Coffee - do you and how do you consume it?

[dfuller]

I use "RPavlis Water" in my espresso machine. Deionised water, plus 100ppm potassium bicarbonate (~0.085g KHCO3/L H2O). It's nonscaling, provides enough mineral content for fill probes etc to work, and keeps acidity to a bearable level. The water that comes out of my tap is scarily close to RO here in the Boston burbs.

If you want more information on water chemistry, Espresso Aficionados has you covered.

 

[TimW]

I would try it out with just the spring mod, before modding it.

I've been using the Classic Pro with roughly the same mods as you (9 bar spring, bottomless portafilter, VST basket). The consistency is very good compared to my other machine which was trickier to get right. The temps do seem very high though, at least it seems that way when I feel the portafilter or drain tube after brewing. I would definitely install a PID if I weren't planning to do the Gaggiuino mod.

One annoying thing is the flex of the machine. When I insert the portafilter the whole machine flexes a few mm. It also wants to move so I have to hold it down to the table. Not a very premium feel and worse than my previous machine, although that one probably needs a new portafilter gasket. Have you had a similar experience or is there something off with my machine?

 

[ryanosaur]

One annoying thing is the flex of the machine. When I insert the portafilter the whole machine flexes a few mm. It also wants to move so I have to hold it down to the table. Not a very premium feel and worse than my previous machine, although that one probably needs a new portafilter gasket. Have you had a similar experience or is there something off with my machine?

My Sylvia flexes a little and requires one hand to stabilize the machine when mounting the Portafilter…
Hell, I’ve seen guys move a commercial 3-head Linea when cranking down on the Portafilter… …but to be fair, those machines don’t flex.

 

[FlyingFreak]

I got a (plastic) V60 to play with pour over recipes as it is much more widely use than my BlueBottle thingy (ceramic).

I am baffled by how different my cup taste with those two different devices. I mean... it's just ground beans in a filter and I pour water on it.

I used to only drink espresso (from when I started drinking coffee up until a couple of years ago). Since I discovered pour over in hipster coffee shops in CA, I am drinking more of those. Taste is super different but equivalently pleasant. Having a fuller cup in the morning is giving me a better experience. In the afternoon I still prefer espresso (less caffeine I believe and I have less time to drink it).

Anyone else enjoying pour over at home?

 

[ryanosaur]

I got a (plastic) V60 to play with pour over recipes as it is much more widely use than my BlueBottle thingy (ceramic).

I am baffled by how different my cup taste with those two different devices. I mean... it's just ground beans in a filter and I pour water on it.

I used to only drink espresso (from when I started drinking coffee up until a couple of years ago). Since I discovered pour over in hipster coffee shops in CA, I am drinking more of those. Taste is super different but equivalently pleasant. Having a fuller cup in the morning is giving me a better experience. In the afternoon I still prefer espresso (less caffeine I believe and I have less time to drink it).

Anyone else enjoying pour over at home?

I used to do porovers before going hard in on Espresso. Pourover is a much less expensive startup cost!

I bought a generic ceramic cone and always used Chemex filters in it. Ceramic because it hold the heat better and won't cool down the coffee as much as plastic will.

Just out of curiosity, you said they taste different... which do you prefer, plastic or ceramic, and what is different about them to you?

 

[FlyingFreak]

I used to do porovers before going hard in on Espresso. Pourover is a much less expensive startup cost!

I bought a generic ceramic cone and always used Chemex filters in it. Ceramic because it hold the heat better and won't cool down the coffee as much as plastic will.

Just out of curiosity, you said they taste different... which do you prefer, plastic or ceramic, and what is different about them to you?

No preferences at the moment. With the Blue Bottle, I prefer coarser ground, which gives terrible results in the V60. So it's like using a entirely different thing and I am still working on finding my favorite recipe with the V60. I use more the BB cause I know it better but if I do drink two pour over in a day, I switch and it is as if I was drinking from another bean bag. Having both is just for my entertainment, I had no need for the V60.

About material preference, James Hoffman and others would actually disagree with you. My understanding is that plastic is superior than ceramic for thermal retention (I think it absorbs less heat than ceramic?). What is certain is plastic is cheaper and sturdier. Already broke one ceramic and my second one is chipped... My motor skills in the morning are not great.

