Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Rooney McNibnug
Sep 2, 2008

"Life always hopes. When a definite object cannot be outlined, the indomitable spirit of hope still impels the living mass to move toward something--something that shall somehow be better."
forgot how awful starbucks beans are.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

graph
Nov 22, 2006

aaag peanuts

Rooney McNibnug posted:

forgot how awful starbucks beans are.

yeah theyre disgusting but they have to taste like poo poo so it can cut through the 1/2 pound of sugar and cream

cinci zoo sniper
Mar 15, 2013




anyone here with first hand decent experiences?

mediaphage
Mar 22, 2007

Excuse me, pardon me, sheer perfection coming through

Rooney McNibnug posted:

forgot how awful starbucks beans are.

almost always true. they just over roast loving everything so it all tastes the same. the one exception is that they used to do a guatemala that was a medium roast (for starbucks) that i would occasionally buy back before i started roasting

Cybernetic Vermin
Apr 18, 2005

Visual GNUdio posted:

reminding y`all coffee scrubs to step up ur fuckin game



work done for the week and drinking a large mug of coffee, using up the instant with the 2019 use-by date to replace it in the cupboard. tasting excellent op.

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

mediaphage posted:

ah, i would wager the primary form of home coffee purchase in the us and canada is in this sort of form factor:





designed for standard cheap drip machines

this coffee wants to grind its own sister

post hole digger
Mar 21, 2011

Visual GNUdio posted:

reminding y`all coffee scrubs to step up ur fuckin game



i dont really know the first thing about any of this, but i would love to have an espresso machine.

post hole digger
Mar 21, 2011
i have a soft spot in my heart for the red drum folgers.

AnimeIsTrash
Jun 30, 2018

post hole digger posted:

i have a soft spot in my heart for the red drum folgers.

It hits such a sweet nostalgia spot for me, same with diner coffee.

PokeJoe
Aug 24, 2004

hail cgatan


i drank red Folgers exclusively for many years. i don't really care for it much any more but it does have some nostalgia flavor and kinda reminds me of working lovely jobs

Progressive JPEG
Feb 19, 2003

Visual GNUdio posted:

reminding y`all coffee scrubs to step up ur fuckin game



have you found a way to quiet the 270wi because good lord

part of the problem may be that i'm running it for 60g in one go

AnimeIsTrash
Jun 30, 2018

Progressive JPEG posted:

have you found a way to quiet the 270wi because good lord

part of the problem may be that i'm running it for 60g in one go

What's the problem? You don't like waking up the whole block at 6 in the morning?

Chris Knight
Jun 5, 2002

me @ ur posts


Fun Shoe
my first real job we used the presidents choice gold can stuff in the Bunn-o-Matic, which is a garbage rear end coffee maker that couldn't make good coffee if it tried. I made up for it by putting in 25% more grounds to make it stronger lol

mediaphage
Mar 22, 2007

Excuse me, pardon me, sheer perfection coming through

post hole digger posted:

i dont really know the first thing about any of this, but i would love to have an espresso machine.

the absolute best value for money is the gaggia classic pro. you can grow with it and mod it later on with a pid or better steam wand or whatever.

you will need a grinder to go with it. breville makes a reasonable cheap model that actually does a pretty good job especially for the price.

Chris Knight
Jun 5, 2002

me @ ur posts


Fun Shoe

mediaphage posted:

the absolute best value for money is the gaggia classic pro.
US$575 lmao

I got my refurb Breville at a place on Bloor St for like CAN$150

post hole digger
Mar 21, 2011

mediaphage posted:

the absolute best value for money is the gaggia classic pro. you can grow with it and mod it later on with a pid or better steam wand or whatever.

i might do this even though i dont really have the counter space for it :thunk:

cinci zoo sniper
Mar 15, 2013




Chris Knight posted:

US$575 lmao

I got my refurb Breville at a place on Bloor St for like CAN$150

mediaphage is right, that is pretty much the cheapest home espresso machine one should spend money on. it’s not a cheap affair - but also it’s not really that essential to have espresso at home

cinci zoo sniper
Mar 15, 2013




imo below gaggia you can come quite close by just spending a few afternoons with a $30 aeropress, it can get you a fairly good fauxpresso

Chris Knight
Jun 5, 2002

me @ ur posts


Fun Shoe

cinci zoo sniper posted:

it’s not really that essential to have espresso at home
:getout:

cinci zoo sniper
Mar 15, 2013





between a decent filtered coffee and an espresso crime imo choice is straightforward :shrug: most machines in "cheaper than gaggia" segment can't even muster necessary water pressure

mediaphage
Mar 22, 2007

Excuse me, pardon me, sheer perfection coming through
the brevilles do make a good shot. but they’re more prone to failure, harder to repair, and literally impossible to modify if you want to add features.

i have a breville and like it too but the gaggia is better and will last longer.

i’ve already had to replace the solenoid on the breville once; the line is prone to failure on them

if that’s all you can afford they’re obviously the best option. but if someone can pay the gaggia is very good and will get you very close to machines costing several times the price.

mediaphage fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Jan 15, 2022

dioxazine
Oct 14, 2004

Rooney McNibnug posted:

forgot how awful starbucks beans are.

i've never actually had starbucks before, in asia nor north america

post hole digger posted:

i have a soft spot in my heart for the red drum folgers.

i wanted to say something, but i binged on mr brown all week and really can't knock on nostalgia without looking like a hypocrite

cinci zoo sniper
Mar 15, 2013




mediaphage posted:

the brevilles do make a good shot. but they’re more prone to failure, harder to repair, and literally impossible to modify if you want to add features.

i have a breville and like it too but the gaggia is better and will last longer.

