Hate my Gaggia Classic

[Steve82]

You hate your classic? I would say it hates you more for feeding it crap.

As others have said get some fresh beans, get a grinder, learn or fine tune your techniques and you will produces pretty good espresso on the classic.

I have been using a Porlex hand grinder for the last year, can be had for around $60 fits in your pocket.... it does an OK job if you secure the adjustment with a 10mm nut using a spanner, but will soon be upgrading to my first electric grinder.

[reedburg]

If I have to buy a grinder, what do I buy. (Small is better – space is tight in the kitchen.)

those little conical sunbeam puppies are good!

[Johnonetrillion]

I don't think the grind is too coarse – I've played with it and the shops do it a notch finer than they would do for any other home espresso machine.

<2 mins? Seriously? I'll have to work on riding home from the coffee roasters a bit faster then!

All the above makes sense, except my benchmark is that old Novitalia machine that had the goods day in and day out and was not too worried about the exactness of the grind.

If I have to buy a grinder, what do I buy. (Small is better – space is tight in the kitchen.)

[MrJack]

Re: Hate my Gaggia Classic

Then its probably too coarse, or you are under dosing or undertamping (what tamper are you using?)

15 mins, to me, is still too old. We're talking < 2 mins.

Edit: looking back at your original post, just sounds like stale coffee.

[Johnonetrillion]

Journeyman, I just use the standard single and double filters. I get a slightly more consistent result with the double, though, as it tends to slow the pour with more resistance.

Barry, the symptoms are still there if I get freshly ground from the coffee dudes and make at home 15 minutes later. I never use the branded pre-ground stuff these days – the Gaggia Classic just pisses through it.

[MrJack]

Re: Hate my Gaggia Classic

Fresh is a few minutes, not hours. The right 'fineness' takes testing on your machine, and adjustment. Your not going to get the best result possible with preground beans.

Maybe a grinder is the solution?

[Barry_Duncan]

Get a grinder and grind on demmand fresh coffee beans from a local roaster. You will never get good coffee from that stale preground muck.

Barry

[Journeyman]

I'm a noob so this is probably a stupid suggestion - but hey, how else can I learn? I noticed a radical difference with using the double wall filter as compared to the single wall with the preground coffee crap I have tried (all I had for my as-of-yesterday arrival of my first machine) - might you have been using a double wall in the old machine but now you're on single wall? So your normal procedure needs adjusting?

[Johnonetrillion]

I've had this machine for a few years now and have never felt that I have command of it.

Previous was an older Italian machine called Novitalia – it was a cracker and would pump out espresso with good crema from a Lavazza pre-ground bricks every time. And when I bought freshly ground it was right up there! Alas, that one has gone to the barista gods.

I buy my coffee purpose ground (fine –> very fine) from Seven Seeds or St Ali. When it's fresh (hours) it's ok – but never gives out a luscious, golden, thick, syrupy crema. That's what I want.

The machine has had the pressure mod done to it.

I overdose, as is common for these machines and even when the pour is slow and fine, it is quite dark and watery. And when I get the grid done just a whisker finer it just chokes.

Hmmm. Have been wondering if I should take the thing to St Ali and ask one of the dudes there to road test it. Would they do that? Are you listening in, even?

Tips welcome.