I bought the Aerochino 4 frother either 3 or 4 times for other people (Inc myself then gave that away when I upgraded Nespresso machine to the one with the wand) but sods law is I don't have one in the house right now. Going to use my Nespresso machine to froth the milk while I wait for it to come.
I forgot to buy beans so went last night to grab a bag off my sister in law so hopefully they're decent but I'm up for recommendations if you have any. For Nespresso I just had the purple and pink ones as purple was the most popular and pink was the fancier Columbian one which also did lungos.
I get my beans from Small Batch Coffee in Brighton and Pact Coffee.
Thanks guys, Ive got four on the way now. The tacueyo colombia beans I got from my sister in law were really not nice. Don't think fruity/acidic is for me.
Incoming are Brazil Patricia from Papercup coffee, Grind house/basic one, Monmouth Espresso and Monmouth Fazenda Do Sertão.
Will give it a few weeks and plough through. Order a few more when I'm done.
At the risk of stating the obvious, be careful on the caffeine with a new machine. Doesn’t take too many to be alert like a meerkat ( a few double expressos) or worse still a racing heart.
Monmouth also do a decaf expresso if you’re researching your favourite beans.
Thanks Joe, I know exactly what you mean. Had a double espresso yesterday morning and another midmorning before going out with friends. At lunch i didn't get a coffee, already too chatty and a third would have sent me over the edge.
These days I try to only have one coffee per day and in the AM only but it is tempting to go over with a new machine but less so with the awful beans my SIL gave us.
Whatever you do, don’t keep beans in the freezer. The condensation that forms when you bring them out will damage the bean and clog up the grinder.
Oh, the freeze or not to freeze debate.
I should clarify, I buy several kilos at a time in 500g bags. A couple are stored in the bags they are supplied in ( opaque and reasonably air tight in the dark). The rest go into sealed containers in the freezer marked up with the date label. Coffee should not be frozen more than a month and always fully defrosted before use.
New costco offer, seems a decent deal
https://www.costco.co.uk/Appliances/...m_term=Melitta
I managed to pick up a sage Bambino plus at a good price. Just need (want) a grinder now.
I have a DeLonghi Dedica and in this price point, I am really happy with home espresso.
Next step is the grinder. As we dont drink espresso every day at home, I decided to go with a manual grinder. For making 2,3 dozes, more then suitable. Getting a decent electric one is a bit more and also, there is some charm in making the muscles work...
So, any tips?What to get?Found the Timemore chestnut c2 online but feel free to help...
Did you get a milk frother? As Joe Harvey says…. Go for an induction one…. The aerocinno are good, but don’t last and can get pretty grim within a short space of time
I went tor the Severin and it’s a superb bit of kit, my daughter assured me it does great hot chocolate too!
Severin SM3585 Spuma 500 Induction Milk Frother https://amzn.eu/d/hBOVtjS
Thanks. Haven't ordered a frother yet, have been using the wand on the Creatista Pro so have two machines plugged in at the minute.
Used the Jura milk frother once, never again. Way too village.
I really like Severin (their egg cookers anyway) so will have a look. I think from memory they're quite chunky though whereas the Aerochino 4 doesn't have to be out all of the time.
Given the Creatista is not a small machine and you have the new one next to it too, how much if your worktop is taken up with coffee making machines? My wife would be chewing my ear off!
Yeah, mine isn't happy. Mostly she's mad as she thinks the Jura is ugly and I agree. Doesn't help that the Nespresso was a birthday present only two years ago.
Ignore the mess but this is the set up currently. Our kitchen has a weird extension so luckily this isn't on the side where the cooker and she doesn't need the work space. Next time she bakes it's game over though.
It looks better than I expected. The new machine is great from what I’ve read, but certainly not as pretty as the Nespresso.
Slight bias as I have the same machine, but really want a bean to cup. Having one in my office is apparently not going to happen. Probably a good thing as when the Nespresso was there and the kitchen was being done I was drinking so many without leaving my chair!
Sage barista express on offer on the sage site
Great deal and works out at £407 if you have a voucher code. VirtualDemoUK-lEqKg7U0AU
Last edited by Middo; 24th November 2022 at 13:37.
Way to village? Is that something the cool kids say?
