Coffee. Grinder and Cafetiere or Pods in a machine

[Flibble]

Fitted my pid today. Went fairly smoothly (the nuts for the ssrs are awkward).

Looks pretty smart.

Allah thought I'd give the machine a bit of a clean while I was at it. The shower screen was... A bit grim.

[paulguitar]

Flibble said:

Allah thought I'd give the machine a bit of a clean while I was at it.

Crikey, divine commandments!

[RobbieTheTruth]

Raymond Reddington said:

I got my sage grinder today and picked up my modified Gaggia Classic yesterday.

I'm expecting a delivery of beans from a local roasters (no. 13 coffee roasters if anyone would like to give them a go) but sadly they didn't arrive today.

Being impatient and keen to give the new set up a test run, I popped to sainsbury's to get some Taylors Lazy Sunday beans which are my go to when I run out of better stuff for my B2C. They didn't have any so I settled for Sainsburys own Colombian.

I weighed out and ground 18g of beans and pulled the quickest shot ever. I didn't grind for long enough and realised 18g went in but not 18 came out, so I weighed after grinding the next lot and set the time a bit longer. Slightly better but not around the 30s mark for 36g!

I adjusted the grind a bit and also realised I didn't tamp properly so a couple of quick YouTube tutorials and I had something fairly close, around 25s for 36g. I tasted the espressos I'd made and tasted flavours that wouldn't usually be there with my old machine. I steamed some milk and made myself what tasted like a flat white from my favourite coffee place in town. The upgraded Rancilio steam wand is excellent compared to my Delonghi B2C machine and produced lovely velvety textured milk. Interrupted by dinner and the fact it was nearly 8 o'clock and I don't want to be awake all night, I had to call it a day.

I'm staggered by the quality of the coffee I just made after a few duff rushed attempts considering I barely have a clue what I'm doing, and looking forward to having a play at the weekend when I have more time. I was slightly sceptical about all of this stuff and if it makes much difference, but if I can make a coffee that good with some pretty crappy supermarket beans then I'm fully on board.

Edited by Raymond Reddington on Wednesday 24th February 20:29

That's great. If you're staggered by Taylors Lazy Sunday, you're going to be blown away when you get some good beans!

Glad you've seen an immediate and obvious improvement.

[RobbieTheTruth]

S6PNJ said:

If you can't or won't wait for the Niche, how about the new G-lota or DF64 or Solo (all 3 are the same grinder). Still chinese made (like the Niche) but maybe available now (pretty much).

https://youtu.be/tyhVRfRO6c4






Oh, and only available (current batch) in carbon fibre wrap!! https://www.bellabarista.co.uk/the-solo-single-dos...

It's not available until end of March, but I think this is going to be a gamechanger. I would advise anyone to pre-order.

There are no other flat burr, single dose grinders at anywhere close to this or a Niche's price point.

As someone said on the coffee forum, this grinder is simply the result of a market that has been *extremely* slow to catch up on the huge success of the Niche. It's nearly unbelievable how no manufacturer has decided to act on this new single-dosing revolution.

Eureka and Rancilio are also preparing to launch single dose Grinders.

Edited by RobbieTheTruth on Wednesday 24th February 23:50

Edited by RobbieTheTruth on Wednesday 24th February 23:51

[TX1]

Flibble said:

Fitted my pid today. Went fairly smoothly (the nuts for the ssrs are awkward).

Looks pretty smart.

Allah thought I'd give the machine a bit of a clean while I was at it. The shower screen was... A bit grim.

Bet that shower screen took some cleaning.
If you cannot get rid of all the crap ie see through all of the holes, the best way to clean it is get hold of the edge with a pair of pliers and put it over a naked flame.
Something like a gas hob will do, will come up like new.

[okgo]

Why would you want single dose though?

I see that as another time addition and effort to an already boring and fairly slow process...?

[Flibble]

TX1 said:

Bet that shower screen took some cleaning.
If you cannot get rid of all the crap ie see through all of the holes, the best way to clean it is get hold of the edge with a pair of pliers and put it over a naked flame.
Something like a gas hob will do, will come up like new.

I dropped it in some 50% IPA and gave it a scrub with a stiff brush, got it clean as a whistle in no time.

okgo said:

Why would you want single dose though?

I see that as another time addition and effort to an already boring and fairly slow process...?

So you pregrind a batch of coffee then dispense it at home? Doesn't it go stale before you have drunk most of it? If you're going to do that, might as well buy preground coffee and not have a grinder at all.

