[Hypno]

I just buy Costco coffee in 3lb cans for $9.99. Its pretty damn good and easy.

I'm sure there is better out there, but nothing as easy and certainly not for that price.

[DJ-Matt]

The bulk coffee at Sam's club is also decent too, plus they sell whole bean if you like to grind for french press or drip. I've been buying random cheap coffees from Amazon too, this one turned out to be real good:



$3.50 shipped.

Aloha!

[CaptainChardonnay]

Anyone ever have any experience with Breville espresso machines? I was thinking about picking up a Breville Barista Express to make lattes at home.

[Celestial]

Has anyone checked out the cafe culture in Brazil, particularly Rio or Sau Paulo?

Brazilian coffee is very famous, but I'm not seeing a cafe culture here like in America, where people sit down and such. Everywhere is either like grab some expresso and go or sit down with a waiter for like 30-60 minutes then leave.

Also interested in which cafes have the best expresso here, big fan of the strong Brazilian expressos.

[Veloce]

Lately I've been brewing coffee in Chemex filters. For a long time I wasn't a fan and that's because I wasn't doing it right.

A few tips for serious coffee brewers:

-the quality of your water makes a huge difference. I've got an RO filter, but a Brita style coffee will work fine (as far as flavor goes, I'm not talking about filtering other chemicals)
-freshness is everything. I buy organic beans from a local roaster. You should know the roasting date, and ideally you want to use those beans within 7-10 days. People look at coffee like it's dried tea; it's not. Think of it more like an apple; you wouldn't eat an apple that was 3 months old because it would be rotten. Roasted coffee beans lose their freshness noticeably after a few weeks.
-The general trend right now is medium roast, and I agree with this trend. 3rd wave coffee brought us the trend of light roasts but to me that's the equivalent of all these hoppy IPAs coming out of California. Maybe interesting to drink, but not necessarily pleasant. Medium roasts strike a happy medium.
-Temperature of your water should be just below boiling
-Grind your coffee beans right before brewing, preferably with a burr grinder. I have one of those $1000 commercial restaurant grinders but there are some decent home versions available on amazon, there are also hand-ground coffee mills for cheap if you can't afford the mechanical ones. Ground coffee loses it's aroma the fastest, if you make one change to your coffee brewing this should be it.
-Measure your coffee by weight, not by volume. This is the big one that was screwing me up with Chemex brewing. The instructions say to use 1 Tbsp per 5 oz cup. First off I don't know who the hell drinks 5oz of coffee, maybe a midget or hobbit, but a standard cup is 8oz, so I would round up to 2 Tbsp. Even then it was weak. So now I measure everything on a digital scale and my current ratio is 1:17 of coffee to water. My standard brew is 30g ground coffee to 510g water and it makes 2 perfect cups. At one point I experimented with 1:15 coffee to water and it was just a little too strong, although I enjoyed it.

[bootyhuntah]

(03-12-2018 04:20 PM)Veloce Wrote:  

Lately I've been brewing coffee in Chemex filters. For a long time I wasn't a fan and that's because I wasn't doing it right.

A few tips for serious coffee brewers:

-the quality of your water makes a huge difference. I've got an RO filter, but a Brita style coffee will work fine (as far as flavor goes, I'm not talking about filtering other chemicals)
-freshness is everything. I buy organic beans from a local roaster. You should know the roasting date, and ideally you want to use those beans within 7-10 days. People look at coffee like it's dried tea; it's not. Think of it more like an apple; you wouldn't eat an apple that was 3 months old because it would be rotten. Roasted coffee beans lose their freshness noticeably after a few weeks.
-The general trend right now is medium roast, and I agree with this trend. 3rd wave coffee brought us the trend of light roasts but to me that's the equivalent of all these hoppy IPAs coming out of California. Maybe interesting to drink, but not necessarily pleasant. Medium roasts strike a happy medium.
-Temperature of your water should be just below boiling
-Grind your coffee beans right before brewing, preferably with a burr grinder. I have one of those $1000 commercial restaurant grinders but there are some decent home versions available on amazon, there are also hand-ground coffee mills for cheap if you can't afford the mechanical ones. Ground coffee loses it's aroma the fastest, if you make one change to your coffee brewing this should be it.
-Measure your coffee by weight, not by volume. This is the big one that was screwing me up with Chemex brewing. The instructions say to use 1 Tbsp per 5 oz cup. First off I don't know who the hell drinks 5oz of coffee, maybe a midget or hobbit, but a standard cup is 8oz, so I would round up to 2 Tbsp. Even then it was weak. So now I measure everything on a digital scale and my current ratio is 1:17 of coffee to water. My standard brew is 30g ground coffee to 510g water and it makes 2 perfect cups. At one point I experimented with 1:15 coffee to water and it was just a little too strong, although I enjoyed it.

The coffee nerdery in here is strong today. That makes me happy.

Veloce knows what's up though. I use same ratio and concur.

People here should also consider buying green beans (Sweet Maria's et al) and roasting your own. You can get insanely high quality coffee for ~$8/lb or so roasted.

[bootyhuntah]

(03-10-2018 09:04 AM)Celestial Wrote:  

Has anyone checked out the cafe culture in Brazil, particularly Rio or Sau Paulo?

Brazilian coffee is very famous, but I'm not seeing a cafe culture here like in America, where people sit down and such. Everywhere is either like grab some expresso and go or sit down with a waiter for like 30-60 minutes then leave.

Also interested in which cafes have the best expresso here, big fan of the strong Brazilian expressos.

Check link in my sig. There's a couple notable spots.

[CaptainChardonnay]

Any thoughts on at home espresso machines Veloce?

