Hi all - not sure if this is my first post, but just in case - long time lurker, this site has already been a huge help to my coffee making. Thanks for all the advice!
So far, I've spent very little on equipment. At the moment I own a 3-yr old Sunbeam EM440 grinder ($100) and a Breville 800ES ($28.50 after replacing C1). I am getting OK coffee, but I think there might be a lot more life in the beans I have, and suspect the grinder is not grinding fine enough. I have shimmed it once or twice and got some improvement, but the grounds are now quite variable. The grounds look all right dry, but after extraction there are clearly some biggish chunks once the finer stuff has washed through a bit. Using an unpressurised basket, I have not been able to choke it or get close to 25-30 second pours. On the other hand, I am not sure if the 25-30 seconds rule applies to a thermoblock which has been designed and sized for use with a pressurised basket.
I'm wide open to advice. My questions are:
- what does a perfect pour look like on an 800ES? how long does it take, is the crema mottled at all etc? (My BIL has a Bo-ema and was getting beautiful treacly espresso from a bag of my beans.)
- if I have to buy one new thing, should it be the grinder? Will I be able to take my coffee game up another notch with better grind or will I not notice much improvement on a basic machine? I was thinking Breville smart grinder 820.
So far, I've spent very little on equipment. At the moment I own a 3-yr old Sunbeam EM440 grinder ($100) and a Breville 800ES ($28.50 after replacing C1). I am getting OK coffee, but I think there might be a lot more life in the beans I have, and suspect the grinder is not grinding fine enough. I have shimmed it once or twice and got some improvement, but the grounds are now quite variable. The grounds look all right dry, but after extraction there are clearly some biggish chunks once the finer stuff has washed through a bit. Using an unpressurised basket, I have not been able to choke it or get close to 25-30 second pours. On the other hand, I am not sure if the 25-30 seconds rule applies to a thermoblock which has been designed and sized for use with a pressurised basket.
I'm wide open to advice. My questions are:
- what does a perfect pour look like on an 800ES? how long does it take, is the crema mottled at all etc? (My BIL has a Bo-ema and was getting beautiful treacly espresso from a bag of my beans.)
- if I have to buy one new thing, should it be the grinder? Will I be able to take my coffee game up another notch with better grind or will I not notice much improvement on a basic machine? I was thinking Breville smart grinder 820.

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