I just suggested Severin as it’s what I use, plenty of other good options though I’d imagine…. Yes, they’re a chunk bigger, but not a daft size…. I have the occasional espresso, but otherwise I’m frothing, so it’s a well used gadget
Your Jura looks ace…. Enjoy!
I have the Melitta Solo (but the one with the steam wand/perfect milk gadget). That Costco price is good but for info, Melitta also have a section on their direct website with refurbished/returned machines… which is where I bought mine. Their customer service was excellent also (as I had an issue with the grinder about a year after I bought it). As it was a refurb it was just out of warranty but they arranged pick up, fixed it, returned it all within 2 weeks and free of charge. Can’t argue with that.
I think I must need help.
A couple of years ago I bought a Sage Barista machine. No matter how many times I tried the espresso would have a bitter taste. I must have poured dozens of cups down the drain. For espresso I now use a nespresso machine and for Americano I grind beans and use a French press. All the while the Sage Barista just sits on the worktop using up space.
What am I doing wrong?
It’s down to quality of beans, quantity of coffee, tamping and fineness of the grind. I’ll double check what time I grind for on my Sage Smart Grinder Pro and post back. I use 12 grind size.
Edit: I did a 13 second grind to get 18g of ground coffee.
Last edited by Phil Lee; 25th November 2022 at 22:36.
I found something similar with my Sage. I got past it by simply using the dual walled filter. Bypasses all the guess work in tamping down the ground coffee produced by the built in grinder, and the pressure therefore always hit the correct espresso range. Bitterness all gone.
Yeah I know the dual wall filter is in case you want to use ‘external’ ground coffee, but works for me.
After reading this I feel very low tech with my mokka pot and Passalacqua coffee 😂
Aha - guilty as charged….
That was what everyone was lead to believe. I wouldn’t do it either.
But results are now showing that some amount of water sprayed onto the beans (I’m talking minimal) will however help with clumping and therefore produce a more desirable distribution.
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Makes some great stuff
For those interested I ended up with this combo
Sage bambino plus
Eureka grinder
Just waiting on getting them out of the box
Grinder on offer here
https://www.dualit.com/products/eure...-grinder/black
Bambino plus is available for £298 if you have a Google.
I spent more on the grinder than planning, but most of the advice I have been given said spend on the grinder, that also formed the basis of going the split solution.
The sage smart grinder pro grinder has decent reviews and can be found for circa £150 via sage direct and codes.
Last edited by Middo; 28th November 2022 at 13:12.
New coffee beans in today from our local Roastery in Canterbury! No affiliation but I would certainly recommend.
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Thanks for the heads up on this grinder. I ordered last night and should be with me tomorrow. Seems like a good deal
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Yes the Dualit deal. Obviously it's a rebadged Eureka Specialita. I only got it out of the box so haven't used it yet.
Looks great BTW and I'm looking forward to getting to grips with it.
Thanks again for the heads up as its a great deal
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Purchased the Sage Bambino Plus, it certainly seems to produce a more consistent pleasant coffee with a good crema compared to my Aeropress. Still using a small Porlex mini hand grinder, so hopefully even better results once I move to a decent burr grinder.
So thanks to this thread and a rabbit hole of YouTube videos.. I have made a small step into coffee…..
I picked up the larger Alessi 9090 10 cup for the weekends - its a lovely design - though so far controlling the brew so it does not push the coffee through at lightning speed is taking some work.
Then I needed to try real beans (though I like the passalacqua I have been using… as its very convenient) so some beans have been ordered from rave with a couple of airscape containers.
Lastly I needed a grinder - now tbh for the amount I drink (which is not much) a hand grinder seemed like a sensible idea….and the usual man logic kicked in (a bit like when choosing watches). A lot of YouTube / forum posts later - I got carried away and have ordered a Mazzer omega…
Just as a FYI I ordered the grinder yesterday morning at 10am from the Mazzer website.. to my surprise UPS are delivering it today and the customs invoice has already arrived.. so that was a bit of a surprise (though a good one).
So why this one - well the usual suspects were all possibilities - C40 / Kino and 1zspresso (prob the K Max or K Plus). Other than the C40 the others only seemed to be available from one or two places in the UK.
