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I am liking the mypressi twist a lot - there's some issues with convenience vs. getting the thing as bloody hot as possible (ie, the hotter you get it, the better the shot's going to be), but it's the genuine deal, and at $160, hard to beat.
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to settle the bubbles. That's pretty much the main reason.
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The best method for storing beans is only buying enough so you don't have to worry about storing - then buy more when you run out. :)
Coffee is fragile. It stales VERY FAST. As fast as a banana, as a comparison. That has maybe 5, 7 days for a ripe, fully yellow (maybe with some brown spots) banana to become black, squishy, maybe good for bread, but not very enjoyable for eating?
Well, let's say you buy coffee from a reputable roaster (a roast date on the bag is a good sign; a "good until" date is a bad sign) - usually by the time you get the coffee it is 3,4, 5 days after it was roasted - the coffee is near / at its peak - or perfectly "ripe". Then it is a slow ride downhill in quality that accelerates as the oils start to go a bit rancid, the stored C02 (which transports the coffee's flavour components to your cup) fades and eventually disappears, and the coffee becomes flat, stale, dead.
Ever try freezing a banana? Or most fruits for that matter? Results ain't good on some fronts - they lose their structure and texture in the best of circumstances, and worse, some fruits just taste MEH when frozen and then thawed and eaten.
Fruits generally have 25-50 chemical components that contribute to taste.
Coffee - roasted coffee - has over 1200 (and climbing as they find more) individually identifiable chemical components that contribute to taste (1500+ in total, some are taste neutral). It is the most complex food item we consume by 3x - red wines are second place with 400.
If a relatively simple chemical structure like a fruit can be altered and/or damaged by freezing, what do you think happens to the chemically complex coffee bean?
Sorry for the rant - but people have to treat coffee for what it is - a fragile, short-shelf life product. People give breads, fruits, etc respect in the aging / eat before it goes bad / no long term storage interactions they have with these foods - do the same for coffee. Buy a lb. enjoy it over a week / 5 days. Buy another lb. If you don't have any quality driven roasters nearby, get on a subscription plan from some of the world's best roasters - coffee deliveries every week without fail! Then just keep the coffee in the bag. -
The standard Linea (1 group model) is an approximately 20 year old design from La Marzocco based on the machine they developed for Starbucks; it features a 3.5 litre steam boiler and a 1.8 litre espresso boiler (hence the dual boiler design), running off 220V single phase power. The machines also feature manual bypasses for most of the electronic controls (the auto functions). The machine can also still pull espresso shots if the steam boiler is somehow disabled. There is no PID, no heat exchanger system for preheating the espresso boiler.
The GS/3 is one of the most advanced machines on the market, and the development of the GS/3 lead to development of many other cutting edge machines, including the Synesso and La Marzocco's own GB/5 and FB80 models.
Some of the GS/3's pioneering elements include
- dual boiler system with extremely efficient energy control allowing it to run at 12amp / 15amp power on 110V standard household current.
- heat exchanger system in the steam boiler to preheat the brew boiler's water; two fold effect - better energy control but also more stable temperatures than if the brew boiler was just PID'ed on its own without the heat exchanger.
- dual PID controls for both the brew boiler and steam boiler.
- GS/3 brought back development of the paddle group
- electronics package includes things like preinfusion mode, backflush cleaning modes
I have a La Marzocco Linea 1 group which on the outside looks standard, but inside is much closer to the GS/3 than a Linea. Reason is, it was one of the prototype builds for the GS/3 - essentially it is a GS/3 inside a Linea body, but with the Linea sized boilers. (GS/3 is 3l / 1.5l boilers). It has the heat exchanger preheating system, PID, and a smart package all custom. -
Considering the Baratza Maestro refurbs are $67, and the Chemex is around $30, for under $100, its a pretty powerful and well equipped drip coffee setup for the home.