i’ve already had to replace the solenoid on the breville once; the line is prone to failure on them

if that’s all you can afford they’re obviously the best option. but if someone can pay the gaggia is very good and will get you very close to machines costing several times the price.

the one sage (what they’re called here) machine that i know is really nice in its price category is dual boiler, but that’s like triple the bambino plus/gaggia classic pro, quadruple basic bambino. since a lot of people itt live in na, used gcp in minor disrepair will likely undercut anything breville sells (their cheapest machine here is 350 euro), while losing, imo, only given heavy milk stonk consumption

cinci zoo sniper
Mar 15, 2013




but yeah my comment was targeting what i see on local shelves, which is an occasional random manufacturer 200 euro semi auto that’s probably going to fall apart at 9 bar water pressure

Best Bi Geek Squid
Mar 25, 2016
I’d like to thank coffee for all its help today. keeping me energized without wacking me out

fisting by many
Dec 25, 2009



cinci zoo sniper posted:

anyone here with first hand decent experiences?

the "starbucks reserve" tends to make a decent hand drip, in my experience.

in general though, if you're not craving 100 grams of sugar, no.

mediaphage
Mar 22, 2007

Excuse me, pardon me, sheer perfection coming through

fisting by many posted:

the "starbucks reserve" tends to make a decent hand drip, in my experience.

in general though, if you're not craving 100 grams of sugar, no.

every single time i've tried one of these they've roasted the distinctiveness out of it. i'm not saying they don't have some that are good, i have no idea. it just never seems that i have gotten one if so.

that's starbucks biggest "problem", imo, they want stability (which is fine) but they get it by roasting everything until it tastes the same. if i get some there i like to add a little bit of cream because it blunts a lot of the burnt flavour for me, but i don't really go for sweet coffee drinks ever.

cinci zoo sniper
Mar 15, 2013




fisting by many posted:

the "starbucks reserve" tends to make a decent hand drip, in my experience.

in general though, if you're not craving 100 grams of sugar, no.

i don’t think there’s a single starbucks in 2 country radius from me. i was wondering about an espresso machine called “decent”

cinci zoo sniper
Mar 15, 2013




that said, i have special snowflake taste according to modern sensibilities, so ive been ordering everything vaguely hopeful i can find. basically, i hate sour coffee but can perfectly tolerate a bitter cup, which is precisely the opposite of what 3rd wave coffee people value. we have some genuinely good local roasters here in latvia, but all they sell is yigracheffe, acacia, and geisha, and my coffee taste is like “hungover italian on a wednesday morning, 1974, colourised”

cinci zoo sniper
Mar 15, 2013




i have a few more bookmarks to try, but at the moment i have one okay option from, unsurprisingly, italy, but the only “wow this is great” coffee for 2021 for me was a seasonal espresso blend that’s out of stock. at least i know which cultivars/farming process i should pay more attention to now

cinci zoo sniper
Mar 15, 2013




fisting by many posted:

in general though, if you're not craving 100 grams of sugar, no.

btw this reminded me of my first visit to starbucks, on a scientific conference in puerto rico. i accidentally ordered extra large ice cream float that was 1800 kcal (checked later), thought i ordered coffee, and couldn’t figure out for 5 minutes how to drink it, since i had only been given a straw and i was dead convinced it’s just a cup of ice cream

i wonder how deluded did i come off to people in the goon slack i frequented at the time, hysterically posting photos from starbucks at 7am eastern and asking stuff like “so guys, uhm, where are table spoons traditionally kept in smaller starbucks cafes”

SimonSays
Aug 4, 2006

Simon is the monkey's name
I swear there's an astonishing number of 50-year old Gaggias still trucking. Unkillable things. Sometimes I feel I should jump into the classifieds and pick one up.

Shaggar
Apr 26, 2006
i replaced a cheap rear end $100 espresso machine with a gaggia classic pro and generally the performance is the same, its just way way way better built.

SimonSays
Aug 4, 2006

Simon is the monkey's name
Upon inspection, I may need to check out estate sales for the really old ones, they've all probably only ever had one owner since 1967.

polyester concept
Mar 29, 2017

i have a breville espresso machine and a burr grinder but i never know how much grounds to use or how hard to tamp it. i do the finest grind setting (turkish), and somewhere I was told that the compressed puck should be almost solid when done but it never is even if i really put my body weight into pressing it. i can usually just rinse it out with water. the tamper it came with is garbage too. am I doing something wrong or is my machine not strong enough or what.

Chris Knight
Jun 5, 2002

me @ ur posts


Fun Shoe
you don't need to press that hard imo

cinci zoo sniper
Mar 15, 2013




sounds like you’re not putting enough coffee in, and may be grinding too fine (guaranteed if it’s a faithful turkish, which is much finer than most espresso). start with amount of coffee, and once you have that down, adjust the grind if the result still sucks

tamping is generally speaking is tertiary to all of this, and hard to prescribe - but you shouldn’t have to do any wwe moves, it’s 50 lbs max (a really far out kind of max, you can do an espresso with a 2 lbs tamp in certain circumstances, or even just a levelled puck). focus there should be on consistently getting uniform, level pucks. if this is something you keep finding annoying, it might be worthwhile to buy a weighted, self-levelling tamper - but that’s way after you play around with coffee amount and grind size

and yeah a well prepared puck should fall out in a somewhat solid single piece after you pull a shot through it

Progressive JPEG
Feb 19, 2003

ive heard several times that the rancilio silvia is good for price/performance and also modding ability

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



Visual GNUdio posted:

reminding y`all coffee scrubs to step up ur fuckin game



the more time you spend doofing around with this contraption is the less time you spend drinking coffee.

i'm having a midnight coffee right now.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Oneiros
Jan 12, 2007



i wish my milk foaming/art skills were that good, drat

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply