Coffee: we drink it or we get angry.

I like Passenger Coffee especially in a pour over

 

I get palpitations when I drink coffee. My body simply does not tolerate it. What a shame.

 

I think I found a thread where I fit in.

Been chugging coffee since about 3rd year of college. It's almost necessary to survive engineering.

I've got this for brewing:
Clever dripper
Aeropress
Chemex

And after about 3 years of roasting in popcorn poppers, I just got a Cafe Gene Roaster! It's absolutely fantastic!

 

I have a Gaggia Classic too! Huge upgrade over my cheapo Krups.
You'll want to swap out the steaming nozzle with the one from the Rancilio Silvia.

For a grinder I use a Granmacinino Isomac. It's not the greatest--grind settings are stepped, and a pain to change--but it's served me faithfully for 4-5 years now.

To reduce wastage of beans, just get yourself a small digital scale (up to 2 d.p. accuracy) and measure out the beans for each dose. (I've used an American Weigh scale off Amazon for about 2 years now, without needing to even change battery.)

What hand grinder are you using? The Porlex is a particularly good and durable one. I like it for Aeropress, though I haven't tried it with my espresso machine yet.

 

My setup consists a Hario Mini Mill, a Vietnamese coffee filter and coffee beans I brought from a local coffee house in Vietnam, takes about 10 mins for a cup every morning

 

I really like the French press too. Lately been using the aeropress, which is remarkable and easier to clean.

I spent some time with the bialetti, and never seemed to master it. Not sure if it was the grind, the pack, or maybe the amount of heat. Generally came out too bitter. What's the secret?

 

Ever see the clever dripper? It's like a french press, but easier to clean than the Aeropress. It's my daily go to brewer.

 

I live in New Zealand which has the best coffee culture in the world (f**k off Australia!). Anyways, my work, which is a software company has a commercial espresso machine that we inherited from the previous tenants. I use it to make a flat white before I start work, although I've also been making Americanos lately. IMHO, you cannot beat a good espresso machine for great taste and experience.

 

Cool Eric - the Gaggia is quite a nice machine isn't it!

Currently using a Rhinowares hand-grinder - it's almost identical to the Porlex you mentioned, with small ceramic burrs with stepped adjustment. It seems a bit inconsistent for espresso - I'm not sure the steps are small enough because the finest setting chokes the machine while the next one up produces a gusher. Either that or the grind isn't quite uniform enough. Also I'm still perfecting my tamping technique.

Thanks for the grinder recommendation - I'll check it out. I was also looking at the Baratza Vario (Mahlkonig Vario here in Europe). Or one of the Mazzers - but those look a bit unwieldy for light use in a smallish kitchen. Not sure.

 

I drink coffee daily, I use an aeropress and a lido 2 manual grinder. for beans I just get the locally roasted seattle mountain coffee that gets roasted inside my costco.

 

Wow that Rhinowares really does look like the Porlex! Maybe the grind is OK on the finest setting (this video suggests as much -- ) but you might be overdosing/overtamping? There's no need to tamp really hard, just make sure you have a proper tamper and you tamp down firmly & evenly.

I just realised you're in the UK. You can get a bottomless portafilter! I ordered mine from Happy Donkey: http://www.happydonkey.co.uk/gaggia-bottomless-portafilter.html
Great fun, and a good diagnostic/training tool for evaluating where something's gone wrong in the espresso process. When I tamp poorly, the coffee pees out at an angle--messy, but informative.

 

The coffee grinder I use is a Hario hand mill.

http://www.amazon.com/Hario-Ceramic-Skerton-Storage-Capacity/dp/B001802PIQ

While it grinds really well, the handle is a bit short and can get annoying to grind. When I get lazy I use this old Peugeot grinder which gets the job done much faster.



For anyone in Orange County you should definitely check out Portola Coffee.

http://www.portolacoffeelab.com/

The original location is in Costa Mesa but I see they have several locations now. I think the Costa Mesa location is still worth checking out though because I remember an associated tea place next to the Coffee Lab that is really obsessive about tea. From what I know about coffee people, a good percentage of them are also tea people. They also have a sort of coffee bar called Theorem which does all sorts of coffee cocktails. I think I read they do some sort of barrel aged cold brew coffee. Quite pretentious but I don't think this is foreign territory for anyone spending time in audiophilia. In fact I believe the headquarters of Audeze and Audioquest are not too far as well as a few other companies.

 

I use Nuova Simonelli Musica Lux on a daily basis...





And I like milk base drinks like cafe latte/flat white. Sometimes I drink straight espresso shot or Americano.

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This is my usual weekend morning routine; ;listening to music whilst enjoying my favourite Burundi or Ethiopian (not the wild Yirgachife)



What a better way to start to listen to music than drinking a cafe latte...

 

Are you suggesting that certain coffee and audio pairings go well together?

My current Ethiopian clever dripper brew seems to excel with my Audio-GD C2 Class A amplifier and Fostex THXX. The deep rich earthy flavors of the coffee are clearly complimented by the rich subbass of the Fostex.

It seems the aesthetically pleasing Latte art matches the sleek and clean chassis of the Schiit line. The tubes clearly complement the mellow flavor of a morning latte.

 

You are forgetting the water and initial temperature as variables. At home I cook on a gas furnace with real fire. Besides that I consider coffee without "bitterness" not coffee. Real coffee reminds you that you are drinking coffee, not some random fluid suspension.

Dark roast arabica for life.

 

Hmmm, I have a gas stove top now (used to be electric). Maybe I should experiment again.

Agreed on all counts. Maybe I'm burning it.

 

Let my try my Ethiopian Sidamo with my Fostex TH-X00; I wanna experience that deep earthy taste...

 

This is a great place for beans in Australia, the country with the second best coffee culture in the world...

http://www.proudmarycoffee.com.au/collections/coffee