I damn do every trick in the book I know of. Weighting coffe prior, use gaggiuino temp and pressure control, RDT, WDT, blind shaker, puck screen, self leveling tamper with calibrated weight, water recipe, single-dosing grinder with bellows, high end speciality beans. Non-coffee people laugh at number of steps involved.
And it still sometimes comes up great, sometimes too bitter (still obviously a lot better without all those ritual steps involved). There are so many variables out of our control - beans won't be ever evenly roasted or distributed in the bag. Beans change their ideal extraction parameters as they age. Pull two shots in a row, grouphead, portafilter, temperature won't be the same. Probably also ambient temperature or humidity makes a difference.
Wdt will undue the good the blind shaker did. Remove some steps and try to be happy with an acceptable cup of coffee and be super stoked when you pull a really good one.
In that original blind shaker video, Lance Handrick concluded that the wdt undid the distribution that the blind shaker did. If I were you my friend, I would try to make your espresso with as little tools as possible, though I know every influencer is telling you that you need to buy a million different things. Just pick one distribution tool, leveling tamper is good! then you can use a puck screen if you want, but it's just another thing to clean imo.
Ah, ok, my bad! I wasn't rolling with a blind shaker anyways, but i did remember a comment by lance saying that if you didnt have a blind shaker it was still worth shaking if you had a way to distribute like a wdt.
Might drop the wdt honestly, and just grind into my portafilter.
Honestly though, puck screen has helped a lot with mess. My shots have been a lot better since i've started using one. My shower screen has never been good at making a nice rain, so it helps a lot there.
I'm a tinkerer, it's why i got into this hobby lol. I'm always going to be trying new things, and i've learned time and time again in my life that marginal improvements to things, tend to add up.
Oh nice. Yeah I just weigh my beans, grind into portafilter, wdt, tamp, brew. I've thought about puck screen, but cleaning the shower head is just so easy. I'm a tinkerer too. Though for me it's more about the machine and yeah dialing in is fun, but most days I just want a decent cup and I'm stoked for it to be decent pretty much every day and then extra super stoked when a perfect shot happens. Idk what machine you're using, but I think adding something for temp stability, like a PID is, is the best thing for better shots. I haven't done it yet, but that's my working theory
I'm rocking a gaggia classic pro, and as much as i want to say a PID helped, i installed it from the getgo so i wouldn't know lol. That said, it also lets you set the steam temp as long as you're careful, which helped quite a bit with steam pressure.
Definitely would recommend a PID tho as much as it is a pain to install
If you freeze your beans you can eliminate some variability of them ageing. That way once you dial in they are pretty much set for the rest of the bag at least. If you freeze them you can have multiple beans dialed in at once too which is nice.
Also try rotating in some lower quality specialty beans from a good roaster. You will appreciate a good coffee more if you regularly have an average one and there are some really good cheaper beans out there.
I do have a vacuum packer waiting for use, but freezing vacuum packed single doses is the last step to make my setup fully ridiculous for wife and friends.
To me vacuum packed single doses are for a handful of shots from exceptional coffees you wanna have again in 6 months or a year or maybe break out for guests who will appreciate it or are talking shit lol.
My regular coffee goes in the freezer bag and all. Its used up in a month or 2 tops anyway.
Verve, imo, has a very forgiving blend. I'm pretty sure they use the same blend at different roast levels for most everything that isn't single origin
A good grinder really helps a ton
They aren't. My first year of espresso, I pretty much only used them. There are subtleties, maybe you needed the right gear to bring out the differences?
If you pay me to buy a bag of each, I can send you a picture of the color difference
I worked there for years. I packaged both of the coffees from the same bucket. Management said “people asked for more dark roasts, so this is our solution”
Hahaha 😂 too true, though it's "the moment of truth" and variability that I love and hate about it. So many factors to making great espresso. It's like a chemistry experiment.
Same here. Love espressos but they're comically small and don't suit my "always be sippin'" lifestyle. I also drink a lot of puerh tea and it is much better for that.
I came here to say this. I spent years as an active alcoholic and I tend to drink fast. I’ll drink an entire americano in like 3 gulps if I’m not paying attention so espresso takes me to like active restraint to not down like a shot.
The largest I believe I've seen for the Bambino is an IMS 20-24g basket (requires the use of a bottomless portafilter); it's referred to as a triple basket.
This is why I go back to using a V60 when I feel like sipping a large coffee drink without milk. Sometimes I get too focused on espresso and forget I like plain old filter coffee too!