[okgo]

Flibble said:

So you pregrind a batch of coffee then dispense it at home? Doesn't it go stale before you have drunk most of it? If you're going to do that, might as well buy preground coffee and not have a grinder at all.

I have a grinder with a 250g bean hopper, probably get through that in 4 days, why would anyone who drinks a lot of coffee want to piss about with single dose is my thought?

[Arun_D]

Flibble said:

So you pregrind a batch of coffee then dispense it at home? Doesn't it go stale before you have drunk most of it? If you're going to do that, might as well buy preground coffee and not have a grinder at all.

I think ogko is comparing to a hopper grinder where you grind on demand, rather than weighing out a dose-worth of beans before adding to a single-dose grinder.

• edit...oops, must have been typing at the same time

[paralla]

okgo said:

I have a grinder with a 250g bean hopper, probably get through that in 4 days, why would anyone who drinks a lot of coffee want to piss about with single dose is my thought?

Because coffee made with beans that were ground 1 minute ago is better than coffee made with beans that were ground 4 days ago.

[okgo]

paralla said:

Because coffee made with beans that were ground 1 minute ago is better than coffee made with beans that were ground 4 days ago.

This is what I do though, my grinder doesn't store ground coffee, it's just beans in the hopper and ground stuff out the other end, as per what Arun has said above.

[paralla]

okgo said:

This is what I do though, my grinder doesn't store ground coffee, it's just beans in the hopper and ground stuff out the other end, as per what Arun has said above.

It's easier to measure 18g of beans going in than it is to measure 18g of grinds coming out.

[TX1]

Always single dosed, I just pour the beans from an airtight zipped bag and weigh the beans before every shot and that way I know the beans are fresh.
Also use two different coffees ( wife drinks decaf) daily so single dosing is a must and have no choice.
The single tube storage is a good idea but space and habit has stopped me doing it that way.

[Tyre Smoke]

I've just had this delivered. With a £30/month subscription it was £1 with the Aeroccino3 (sp?).

I

For us, £30 is easily achieved and I have to say, after the first cup, probably not enough!

Wish I'd done it years ago!

[Flibble]

For single tube storage, would something like this be ideal? Tinted glass seems a good idea, though it might not make much difference if you're turning them over fairly quickly.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SHiZAK-Perfect-Cosmetics-...

[paralla]

Flibble said:

For single tube storage, would something like this be ideal? Tinted glass seems a good idea, though it might not make much difference if you're turning them over fairly quickly.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SHiZAK-Perfect-Cosmetics-...

I’ve just done a test and discovered that a small jar of about 65ml is enough to hold 18g of beans.

[paralla]

Tyre Smoke said:

I've just had this delivered. With a £30/month subscription it was £1 with the Aeroccino3 (sp?).

I

For us, £30 is easily achieved and I have to say, after the first cup, probably not enough!

Wish I'd done it years ago!

If you use top quality beans at £30/kg that gets you 1kg of beans for your £30per month or 55 eighteen gram doses.

If you use Tesco Finest Fair Trade Beans at £14.50/kg that gets you almost 2KG of beans which is 110 18 gram doses per month.

The minimum term of 24 months means a total of £721 for 730 shots of coffee.

At Tesco prices that's £96 worth of beans leaving you £625 to spend on a coffee machine and grinder or a bean to cup machine.

I'd argue that a £625 bean to cup machine makes better coffee than Nespresso Vertuo mostly because there is only between 5g and 12g of coffee grounds in a Vertuo capsule.

There are many reasons people enjoy Nespresso but value for money isn't one of them.

[Tyre Smoke]

You seem to have forgotten to factor in the price of the Nespresso.

I don't want a bean to cup or whatever it's called. I like the convenience and cleanliness of the Vertuo machine.

It works out at about 35p a cup. Which, delivered to my door and the old pods collected and recycled, I'm happy with.

[paralla]

Tyre Smoke said:

You seem to have forgotten to factor in the price of the Nespresso.

I don't want a bean to cup or whatever it's called. I like the convenience and cleanliness of the Vertuo machine.

It works out at about 35p a cup. Which, delivered to my door and the old pods collected and recycled, I'm happy with.

https://www.nespresso.com/uk/en/subscription/machine-subscription#/

If this is the deal you have got the total cost over two years is £1 + £30 x 24 = £721

If it's 2 cups of coffee per day for 2 years that's 2 x 365 x 2 = 730 cups of coffee

£721 / 730 = 99p per cup

Give them the razor then sell them the blades.

Edited by paralla on Thursday 25th February 14:32

[Tyre Smoke]

And you have still not factored in the cost of the machine.

Never mind. I'll leave this thread to you and your coffee grinder friends.