Favourite Coffee

Although I love the idea of owning a proper, little barista machine we actually use a Saeco automatic push button jobbie. This is our second one. We gave the first, a single boiler one (bit of a pain in the arse to be honest) to our son and it's still going strong with 15,000 coffees on the clock. Our current one has done 8,000 odd. You can't but be impressed with the longevity of a machine that's fairly complicated with that many moving parts. Anyhow to many of our friends we're considered coffee Nazis and they always apologise for any brews they put in front of us. Generally the apology is justified!

Just got some 5 Senses beans. I've used their Crompton Road but got Dark Horse this time. "Juicy, medium body with complex character and distinct floral notes". Apparently I can brew some kick-arse aftershave!

It's delicious by the way.
 
"Coffee Nazis", yeh I am accused of being a coffee snob!
When I'm out or at someones place, if offered the choice, I always go for the cup of tea.

Not many people can ruin a cup of tea, but they can make a realy bad coffee!
 
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Ahh, coffee. I have several brewing methods that I use but the best is my double boiler (Breville 920) for espresso at home and for work or travel I use an Aeropress with a hand grinder.

I roast my own beans and use two different methods one being hot air and the other in a conduction roaster.

A bit of a coffee snob I guess as I prefer my own to most Cafe's. (no smiley inserted out of fear of disciplinary action)
 
Not a consumer of liquefied beans, yet do recommend visiting/calling service centre to find out what makes/models are worth avoiding considering the coin invested in them.
Can not remember the brands, yet some are basically junk once requiring repair.
 
Oops, haven't been here for a while.
I managed to pick up a 2nd hand Behmor 1600 roaster yesterday, in Darwin! The previous owner also threw in nearly 7kg of leftover beans that he no longer needed. Result! If most of them turn out ok, I will be in profit compared to the $15 per 250g you have to pay for shitty beans up here.

I didn't get the machine home in time to do a roast last night, so had to wait until I got home from work today.

I decided to just jump in at the deep end, and try for a "proper" roast, 300g beans, using the 1lb, p2, c setting that the previous owner recommended. Luckily I have some sacrificial beans to use for my initial practice roasts, some Peru segunda wilds purchased from CS a couple of years ago.

The description for these back then was "Wild picked, ugly, chipped, broken, blacks, odd sized and unsorted.* It roasts uneven but if you can look past all the indicators that this will be a bad coffee then in the cup you will find that it produces what can only be described as a 5 bean single origin blend.* Milled by Cafe Perusha this coffee is sold as a commercial base bean but it drinks ok by itself.* Good body, low acidity and at $7/kg this bargain coffee will surprise you."

Now these are not just any old Peru Segunda Wilds, these are Peru Segunda Wilds that have sat in a dark cupboard in the humidity of Darwin for around two years (possibly 3 summers) so they didn't look too pretty before I even started (I hereby submit photo 1 as evidence).
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I am pleasantly surprised by the roast - yes there is a little inconsistency, but when the green beans varied by as much as they did, I am surprised the roast came out as well as it did.
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Not bad for a first effort. Now to see what they taste like in the cup in a few days.
 
Are these the beans that pass through a ground sloths arse first?
No just wild, rather than cultivated coffee. I think they were greener when I first got them but they have gone creamy due to the Darwin humidity getting to them.
I've only seen Indian monsoon malabar beans that colour before and they are left to mature on tables by the sea.
 
Any recommendations for an affordable grinder? I've got my eye on the Kyocera CM-50. It seems to tick all the boxes. Ceramic burr, adjustable grind, decent sized hopper. Pretty sure it's the same as the Hario Skerton one too. Any other suggestions?

I just use a Bialetti moka pot for my coffee. In fact, I have two. One makes an espresso-sized cup, the other fills a mug. So far, I've just been using lavAzza or Illy coffee. Grinding my own beans is the next step I guess.
 
Any recommendations for an affordable grinder? I've got my eye on the Kyocera CM-50. It seems to tick all the boxes. Ceramic burr, adjustable grind, decent sized hopper. Pretty sure it's the same as the Hario Skerton one too. Any other suggestions?

I just use a Bialetti moka pot for my coffee. In fact, I have two. One makes an espresso-sized cup, the other fills a mug. So far, I've just been using lavAzza or Illy coffee. Grinding my own beans is the next step I guess.

Actually you can argue till the cows come home which coffee maker is the best but one thing that's universally accepted is that pushing boiling water-or in the case of stove top coffee pots pushing super heated steam through as well-makes bad coffee. I used to have a stove top and couldn't taste the difference between any bean. In retrospect it all just tasted bitter. It would be better to save your cash and buy a machine that doesn't rely on steam pressure to make coffee. But I guess for that kind of outlay you have to make the leap to hyperspace from coffee lover to coffee Nazi. I've got an vintage version of one of these coffee grinders which I used in the distant past:

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Any recommendations for an affordable grinder? I've got my eye on the Kyocera CM-50. It seems to tick all the boxes. Ceramic burr, adjustable grind, decent sized hopper. Pretty sure it's the same as the Hario Skerton one too. Any other suggestions?

I just use a Bialetti moka pot for my coffee. In fact, I have two. One makes an espresso-sized cup, the other fills a mug. So far, I've just been using lavAzza or Illy coffee. Grinding my own beans is the next step I guess.

