend, its lighter than their signature one but full of flavour. 

 

The Niche is fantastic, it's a lovely thing to use and just perfect for a kitchen worktop as its so small. Being designed as a single dose grinder its great if we want a different blend and means I can have a couple of bags of beans on the go.

 

I've test weighed a few grinds on my pretty accurate Acaia scales and its showing no retention to a single decimal place on a gram. I'm not spritzing but using Hoffman's other water technique which is a quick swirl of the beans to be ground with a wetted tea spoon handle. 

 

When I first got the dripper somebody recommended some beans, which I bought ground, and I think I slated them and ended up chucking them - now totally realise this was my mistake and I didn't understand extraction or what I was doing. So apologies for that !

 

Think I've proper got the bug now, no interest in espresso or buying more brewing equipment, quite happy with the dripper and the posh grinder, just got to resist the temptation to have 20 bags of beans sat here waiting to be used. I'm already upping my coffee drinking as enjoying the process of making as much as drinking. I'm lobbying the other half to lose the Nespresso machine as I can't drink it anymore but she likes it first thing for a low effort shot of caffeine.

[BedroomBusinessman]

30 minutes ago, Gotters said:

Been getting some lovely brews in the last few days and increasing my understanding of what I'm meant to be doing to achieve the flavour I want from the coffee going into the clever dripper.

 

The eureka eye opening moment for me was with a bag of Dark Woods coffee, my first attempt was horrible, we both agreed we didn't want to drink it, thin, sour just no coffee taste to speak of, I've brewed coffee like this before but didn't know why. Looks like under extraction was the issue so I ground a bit finer and brewed for a bit longer and bingo, the beans that had gone in the sink first time were now delicious - I'll tweak a bit more but its eye opening the sheer amount of change a few notches on a dial or 30s can make.

 

Also been enjoying this Spiller & Tait South American blend, its lighter than their signature one but full of flavour. 

 

The Niche is fantastic, it's a lovely thing to use and just perfect for a kitchen worktop as its so small. Being designed as a single dose grinder its great if we want a different blend and means I can have a couple of bags of beans on the go.

 

I've test weighed a few grinds on my pretty accurate Acaia scales and its showing no retention to a single decimal place on a gram. I'm not spritzing but using Hoffman's other water technique which is a quick swirl of the beans to be ground with a wetted tea spoon handle. 

 

When I first got the dripper somebody recommended some beans, which I bought ground, and I think I slated them and ended up chucking them - now totally realise this was my mistake and I didn't understand extraction or what I was doing. So apologies for that !

 

Think I've proper got the bug now, no interest in espresso or buying more brewing equipment, quite happy with the dripper and the posh grinder, just got to resist the temptation to have 20 bags of beans sat here waiting to be used. I'm already upping my coffee drinking as enjoying the process of making as much as drinking. I'm lobbying the other half to lose the Nespresso machine as I can't drink it anymore but she likes it first thing for a low effort shot of caffeine.

I think our next step was buying numerous types of filter brewers… Chemex is still our go to for bulk but single cups move between V60s and Kalitas.

[Gotters]

18 minutes ago, BedroomBusinessman said:

I think our next step was buying numerous types of filter brewers… Chemex is still our go to for bulk but single cups move between V60s and Kalitas.

 

do the brewers make that much difference if all using a paper filter ? I like the hold/release mechanism as you control the time quite easily, when I see them with no hold mechanism just strikes me as something to drive me mad with it running thru too fast before extracting. Know this is all dialled in but just seems like faff.

 

are we into real diminishing returns if you compare the same coffee in a V60 to a dripper ?

[HarryBizzle]

1 hour ago, Gotters said:

When I first got the dripper somebody recommended some beans, which I bought ground, and I think I slated them and ended up chucking them - now totally realise this was my mistake and I didn't understand extraction or what I was doing. So apologies for that !

 

 

I'd be interested to see what you make of them with the grinder.

[Gotters]

My journey down the rabbit hole found this, which is a nice representation of fixing unsatisfactory pour over type brews

 

https://www.baristahustle.com/blog/the-coffee-compass/

 

[HarryBizzle]

When you say no clinging to the sides of the paper of your dripper, does this look about right, or are you getting better than this?

 

 

 

[Gotters]

24 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

When you say no clinging to the sides of the paper of your dripper, does this look about right, or are you getting better than this?

 

 

 

 

that looks a decent flat bed and I'd be happy with that - with pre ground I often see grounds stuck all the way in that 'tideline' area and very little coffee at the bottom, don't get that at all when I've ground it and looks like your pic. I'm breaking the crust, swirling and doing all the things you see recommended, not an issue as my days of buying ground are over.

 

I'm still surprised at the difference grind alone can make, the dark woods I'd enjoyed yesterday got made again just now but I went finer on the grind, got a longer drawdown but a wonderful even better brew - I've now made 3 cups of it with different grind settings and I'd swear they were all from different beans they are that distinct. 

[BedroomBusinessman]

On 22/06/2021 at 11:12, Gotters said:

 

do the brewers make that much difference if all using a paper filter ? I like the hold/release mechanism as you control the time quite easily, when I see them with no hold mechanism just strikes me as something to drive me mad with it running thru too fast before extracting. Know this is all dialled in but just seems like faff.

 

are we into real diminishing returns if you compare the same coffee in a V60 to a dripper ?

I think so, yes.

 

Chemex is the cleanest cup, really thick filters which works great for some filters. 

 

 

[Gotters]

7 minutes ago, BedroomBusinessman said:

I think so, yes.

 

Chemex is the cleanest cup, really thick filters which works great for some filters. 

 

 

 

nope I'm not buying more brewing gear.

 

spent the morning on the coffee forum site on and off looking at people obsessing over technique and the like, it madness some people are wrapping their clever dripper in a thermal blanket and doing 40m hot brews, I am not opening that pandoras box of insanity.

 

I know blokes like to get obsessed with gear and hobbies but coffee seems particularly obsessive in that respect.

 

that said if the Hario Switch wasn't so small I'd have bought one of them in a shot !