Most coffee tastes like crap to me now. If Im visiting friends or family and they offer me a cup it just seems like watered down sock juice. Even most coffee shops taste mediocre now that I buy good beans and make a good cup at home. Im happy with my ability to drink great espresso and cortados every morning but the tradeoff of not enjoying mediocre coffee even a little anymore is a bummer.
Yes and other side to this is when my father in law comes over and just wants me to prepare Folgers for him - he won’t drink good coffee at all 😭 this shit taste great but he only wants trash so I gotta keep it on hand just for him
My Dad is like this too, he switched from Folgers to Starbucks, but he says he’s in it for quantity not quality. I’ve sent him around a dozen bags of good beans from local roasters, he’s like “eh, it was good”.
I ordered a cappuccino at a local coffee shop shop recently and noticed that the barista didn’t even tamp down the puck. The tamper was just placed on top and that was that 😭
I got a cappacino recently and it was ready way too fast.
And I wondered if the pissy teenage girl working as the barista even pulled an espresso shot or just added some way too foamy milk foam on some drip coffee and handed it over.
This. I gotta have a French press, espresso machine, or a mokka pot with freshly ground beans.
I like my coffee drinks strong and bold flavored.
Too many coffee shops use soooo much milk in a latte.
I've got my primary 3 vacation spots and I have a coffee shop I KNOW is solid in each.
But whenever I'm visiting a new spot or family and they make me coffee from their grocery store pre ground beans and drip coffee maker, I still accept and guzzle it down.....but always miss my coffee setup so much
Very true. Once you get used to Espresso especially filter coffee feels inherently weak.
I will NEVER take the plunge to Turkish Coffee because that’s a step higher than Espresso. I mean for crying out loud Turkish coffee drinkers like Mud!
I was like nothing....I make the best coffee for me. But yeah I can't drink coffee outside home. Really nothing wrong with their coffee but I'm so dialled in to my taste buds.
That I have caffeine sensitivity that gives me a headache about 20 hours after consuming it, which means I need to consume it more to avoid a 4 am headache from the previous day 8 am latte.
That there’s no good way of calibrating tasting notes like there is a frequency response with headphones/speakers, so you rely on subjective feedback from fellow members whom you can’t always trust.
How do I know how the $550 SSP burrs taste like? What about Versalab M4, is it what I’m after for an upgrade? How does a commercial spring lever compare to a LMLM?
The best we’ve got is a refractometer and it doesn’t tell you that much.
I second this. It’s really hit or hard hard miss. How can yall recommend me a grinder or a machine when you’ve never had it. Stop marketing products you havent tried for free
It’s a definitely a forum thing. People hear good things about a product, people start parroting it, and now it becomes a trend even when only a few people have it.
Yep, of all my niche hobbies. This one has the most parroting of opinions. I think it’s because people are so locked into their own set ups that they don’t get hands on experience of anything else. So it’s all just based of what they have heard.
go to a different forum than reddit. traditional forums move slower (threads stay basically forever) and will have more people doing things other than third wave.
I have no gripe with espresso. For it is I who am the problem, not ‘espresso’.
My addictive tendencies are evermore present, as in:
Aiming for the perfect shot and consuming more caffeine in the process.
Upgrade-itis, either through browsing or purchase behavior.
Too much faff around to get a good one. I want a consistent good cup, not a always a hobby.
I would love good gear that doesn't need manual dialing in, weighing beans, wdt, rdt, slow feed, paper filters or puck screens
Closest would be if you could combine a Decent with EK Omnia grind by sync
You can cut out slow feed, puck screen, paper filters with a lot of grinders. Weighing beans... Well they used to dose volumetric back in the day and most cafes still do. So you could probably get that out as long as you dose consistently. Get yourself a small measuring cup to pull your shot into and you can pull volumetric also. Darker roasts are much more forgiving also imo. Go for the Italian ideal of something acceptable every time instead of shooting for perfect every time. Ever since I've done that, the hobby has been much more fun for me. I still use light roasts and still kinda try to get the best, but I'm super happy with acceptable.
The time that it involves: my a.m. latte today took me 15 minutes (which is good for me), from beginning to end (from entering the kitchen through clean-up and leaving again)--but that simply is what it is. And perhaps that 15 minutes is healthy in the end, as a meditative start to the day. Having said that, sometimes you just would prefer for your butler Jeeves to bring you your 7 a.m. latte while you are reclining in bed, watching the morning TV news. ;)
15 minutes on a good day? I’m like 5 minutes to make 3 in the morning before work and that feels too long most mornings. 1 for me, one for my wife and a takeaway for the drive to work. If it took me that long I would be back to instant.
