Coffee. Grinder and Cafetiere or Pods in a machine

[dickymint]

giblet said:

Any recommendations for general everyday beans to be used in a superauto? Currently we use the Asda extra special stuff at £5.50 for 2 bags of 227g each however the local Asda don’t seem to have it in stock at times

This stuff is good value and a great ‘all rounder’…

by Amazon House Blend Coffee Beans, Medium Roast, 1kg, Rainforest Alliance Certified https://amzn.eu/d/4FmPYef

[thebraketester]

giblet said:

Any recommendations for general everyday beans to be used in a superauto? Currently we use the Asda extra special stuff at £5.50 for 2 bags of 227g each however the local Asda don’t seem to have it in stock at times

Lavazza espresso beans are about 13-14£ for 1kg from Amazon

[Bonefish Blues]

We buy a box, put it in the pantry and buy another a month or 3 later

https://www.happydonkey.co.uk/product/classic-ital...

[sean ie3]

Lavazza is good, I prefer Illy.

[trando]

giblet said:

Blown2CV said:

Gretchen said:

giblet said:

For the £30 mark I’d go for something like a Hario Skerton Plus or any of the cheap Amazon specials that are clones for the likes of Porlex etc

Thank you for the suggestion. This was delivered today. Yet to try it but looking forward to using it.

i had one of those for ages. It is good to feel a bit connected to the process, but i found the grind coarseness quite imprecise and the manual nature of it gets to be a bit of a PITA at some point!

The plus is an improvement on the regular Skerton I found. To me it seemed like the most reliable brand name one at that price range. Next level up is sort of £100 range and the choice seems to be quite high

Use one of the ceramic ones daily. Awesome piece of kit… I like the manual nature of it!!

[beambeam1]

ZedLeg said:

I really like the coffee. There's nothing super punchy in what I've had but it all tastes great.

I have been seriously happy with my flat whites this week since these arrived. A lot of that could be down to the fact I'm tamping with a bit more force after someone made a comment about my technique but yeah, the taste is really really nice. Will be otfrting again especially since they are local to me. The oil cans have a really nice feel about them too.

[ZedLeg]

I didn't know you get stickers if you order from them directly, I've been buying from my local coffee place. Stupid supporting local businesses

[bigandclever]

I went for a tin of Rocket fuel and one of Gasolina. Obvs it's personal taste; I enjoyed the Rocket Fuel (an as-dark-as-they-do roast blend of Brazil, Nicaragua and Colombia beans) though the Gasolina (lighter roast Colombian) was a bit 'thin' for me.

[beambeam1]

I've already finished Mr Driver - Ethiopia Bombe (250g in a week is easily done I guess) and found it really, really enjoyable. Will be ordering some more for sure but will have to work my way through a fresh delivery from the in-laws visiting from Ireland this weekend. I'm a big fan of Keith Earle's Eleven14 coffee beans and always get them to grab me a bag of Brazil as they don't do shipping to the UK. Darker roast but consistently good results and I've stuck with them a couple of years now. Also a fan of the guy as a rugby player so more than happy to support his business.

Edited to add, going to keep the cans but put labels on the bottom so that I can reuse and keep track of what beans they contain with a chalk pen. The designs are delightful and brighten up the coffee station a little bit.

[giblet]

Cheers for the bulk beans suggestions folks.

The Delonghi superauto I bought second hand a few months ago seems to be serving us well in the office however we’ve had a few new folks start and now I find myself making anywhere between 8-20 cups of “espresso” based drinks a day for people. Might be time to upgrade to a more heavier duty machine. Any recommendations? Been looking at second hand Jura machines on eBay and FB Marketplace

[Bonefish Blues]

Saeco do a couple of machines designed for offices with bigger bean and water capacities.

https://www.coffeefriend.co.uk/p/coffee-machine-sa...

[giblet]

Bonefish Blues said:

Saeco do a couple of machines designed for offices with bigger bean and water capacities.

https://www.coffeefriend.co.uk/p/coffee-machine-sa...

The milk version seems good. Will do some reading up on them in terms of warranty and durability. Thanks

[dickymint]

giblet said:

Cheers for the bulk beans suggestions folks.

The Delonghi superauto I bought second hand a few months ago seems to be serving us well in the office however we’ve had a few new folks start and now I find myself making anywhere between 8-20 cups of “espresso” based drinks a day for people. Might be time to upgrade to a more heavier duty machine. Any recommendations? Been looking at second hand Jura machines on eBay and FB Marketplace

I've had a Jura Z10 (with a milk cooler add on) for about 6 months now and never looked back. Worth taking a regular look at their Outlet Store that include a 12 month warranty...................

https://juraoutlet.uk/collections/all-1

[ZedLeg]

Got an interesting one over the weekend. Bought a bag of this.

https://www.papercupcoffee.co.uk/products/bean-gon...

