Hey Guys,
Here is my first ever post and whats the best some questions will be extremely dumb.
Anyway, a little background on me: Had a Delongi espresso maker a few years back, and never really thought much about the 'perfect' coffee. Just bought nice stale store beans and whipped them in until the light went off. The family then got a Nespresso machine for ease of use, which is quick and easy but I don't like the coffee as much as freshly ground. So for Christmas this year my family got me a cheap espresso machine ( Sunbeam EM2800) and was inspired by friend who does a lot of research into coffee, to start my reading.
Now I realise my machine is verrrrrrrry basic and an upgrade will be in order if I decide I like this little hobby ( which, seeing I love my coffee, I bet I will end up spending a small fortune).
Anyway In my reading (on this site) I found a few expressions I couldn't easily find an answer to.
1. Firstly: What is 'choking' coffee?. I found this on the EM2800 thread : "Once you start sourcing freshly roasted coffee beans, modify your double-walled basket, or source a single-walled basket, for your machine because fresh beans will more than likely choke in a double-walled basket.* This can be fairly easily achieved if you do a site search on modifying a double-walled basket to a single-walled basket and usually involves a Dremel and a deft hand".
Now I must admit I dont know much about double and single walled baskets yet either. But The first thing I did is aim to buy fresh coffee and grind it myself, so at risk of 'choking' the coffee, whats this mean?
2. I also read on the same thread that roasted coffee goes stale in 3 weeks, and ground starts to oxidase nearly instantly. I went to a local coffee shop today who roast their own coffee in search of fresh roast under 3 weeks and was told " our coffee is 1 week to 3 months old... our coffee is sealed in a nitrogen bag and actually takes 1 to 3 months to 'mature'... This raises my next question.... every thread I read said coffee goes off in 3 weeks and to buy fresh roast.... whats your opinion of 'nitrogen sealed' and 'maturation for 3 months'? Load of bullocks, or valid?
3. Told to store coffee in cool dark place but not fridge.... why is this? Also, very hot here in summer... if no where better, is fridge okay?
Now Im about to go read the grinders thread as mine is only a grinder where you press the button like a food processor and you decide how long you ant to grind it for (which I believe would allow no control for how course the grind is)- So hopefully this doesn't become redundant once I read the grinders thread... But whats a decent beginners grinder that is pretty darn good without being top of the range, breaking me before I even become good at making espresso??
Thanks guys. Hope these questions aren't to stupid....
Here is my first ever post and whats the best some questions will be extremely dumb.
Anyway, a little background on me: Had a Delongi espresso maker a few years back, and never really thought much about the 'perfect' coffee. Just bought nice stale store beans and whipped them in until the light went off. The family then got a Nespresso machine for ease of use, which is quick and easy but I don't like the coffee as much as freshly ground. So for Christmas this year my family got me a cheap espresso machine ( Sunbeam EM2800) and was inspired by friend who does a lot of research into coffee, to start my reading.
Now I realise my machine is verrrrrrrry basic and an upgrade will be in order if I decide I like this little hobby ( which, seeing I love my coffee, I bet I will end up spending a small fortune).
Anyway In my reading (on this site) I found a few expressions I couldn't easily find an answer to.
1. Firstly: What is 'choking' coffee?. I found this on the EM2800 thread : "Once you start sourcing freshly roasted coffee beans, modify your double-walled basket, or source a single-walled basket, for your machine because fresh beans will more than likely choke in a double-walled basket.* This can be fairly easily achieved if you do a site search on modifying a double-walled basket to a single-walled basket and usually involves a Dremel and a deft hand".
Now I must admit I dont know much about double and single walled baskets yet either. But The first thing I did is aim to buy fresh coffee and grind it myself, so at risk of 'choking' the coffee, whats this mean?
2. I also read on the same thread that roasted coffee goes stale in 3 weeks, and ground starts to oxidase nearly instantly. I went to a local coffee shop today who roast their own coffee in search of fresh roast under 3 weeks and was told " our coffee is 1 week to 3 months old... our coffee is sealed in a nitrogen bag and actually takes 1 to 3 months to 'mature'... This raises my next question.... every thread I read said coffee goes off in 3 weeks and to buy fresh roast.... whats your opinion of 'nitrogen sealed' and 'maturation for 3 months'? Load of bullocks, or valid?
3. Told to store coffee in cool dark place but not fridge.... why is this? Also, very hot here in summer... if no where better, is fridge okay?
Now Im about to go read the grinders thread as mine is only a grinder where you press the button like a food processor and you decide how long you ant to grind it for (which I believe would allow no control for how course the grind is)- So hopefully this doesn't become redundant once I read the grinders thread... But whats a decent beginners grinder that is pretty darn good without being top of the range, breaking me before I even become good at making espresso??
Thanks guys. Hope these questions aren't to stupid....

)...
) that bit's got nothing to do with refrigeration though, freshly roasted beans outgas CO2 for quite a while so if you store in one-way valved bags they'll purge the air out of the bag (and hence reduce the oxygen levels) of their own accord, and if you close the bags up quickly after getting your beans out most of the CO2 will probably stay in there.
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