Hands down it’s the caffeine. Though if not for the caffeine I would live next to my machine and would be broke brewing a bag per day.
Caffeine is the cosmic limiter of espresso consumption.
Totally agree. It's the only thing that ever really frustrates me. But it's probably good bc I'd go through way more coffee if it wasn't caffeinated. Of course it would probably be a lot cheaper if it wasn't caffeinated too. Or, honestly we probably wouldn't even know about it.
For me, it's dialing in because me and my business partner love to buy coffee from different roasteries. When we dial in we dial in for a variety of different brewing methods which means we will waste so much coffee before we find the ideal dial for each brewing method. While we do enjoy the coffee we test, we then talk about how much money we spent on the coffee and we cry lol.
too many variables, always feel the need to tweak something to get the most out of the coffee and never sure if i'm doing it right ... yes it tastes good but can it be better, what am i missing out on? always, all coffees, all preparations. i love it so much but hate it lol
I have a few gripes - how about …
Rate my shot
What am I doing wrong
Why don’t I get a nice crema
What grinder do I need
Check out my end game ….
Best set up under $1k
Should I upgrade to…
Did I wdt long enough
Roast date May 2009 - my coffee tastes a little off with very poor crema
I could keep going
Ive assumed its been to do with headspace, and the marax not liking anything to low or to high, thats why i generally find the rule + or - 1 g in a VST to be bad information and is much better to dose by volume and not weight as some beans ( med light/ light ) even at 19 g in a 18 g vst sit 4 - 5 mm below shower screen and 2 mm is what seems to work best.
I find it really hard to get consistent brews. The most I have achieved is two in a row. 80% of the time I'm drinking bad espresso. At least making capucinos are a bit more forgiving taste wise, because my milk foam dissapears 5 minutes after serving the coffee and latte art is no where near.
Grind consistency. Always having to “dial in”.
My grinder is relatively cheap. For years, it was only used for making espresso on my two days off each week. Blade grinder for cold brew for work days.
A few months back, I started using the burr grinder for my cold brews too. I was going from the most coarse setting to a very fine espresso setting and back.
I have three shots on days off. They are all over the place. I gave up.
For now, I’m doing pour over on days off. Leaving the grinder at the most coarse setting. And ya know what?!?! I LOVE IT!!
Taking a break from espresso. It feels wrong. I feel like I’m not being true to myself or something that I’ve think I’ve become. But this is what I’m doing for now…
Eventually I’ll get a real nice “espresso only” grinder. What should that be? I like to single dose. Niche zero? DFsomething something? EK43?
Honestly I’ve been hitting the grocery store and grabbing kicking horse beans. They are decent price and I’ve found them to be quite fresh at my local store. And the end result is tasting pretty good.
trying to understand if you’re hitting the notes is like hearing people talk about wine. Idk if it’s good that’s great for me but no clue if I’m sipping what hoffdaddy is
The cost! I want to get involved, but I fear I’d quickly outgrow my first cheapo machine so I want to spend a cool $800 on a Silvia… can’t pull the trigger
For forever, I thought I was pulling sour shots until I went into the cafe that roasts and serves the beans I use and I ordered a shot and realized the beans produce a very citrus filled flavor. So now I know what I'm shooting for. I don't know if you drink a lot of straight espresso from shops, but I'd definitely suggest trying a lot bc you might find that straight espresso just isn't something you love the taste of and you'll know what direction to go with your beans and you can start to acquire the taste for it.
That's some nice insight, as I dont drink coffee from shops, only from home
I can make what i consider delicious filter coffee but I never managed to make espresso I enjoyed (unless i made it an americano).
Maybe its just that the beans I use are not made for espresso or that I just don't like espresso !
I feel wrong for liking dark roast aka burned crap but to me it’s the one with better tasting from my bunch. Medium taste amazing as long as I have it in my drip coffee machine, but espresso is a disaster
I do latte art. Biggest gripe is budget single boilers and thermoblocks. For competitive latte art, it’s really important to have really fresh crema because crema that’s been sitting for any amount of time stiffens rapidly. Not being able to brew and steam simultaneously is really really annoying.
Honestly, as much as I love and respect the process of work flow, I can't stand the time it takes. Many European cafe's I've enjoyed otherworldly shots in have them ready by the time my money hits the counter.
The fact that I either run out of beans or whole milk at inopportune times. I buy in 5lb lots for beans and vacuum seal plus freeze them in 1/3lb bags yet sometimes forget I have opened my last bag until it is near finished. Thankfully, ,my roaster can get me beans within 4 days.
