Coffee. Grinder and Cafetiere or Pods in a machine

Aberdeen is a bit far for me, used to visit a Hotel in Inverurie twice a year but not been for years, lovely up there.

It has been variable over the last year but the latest batch of Coffee Compass Monsoon Malabar is just lovely.

Just putting my nose to the freshly ground beans is an olfactory delight that I look forward to every morning

Monsoon Estates near to us are a great family-owned roastery.

They do some of the more aromatic Ethiopian stuff, but they've won awards for their more mainstream coffees, including their own Espresso Blend.


AND they do really good decaf beans (usually a few different origins), which has been a godsend these last few years...

I bought myself a Gaggia last summer and after some trial and error a niche zero. 9-bar and PID. And a dimmer (although I haven’t really played with pre infusion much). I make maybe 3-5 espressos a day for myself and have generally been pretty happy, I’m getting more consistent, I am starting to understand what variables I need to play with to alter attributes of the shot. By no means a skilled espresso maker yet but I can make coffee I enjoy.

I popped in to a little record shop/cafe in Aberdeen on Friday afternoon. To be honest I didn’t really expect that much, I assumed it was people interested in music first and foremost and taught how to make coffee to keep the customers happy.

I think I had the best espresso I’ve ever had!

It was small, bigger than ristretto but I’d say 25-30ml at most. Thick and chewy but fruity, bright, caramel-sweet and complex.

Tasted great, that’s fine, bean selection and grind but I have no idea How on earth she got that texture, I’ve never had a coffee close to it from my setup.

Do i need to be grinding as fine as possible and pouring a slower shot? Lower pressure? Pre-infusion? It really was superb.

I bought a record and just commented on how good the coffee was. I should have asked but I didn’t want to be THAT guy

After recently copmplaining (not complaining) about the cost of beans these days I thought I'd experiment a bit more to try and find something sligtly more reasonably priced so picked up a sample pack of 5 X 250g bags of beans from Doppio. They are a wholesaler so offer 1kg of beans around £16-£22/kg.

I haven't started any of them yet but if one of them is nice enough to go into regular rotation it will save me £10/month. My usual beans are £32/Kg.

https://shop.doppiocoffee.co.uk/coffee/doppio-hous...

Tesco had them recently for £11 for a KG

What!?!?! buying beans from a supermarket I keep being told they must come direct from a reputable roaster with a hand written certificate including said beans roasted date and birth certificate

Just thought I'd quote that.

What cream do you use afterwards?

Can you please let us know how you get on with the Monsoon beans.

Tried White Rose a while back, very good value @ £ 15.00 a kilo and would say slightly better than Redber, only problem was delivery as he used the famous delivery clowns who left it about five doors down on the opposite side of the street and no note through the door, only found out where it was when he sent me a picture of proof of delivery with their front door showing.