C40 - plenty of places - found it (as I missed the couple of Black Friday deals - as I was not looking then) for £220/£235 depending on the colour/wood finish. This was the one I kept going back to.. nicely put together - not a fan of the plastic top on the handle. Good path to upgrade if I went the espresso route with the red clix
Only thing I dont get is the huge box they ship it in ?
Kino - loved the all metal sturdiness of the classic, though I would have probably gone for the simplicity, this would have been between £250/330 for a kino - the classic is very heavy - but seems to be one of those buy once never again solutions. Found one classic on ebay and that disappeared before I made a decision.
Not 100% sure on the plastic catcher on the mid/low models but at least a storage case was included by default unlike the C40 (though you are paying more).
1zpresso have way too many options… these were the cheapest of the options - the Kmax with its case was £195 - or £215 for the Kplus. There was also the J series one of which had the super small grind options.
For my current brewing (moka) any of the grinders would be great - the kits you get from 1zspresso give you all you need - I like the magnetic features and the easy external setting.
Lastly is the Omega… there is not much about this on the web - a few YouTube videos and you could say its a odd one.
It’s expensive
It’s up there with the C40 in terms of grind size
No UK resellers that I could find
Its expensive..
But this is where heart overruled head. It’s a beautiful device - I like the fact it take up little space - that the handle and bar neatly latch onto the main body.
It’s well designed - with excellent materials. I love the fact you do not lose the settings when you dismantle it. So you do not have the fiddle about resetting it to zero like some of the 1zspresso models.
It’s easy to take apart - and once striped it’s very straight forward to clean out. Did I mention its very nice to look at :)
I am no expert when it comes to burr and burr design but in this case I did decide on the “slow” burr rather than the “fast” though not entirely sure how much difference in the real world it would make.
I also went for the slight add on in cost to get the case with bean funnel and cleaning brush as well.
If anyone is interested it ended up costing about £360 all in (so shipping and customs fees) - only about 30 quid more than the kino classic.
Could this be the start of a slippery slope…… oh and whilst browsing too many websites - I did read that Mazzer maybe about to launch a single dose electric grinder which sounds like a direct competitor for the Niche - but this was only in one comments section of a Omega review….
The upside to this coffee lark is that its cheaper (so far) than watches !
cheers
Matt
Last edited by MattH; 16th December 2022 at 09:35.
^^^
I have the same 10-cup Alessi, agree, a very good looking thing. Also have the 6-cup but no longer used as I drink a lot of coffee!
Combined with my Niche Zero, very pleased with the results. Using on gas, heat at minimum setting, even turn off when coffee starts appearing. Cool under cold tap if starts 'gushing' towards end with air coming through.
Thanks - yes i think the stainless just seems to
hold the heat too well - so once the hot water goes in its ready to go !
And then when i do pull it off the heat it has had a huge amount of the water still in the tank.
But early days , its a different beast to my small 3 cup moka.
- - - Updated - - -
Thanks - yes i think the stainless just seems to
hold the heat too well - so once the hot water goes in its ready to go !
And then when i do pull it off the heat it has had a huge amount of the water still in the tank.
But early days , its a different beast to my small 3 cup moka.
I'd love a Niche Zero but need to convince myself of the cost to value benefits!
With regard to your Alessi - do you have any 'leakage' of water where the top joins the base when brewing? I use a 'traditional' mokka pot and as they screw so tightly it's not a problem. Thanks
Never had a problem of leakage in years of use - always feels very secure the way it locks (despite Mrs K trying to unscrew it once). Did previously have several screw-in pots (Bialetti and generic aluminium ones) and they were always more prone to hissing and water escaping, never sure whether it was the valve or the seal TBH.
Yes, mine always has water remaining in the reservoir, never weighed the coffee out, shall try that next time. Usually use ~40g coffee, could get maybe another 5g or so in but that's towards the limit of the Niche Zero and w/o grinding twice gets a bit messy with static spray from a full dosing cup.
Hi,
So far no issues with leakages / the rubber seal on the alessi is a large deep ring. Its quite hard to get it out if you want to clean it.
Thanks the for ideas above - now I stick it on the smallest gas ring on the lowest setting and I get a good extraction before it reaches the end of the tank!
The hand grinder should arrive today - so I will be able to try that out !
Cheers
matt