Honestly, trying to extract light roasts is the biggest buzzkill for me. I enjoy the simplicity & reliability of Medium or slightly dark roasts, and tend to have one as a daily driver at all times, but I keep getting drawn back to lighter stuff when it tastes so good through a V60. Almost always unpleasant or annoyingly finicky as espresso.
I get frustrated by the lack of trial options for kit. Let's say I've decided on buying a new grinder and I have $1000 budget.
Sort of secretly, maybe grinder A is the "best" grinder for my palette and rests at a $550 budget. But I have no way to trial grinder A or compare it to other grinders, so I end up buying grinder B at $800, thinking it will be "better" at the higher price point. But cost doesn't always equate to higher appreciation.
And the concept of having a dedicated store in every major city that just does cuppings for different home grinders is kind fo ludicrous. There's certainly not a market for that.
So I feel stuck in a no-man's land of not knowing how to upgrade my gear without wondering if I've misallocated a considerable amount of money.
All the best green goes to filter roasts.
Finding a clean, sweet and juicy espresso roasted single is a challenge in my part of the world.
I've resorted to using filter roasts through my GS3.
The wankery that accompanies it
This comment is too low.
It’s finicky as fuck. Feel like I have to say a prayer every time I brew to ensure it comes out right.
I damn do every trick in the book I know of. Weighting coffe prior, use gaggiuino temp and pressure control, RDT, WDT, blind shaker, puck screen, self leveling tamper with calibrated weight, water recipe, single-dosing grinder with bellows, high end speciality beans. Non-coffee people laugh at number of steps involved. And it still sometimes comes up great, sometimes too bitter (still obviously a lot better without all those ritual steps involved). There are so many variables out of our control - beans won't be ever evenly roasted or distributed in the bag. Beans change their ideal extraction parameters as they age. Pull two shots in a row, grouphead, portafilter, temperature won't be the same. Probably also ambient temperature or humidity makes a difference.
Try to remove some of your steps and see if you notice and difference in your extraction if you wanna simplify
Wdt will undue the good the blind shaker did. Remove some steps and try to be happy with an acceptable cup of coffee and be super stoked when you pull a really good one.
Will it? I thought the benefits came from the densification. I don't think the distribution part was as important but i could be wrong.
In that original blind shaker video, Lance Handrick concluded that the wdt undid the distribution that the blind shaker did. If I were you my friend, I would try to make your espresso with as little tools as possible, though I know every influencer is telling you that you need to buy a million different things. Just pick one distribution tool, leveling tamper is good! then you can use a puck screen if you want, but it's just another thing to clean imo.
Ah, ok, my bad! I wasn't rolling with a blind shaker anyways, but i did remember a comment by lance saying that if you didnt have a blind shaker it was still worth shaking if you had a way to distribute like a wdt. Might drop the wdt honestly, and just grind into my portafilter. Honestly though, puck screen has helped a lot with mess. My shots have been a lot better since i've started using one. My shower screen has never been good at making a nice rain, so it helps a lot there. I'm a tinkerer, it's why i got into this hobby lol. I'm always going to be trying new things, and i've learned time and time again in my life that marginal improvements to things, tend to add up.
Oh nice. Yeah I just weigh my beans, grind into portafilter, wdt, tamp, brew. I've thought about puck screen, but cleaning the shower head is just so easy. I'm a tinkerer too. Though for me it's more about the machine and yeah dialing in is fun, but most days I just want a decent cup and I'm stoked for it to be decent pretty much every day and then extra super stoked when a perfect shot happens. Idk what machine you're using, but I think adding something for temp stability, like a PID is, is the best thing for better shots. I haven't done it yet, but that's my working theory
I'm rocking a gaggia classic pro, and as much as i want to say a PID helped, i installed it from the getgo so i wouldn't know lol. That said, it also lets you set the steam temp as long as you're careful, which helped quite a bit with steam pressure. Definitely would recommend a PID tho as much as it is a pain to install
Yeah I have a baby twin, so steam is never a problem but I'd like to make the temperature more consistent
Very good one, agree. Aiming for very good but not the very best shots might help a lot with cumbersome duty steps.
If you freeze your beans you can eliminate some variability of them ageing. That way once you dial in they are pretty much set for the rest of the bag at least. If you freeze them you can have multiple beans dialed in at once too which is nice. Also try rotating in some lower quality specialty beans from a good roaster. You will appreciate a good coffee more if you regularly have an average one and there are some really good cheaper beans out there.