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Residue particles in the cup are par for the course with press pot coffee - it is the nature of the beast, or in this case, the metal mesh filter. Several things can alleviate and reduce this residue:
- better grinders produce less fines. The Vario you have is pretty good at this
- better filters. Bodum (the most common) has a herringbone-weave type mesh filter that has a fairly large micron size, meaning a fair amount of fines pass through. Hario uses a much finer mesh on their press pots, resulting in a cleaner cup, but also a more difficult to press action.
Sifting is not something I'd recommend to every press pot user, unless you're really dead set against fines in the cup. If you are, a bartender's cone shaped sieve, one with a fine mesh pattern (they tend to be herringbone as well) does a good job on the cheap. -
The Canon Xti and the 50mm 1.8 lens are great tools for shooting nicely focused (and nice depth of field) espresso "pr0n" shots. Here's two ways to shoot
a) with your normal ambient light - get a piece of white paper - hold the paper in the area where your espresso shot will take place - point your camera at it so it reads light off the paper at the same angle light would hit your shot-pour. Snap an out of focus (manual focus, set to infinity) shot of the paper. Set your custom white balance to that image. Set your camera to AV (Aperture Priority mode) and set the aperture at 1.8-2.8 (no bigger number). Set your camera to custom white balance. Go for ISOs of 800 (or 400 if there's a decent amount of light).
Put your camera on a tripod if you have one - if not, elevate it so it is level with your cup tray, but point it up a bit (and maybe angle it a bit) up to the portafilter. Now manually focus on the filter basket's centre spot. Keep it off auto focus. Set your espresso shot up, pull the shot, and depress the shutter button (have it on multishot, and just fire away for 10, 15 seconds). If you have enough light, your shutter speed should be around 1/120th or faster per second. Faster is better.
b) if you have access to a couple of halogen desk lamps, set them up at different angles, focusuing the light up towards the filter basket (just a bit- don't overdo it). Halogen light can be harsh so play around with two or more desklamps, finding angles for each light that, as a package, create a nice even flow of light to the subject you're shooting - with minimal shadows.
Follow the steps as per a) above, but set your ISO to 200 if you can (and still maintain 1/120th or faster shutter speeds at f1.8 or f2.2, or f2.8). Do a light reading, set your custom white balance, focus manually, shoot. -
I like the Aeropress / Hario Skerton (Skeletor, yeah!) grinder combo, but not super keen on paper filtering - however, when you travel, it'll do nice for brewed coffee.
For espresso, we are fortunate to have a new device on the market - the Mypressi Twist, which does authentic espresso on the go, using hot water and N20 cartridges. -
In Vancouver, it's tough - most of the places I know of sell commercial machines and have those out for demos.
In Richmond, there is a place called EspressoTec that does have a showroom and I believe has machine demos etc etc. Look them up and give them a call - they have a wide range of espresso machines. -
As you probably know, I'm a big fan of Baratza's grinders. Here's a tip - they also sell refurbs: http://www.baratza.com/refurb.php
For scales - I assume you're talking about a scale big enough and accurate enough for doing drip coffee on, as well as measuring the grams of coffee? Those are a lot harder to come by. The Breville model I'm a big fan of has been discontinued, but that was only accurate to a gram.
A bit of a google search for 2 kg 0.1g scale will turn up things, like this one
http://dawnsearlylightllc.com/American-Weigh-SC2kg-Digital-2000-g/M/B001RF3XJ2.htm -
I won't list my top five. But I will list eight or nine from my TOP TWENTY. In absolutely no particular order:
Terroir Coffee
PT's Coffee
Intelligentsia
49th Parallel
Counter Culture Coffee
Square Mile Coffee
JJ Bean Coffee
Stumptown Coffee
Batdorf & Bronson Coffee -
There are some cafes, coffee roasters, and roaster / retailers who believe their espresso blend / single origin tastes best when served in ristricted format - that is, using over 20 grams of ground coffee to produce less than 45mls (1.5oz) of beverage. Some go as far as to use 22g to produce 25-30mls of espresso.
I used to be a huge ristretto fanatic. That was back in the early 2000s, when I was just getting my feet wet with espresso.
Since then, I've come to understand that, for me at least, a ristretto is a cheat, a crutch if you will. It basically gives a boost to your chance for a good shot of espresso.