 

[TimW]

I used to do porovers before going hard in on Espresso. Pourover is a much less expensive startup cost!

I bought a generic ceramic cone and always used Chemex filters in it. Ceramic because it hold the heat better and won't cool down the coffee as much as plastic will.

Just out of curiosity, you said they taste different... which do you prefer, plastic or ceramic, and what is different about them to you?

According to James Hoffmann, plastic is the best material for temperature stability.

I plan to get a plastic V60 for use with my Breville Precision brewer. I have not been happy with its pour over performance so far but plan to use a secondary shower head to improve distribution.

Anyone else enjoying pour over at home?

I alternate between AeroPress and Kalita Wave pour over at work. I just have a hot water tap so can't do the complex measurement based pour overs the pros do.

 

[ryanosaur]

Cool vid, thanks for posting. Back in the day the recommendation was ceramic over plastic from pretty much everyone, as I recall. Different plastic for that v60 than the old ones I remember.
I always rinsed my filter in the cone and over the vessel to get everything hot, dump, add Coffee, then brew. Of course, not many were using scales for their pourover then, even at the Blue Bottle spots I frequented... It was all freehand.

The times they are a changin'.

 

[gallionetech]

I recently purchased a Jura Z8. Best thing ever don't know how I lived without it. I had a Rocket before that but its just too much work

 

[Xulonn]

Outrageous! $150 per cup for Panama Geisha coffee. [LINK]

(My Panama coffee - brewed from coffee beans grown a couple of miles up the mountain from my house - costs about 50 cents per cup.)

 

[Doodski]

Outrageous! $150 per cup for Panama Geisha coffee. [LINK]

View attachment 262624​

(My Panama coffee - brewed from coffee beans grown a couple of miles up the mountain from my house - costs about 50 cents per cup.)

How does it taste and set in the stomach?

 

[A Cute Earring]

Coffee infused with snake oil?

 

[Xulonn]

Coffee infused with snake oil?

Nope - just coffee from an open international competition and auction. There are people around the world with lots of money who want to own the best of the best.

LINK

 

[valerianf]

Kona coffee from Big Island Hawaii.
I am lucky to be able to visit the local producers every year.

 

[dfuller]

Outrageous! $150 per cup for Panama Geisha coffee. [LINK]

View attachment 262624​

(My Panama coffee - brewed from coffee beans grown a couple of miles up the mountain from my house - costs about 50 cents per cup.)

Yeah, Geshas are crazy money. It's a specific cultivar, and most likely higher grade given it's the export stuff.

 

[ryanosaur]

The latest addition to my machine is a thin silicone mat, trimmed to fit on the warmer platform and keep my glassware from rattling.

Works like a charm.
And my glasses are still warm, too!

 

[dfuller]

I've finished my Silvia Pro rotary mod - I now lovingly call my machine a "Silvia Protary" - or if I'm feeling cheeky, a "Linea Subcompact". Both vibration pumps got scrapped in favor of one rotary pump. It's very, very quiet now (in the area of 50dBZ) with a peak around 1700hz, and because I've sealed basically every fitting to within an inch of its life, the steam pressure has gone way up.

 

[Andysu]

this is how the captain kirk consumes his coffee

 

[kongwee]

This is what I drink normally. I order kopi -o -kosong, don't add anything.

 

[pseudoid]

I finally got a chance to resto-mod my lever LaPavoni-Stradivari:
I used a "Bong-Isolator" [<<yeah, I know!] to thermally detach the boiler from the the grouphead.
I also replaced the plastic piston-sleeving (inside the grouphead chamber) with a food-grade brass equivalent.
OMG... it now gushes out crema like... I didn't realize was possible!

This photo is the totality of all the ancillary piece-parts I rely upon to pull a total of 6 shots every morning.
No knock-boxes and no frother jugs.
The yellow measuring spoon is used for the yield and for 5mg of sugar-in-the-raw, we each prefer
The wooden spoon is used for detaching the coffee pucks directly into the garbage can
The yellow coaster is to purge air bubbles upon steaming the milk
Round silicone piece (w/a hole in it) is used for steaming milk; directly in the double-wall cups
The pink towel is for cleaning the steam-wand, porta-filter, etc.