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  • In less than 2 hours: "Dial in Decently" LIVE with Square Mile Coffee Beans

    Our Youtube Live URL:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2cb3zuYeDc

    At 10am UK time, 5pm Hong Kong time, we'll be starting our first YouTube Live. We'll be dialing in two different Square Mile beans that we bought recently.

    While we haven't solved all our technical problems (we don't have all our cameras working, and we can't use long HDMI cables yet), we do have enough working to do what I hope will be an accept video event.

    After the event, it'll be available permanently on Youtube.

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      "Dial in Decently" LIVE with RED BRICK Square Mile Coffee Beans

      Live in about an hour.

      We'll be doing our best to dial in the famous Red Brick coffee beans from Square Mile.
      https://shop.squaremilecoffee.com/products/red-brick

      Red Brick is a good, every day drinking bean. It's somewhat lightly roasted, but not too difficult to make a nice espresso from. The price is quite good, and it's what most people visit London's Prufrock cafe, have drunk there.

      The URL:


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        Suggestions for the comparison page

        I've redone the model comparison page as feedback I received was often "what's the difference between the models" and "where are the specs?"
        https://decentespresso.com/compare

        The water tank size is given, warmup time. I expressed warmup time in two ways, because so many people don't use steam, and the new de1app allows you to turn off the steam heater, for faster warmup time.

        I've added a sentence under the title
        "The main difference between our models is how they look and their steam power."

        I also added weight info, and overall dimensions.

        And I've tried to use "Same as..." repeatedly to show how the models are similar.

        Very much looking for suggestions/feedback.

        I'd like to have something like "Monthly electric cost" or some sort of measure of how eco the models are, but I don't know how to do that in a way that makes sense globally.​

        Comment


        • Dialing In Decently: in 3 days, and past episodes now live

          In 3 days, we'll be continuing our "Dialing In Decently" series, with Square Mile's "Filter Blend".
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwWUOOuuZCI

          This will take place at 6pm Sunday, California time (which is Monday 9am Hong Kong time).

          We'll be trying to make espresso with a light roasted bean meant for pour-over coffee. Can we do it? Does it taste any good?

          In addition, we have also:
          - Made a 3 minute video about Third Wave Water
          - and another video about Conical vs Large Flat Grinders (Niche vs Lagom P100)
          - Color corrected and trimmed out the unrelated questions from our full El Dama episode
          - and our full Red Brick episode

          All these can be seen on the Dialing In Decently Youtube playlist:
          https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...jht5hXPDS4bNc6

          which makes a quite tidy job of all these videos.
          ​

          Comment


          • tompoland
            tompoland commented
            Editing a comment
            Love the rwo short videos re conical vs flat and 3rd wave water. Simple, clear and straightforward opinion that were easy to understand.

        • Dialing in Decently: Rao Allongé on the Niche and Lagom P100



          A deep dive into the Allongé recipe, including tips on how traditional 9 bar machines (ie, not Decent) can do this recipe.

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          • Click image for larger version  Name:	diff.jpg Views:	0 Size:	127.3 ** ID:	931664

            Thought it might be time for us Decent owners to take the load of John's shoulders.

            This pic features a recent minor mod to my DEXL1

            Anyone spot the difference?
            Last edited by tompoland; 24 October 2022, 04:32 PM.

            Comment


            • lemoo
              lemoo commented
              Editing a comment
              tablet/tablet holder?

            • decentespresso
              >decentespresso commented
              Editing a comment
              oh yeah lemoo looks like he has a tablet holder that has integrated portafilter "forks"

            • tompoland
              tompoland commented
              Editing a comment
              Dang I forgot about the sworksdesign cup tray warmer which, while not visible as such, includes the portafilter holders you can see sticking out the side. There is no change to the tablet holder. A bit of an optical illusion I guess.

              And I also forgot about the Tasmanian Olive portafilter handles.

              Sorry to be so misleading. I've had those mods for so long I forgot they were after market accessories.

              But JB decentespresso you guessed correctly. It's the powder coated white drip tray that is normally stainless.

          • Different perspective shows the cup warmer tray better.

            I think the powder coated drip tray enhances the look by softening the amount of stainless on display. I would be interested to know if any owners of black DE1s have had their drip trays powder coated.

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            • tompoland
              tompoland commented
              Editing a comment
              I probably would lemoo but I don't know what a GHC is? (Group Head Controller maybe?)

            • lemoo
              lemoo commented
              Editing a comment
              yup get the group head controller matte white

            • saeco_user
              saeco_user commented
              Editing a comment
              cup warmer or cup holder? does the Decent get very warm on top?

