Hi all,
Until last week my espresso at home has been provided by a stovetop maker and supermarket coffee (Im sorry, I didnt know any better then). I did know that a decent grinder was needed to start with, and so my wife was going to get me one for Fathers Day. However, she saw the offer for a free grinder with the Sunbeam EM6910 and asked me if I would prefer that instead. I had seem a couple of tests where a Sunbeam machine around the $600 mark came out top ranked, and so after researching these forums briefly, Im now the proud owner of an EM6910 and waiting to hear from Sunbeam re: my grinder and coffee appreciation course (a pretty good result for a Fathers Day gift, and its still not Fathers Day!)
Ive had a week of experimenting and lurking on this forum, and Ive learnt an awful lot from a number of threads. But I now have a question I would like to ask. Obviously I dont have the grinder yet, and so had to rely on some ground coffee from the local Merlo cafe - I made sure to ask for commercial grind.
However, the first couple of times I tried the single floor portafilter the pour was very fast and the pressure gauge got nowhere near the optimum range. So I tried the dual floor filter, and have gotten very nice coffee out of it all week (at least for my palate - and my guests - no bitterness at all.) Seeing how easy it is to get decent coffee out of this machine has made me feel pretty angry at the number of poor coffees I have been served in various restaurants/cafes - but thats another story.
I read a whole lot more last night and saw a number of comments suggesting I should throw the dual floor filters out, and wondered if I perhaps didnt tamp the grinds firmly enough. So I packed it as best I could with the single floor double filter this morning - and again got a fast pour with low pressure. I also had been relying on the automatic timing of the shots until now - today I saw very quickly that this was blonding after not so many seconds and so shut it down. The resulting shot had little crema, and tasted watery and what I thought was bitter.
So: my conclusion is that my grind must be too coarse for the macine. Does that seem a reasonable conclusion? Is there anything else that might be going on? The temperature setting hasnt been moved from the default.
Cheers,
Matt.
Until last week my espresso at home has been provided by a stovetop maker and supermarket coffee (Im sorry, I didnt know any better then). I did know that a decent grinder was needed to start with, and so my wife was going to get me one for Fathers Day. However, she saw the offer for a free grinder with the Sunbeam EM6910 and asked me if I would prefer that instead. I had seem a couple of tests where a Sunbeam machine around the $600 mark came out top ranked, and so after researching these forums briefly, Im now the proud owner of an EM6910 and waiting to hear from Sunbeam re: my grinder and coffee appreciation course (a pretty good result for a Fathers Day gift, and its still not Fathers Day!)
Ive had a week of experimenting and lurking on this forum, and Ive learnt an awful lot from a number of threads. But I now have a question I would like to ask. Obviously I dont have the grinder yet, and so had to rely on some ground coffee from the local Merlo cafe - I made sure to ask for commercial grind.
However, the first couple of times I tried the single floor portafilter the pour was very fast and the pressure gauge got nowhere near the optimum range. So I tried the dual floor filter, and have gotten very nice coffee out of it all week (at least for my palate - and my guests - no bitterness at all.) Seeing how easy it is to get decent coffee out of this machine has made me feel pretty angry at the number of poor coffees I have been served in various restaurants/cafes - but thats another story.
I read a whole lot more last night and saw a number of comments suggesting I should throw the dual floor filters out, and wondered if I perhaps didnt tamp the grinds firmly enough. So I packed it as best I could with the single floor double filter this morning - and again got a fast pour with low pressure. I also had been relying on the automatic timing of the shots until now - today I saw very quickly that this was blonding after not so many seconds and so shut it down. The resulting shot had little crema, and tasted watery and what I thought was bitter.
So: my conclusion is that my grind must be too coarse for the macine. Does that seem a reasonable conclusion? Is there anything else that might be going on? The temperature setting hasnt been moved from the default.
Cheers,
Matt.

) Then I got another cafe to grind me some Abrisca coffee which comes from East Brisbane. What a difference! Suddenly the needle was where it should be and the coffee was so nice - Im a novice at this but I was really excited. Im also waiting for my grinder but in the meantime will very happily buy more of the Abrisca. Maybe give another supplier a go emphasising that you need a really fine grind. Good luck!
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