Coffee Advice

Coffee is a very expensive hobby if you want to do it "properly". If you don't have a £400 stand alone grinder then there's a good argument that you are better off buying pre-ground from a quality roaster so long as you are using them within a fortnight. I did a lot of research into getting a coffee machine and found I probably can't get a (good) coffee shop quality (espresso) coffee at home so I have to accept only having good and not great coffee at home.

I have a Pact subscription. I'm just using it with a pour over V60 making a black filter coffee. 1st 2 months are half price. I enjoy trying the different beans each month but i know I probably need a new grinder before I get the best out of the beans.

Still tempted to get one of the sage bean to cup machines because I know they can make good coffee and I do like a flat white.
 
Coffee is a very expensive hobby if you want to do it "properly". If you don't have a £400 stand alone grinder then there's a good argument that you are better off buying pre-ground from a quality roaster so long as you are using them within a fortnight. I did a lot of research into getting a coffee machine and found I probably can't get a (good) coffee shop quality (espresso) coffee at home so I have to accept only having good and not great coffee at home.

I have a Pact subscription. I'm just using it with a pour over V60 making a black filter coffee. 1st 2 months are half price. I enjoy trying the different beans each month but i know I probably need a new grinder before I get the best out of the beans.

Still tempted to get one of the sage bean to cup machines because I know they can make good coffee and I do like a flat white.
I have the barista pro and the grinder is really good on that, as far as I can tell.
 
Still often ends up much better than any ground or instant stuff though, and you can buy massive bags and get some consitancy going. Also depends on the quality of the valve etc.

It's like going from:
Instant 3/10
Ground 5/10
Old beans 6/10
New beans 7/10
Knowing what you're doing and being dialled in with Ground, Old, New 8-9/10
James Hoffman 10/10

A problem I found with Rave was that even making the same order every week or month that I would have to dial the machine in constantly, which ended up with a lot of drinks nowhere near as good as they could or should have been, and by the time the machine was dialled in the bag was half gone.

To be honest I think most people just like how fancy it looks, I've made a thousand crap coffees for poeple which I know are not "right", yet they all say they love it (as it looks the part).

I drink more black coffee now, as on a diet and don't have claories before 2pm, but I prefer just using half decent grounds for that and the aeropress.

Sorry, what does "dialling in" the machine mean? Sounds like there's a bit of learning to be done here. The price of the thing was extortionate, an AEG built in job. I was expecting a barista to be included round the clock when the Mrs told me the price.
 
Rountons are excellent, also origin coffee is really good too, they sell it at off the ground on Grange Rd just along from McDonald's
 
Sorry, what does "dialling in" the machine mean? Sounds like there's a bit of learning to be done here. The price of the thing was extortionate, an AEG built in job. I was expecting a barista to be included round the clock when the Mrs told me the price.
Dialling in means making small adjustments until you get the optimal cup of coffee. There are several variables when making coffee. Water recipe, water temperature, water quantity, grind size, coffee quantity, brew time, pressure etc. Those things will be different for every different bean you buy (can be similar if you always buy the same one).

It mostly depends on your palate though. A professional barista might be able to tell the difference between 92°c and 94°c water temperature but most of us will just have a much wider range before you notice the differences.

The difference between different beans (a light roast and a dark roast for example) can be so different that you have to dial it in when you change and that means trial and error until you get a cup you like.
 
Sorry, what does "dialling in" the machine mean? Sounds like there's a bit of learning to be done here. The price of the thing was extortionate, an AEG built in job. I was expecting a barista to be included round the clock when the Mrs told me the price.

There are plenty of coffee forums about for those who want to learn about coffee. It's worth remembering that milk and sugar hide a lot of coffee sins. That's why many coffee proprieties can get away with selling an inferior product.
 
Still often ends up much better than any ground or instant stuff though, and you can buy massive bags and get some consitancy going. Also depends on the quality of the valve etc.

