Decent Espresso Machines (DE1) - Any thoughts?

[>decentespresso]

Weber's Spring Clean, Optimized for Decent

The new Weber "Spring Clean" https://weberworkshops.com/products/spring-clean espresso machine cleaning accessory is now optimized to work beautifully with Decent Espresso Machine. We've made a 3 minute long cleaning recipe, which builds pressure gently and then releases it slowly over several passes. This flushes a lot of detergent through the group head, significantly more effectively than a standard "blank basket" could ever do.

[>decentespresso]

The Last Barista Kit

For the past four years, we've packaged up the coffee accessories I designed into one big suitcase, and sold it as a "Barista Kit". https://decentespresso.com/barista_kit



I first started designing coffee accessories for a few reasons:

1. I was learning to make better espresso, and as I did, I wanted to take what I had learned and make it easier
2. Sometimes, it was a journey, such as what I learned about tamping, moving from a focus on tamping pressure, to now being focussed on a level bed, and a level tamp
3. the suitcase looked great, very James Bond, and it was fun to go to events with everything I needed in one hightech suitcase
4. I really needed to learn about manufacturing, and have suppliers in place, before the DE1 design was finished (which would take 4 years)
5. I also knew that we had to get our sales, tech support, web site, and logistics (shipping, returns) all working well, before we started shipping espresso machines. If we waited until we had espresso machines to ship, we'd not have the time to do a good job on this vital part of the business.

In the four years of shipping this suitcase full of goodies, we've learned:

1. compact packaging hugely saves on shipping. We paid way too much of air shipping, because we used cardboard box and air space around the suitcase. When we started, it cost us about USD$65 to send the baristakit to the USA.
2. COVID doubled the cost of shipping these, because UPS raised their rates.
3. we were constantly running out of stock of one or more items in the baristakit. This meant we were frequently unable to ship the entire suitcase.
4. We tried to work around this sometimes by sending almost-complete suitcases and then following up with the remaining parts later. However, that cost us a lot in shipping and labor, and greatly complicated logistics.
5. Batteries turned into a constant problem, largely due to COVID. We've always been unable to ship lithium batteries in products via air mail, but during COVID all shippers started getting super-strict, and refusing any batteries. Even the watch battery in our digital milk thermometer, now causes the entire baristakit to become unshippable. This meant we had to remove the batteries by hand from all packages.
6. We had too many variations, with two different kinds of spouts, 3 different tampers, and Celsius vs Fahrenheit thermometers. Add "discount" kits for cosmetically challenged items. This meant that every order had to packed as the order came, and that's inefficient. It was also a incredibly hard to track all those variations.
7. People didn't seem to value the baristakit suitcase are rarely photographed in social media, unlike the DE1 suitcase, which gets lots of visibility.
8. Shipping these items without the suitcase is hugely less expensive.
9. Overall, I'd say the suitcase costs us over $100 in costs in shipping and materials cost, and that's to the USA. Shipping to other locations made the price more like $150.
10. I don't think people found the suitcase added $100 to $150 of value for them, so it wasn't a good way for us to spend money.
11. So, with these last barista kit suitcases, we now end this product.
12. We'll continue to sell the discounted bundled of products known as the baristakit (it's about 30% off from buying individually) but we won't do a suitcase again.

We're still selling the tamping kit with suitcase https://decentespresso.com/tamper until the stock of suitcases runs out, and then we'll stop that too. It has no batteries, and no thermometer or milk jugs, so all in all, fewer variations. And we packaged it up in a air-bubble envelope, so shipping costs are much more under control.

-john

[>decentespresso]

Live view of all Decent Espresso Stock

The Decent Queue page:
https://decentespresso.com/queue

now has public, live links to the Showroom (new, full price espresso machines) and the Bazaar (discounted espresso machines)

All those who buy a new machine from us receive an invitation to choose their machine. Every machine, even the perfect ones, has a 360º 4k video of that machine, as well as a video of the calibration and testing, and a text file of the tests.

You can also ask any question you have about any machine, and my staff will answer you there, with the entire discussion visible to any who looks at that machine.

People often ask questions like "did I see a defect at 0:12 in the video, on the group head?" or "the steam on this machine has lower pressure than others, why?"

These live inventory links will also let you understand exactly what models and options are currently available. For example, we have no "mirror lip" DE1XL models in stock at the moment, only DE1XL mirror panels with minor flaws are in stock. This week we'll finish building 80 DE1XL with mirror lips, and those machines appear in those live views.

My goal is to continue to be as transparent as possible.

As our queue shrinks and we sell machines more and more from stock, I'll continue to improve this feature, with the eventual goal of being able to show non-customers the videos and other details of every machine in stock. That will take some programming work on my part, which is why it's not yet done. At the moment, only buyers have access to all information about every machine in stock.