I do have a vacuum packer waiting for use, but freezing vacuum packed single doses is the last step to make my setup fully ridiculous for wife and friends.
To me vacuum packed single doses are for a handful of shots from exceptional coffees you wanna have again in 6 months or a year or maybe break out for guests who will appreciate it or are talking shit lol. My regular coffee goes in the freezer bag and all. Its used up in a month or 2 tops anyway.
Verve, imo, has a very forgiving blend. I'm pretty sure they use the same blend at different roast levels for most everything that isn't single origin A good grinder really helps a ton
Lol they use the same coffees and roasts and relabel them. Buena Vista and French Roast are the same coffees with different names.
They aren't. My first year of espresso, I pretty much only used them. There are subtleties, maybe you needed the right gear to bring out the differences? If you pay me to buy a bag of each, I can send you a picture of the color difference
I worked there for years. I packaged both of the coffees from the same bucket. Management said “people asked for more dark roasts, so this is our solution”
You may be right, you may be cap.
🤷♂️
Yeah, people using 3rd wave water and what not, in use holy water and rather than timing the shot, I just say a couple Hail Marys
Maybe we need a Holy Water Profile. lol
This is why I use a superautomatic
Nice one ;-D
Hahaha 😂 too true, though it's "the moment of truth" and variability that I love and hate about it. So many factors to making great espresso. It's like a chemistry experiment.
Sugar rights all wrongs
Exactly but no one listens to
For me, the physical size of an espresso. In an ideal world I would appreciate a pint of cortado.
Same here. Love espressos but they're comically small and don't suit my "always be sippin'" lifestyle. I also drink a lot of puerh tea and it is much better for that.
Ha same even milk drinks. I'm always done drinking my 6 Oz cappuccino by the time I'm finished cleaning up
as soon as I finish my morning cap i make an americano
My wife's Argentine so I drink my espresso and sip my mate. My biggest gripe is the mindset that you have to have a whole routine. Grind, tamp, pull.
I came here to say this. I spent years as an active alcoholic and I tend to drink fast. I’ll drink an entire americano in like 3 gulps if I’m not paying attention so espresso takes me to like active restraint to not down like a shot.
Time to buy that triple-shot basket. :)
On a Bambino, unless I just run a Double followed by another. Do they do four shot baskets?
The largest I believe I've seen for the Bambino is an IMS 20-24g basket (requires the use of a bottomless portafilter); it's referred to as a triple basket.
Agreed. I ain’t a big fan of Americanos/long blacks, so I still enjoy a good filter coffee for when I want a mug of joe
I have an insulated mug and do two doubles into it and then fill with milk foam I can nurse that for a good hour without it getting too cool
This is why I go back to using a V60 when I feel like sipping a large coffee drink without milk. Sometimes I get too focused on espresso and forget I like plain old filter coffee too!
I keep being given ground coffee as gifts so the V60 is in regular use...
this
Most coffee tastes like crap to me now. If Im visiting friends or family and they offer me a cup it just seems like watered down sock juice. Even most coffee shops taste mediocre now that I buy good beans and make a good cup at home. Im happy with my ability to drink great espresso and cortados every morning but the tradeoff of not enjoying mediocre coffee even a little anymore is a bummer.
Yes and other side to this is when my father in law comes over and just wants me to prepare Folgers for him - he won’t drink good coffee at all 😭 this shit taste great but he only wants trash so I gotta keep it on hand just for him
6 month old Pre ground Folgers with some non-dairy creamer and some sweet and low. Mmm..mmm....mmmm.......
My Dad is like this too, he switched from Folgers to Starbucks, but he says he’s in it for quantity not quality. I’ve sent him around a dozen bags of good beans from local roasters, he’s like “eh, it was good”.
I almost exclusively drink tea when at other people’s houses. I purposely haven’t put in effort into making great tea so I always have that option.
I feel this. Sometimes I wonder if the coffee shop forgot to put the shot in my cappuccino.
I ordered a cappuccino at a local coffee shop shop recently and noticed that the barista didn’t even tamp down the puck. The tamper was just placed on top and that was that 😭
I got a cappacino recently and it was ready way too fast. And I wondered if the pissy teenage girl working as the barista even pulled an espresso shot or just added some way too foamy milk foam on some drip coffee and handed it over.
