Hi everyone, as the name implies, Im new to this whole coffee thing. Used to take my coffee with condensed milk, which really doesnt require real coffee at all to taste half decent, but since the doctors report came back somewhat negative in the cholesterol and blood pressure area, condensed milk is on the no-no list.
Drip machine coffee at the office tastes crap with cold milk and so I started trying to heat up and froth milk with the microwave and whizzer and got a plunger. That phase lasted a few weeks. Finally decided to get an espresso machine and basic grinder and not knowing where this might lead, I decided not to spend too much money this project just yet.
I got myself a Breville BCG450 grinder and a Gaggia Carezza (seeing as its a decent entry level machine according to reviews).
Ive read a fair bit about grind settings and tamping and the ideal espresso shot time (20 -25 seconds for 30ml). I find that even with the grinder setting at the finest (Turkish) and putting my whole weight in the tamping, I dont get anywhere near 20 seconds for a shot. Its usually more like 5-10 seconds and thats with the crema disk in.
Also, without the crema disk (Ive read somewhere that the crema disk should be discarded), theres not much crema.
Theres possibly a whole host of factors here, and without spending on any new hardware, how do I improve the shot time and crema (without the disk)?
Drip machine coffee at the office tastes crap with cold milk and so I started trying to heat up and froth milk with the microwave and whizzer and got a plunger. That phase lasted a few weeks. Finally decided to get an espresso machine and basic grinder and not knowing where this might lead, I decided not to spend too much money this project just yet.
I got myself a Breville BCG450 grinder and a Gaggia Carezza (seeing as its a decent entry level machine according to reviews).
Ive read a fair bit about grind settings and tamping and the ideal espresso shot time (20 -25 seconds for 30ml). I find that even with the grinder setting at the finest (Turkish) and putting my whole weight in the tamping, I dont get anywhere near 20 seconds for a shot. Its usually more like 5-10 seconds and thats with the crema disk in.
Also, without the crema disk (Ive read somewhere that the crema disk should be discarded), theres not much crema.
Theres possibly a whole host of factors here, and without spending on any new hardware, how do I improve the shot time and crema (without the disk)?
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