Coffee - do you and how do you consume it?

[iamnotPaul]

I use Hario Mini Slim Plus + Philips HD7462/20

 

[Somafunk]

Far to hot for coffee tday so it’s iced coffee time. Serves 2

3 double shots espresso, 60 ml double cream, 200 ml vanilla ice cream made at local organic dairy, leave vanilla pods in, few ice cubes, 600ml organic full fat milk - blitz everything in a blender till your left with a thick frozen slush and pour into two glasses, sit down, drink and relax.

30 mins later find yourself on a caffeine/sugar buzz and mow the lawn/wash windows/do laundry/remodel the house/build extension/develop unified theory of everything/argue with neighbour over the relative benefits of mmt monetary policy - realise neighbour is slowly backing away from you without breaking eye contact, finally slump in the corner with caffeine burnout and slide into a sugar crash.

Repeat the following day…….

 

[ryanosaur]

Curiosity Side Bar... For those with Espresso Machines:

How often do you clean your Machine?
Backflush with detergent?
Backflush with water only (in between detergent cleanings)?
Disassemble the Group Head?

Cheers!

 

[Somafunk]

I remove the shower screen and clean it in poly and run through a full tank with a poly cleaner tab in the basket perhaps every 300 pulls/3 months or so, prob should do it more often. I have soft water and run it through a filter before filling the reservoir tank up so scale inside the machine is a non issue for me.

 

[ryanosaur]

I should play, too...
I do somewhere between 90-150 pulls/mo.
I had been just doing a detergent(Cafiza) backflush once a month, roughly. Take the shower screen off, too.
This was, shamefully, inconsistent behavior.
I did brush the shower screen daily after use, so externally, the machine was always clean.

(This past time between cleanings stretched to 2.5 or 3.5 months. It took me two detergent runs to start getting a clean backflush. )

I stumbled on some more recent Machine Care instructions where the author suggested backflushing with just water every day after use for the home machine, then detergent roughly every three weeks.

So for the past two weeks now, Ive been doing that. I plan to continue my monthly detergent backflush, hoping that the daily water backflush will keep me honest and make me feel like it's a less onerous task.

One other admission: My machine is 4 years old and I have yet to have it serviced, even for preventative maintenance. I do use RO water from a company that runs it through the full filtration, including UV. I have never descaled, and likely shouldn't have to. It is probably worthwhile having the machine gone over by the local guy, anyway... but a day without espresso...!

 

[dfuller]

Curiosity Side Bar... For those with Espresso Machines:

How often do you clean your Machine?
Backflush with detergent?
Backflush with water only (in between detergent cleanings)?
Disassemble the Group Head?

Cheers!

I water backflush about once every two days (when I remember)... detergent backflush every couple weeks. I usually take the group head apart at about the same time I do the detergent backflush.

 

[Suffolkhifinut]

Flush my machine using White Vinegar about once a month. Our water is extremely hard and limescale buildup is a problem with all our appliances. Filter the water before filling the machine not sure how much limescale the filter removes?

 

[Marc v E]

Not much of a coffee drinker myself but my wife is. Ordered some nice blends from our local coffee specialist. Ime the freshness of the coffee is most important, and thus best is to grind the beans before making coffee. I appreciate the big machines and applying high pressure to get a great espresso, but to me much of the end result is in the coffee itself.

Btw myself I'm more a tea drinker. For tea the freshness and blend imo is of great importance and the hardness of the water equally so. I don't bother with the latter as our local water is ok but I did order some nice tea too along with the coffee order.

I will finish with a story I read in my newspaper. Apparently much of the coffee from all around the globe arrives in Europe through the harbour of Antwerp. The most valuable coffee stays there while it is being traded. Quite often this is a process that can take months, even up to 2 years to get the right price. Only after that these 'high-end' beans find their way to the consumer.

 

[Doodski]

Not much of a coffee drinker myself but my wife is. Ordered some nice blends from our local coffee specialist. Ime the freshness of the coffee is most important, and thus best is to grind the beans before making coffee. I appreciate the big machines and applying high pressure to get a great espresso, but to me much of the end result is in the coffee itself.

Btw myself I'm more a tea drinker. For tea the freshness and blend imo is of great importance and the hardness of the water equally so. I don't bother with the latter as our local water is ok but I did order some nice tea too along with the coffee order.