[churros]

I experimented with an aeropress for a while, but wasn't too happy with it. Too much work, and the coffee at the end was just decent, I thought. I went back to a stovetop moca.

[Veloce]

(03-12-2018 09:25 PM)CaptainChardonnay Wrote:  

Any thoughts on at home espresso machines Veloce?

Not really, the only one I've used was a Breville, which did a fantastic job. I don't own one myself though and don't have enough experience with them to give you an informed opinion.

[bootyhuntah]

(03-12-2018 09:25 PM)CaptainChardonnay Wrote:  

Any thoughts on at home espresso machines Veloce?

What's your price range?

[CaptainChardonnay]

I was looking at Breville/Delonghi machines and was going to buy them off craigslist. I found a 700 dollar machine for 250 so some pretty good deals so far on there. Price range would be around 300 for the espresso machine and grinder.

So far I've been looking at the Breville duo temp or infuser, and the Delonghi dedica along with a Breville grinder

[bootyhuntah]

(03-13-2018 02:46 PM)CaptainChardonnay Wrote:  

I was looking at Breville/Delonghi machines and was going to buy them off craigslist. I found a 700 dollar machine for 250 so some pretty good deals so far on there. Price range would be around 300 for the espresso machine and grinder.

So far I've been looking at the Breville duo temp or infuser, and the Delonghi dedica along with a Breville grinder

So your price range is $300 for the both?

That's a little on the low end to be honest. If you want to do it right, I'd say you're in for $750-$1000 if you can find a good condition used machine and a new good grinder.

One big area where people go wrong with espresso is going too cheap on the grinder. That's arguably more important than the espresso machine up to a certain point.

Right now on my radar is the Baratza Sette 270, but they also have a cheaper version the Sette 30.

Spending money on a grinder is important for a few reasons. Good espresso is highly sensitive to grind consistency, among other things. A very small change in grind consistency (or dose) makes a very large difference in espresso outcome. Additionally, a lot of grinders retain a considerable amount of coffee grounds within the burr set and the internals of the unit after grinding. For the at-home barista, it's important to buy a grinder that does not hold much leftover coffee there. In many cases, you can grind out enough coffee for a shot of which half or more of the ground coffee for your shot has been sitting there within the internals of the grinder getting stale all night. Another reason why I recommended the Baratza Sette is that you wont have to worry about ground coffee wastage as less than 1g of ground espresso will remain within the burr set after / in between grinding.

Now would probably be a good time to ask what kind of beans are you going to put through your espresso machine? If you're gonna put through your 8 O'clock Coffee espresso blend then I'd say it doesn't really matter what you buy machine/grinder-wise because your espresso will not taste good regardless....

Regarding espresso machines a few respectable ones are the Breville Dual Boiler, Nuova Simonelli Oscar and/or Oscar II, and probably the one that I'll end up buying eventually is the La Spaziale Vivaldi Mini II or even the Vivaldi II.

All that being said, you can have an expensive espresso machine and a fancy pricy grinder and excellent freshly roasted beans yet still make really terrible espresso if you don't know what you're doing. Not sure where you fall in the spectrum of coffee snob/nerd but my suggestions definitely lean more towards the experienced snob/nerd.

[CaptainChardonnay]

You know your stuff! I love the forum for that. Right now I was eyeing the Breville smart grinder pro and the Breville Duo Temp Prop or the infuser. I honestly don't think I want to spend that much (your price range) for espresso. I noticed myself buying Starbucks regularly in the morning so I figured making my own lattes at home would be cheaper and not put money into Starbucks.


I found both of these together for around that 200-300 price range I was aiming for new on craigslist.
https://www.brevilleusa.com/collections/...3176701585

https://www.brevilleusa.com/collections/...2813524625

I'm also considering just buying the grinder for 140 used and getting solid beans and just french pressing a cafe au lait. I'm a total noob when it comes to coffee and don't think it would make a huge difference to me. If I go for cafe au laits instead of for latte I would buy a milk frother instead of a espresso machine and that would save quite a bit of money and won't be as much clutter in my kitchen.

[bootyhuntah]

You said the S word so I'm afraid you're on you're own from here champ ;-).

[Cr33pin]

(03-13-2018 11:37 AM)Veloce Wrote:  

(03-12-2018 09:25 PM)CaptainChardonnay Wrote:  

Any thoughts on at home espresso machines Veloce?

Not really, the only one I've used was a Breville, which did a fantastic job. I don't own one myself though and don't have enough experience with them to give you an informed opinion.

Do you have enough experience with the mythical "clitoris" to give me a informed opinion?

[Veloce]

(03-14-2018 07:53 AM)Cr33pin Wrote:  

(03-13-2018 11:37 AM)Veloce Wrote:  

(03-12-2018 09:25 PM)CaptainChardonnay Wrote:  

Any thoughts on at home espresso machines Veloce?

Not really, the only one I've used was a Breville, which did a fantastic job. I don't own one myself though and don't have enough experience with them to give you an informed opinion.

Do you have enough experience with the mythical "clitoris" to give me a informed opinion?

On the human female there are two of them, one at the peak of each breast.

[Cr33pin]

(03-14-2018 12:01 PM)Veloce Wrote:  

(03-14-2018 07:53 AM)Cr33pin Wrote:  

(03-13-2018 11:37 AM)Veloce Wrote:  

(03-12-2018 09:25 PM)CaptainChardonnay Wrote:  

Any thoughts on at home espresso machines Veloce?

Not really, the only one I've used was a Breville, which did a fantastic job. I don't own one myself though and don't have enough experience with them to give you an informed opinion.

Do you have enough experience with the mythical "clitoris" to give me a informed opinion?

On the human female there are two of them, one at the peak of each breast.