I got one of the first batch of Kyocera CM-45's that made it to Australia, and still use it as a travel grinder along with my aeropress when I go away. Pretty decent grinder for the price, although I am not sure it is consistent enough for use in an espresso machine. For a moka pot it should be fine. The only problem I had with mine was that I managed to tighten the burr screw too much, and wipeout the markers which are supposed to click as you tighten / loosen the burrs, but I believe they fixed that problem in later iterations.

I would probably look at a Porlex too if I was to buy another one, as it would fit inside the aeropress and save space while travelling. I guess it all depends on how much coffee you put in the Bialetti. I think the CM-45 used to handle 14g coffee well enough, but the taller porlex could handle around 26g at a time.
 
Actually you can argue till the cows come home which coffee maker is the best but one thing that's universally accepted is that pushing boiling water-or in the case of stove top coffee pots pushing super heated steam through as well-makes bad coffee. I used to have a stove top and couldn't taste the difference between any bean. In retrospect it all just tasted bitter. It would be better to save your cash and buy a machine that doesn't rely on steam pressure to make coffee. But I guess for that kind of outlay you have to make the leap to hyperspace from coffee lover to coffee Nazi.

There are methods to make the coffee from a moka pot taste much better. Use recently boiled (and therefore hot) water in the bottom chamber, and then have the heat on low so that the coffee dribbles into the top chamber instead of coughing and spluttering as it normally does, and the coffee can taste much better. When you do this, you can also keep an eye on the coffee coming through, and take the pot off the heat as soon as you see the coffee start to get lighter. I'll agree that the subtle nuances between beans are harder to decipher using a moka pot but with the above method you can still brew a decent cup of coffee.
 
That looks like a nice roast considering the look of the beans you started with.

Let us know how it tastes.

I have a Porlex hand grinder and it has been good so far but being lazy I prefer using a powered grinder.
 
My boss uses a Hario hand grinder with his aero press, I've had a couple of goes with it and it is great therapy. There is smething very soothing about winding the handle round and round.

At home I have an Iberital powered grinder, I am far too incoherrant in the morning to hand grind coffee.
 
I like grinding by hand for an aeropress coffee at work but it gets to be hard work when others want one too.

I am thinking of a particular coffee loving female who makes it look so slow and uncoordinated that I can't stand it and have to do it for her.

She is the boss and also my partner so my boss twice really.

But sleeping with the boss does have some advantages. Not that I am suggesting that you should sleep with yours. (smileys not allowed)
 
My boss is a 40 year old balding slightly pudgy man with a beard. No way am I sleeping with him for a coffee or anything else for that matter.
 
Thanks for the feedback gents.

PJ, I found that the result from the moka pot was somewhat underwhelming at first too, but like many things, you can get a considerably better result with a bit of practice and experimentation. What Egg said is true, boiling water and low heat makes a huge difference. Way lower brewing time, way better result. Plus, if I feel like a change, I can bust out the french press. Either of those options, to me at least, is at least as good as the Saeco/laVazza pod machine that my old man has. Maybe something like an Aeropress is an option, but an espresso machine is sadly not on my horizon.
 
Hmm can't remember if I've ever posted in this thread and CBF'd checking the early pages (Sunday sloth!).......

I've been roasting my own beans for a couple of years - heat gun and tricked out bread maker setup (Coretto). Highly recommend it. Buy my beans from Coffee Snobs, used a few other places but find them the best value for decent sized buys (I need it posted as live rural).

I used to have a Rancilo Silvia V2....but found the OCD side of me wanting to clean it properly etc didn't match up well with the fact I'd only use it 1-2 times per day - plus the PITA of having to preheat a good 15+ mins before use. Plus the loss of kitchen bench space etc etc etc.

Did try the Aeropress(with Coava disc) and Kyocera handgrinder combo - but now use a stainless steel plunger with a Sunbeam grinder.

Whilst I do like some aspects of the Aeropress I do find there's a fundamental fault in it - that being that the vast majority of any oils released during the brew float to the top of the chamber (as they're lighter than the water) and so when you flip it to expell the contents (as I always brewed it inverted) - you'd get MOST of the oils trapped in the grinds.

I really believe the VAST majority of the improvements in coffee that Aeropress users find are a result of the other technique changes it's manual recommends e.g not using too hot water (personally I find ~93 is the best), proper grind size, reduced steeping times and also not over extracting. So IMHO THESE rather than the Aeropress are what makes the results superior.

When you combine this technique with a good plunger (which people traditionally associate with horrible coffee - BECAUSE most people break all the aforementioned techniques with it e.g boiling water in, steeping for 10mins+, espresso grind coffee etc) - you actually get superior coffee to the Aeropress.

Clean up is the only area I give the Aeropress the edge - oh and also perhaps for travel usage.

Oh....and for storing my beans I use an old wine bottle with one of those vacuum seal on the top (has a stopper and a lil hand pumper to remove the air) - works very well in keeping the beans as fresh as possible before usage). Store in dark place but NOT in fridge etc - thats a furfy.

As I tend to gravitate towards the milk oriented coffees I do miss the proper aerated microfroth that only a good espress machine can deliver but not having all that hassle is a trade off that makes it worth while at this time. :)
 
I did a roast session yesterday with the baby roaster, a batch each of ; Thai Chaing Mai, PNG Naturals and Tanzania Mechare Estate all of which came from Bean Bay. It went well, though the Thai went a bit further than I meant to go but still ok.
I did a batch of Columbians and Yemen Ismaili a few days ago with the Breadmaker and Heat gun.
That wine bottle idea sounds great @Nick the Knife , I am going to check that out, so thanks for that idea. Do you give them time to de-gas a bit at first?
 
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