I've found it both more challenging and much more rewarding to pull "traditional" doubles. That is, 15-18g of coffee producing 45-60ml (1.5-2oz) of espresso. It's particularly rewarding for me when half of a double shot tastes, to me at least, better than some 22g, 25ml shot of the same coffee. -
I have about a dozen purpose-built roasters in the CoffeeGeek Lab, and another dozen or so home-built roasters.
The one I recommend the most is also one of the most expensive - the HotTop Profile programmable model. I use it to roast my most precious green - including beloyas and arichas from Ethiopia. -
I won't answer your question directly, but will give this example to show the impact milk can have.
I am not a fan of overly bright, acidic shots of espresso. However, most super bright, acidic blends tend to taste spectacular as macchiatos and cappuccinos - the acidity seems to really work well with milk - and for me, it's a case of the sum is much greater than the parts. -
Direct Trade is a new industry term used to describe direct relationships that coffee roasters / retailers have with individual farmers and small scale coops.
In a true Direct Trade model, the green buyer for the roaster usually travels to and visits these farmers and coops one or more times per year. There is no middleman - no broker, no Fair Trade organization, no one but the farmers / coops and roasters doing the deal directly.
The result is a) farmers get paid a lot more, b) farmers produce a better product with input of green buyers in this biz relationship, c) consumers get better coffees.
We're lucky that Direct Trade is still very "true" in that pretty much all the roasters using the term are doing just that.
I've long been an advocate for roasters like Counter Culture, Intelligentsia, Stumptown, PTs Coffee, Coffee Klatsch, Ecco Coffee, Terroir, etc to band together and create a non profit, third party organizing body to properly manage, trademark, and adminster the "Direct Trade" program.
So far, there's been little interest. My two main fears are a) the "brand" will become diluted and meaningless when less-than-honest roasters, brokers, retailers start using the name to win brownie points with customers, and b) the brand, fragmented as it is right now across roasters, means different things to different roasters.
They need to move on this, before its too late. Instead you have one roaster laying claim to the brand, another also laying claim, and yet others just using the brand without caring what the roasters who claim ownership have to say. -
Maybe my palate isn't seasoned enough or good enough, but I struggle to taste any difference between the two brewing methods - if the paper is clean, your tools clean, preheated, etc etc, the result is the same. Maybe Robert Parker can tell the difference... I can't.
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The press brewing method leaves some fines / silt / muck at the bottom of the cup - it's par for the course, and related to two things
a) the grinder - no matter how good a grinder is, it will produce some fines. The thing is, the better the grinder, the less "fines" it will produce.
b) the filter. Bodum's metal filters allow screen sizes of about 150microns (possibly bigger) and smaller to pass through.
There's a variety of solutions.
a) buy a good handheld cone strainer, like this one http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=545180 - it will sift out the smaller particles (check the hole sizes before buying)
b) look for something called the Bruno Passo - http://www.avenue18.ca/Accessories/Syphone%20Accessories/4050_MPS_50.htm - it is designed to remove small fines.
c) use this method: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfN116i4mVg
c) get a better grinder -
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These numbers are given for specific types of arabica vs. robusta blend, and off the top of my head, so they may vary by 10,15, 20%
30m/1oz espresso, true specialty blend: 45-60mg caffeine.
Typical Americano or cappuccino or latte with 45ml-60ml espresso, 90-120ml water: 75-100mg caffeine
Typical Drip/press/siphon coffee with true specialty coffee, 240ml/8oz has about 150mg-200mg caffeine.
Typical grocery store canned coffee, whole bean or ground, 240ml/8oz brew has about 200-250mg caffeine.
Typical instant coffee in 240ml brew can have 300mg or higher caffeine. -
Dissasemble the dispersion screen, grouphead as much as you can, soak the lot in cafiza, scrub, clean, clean exposed brass in grouphead, etc, see if that helps.
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Mark’s Bio
I seem to enjoy coffee. And photography. And the occasional cocktail. I'll post mostly on coffee and espresso, but sometimes other things too.