I will finish with a story I read in my newspaper. Apparently much of the coffee from all around the globe arrives in Europe through the harbour of Antwerp. The most valuable coffee stays there while it is being traded. Quite often this is a proces that can take months, even up to 2 years to get the right price. Only after that these 'high-end' beans find their way to the consumer.

You may enjoy the tea thread here @ ASR.

 

[jbattman1016]

I purchased a few bags of Crio Brew and if you guys have any questions I can answer.

Crio Bru® Brewed Cacao: Brews Like Coffee, Benefits of Cacao

IT'S NOT COFFEE | IT'S CACAO Roasted, ground, and brewed just like coffee, brewed cacao has the amazing flavor and aroma of pure dark chocolate. While it brews like coffee, you get the benefits of cacao- a superfood prized by ancient cultures for its energizing and restorative properties.

criobru.com

I only brewed one of the French roasts (using a single server dip coffee machine on BOLD) and it taste like chocolate with water, which I guess should be expected lol.
I added some milkadamia and that didn't do much for me.
It's a bit harder to clean out my filter.
My wife hates it.

Coffee still champs for me, but I will finish these bags as needed.

 

[Soniclife]

I will finish with a story I read in my newspaper. Apparently much of the coffee from all around the globe arrives in Europe through the harbour of Antwerp. The most valuable coffee stays there while it is being traded. Quite often this is a process that can take months, even up to 2 years to get the right price. Only after that these 'high-end' beans find their way to the consumer.

Do you have a source for that, it sounds very wrong for speciality coffee, where freezing even green coffee is not unheard of to maintain freshness.

 

[dfuller]

Flush my machine using White Vinegar about once a month. Our water is extremely hard and limescale buildup is a problem with all our appliances. Filter the water before filling the machine not sure how much limescale the filter removes?

Unless it's got an ion exchange resin filter in it, it's not doing anything for limescale.

By the way, I'd encourage using a citric acid solution over vinegar for descaling as vinegar takes a lot of flushing to not have the water coming out smelling like vinegar.

Not much of a coffee drinker myself but my wife is. Ordered some nice blends from our local coffee specialist. Ime the freshness of the coffee is most important, and thus best is to grind the beans before making coffee. I appreciate the big machines and applying high pressure to get a great espresso, but to me much of the end result is in the coffee itself.

Yep. James Hoffmann put it nicely - an espresso machine should be kind of transparent, that is if your beans are good and your grinder and water are good, it should just get out of the way.

Do you have a source for that, it sounds very wrong for speciality coffee, where freezing even green coffee is not unheard of to maintain freshness.

Becoming more and more common, actually - George Howell was one of the first to do it, and they're regularly offering beans that were harvested a decade ago (but have sat in vacuum bags in deep freeze) for sale.

 

[Doodski]

encourage using a citric acid solution over vinegar for descaling

I noticed for cleaning my hash pipe that the citric acid stuff is more pleasant.

 

[Suffolkhifinut]

I noticed for cleaning my hash pipe that the citric acid stuff is more pleasant.

Does it work on hash browns?

 

[Doodski]

Does it work on hash browns?

I never tried it. I'm @ witts end with the potato fries pan it simply gets destroyed after 6 months of cooking fries in the oven. I consider them to be a wear and tear item now.

 

[raif71]

 

[osscar]

I like black, strong coffee - without sugar and other additives. I am not picky and I test different coffee beans. I used some sort (don't remember) of PHILIPS all-in-one machine...(the woman likes latte and other white coffees )

 

[dfuller]

So, I bought a Fellow Ode, and the new burrs were released today. Ordered them with a 30% off coupon, so those will get installed whenever I get the chance.

 

[Soniclife]

So, I bought a Fellow Ode, and the new burrs were released today. Ordered them with a 30% off coupon, so those will get installed whenever I get the chance.

Let us know what you think when you've had a good play, I've been waiting for the new burrs to come out. I'm very happy with my C40 for brew, something as good but different would be nice.

 

[Soniclife]

Interesting article about coffee processing, with an analogy that's familiar to us.

A sort-of glossary of coffee processes – Christopher Feran

christopherferan.com