First bag was Ethiopian I think and it's really nice. Really dark chocolate, almost boozy, fermented smell and a decent kick without being cracky.

£7 for 350gm is pretty good value so I'll be buying more, looking forward to seeing what comes next.

[272BHP]

Another delivery of Coffee Compass Monsoon Malabar last week.

I hate that these things are so variable. This batch is simply not as good as the one from last month.

I have a fairly good nose and there is a clear difference

[BIRMA]

272BHP said:

Another delivery of Coffee Compass Monsoon Malabar last week.

I hate that these things are so variable. This batch is simply not as good as the one from last month.

I have a fairly good nose and there is a clear difference

Interesting, I’ve been roasting my own beans for getting on for two years now. Apart from just trying different beans for experimenting I have been buying two types of green beans from Brazil and Peru. The only time there is any variation in flavour is if I forget to press the ‘first crack’ motif on my phone during the roasting process. From experience I can assure you that even 15 or 20 seconds too long after being notified of 'first crack' seriously alters the results/flavour. So I can only conclude it’s variations in the roasting process

Edited by BIRMA on Tuesday 5th March 15:16

[illmonkey]

I've ditched my massive BtC machine, it worked well when 2 people worked from home, but 1 person for 1 or 2 coffees a day and it was overkill. I also just want cortardos. So I've dug my old basic delonghi machine out to see if I'll bother to make the effort, which it seems I do. BtC has been removed and I'm now thinking of improving my process. (De'Longhi PrimaDonna for sale!)

Currently I have to put a cup upside down to hold my diddy milk jug, the machine is fussy and sometimes takes a few attempts to get the milk frother to work and is a ball ache to clean. My brother has a Sage machine with the milk wand and it's fantastic, so I was thinking of getting the Bambino Plus (with a grinder of my choice) as it means I can just press the coffee button, then the milk button and enjoy. But thought I'd see if anyone has a better suggestion? All I will make is cortardos (for the simpletons out there, it's a double shot and same quantity for milk served in a small glass). I'd also look at 'upgrades' for the machine, or rather swap outs for the hand thingy

RAVE beans have been great, although the say "...for espresso", but through some stupid hover bit it says not for De'Longhi, seems it's too fine so only works sometimes...

PFA

[paralla]

I recently moved house, the new house doesn't have any smart tech like the old one did. At my old house the coffee machine was connected to a LightwaveRF smart socket that I could remote control and program a schedule for. I lasted two days at the new house just turning the machine on when I woke up then waiting for it to heat up before buying a smart plug for it. Coffee first thing in the morning is a non-negotiable requirement. The machine takes at least 30 minutes (45 min is better) for the thermosyphon to heat up the monster forged brass group. There can't be many more inefficent domestic machines out there than the Londinium.

I bought a smart plug that does energy monitoring as I was interested to know how much energy it uses, I always assumed it was a lot but I was interested to know. It was on for an hour this morning heating up from cold and it used 0.45kWh so at 29p/kWh that's about 13p. With beans at about £30/kg that's 55p for 18g so the leccy is less than half the total cost of the shot and milk froth and a fraction of what the long wheelbase 4 oven AGA that's next to it must cost to run. I'm bracing myself for my first gas bill at the new house.

https://uk.store.tapo.com/products/tapo-p110m-matt...

Edited by paralla on Friday 8th March 10:53

[TX1]

272BHP said:

Another delivery of Coffee Compass Monsoon Malabar last week.

I hate that these things are so variable. This batch is simply not as good as the one from last month.

I have a fairly good nose and there is a clear difference

As a Monsoon full time drinker myself I know exactly where you are coming from it is really a weird bean and can be great or really nasty.
This is the reason why I stick to red------ as I know what to expect, not the best but good enough for me. If I get a batch I do not like (probably happened 2-3 times in 5 years) I get in touch, they ask for a photo of the beans and label too see who the roaster is I presume and they send a replacement.

[RichFN2]

After some research I wanted a much quieter and better coffee grinder then the one I was gifted (not hard as it was a cheap blade grinder)

Decided to go for a hand grinder and opted for a Timemore C3s MAX. What a fantastic bit of kit and feels like it is built to last, not sure if the brand is popular on here but I highly recommend one for someone wanting a hand grinder that can do 4-6 cups if needed.