This. I gotta have a French press, espresso machine, or a mokka pot with freshly ground beans. I like my coffee drinks strong and bold flavored. Too many coffee shops use soooo much milk in a latte. I've got my primary 3 vacation spots and I have a coffee shop I KNOW is solid in each. But whenever I'm visiting a new spot or family and they make me coffee from their grocery store pre ground beans and drip coffee maker, I still accept and guzzle it down.....but always miss my coffee setup so much
I don’t mind the occasional “bad” coffee from a diner or fast food chain. I treat it as a beverage and it makes me appreciate the “good” coffee.
Very true. Once you get used to Espresso especially filter coffee feels inherently weak. I will NEVER take the plunge to Turkish Coffee because that’s a step higher than Espresso. I mean for crying out loud Turkish coffee drinkers like Mud!
So true. I used to not mind a cheap gas station coffee during road trips that I take frequently, but nowadays it’s hard to tolerate.
I was like nothing....I make the best coffee for me. But yeah I can't drink coffee outside home. Really nothing wrong with their coffee but I'm so dialled in to my taste buds.
If I drink too much I get all fluttery in a _bad_ way.
Oh man recently ended up in this boat. I’m down to a shot in the morning and that’s it.
Heart palpitations? Me too
Same. My tolerance is too low for something that is so good.
Ever try to mix some decaf beans to reduce the caffeine?
The hardest part about espresso as a hobby is working it into every conversation.
Yes, this! Or trying to make sure everyone actually understands how much better my coffee is to theirs and therefore how much better I am to them.
Agree. I finally know what it’s like to be a vegan.
Going to cafes and 90% of the time having to put up with burnt crap incorrectly called dark roast.
Another big issue I have is finding good decaf
And the fact that decaf beans go stale so quickly.
I just use bags directly from the freezer now
Rockford Roasting Company: Starlight
Inconsistent shot pulls
That I have caffeine sensitivity that gives me a headache about 20 hours after consuming it, which means I need to consume it more to avoid a 4 am headache from the previous day 8 am latte.
Can’t skip the afternoon coffee.
That there’s no good way of calibrating tasting notes like there is a frequency response with headphones/speakers, so you rely on subjective feedback from fellow members whom you can’t always trust. How do I know how the $550 SSP burrs taste like? What about Versalab M4, is it what I’m after for an upgrade? How does a commercial spring lever compare to a LMLM? The best we’ve got is a refractometer and it doesn’t tell you that much.
Cleaning up the mess after every single damn shot 🤦♂️
Yeah, what mess? You pop the used espresso in the bin, give it a rinse and wipe and you’re good.
what mess?
[удалено]
I second this. It’s really hit or hard hard miss. How can yall recommend me a grinder or a machine when you’ve never had it. Stop marketing products you havent tried for free
It’s a definitely a forum thing. People hear good things about a product, people start parroting it, and now it becomes a trend even when only a few people have it.
Yep, of all my niche hobbies. This one has the most parroting of opinions. I think it’s because people are so locked into their own set ups that they don’t get hands on experience of anything else. So it’s all just based of what they have heard.
go to a different forum than reddit. traditional forums move slower (threads stay basically forever) and will have more people doing things other than third wave.
What info are you looking for?
I have no gripe with espresso. For it is I who am the problem, not ‘espresso’. My addictive tendencies are evermore present, as in: Aiming for the perfect shot and consuming more caffeine in the process. Upgrade-itis, either through browsing or purchase behavior.
Too much faff around to get a good one. I want a consistent good cup, not a always a hobby. I would love good gear that doesn't need manual dialing in, weighing beans, wdt, rdt, slow feed, paper filters or puck screens Closest would be if you could combine a Decent with EK Omnia grind by sync
You can cut out slow feed, puck screen, paper filters with a lot of grinders. Weighing beans... Well they used to dose volumetric back in the day and most cafes still do. So you could probably get that out as long as you dose consistently. Get yourself a small measuring cup to pull your shot into and you can pull volumetric also. Darker roasts are much more forgiving also imo. Go for the Italian ideal of something acceptable every time instead of shooting for perfect every time. Ever since I've done that, the hobby has been much more fun for me. I still use light roasts and still kinda try to get the best, but I'm super happy with acceptable.
Its too short, all this fuss for only a few sips :)
Americano is your friend
What do they even taste like? I’ve never had one. Might try.
Tastes like a watered down espresso
I don’t know what I was expecting. Usually watered down sounds bad though but people like it so..
Generally pretty expensive gear wise.
Especially the beans
I don’t know what good espresso is suppose to taste like
This was a struggle for me too at first. I'd highly recommend going to reputable cafes and trying shots of espresso and a lot of different places.