-john

[>decentespresso]

Dashi on a Decent

In this video, DE1 user Masao Noda shows how he makes Japanese Dashi broth with his Decent Espresso Machine.

With the tea portafilter, the Decent can now make other kinds of infusions that require pressure to be held, but which don't have coffee's ability to hold water bank. The pressure-gated valve on the tea portafilter can do that. This opens up the Decent to new culinary uses, where high temperature and pressure might help extract more from from flavorsome materials.

[>decentespresso]

Picture-in-picture, Coffee Visualizer, and the coming extensions

I made a short video about the picture-in-picture DE1 mod that Johanna did:

Johanna (she's a customer, not an employee) is also leading the effort to have plug-in extension standard for the de1app, and that's just been released into beta.

This picture-in-picture mod is just the sort of thing I'd like as an extension, as it's a small feature that should be made available to all the various skins people are developing for the DE1. There's a lot of activity going on in the Decent owner's community right now, around this new feature, as lots of programmer/owners of Decents have small feature ideas they'd like to do.

Another example of a de1app extension is Miha's "coffee visualiser":
https://visualizer.coffee/shots/64c3...1-b660c5877cd8

It's a web-based chart-creator for your Decent Espresso shots. The plugin that runs inside the de1app automatically uploads yours shots to it. Miha's offering a different (superior?) way to see your espressos, discuss them with others, and in the future I expect this will lead to more analysis and insight too.

-john

[>decentespresso]

DE1XL 360º countersunk and not

You can see how both our DE1XL espresso machines look in black and white, from all sides, both countersunk and not.

[>decentespresso]

I was interviewed a few weeks ago for a video podcast by John Lamberton. He's an interesting guy who likes to cover wide-ranging topics.

Instead of focussing on coffee, we talked more about philosophy of design, and the interaction between mental models and tools. These were very much on my mind when we design the Decent, so it was great to explore this topic in depth.

-john


BRIDGE podcast w/ John Lamberton
An interdisciplinary podcast with a futurist bent that features guests from an assortment of domains in conversation with host John Lamberton. Topics covered include coffee, music, art, futurism, philosophy, aesthetics, cognition, nutrition, transhumanism, animal welfare, sexuality, rationality, complexity, and chaos.

[>decentespresso]

% sales trends for each model

In planning how many DE1 suitcases to get for each size, I needed to make a forecast of what models people have been buying. Our DE1XL model takes different internal foam from the DE1+/DE1PRO models.

Some insights:

• The DE1XL model was very slow to start, and now has been taking sales away from our DE1PRO model
• The DE1+ model is very stable at 30% of our machine sales
• DE1XL sales briefly shot up, at the same time that we had them in stock. We didn't anticipate this, and ran out of stock, and ran out of stock after 5 months, at which point sales of that model decreased.

Next month, we're going to start selling a new espresso machine model. It will be the 10 amp version of the DE1XL. It's 40% more powerful, and so steaming is is faster and higher pressure (around 3.5 bar vs 2 bar), resulting in finer milk microfoam. Professionals visiting our office who try it have said that the steam feels "normal" to them, like a pro La Marzocco or Simonelli machine, though they're happy with the microfoam quality.

We're in the process of receiving parts to build 2000 machines of our v1.42 model, which we plan to build over the next 9 months. As we've made 2400 machines in our entire history, that will bring us to 4400 total Decent machines out in the world, which is a fairly reasonable number. It also means we won't be out of stock for a while, since this is a much larger run than our v1.40 run of 750 machines, which we built and sold out in 3.5 months.

In September, we'll start building 2000 machines of the v1.43 model, which will be virtually identical to our current v1.42 model. Hopefully we can keep our production up with demand, and not run out of stock again.

-john

[>decentespresso]

Decent Zoom call scheduled: Picking the right recipe for your bean

to join the Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8111538691...xhN3hlREJ3dz09

Meeting ID: 811 1538 6914, Passcode: 51

As always, the zoom call will be video recorded and made available on youtube later.

Time: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclo...1=tz_hkt&p2=22 4&p3=179&p4=152

[>decentespresso]

R&D fluid dynamic simulation of next-gen mixing chamber

Here is a look into our long-term R&D process. We've given Ben and Ray a full year (up to 2 years) to work on difficult problems before needing to ship anything new. Our current v1.4 models don't have any major negatives, so instead of tinkering, we want to work on more substantive things.

Ben is working on a new hot water mixing system, planned for release in 2022. It will not introduce any new features to the DE1, but it does condense 3 separate parts in our current model, into one. It also removes 8 water tubes, and one of two quite expensive medical-grade flow constrictors.

This video is a fluid dynamic simulation of hot and cold water mixing. Ben is trying to understand how well the water is mixing. Turbulence, eddies, and other complicated physical aspects of moving liquids can cause water mixing to be less even, which would then affect our temperature stability.