          • This is my setup - no aftermarket yet but likely change the group handles over as they are scratched from my puck screen.

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            • And this profile is my daily driver - I built it myself based on some other profiles I liked. It’s got a fast pre infusion, then a bloom until puck pressure drops below 1.5 (so puck is fully saturated), then extracts as a pressure shot

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              Last edited by Budgiesmuggler; 24 October 2022, 11:01 PM.

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              • Budgiesmuggler
                Budgiesmuggler commented
                Editing a comment
                I think its the Dark Insight skin, it was added in one of the recent releases.

                I could probably share the profile here but maybe Diaspora is better then others can use it too? I'll try to add it in the next few days and share a link here to where it is.

                Its a combination of two other profiles I used for a while -

                I really liked @luca's blooming pressure profile. This overcame the issue with pure flow shots because flow is much harder to be consistent than pressure. @luca's profile took the good bit of the blooming shots - the dynamic bloom at the start (which has to be based on flow) where the bloom ends when pressure drops to a certain point. This makes the puck consistently saturated. So I took the start of this shot (the flat green line is the bloom phase).

                Another one I used for a while was a Nu School profile someone sent me. This had a fast preinfusion (quickly and consistently reinfuses the puck which limits channeling), and then did a fast extract at 9 bar reducing to 6 bar (its actually a much slower decline than it appears above, I have the hold 6 bar much longer than I need to as my shot ends on weight). This shot really accentuate the high notes, fruit/acidity, but didnt give a lot of body.

                So I combined the two together and i think its a great marriage of body and sweetness - its got the fast fill, dynamic bloom, and the 9 > 6 decline extract.

              • lemoo
                lemoo commented
                Editing a comment
                have you tried out damian's dflow/dflow pavoni profiles? they are pretty much that too with really good and easy tweaking

              • Budgiesmuggler
                Budgiesmuggler commented
                Editing a comment
                Yeah I have tried those, although Damien and I like different types of coffee so this profile accentuates the bits Damien is not too fond of (acidity etc). I’m in the - if I can taste the roast it’s too dark - school.

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              Now available: custom laser etched DE1XL back panels

              We found that the laser etching machine we own, which can etch in metal and wood, is also able to nicely etch into the black plastic back panel of our DE1XL/DE1XXL machines.

              Hazard Coffee Company https://www.instagram.com/hazardcoffeecompany/ has three of our DE1XXL machines (actually, one prototype DE1XXXL too) and to thank them, I made a free sample, plus their logo looks super cool this way.

              We're offering to make a custom panel for USD$99. The price includes working with our staff to get your logo, optimize the placement and size with you. Only currently available in black. Only currently available with the DECENT logo on top, until we get a new order of back panels, which will include some with no DECENT logo on them, so that we can then do anything.

              The "print" quality is slightly "coffee colored" on the black panels (slightly brown) and also a bit "brass" colored. We can't unfortunately etch on our white plastic back panels, with the machine we have, as that requires a different laser. If there's some demand for custom black panels, we'll go ahead and spend the money on a machine that can do white panels too.

              Find it at:
              https://decentespresso.com/accessories​

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              • Click image for larger version

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                Using a Calendar Subscription to announce Decent Live Events


                Deep dive into Rao's "Filter 2.1" (using Square Mile's Filter Roast and El Dama). . .


                It's my intention to film most of our videos live, and invite people to join in with questions.
                • Not just "Dial In Decently" (one hour shows)
                • but also the shorter "How To" videos like "How to control pressure in real-time with the group head"
                • or even "How to clean the uptake water filter" (fascinating!)
                • So that our videos can benefit from relevant questions, as we're filming
                I can't be constantly announcing every video schedule to social media, as everyone will get tired of it. So, instead, I'd like to recommend that people subscribe to our "Decent Live" using Google Calendar or iCal. That way, if you're interested, you can see the events as they get scheduled, on your calendar, and ask for notification when they're about to happen.

                I'd like to make this as easy as possible, and that's where I'm asking for your help.
                • If you can advise on "best practice" to enable people to smoothly subscribe to our calendar, that'd be super helpful
                • Our Google Calendar URL:
                • Our Apple iCal URL:
                  • https://calendar.google.com/calendar...aa353f271b7ff3 4c759237706f9f%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
                  • Subscribing on iCal currently requires you to use iCal to click "File/New Calendar Subscription" and choosing something more frequent than weekly refreshes




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                • tompoland
                  tompoland commented
                  Editing a comment
                  Can't help with best practice but great idea.