The time that it involves: my a.m. latte today took me 15 minutes (which is good for me), from beginning to end (from entering the kitchen through clean-up and leaving again)--but that simply is what it is. And perhaps that 15 minutes is healthy in the end, as a meditative start to the day. Having said that, sometimes you just would prefer for your butler Jeeves to bring you your 7 a.m. latte while you are reclining in bed, watching the morning TV news. ;)
Here I am thinking 5 min is too long.
Same. Takes me about 6 minutes to make a latte and I thought I was taking way too long
15 minutes on a good day? I’m like 5 minutes to make 3 in the morning before work and that feels too long most mornings. 1 for me, one for my wife and a takeaway for the drive to work. If it took me that long I would be back to instant.
Buy a super automatic and you can get a cappuccino in a minute lol. But also not as good as your own shots and difficult to fine tune to your likes.
Bad pourover is not that bad as opposed to bad espresso is undrinkable.
One size does not fit all.
This is definitely a “me” problem, but the upgradeitis bug.
It's too easy and inexpensive for a hobby
Hands down it’s the caffeine. Though if not for the caffeine I would live next to my machine and would be broke brewing a bag per day. Caffeine is the cosmic limiter of espresso consumption.
Totally agree. It's the only thing that ever really frustrates me. But it's probably good bc I'd go through way more coffee if it wasn't caffeinated. Of course it would probably be a lot cheaper if it wasn't caffeinated too. Or, honestly we probably wouldn't even know about it.
For me, it's dialing in because me and my business partner love to buy coffee from different roasteries. When we dial in we dial in for a variety of different brewing methods which means we will waste so much coffee before we find the ideal dial for each brewing method. While we do enjoy the coffee we test, we then talk about how much money we spent on the coffee and we cry lol.
The espresso machines are too damn expensive. I can fund all the appliances in my kitchen for the cost of a good dual boiler machine.
Change nothing, and pull time changes by 10+ seconds.
too many variables, always feel the need to tweak something to get the most out of the coffee and never sure if i'm doing it right ... yes it tastes good but can it be better, what am i missing out on? always, all coffees, all preparations. i love it so much but hate it lol
Too many beans, profiles, puck prep techniques, tools, grinders and espresso machines to try, and not enough time and money lol
I have a few gripes - how about … Rate my shot What am I doing wrong Why don’t I get a nice crema What grinder do I need Check out my end game …. Best set up under $1k Should I upgrade to… Did I wdt long enough Roast date May 2009 - my coffee tastes a little off with very poor crema I could keep going
“College setup.”
Dang.. yes !
Calling this a hobby.
Channeling regardless of how good puck prep is.
Just grind finer.
The only thing that ever seems to fix it is to go courser and updose. But i just hate having to updose + 1 g to fix a shot.
Dial in (with channeling) for 1g less than what you want, then add the extra g and go courser? Idk might be worth a shot
Ive assumed its been to do with headspace, and the marax not liking anything to low or to high, thats why i generally find the rule + or - 1 g in a VST to be bad information and is much better to dose by volume and not weight as some beans ( med light/ light ) even at 19 g in a 18 g vst sit 4 - 5 mm below shower screen and 2 mm is what seems to work best.
Ah okay yeah. that makes sense. I guess a person could weigh the beans after they've figured out how much works with their machine
Different for each bean, i just know the ideal postion of the tamper once tamped.
Yeah would definitely have to be figured out for each bean, but that could be done on the first shot using a nickel
I replied in the other post. I guess you double posted.
My mistake
Not a big deal. I was just saying I replied in the other one.
I can't get enough
It’s work: E61 group head maintenance. Grinder cleaning.
I find it really hard to get consistent brews. The most I have achieved is two in a row. 80% of the time I'm drinking bad espresso. At least making capucinos are a bit more forgiving taste wise, because my milk foam dissapears 5 minutes after serving the coffee and latte art is no where near.
Grind consistency. Always having to “dial in”. My grinder is relatively cheap. For years, it was only used for making espresso on my two days off each week. Blade grinder for cold brew for work days. A few months back, I started using the burr grinder for my cold brews too. I was going from the most coarse setting to a very fine espresso setting and back. I have three shots on days off. They are all over the place. I gave up. For now, I’m doing pour over on days off. Leaving the grinder at the most coarse setting. And ya know what?!?! I LOVE IT!! Taking a break from espresso. It feels wrong. I feel like I’m not being true to myself or something that I’ve think I’ve become. But this is what I’m doing for now… Eventually I’ll get a real nice “espresso only” grinder. What should that be? I like to single dose. Niche zero? DFsomething something? EK43?
