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  • #76
    Originally posted by muppet_man67 View Post
    Regarding brew recipes, extraction yeilds etc. It's a more advanced area and can lead you down the wrong track if you are pulling recipes off the internet rather then making the coffee how the roaster intended, with that said, it think it can benefit beginners and help them learn faster. Once you start doing it, it quickly becomes fundamental.

    As a benchmark when trying a new coffee I always like to know how the roaster uses it and what their methods are. Knowing brewing recipes is the easiest way for a roaster to communicate to me what they are doing and how they think their coffee tastes best. If they can't tell you why not?

    If they don't know themselves how are they calibrating their roasting so they know they are producing a consistent product?

    The roasting companies pushing low dose/high yeild style espresso tend to be roasting fairly lightly/quickly, if done properly it can lead to beautifully complex deep, delicate flavours, it should still be balanced and not overly acidic. As espresso its a very long way from what a lot of people expect or think espresso "should" taste like. We had a stunning Ethiopian from small batch roasters last week, one of the the best we've had and we were blown away by it, it was every bit if not better than 90+ coffees we've had roasted in more traditional style.

    Feed back from customers was mixed, some loved it as much as us, others said "very drinkable but missing" referring to the reduced body/punch resulting from the high extraction ratio and compared to what that they normally expect from traditional roasting.

    In long blacks when diluted with additional water so that punch/body becomes less relevant, feedback was only positive.

    Lots of different coffee being made in different ways, lots of rules being thrown out the window, worrying about soggy pucks being one, blonding being another.

    There is no reason that we need to reach consensus on what we as individuals prefer.
    So true.

    Ethiopian beans as a single origin are at the top of my list.
    As you said not everyone liked the batch of Ethiopian you had (by the sounds of it, I wish I could have tried some), then everyone has different tastes and preferences.

    I have used and still own a VST 18gm basket, I can't say I noticed a difference in the pour rate. It still produced great coffee.
    The strange thing was the pucks were very dry, which is a good thing, but getting them out of the basket was unusual, they were as hard as a rock and took several "Thumps" on my knock tube to get it out! (it came out in chunks).

    This is not to say, I won't go back to it though.

    I just enjoy making great coffee and I would say my technique is simple.

    Then my wife loves using her Aeropress and thinks using a machine is a waste of time!
    I will admit, the coffee she produces from it is very good and she does not make it the same way all the time!
    That's another story.

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    • #77
      Out of interest, what is your go-to basket at the moment?
      I currently use an 18g VST. Before that I used a double EPHQ. As I've said before (other threads) I find the VSTs to require a lot more faffing around to get an acceptable extraction out of, but I also find that putting in that effort yields slightly richer, sweeter shots than I am capable of getting with EPHQ baskets. Since I'm making 2 coffees most days, I can justify the extra time/effort (heck, I'm grinding my beans by hand - what's another 15-20sec?)

      I will not hold you to do anything, if we lived in the same city maybe we could get together and do some testing together for some fun!
      Plus I like to drink coffee other CoffeeSnobs make for me.
      I always enjoy seeing/tasting what other people are doing with their coffee (though I moved to the US, so won't see much of anyone unless they make it to an expo over here). The one thing that really got me was having a mate over while we messed around with some beans he'd brought back from Brisbane. For the most part, he was unimpressed with my best shots, but when we adjusted the dose/grind to a point where I was finding them undesirably bright/acidic, he was in heaven.

      That's why I laugh when people talk about the best anything in coffee; on the consumer side at least, there's no real consensus on one thing we all actually want, besides "something lighter than starbucks*.

      took several "Thumps" on my knock tube to get it out! (it came out in chunks)
      Glad to see it's not just me... that's one thing I really miss about the EPHQs; pucks come out nice and clean in one piece.

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      • #78
        Originally posted by Dragunov21 View Post
        I currently use an 18g VST. Before that I used a double EPHQ. As I've said before (other threads) I find the VSTs to require a lot more faffing around to get an acceptable extraction out of, but I also find that putting in that effort yields slightly richer, sweeter shots than I am capable of getting with EPHQ baskets. Since I'm making 2 coffees most days, I can justify the extra time/effort (heck, I'm grinding my beans by hand - what's another 15-20sec?)
        That's the one thing we have making coffee at home, all the time we need.
        I will have to start using the VST for a while again, I found there was a learning curve for it, a different technique in a way.

        Originally posted by Dragunov21 View Post
        always enjoy seeing/tasting what other people are doing with their coffee (though I moved to the US, so won't see much of anyone unless they make it to an expo over here). The one thing that really got me was having a mate over while we messed around with some beans he'd brought back from Brisbane. For the most part, he was unimpressed with my best shots, but when we adjusted the dose/grind to a point where I was finding them undesirably bright/acidic, he was in heaven.

        That's why I laugh when people talk about the best anything in coffee; on the consumer side at least, there's no real consensus on one thing we all actually want, besides "something lighter than starbucks*.
        I'll be in Columbus, Georgia in May for a week, spending most of my time at Fort Benning.
        Its funny how everyone has different tastes when it comes to coffee, a friend of mine loves an espresso which is bitter, so I can do a really bad pour and he is in heaven.

        Originally posted by Dragunov21 View Post
        Glade to see it's not just me... that's one thing I really miss about the EPHQs; pucks come out nice and clean in one piece.
        I thought I was doing something wrong with the VST, if both of us are getting the same result with the pucks, we must on track!
        The hard pucks were the reason I stopped using it, I thought I was getting it wrong all the time, I think I used it for about 3 months, but the hard pucks frustrated me!
        Now I know I was on the right track! It's a good reason to use it again.

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        • #79
          Hi all,

          I'm brand new to CS and home espresso!
          I know this is an old thread, but I've literally joined to say that Andy's Post #4 - while on reflection might be common sense

          has basically been my bible, and made my life complete

          so deserves a massive thank you!

          Comment


          • #80
            Originally posted by Jiimiw View Post
            Hi all,

            I'm brand new to CS and home espresso!
            I know this is an old thread, but I've literally joined to say that Andy's Post #4 - while on reflection might be common sense

            has basically been my bible, and made my life complete

            so deserves a massive thank you!
            People tend to over complicate when it isn't needed, weather it be cars, coffee or whatever in life.

            The KISS principle is a great one.

            Comment


            • #81
              It might be the beans you are using. When coffee becomes old it tends to come out more watery. For example a cafe that I was working with decided to save money by buying cheap super market coffee to calibrate their grinder, only to find that it was near impossible to get a rich crema and syrupy extraction. We then used some fresh coffee with the same variables and the result was a nice syrupy extraction and thick crema. Not sure what coffee you are using so disregard if you have tried freshly roasted coffee.

              Mike

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