                  Are those links broken?

                • decentespresso
                  >decentespresso commented
                  Editing a comment
                  Yeah, the forum software broke the links, lemee fix that.

              • Now with actually-working links:

                - Our Google Calendar URL:
                - Google automatically gives you a subscribe popup, which is helpful.
                - https://tinyurl.com/decent-live-gcal

                - Our Apple iCal URL:
                - Subscribing on iCal currently requires you to use iCal to click "File/New Calendar Subscription" and choosing something more frequent than weekly refreshes
                - https://tinyurl.com/decent-live-ical​





                Comment


                • tompoland
                  tompoland commented
                  Editing a comment
                  Still getting the sync error message when using the gcal app. Probably a local issue?

                • tompoland
                  tompoland commented
                  Editing a comment
                  decentespresso I went into the settings of the Decent calander within the gcal app and saw that "sync" was turned off. I turned it on and the Decent events now appear automatically and I don't think hitting refresh will be required but I'll keep an eye out. Jusf confirming that he latest Nov 2 event also appears.

                • decentespresso
                  >decentespresso commented
                  Editing a comment
                  That's great tompoland thanks for checking that.

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                In about 2 hours:
                Youtube Live: Deep dive into Rao's "Filter 2.1" (using Square Mile's Filter Roast)


                On our Youtube Channel
                On our Google Calendar:
                On our Apple iCal:
                • Subscribing on iCal currently requires you to use iCal to click "File/New Calendar Subscription" and choosing something more frequent than weekly refreshes
                • https://tinyurl.com/decent-live-ical​

                Comment


                • Here is the episode we just filmed, covering Filter 2.1:
                  

                  
                  We tried a lot of new things with today's shooting:
                  • installed a metal ceiling rack
                  • moved from a 4 channel video mixer to an 8 channel one
                  • down-facing camera installed, looks onto the cart table top
                  • 2nd camera on Paul
                  • two mics hung from the ceiling, above our heads
                  • two lights hung from the ceiling on the sides
                  • video titling software showing the current recipe and grind settings, changing in real time
                  • beans weighed ahead of time
                  • sound dampening curtain hung in the corner
                  • I waved my arms and torso less than previously, toning down the mania and staying in frame more
                  • HDMI amplifying repeaters installed, so we could site the video editing desk from from the cameras using long HDMI cables, and put the cameras where we wanted them
                  • Balanced XLR sound output used (special cable arrived) solving 50hz audio buzz problem
                  • Consistent picture-in-picture showing the tablet screen during extraction
                  • Actually read the live questions and got to answer them on-air

                  What we got wrong:
                  • Niche was powered off (again!) at the start <sigh>
                  • Main camera overheated and shut down several times, until Harris figured out how to override the shutdown-on-overheat behavior
                  • Paul-camera tended to auto-focus to the background until Harris changed it to manual focus

                  Still to do:
                  • figure out how to use audio compression, limiting, to tamp down on audio volume when we get too loud
                  • flush text left, when right-aligning the grind settings
                  • record the session with all cameras, to a hard disk, so we can improve the edit afterwards
                  • a camera on the extraction itself, showing the bottom of the portafilter, shot liquid, cup and scale
                  • a camera on me too
                  • install air conditioning, so the camera doesn't overheat
                  • install sound dampening material on the ceiling
                  • install vertical wood slats sound dampening background that also looks nice, behind us
                  • make the sound better when Paul and I face away from the camera

                  Here are pictures of the video studio as it was today. 

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                    Help me understand what you search for

                    I used Google today to search for an espresso basket photo, and was really surprised to find the Decent was the Forum result. We do fairly well, it turns out, in the Google search results, for about half our coffee accessories.

                    We don't do well at all for any "espresso machine" searches, probably because there's so much competition, but also because I don't really know what kinds of words people might use to find a machine like ours? I mean, it's not like there's a whole "category" of espresso machines that are like the Decent.

                    I've never done any website SEO, as I felt that Google likely has algorithms to figure out that "you're cheating" and punish us for it. Maaaaybe we're doing well in rankings because we never cheated, and enough people now link to the Decent website?

                    Most of the website pages at Decent are very text and content rich, but if I hit any keywords, it's by accident.

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                    I'm willing to do a bit of "ethical optimizing", namely by writing text on our web pages that discuss what people are searching for. Obviously, people search for the word "best" <smile> but what else?

                    In the comments, it'd help me if you let me know the kind of words you'd use to search for an espresso machine or coffee accessory. I'll work on the website to discuss what you're looking for.

                    Thanks!

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