It's like going from:
Instant 3/10
Ground 5/10
Old beans 6/10
New beans 7/10
Knowing what you're doing and being dialled in with Ground, Old, New 8-9/10
James Hoffman 10/10

A problem I found with Rave was that even making the same order every week or month that I would have to dial the machine in constantly, which ended up with a lot of drinks nowhere near as good as they could or should have been, and by the time the machine was dialled in the bag was half gone.

To be honest I think most people just like how fancy it looks, I've made a thousand crap coffees for poeple which I know are not "right", yet they all say they love it (as it looks the part).

I drink more black coffee now, as on a diet and don't have claories before 2pm, but I prefer just using half decent grounds for that and the aeropress.
I've had about 6 months of Rave beans and not had to change my settings once...weird how it works sometimes isn't it? Barista Pro seems to work really well with them
 
Coffee is a very expensive hobby if you want to do it "properly". If you don't have a £400 stand alone grinder then there's a good argument that you are better off buying pre-ground from a quality roaster so long as you are using them within a fortnight. I did a lot of research into getting a coffee machine and found I probably can't get a (good) coffee shop quality (espresso) coffee at home so I have to accept only having good and not great coffee at home.

I have a Pact subscription. I'm just using it with a pour over V60 making a black filter coffee. 1st 2 months are half price. I enjoy trying the different beans each month but i know I probably need a new grinder before I get the best out of the beans.

Still tempted to get one of the sage bean to cup machines because I know they can make good coffee and I do like a flat white.
The Barista Pro is a beaut
 
I've had about 6 months of Rave beans and not had to change my settings once...weird how it works sometimes isn't it? Barista Pro seems to work really well with them

That's because of the limitations of the step grinder that Sage uses, it's not sensitive enough to detect changes in the coffee bean. If you were to employ a standalone stepless grinder you'd find an improvement in your coffee and would need to make the grind finer as the beans aged. Is it worth it? Only if you drink espresso and want the best possible shot from your machine. As previously mentioned milk and sugar mask a lot of sins, but there's nowhere to hide with espresso.
 

These guys are good and they also do bery popular Barista classes aimed at people who have spent a fortune on good machines but don’t really have the expertise to make the most of them.
 
I've had about 6 months of Rave beans and not had to change my settings once...weird how it works sometimes isn't it? Barista Pro seems to work really well with them
I was using different blends, but to be fair that was when I first got the machine and I didn't have a clue what I was doing, although I thought I did :LOL:

The pro is great, but the main thing which ***** me off is that the puck gets stuck to the roof of the machine 90% of the time when I think I have it all set right. There's probably something I can do to stop that happening, but no doubt it would make something else worse, like anything with coffee seems to do. It's one hell of a balancing act for someone who only makes 2-3 coffees a day.
 
That's because of the limitations of the step grinder that Sage uses, it's not sensitive enough to detect changes in the coffee bean. If you were to employ a standalone stepless grinder you'd find an improvement in your coffee and would need to make the grind finer as the beans aged. Is it worth it? Only if you drink espresso and want the best possible shot from your machine. As previously mentioned milk and sugar mask a lot of sins, but there's nowhere to hide with espresso.
The espresso game is tough, as is the Americano too I suppose, but very rewarding when you get it right.

I'm not sure I can tell the difference between sour/ acidic and bitter (when it comes to espresso), which really does not help me adjust things, considering they're on opposite ends of the spectrum :LOL:

These days I just tend to accept that my espresso is not going to be perfect, so I chase it up with an Aeropress which is hard to get wrong.
 
I was using different blends, but to be fair that was when I first got the machine and I didn't have a clue what I was doing, although I thought I did :LOL:

The pro is great, but the main thing which ***** me off is that the puck gets stuck to the roof of the machine 90% of the time when I think I have it all set right. There's probably something I can do to stop that happening, but no doubt it would make something else worse, like anything with coffee seems to do. It's one hell of a balancing act for someone who only makes 2-3 coffees a day.

You're overdosing the basket, so reduce it by 1 or 2 grams and then grind finer to compensate.
 
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