Ben's fluid dynamic simulations of water flow onto the coffee puck, 5 years ago, led to a radically different design of how the Decent places water onto a dry puck. We believe it's the main reason why it's so difficult to intentionally cause channeling on the Decent, yet so easy to have that problem on other machines.

This sort of computerized modelling so much cheaper and faster than physical modelling, which will be done as a later step, once the computer thinks we've got something that might work well. Then we'll test it in the real world, in an infrared camera, to see how closely the models match reality, and what improvements still need to be made.

-john

[>decentespresso]

A coffee cart for the office

We've built a two-DE1 IKEA coffee stand for staff use. There are about 30 people here, making coffee in their-own-preferred way.

The image above is the sign I posted above the cart, for my staff to read (and hopefully, follow),

Previously, we used a large bamboo IKEA table, that let us get away with being messy. However, that bamboo table isn't anything I'd recommend to our clients, as it was a huge pain in the neck to cut out (due to strengthening cross ribs) and to clean.

The two-DE1 stand is something I developed for tight-on-space coffee carts, as it does give you steam-during brew, or the ability to make two coffees at once.

But, space is tight, so you have to be disciplined about what you have on the table top, and to have a workflow which manages to work efficiently in a tight space.

I've got my preferred workflow, which is circular: grind->WDT->tamp->mount portafilter->make espresso->steam milk->pour->serve cup on right->knock out spent puck->rinse portafilter in pitcher rinser->dry basket->grind

Notably, this workflow requires you to be partially ambidextrous, but the benefit is that there is no passing objects between your hands. It's quite efficient.

I've made the poster above and over the next few weeks I'll be observing how well this works at Decent, with a group of people who are decidedly not baristas (they build our espresso machines).

And I've love to hear your feedback on any experience you've had in trying to get your coworkers to maintain a coffee-making area, and to follow a demonstrably-workable way of making drinks.

Note that this cart is completely self-sufficient, with clean and dirty water handled on the cart. It's also heavy-load, with those water containers not needing emptying (or filling) often at all. This is my first time splitting clean water into "espresso water" and "pitcher rinser water" so as to economize.

-john

[>decentespresso]

Reddit "Ask me Anything" (AMA) for Decent / john

In 2 days' time I'll be doing a "Ask me Anything" on Reddit.

Announcement:
https://www.reddit.com/r/espresso/co...cent_espresso/

Which will be visible here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/espresso/

it will be at this time/date:
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclo...1=tz_hkt&p2=22 4&p3=179&p4=152

Thanks to Andrew Levenson (/r/espresso moderator) for proposing and organizing this.

[>decentespresso]

On Home Barista there was recently a conversation about or XL (aka "Pro") steam wand, and how it doesn't bend far enough.
https://www.home-barista.com/advice/...7.html#p768986

One person wrote:

Note that the pro wand is too long to be able to purge into the drip tray.

I haven't yet announced it publicly until right now, but we have a new XL (aka "pro") steam wand design coming, that resolves that issue.

Here is a photo comparing the two models



the gooseneck bend is a different shape, and the wand now angles into the drip tray.



It also makes it easier to "ghost steam" (hands free) since the tip goes much deeper into the milk jug.



We've also revisited the silicone sleeve that goes over the wand, and the clip connector is now integrated into the steam wand instead of requiring a longer adaptor.

The bad news: due to COVID induced delays, our steam wand supplier is hugely backed up, and we are completely out of any XL steam wands (old or new design) until mid-April, when the new design arrives.

Until then, we'll be shipping XL models with the standard steam wand, and then following up a few months later with the XL steam wand in the mail. Swapping the steam wands yourself is not difficult, and there's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RPBf_wp2Io - you will of course be able to keep the standard wand, and the XL wand as well, no need to return anything.

-john

[>decentespresso]

The archive of the Reddit AMA is now here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/espresso/co...o_ama/?sort=qa

I think it makes a quite good FAQ for non-Decent-owners.

[>decentespresso]

We've chopped up the video from last week's zoom, where the topic was "Picking the right recipe for the bean", into separate videos per-topic, for easier reference.

• Here's the full unedited video (1h40m): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM49i1p_VQ0
• How to make a good Allongé shot? (3m) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhdR3o0U7Nw
• Londinium: how to dial this profile in (8m) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhlxEfa2bOM
• Pressure vs Flow profile (13m) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsagEqYYxDw
• Will my shots channel less with the Decent compared to an E61? (8m) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRmc2FZJ-5s
• Is straight flow better? (8m) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYp-9R4pIk8
• Future feature: limiting flow and pressure (2m) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HhCsVWg-74
• What do I think about "pulse technology" (1m) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqtXctJKJl8
• Can water become stale/acidic in the water tank? (4m) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti9DaL_Z484
• Picking the right recipe for the bean (21m) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZFMKBG5sp4

-john