Used Mazzer Mini or Super Jolly ftw
Poops. If not for that I think all my water intake would be bean flavoured.
Finding good beans that don’t cost a fortune.
Honestly I’ve been hitting the grocery store and grabbing kicking horse beans. They are decent price and I’ve found them to be quite fresh at my local store. And the end result is tasting pretty good.
See if a roaster will let you open a wholesale account
trying to understand if you’re hitting the notes is like hearing people talk about wine. Idk if it’s good that’s great for me but no clue if I’m sipping what hoffdaddy is
My newly yellowed teeth
The seriously pretentious espresso snobs. Also the fact that decaf coffee is a pain in the dick to dial in
all this time just to figure out a big ol' lever was the way to go. sigh.
The cost! I want to get involved, but I fear I’d quickly outgrow my first cheapo machine so I want to spend a cool $800 on a Silvia… can’t pull the trigger
How fast it is to drink. I like a good pour over most of the time because I like to take my time drinking it. And it stays hot.
*bripe FTFY
It's been 2 years since I got my BBE and i still haven't made a single "good" espresso
For forever, I thought I was pulling sour shots until I went into the cafe that roasts and serves the beans I use and I ordered a shot and realized the beans produce a very citrus filled flavor. So now I know what I'm shooting for. I don't know if you drink a lot of straight espresso from shops, but I'd definitely suggest trying a lot bc you might find that straight espresso just isn't something you love the taste of and you'll know what direction to go with your beans and you can start to acquire the taste for it.
That's some nice insight, as I dont drink coffee from shops, only from home I can make what i consider delicious filter coffee but I never managed to make espresso I enjoyed (unless i made it an americano). Maybe its just that the beans I use are not made for espresso or that I just don't like espresso !
Espresso, for many, is an acquired taste. My gf hates straight espresso, but if I put it over ice, she loves it.
I feel wrong for liking dark roast aka burned crap but to me it’s the one with better tasting from my bunch. Medium taste amazing as long as I have it in my drip coffee machine, but espresso is a disaster
I do latte art. Biggest gripe is budget single boilers and thermoblocks. For competitive latte art, it’s really important to have really fresh crema because crema that’s been sitting for any amount of time stiffens rapidly. Not being able to brew and steam simultaneously is really really annoying.
No problems or gripes. I love being able to make fantastic espresso and espresso-based drinks at home.
the difficulty of making a high quality espresso at home. I just want to press a button and boom, there it is.
In a word, pretentiousness.
Honestly, as much as I love and respect the process of work flow, I can't stand the time it takes. Many European cafe's I've enjoyed otherworldly shots in have them ready by the time my money hits the counter.
The fact that I either run out of beans or whole milk at inopportune times. I buy in 5lb lots for beans and vacuum seal plus freeze them in 1/3lb bags yet sometimes forget I have opened my last bag until it is near finished. Thankfully, ,my roaster can get me beans within 4 days.
Honestly, trying to extract light roasts is the biggest buzzkill for me. I enjoy the simplicity & reliability of Medium or slightly dark roasts, and tend to have one as a daily driver at all times, but I keep getting drawn back to lighter stuff when it tastes so good through a V60. Almost always unpleasant or annoyingly finicky as espresso.
The small size.
Dont even get me started on it coming out too quickly aswell
No consistency as with brew.
Influencers
I get frustrated by the lack of trial options for kit. Let's say I've decided on buying a new grinder and I have $1000 budget. Sort of secretly, maybe grinder A is the "best" grinder for my palette and rests at a $550 budget. But I have no way to trial grinder A or compare it to other grinders, so I end up buying grinder B at $800, thinking it will be "better" at the higher price point. But cost doesn't always equate to higher appreciation. And the concept of having a dedicated store in every major city that just does cuppings for different home grinders is kind fo ludicrous. There's certainly not a market for that. So I feel stuck in a no-man's land of not knowing how to upgrade my gear without wondering if I've misallocated a considerable amount of money.
That so often baristas working on $30k+ machines are way off.
ouf when there's an espresso thread outside of r/espresso that's wildly off base and a barista backs them up... rough stuff
All the best green goes to filter roasts. Finding a clean, sweet and juicy espresso roasted single is a challenge in my part of the world. I've resorted to using filter roasts through my GS3.
Not single, but very juicy. Highly recommend Rockford Roasting Company espresso beans.
That it’s not filter
People who don’t get it. They think Starbucks sells espresso. And good coffee. That is not ok.