COFFEE

[MrT]

In regards to the plunger, you can get VERY good coffee out of it. It really comes down to finding a method YOU like, but here are some tips:

1) Try and buy coffee that is a 'filter roast'. This means it is roasted to a lighter colour than espresso roast. You will get a cleaner flavour, and will appreciate the subtleties of the different coffees.

2) When making your coffee, the four variables that will affect the final taste are the water temp, coffee amount, how fine you grind the coffee, how long you brew the coffee for. Play around with these. If the coffee is too bitter, you brewed for too long or the grind is too fine. If it is too sour, you brewed not long enough or the grind is too coarse. If it is too weak, use less water or more coffee grounds. If it is too strong, use less coffee or more water.

As a starting point, try 15-20g of coffee per cup of water, brewed for about 2 minutes. Grind it to a sandy consistency. If it feels almost like flour or icing sugar, it is way too fine. If it feels quite chunky (maybe like hand ground pepper) it is probably too coarse.

3) After you boil the kettle, let it sit for 30 seconds before pouring it into the plunger. This will drop the temperature of the water to about 90-95 degrees, which is much better for your coffee than absolute boiling water. Same goes for a cup of tea for that matter.

4) Once your coffee is brewed, pour it all out of the plunger. If you take say one cup, and let the second cup sit in the plunger along with all the grinds, you will seriously over-brew that second cup, and it will taste very bitter.

 

[gthomas04]

I thank you kind people both. I shall let you know how the adventure proceeds.

 

[filobiblic]

Great advice from all above ^^^. I agree with it all. [emoji4]
Nice work @MrT !!!

(Only thing I'd add is that the majority of your final drink is WATER so it is actually the biggest variable that will affect taste. Try to get a Brita filter jug at the very minimum since Sydney water is shocking otherwise... Mmmm, chlorinated coffee...)

 

[MrT]

Mmmm, chlorinated coffee...)

Maybe it's because I grew up here in Sydney, but I don't notice the taste of our water. It tastes very neutral to me. I'd happily drink coffee made from tap water

 

[filobiblic]

Maybe it's because I grew up here in Sydney, but I don't notice the taste of our water. It tastes very neutral to me. I'd happily drink coffee made from tap water

That's good. It's more the point that the water is the bulk of your coffee so it's important to not neglect it. [emoji4]

 

[MrT]

Agreed.

 

[stillshunter]

Must say I like a good coffee, even more so if it is served to me - not much of DIYer in this respect. So this thread has certainly helped me shortlist folks I intend visiting to, ummm…yeah…ummm, see their razor collection, yeah that'll work.

 

[Pjotr]

Must say I like a good coffee, even more so if it is served to me - not much of DIYer in this respect. So this thread has certainly helped me shortlist folks I intend visiting to, ummm…yeah…ummm, see their razor collection, yeah that'll work.

Don't be daft stillsy. Just give in to the enabling peer pressure and join the ranks. Instead of spending vast sums in an endless, fruitless search for the holy grail of shaving soaps, start buying coffee making equipment. It's far more socially acceptable. Although it's still might be considered a little bit eccentric at least there's a social aspect to it rather than secretly disappearing off to admire and smell your stash of shaving soaps. My precccccioussssss!

 

[stillshunter]

Don't be daft stillsy. Just give in to the enabling peer pressure and join the ranks. Instead of spending vast sums in an endless, fruitless search for the holy grail of shaving soaps, start buying coffee making equipment. It's far more socially acceptable. Although it's still might be considered a little bit eccentric at least there's a social aspect to it rather than secretly disappearing off to admire and smell your stash of shaving soaps. My precccccioussssss!

When I get kicked out of the house post-last-straw-and your-stupid-hobbies along will also be thrown my camera and shaving bits and pieces…but the coffee stuff seems too cumbersome and heavy for her to throw and the various bits that need plugging in and refrigeration will make my new life in the park a little more frustrating. …though I'll still buy nice coffee when I'm homeless or get one from a more reputable soup kitchen.

 

[Mark1966]

Just for those interstate heathens - read this.

Take heart @stillshunter - we are on top of the world!

 

[Monsta_AU]

Just for those interstate heathens - read this.

Take heart @stillshunter - we are on top of the world!

Pfft, lucky my local cafe up the road from work uses ONA beans. In fact, I am drinking a coffee from there as I type this!

They are bloody good, and that is just the basic 'organic' blend. I am trying to get my local place in Belmore to swap to them but Vittoria (my preferred 'big' name over Lavazza, Tobys & Campos) keeps giving them too much cash.

 

[Pjotr]

Just for those interstate heathens - read this.

Take heart @stillshunter - we are on top of the world!

Yeah that might be so, but @stillshunter is meant to be buying his own coffee making machinery rather than spending fortunes on soap, most of which he won't even like due to his immature sense of smell.

In any case this leads me neatly to what I really want to say and that is that we've recently joined the dark side and bought a Nespresso machine. Our Saeco Talea needed yet another repair and given that it costs $80 for them to even look at it we decided to pull the plug rather than potentially spending $1,000 odd on a new automatic machine. And from experience we know that the Nespresso pods make the best coffee you can get outside of maybe one or two coffee shops we can find here in interstate heathenville. A basic Nespresso machine with a milk heater/frother will set you back $150 and if you look around and keep an eye out for big store deals you can get them for $100 and add to that the pretty standard $50 cash back and a machine will cost you less than a puck of Martin De Candre. Come on stillsy, think outside that soap filled box of yours.

I realise that having a Nespresso barrs me from joining the upper echelon of coffee Nazism but there you go. Bite me!

 

[eggbert]

They are bloody good, and that is just the basic 'organic' blend. I am trying to get my local place in Belmore to swap to them but Vittoria (my preferred 'big' name over Lavazza, Tobys & Campos) keeps giving them too much cash.

Almost every coffee shop in Darwin use Vittoria, and I haven't had one decent coffee out of any of them.

Luckily in the last year a couple of places have opened that aren't too bad and they are packed, but in general Darwin is a coffee wasteland.

Yeah that might be so, but @stillshunter is meant to be buying his own coffee making machinery rather than spending fortunes on soap, most of which he won't even like due to his immature sense of smell.

In any case this leads me neatly to what I really want to say and that is that we've recently joined the dark side and bought a Nespresso machine. Our Saeco Talea needed yet another repair and given that it costs $80 for them to even look at it we decided to pull the plug rather than potentially spending $1,000 odd on a new automatic machine. And from experience we know that the Nespresso pods make the best coffee you can get outside of maybe one or two coffee shops we can find here in interstate heathenville. A basic Nespresso machine with a milk heater/frother will set you back $150 and if you look around and keep an eye out for big store deals you can get them for $100 and add to that the pretty standard $50 cash back and a machine will cost you less than a puck of Martin De Candre. Come on stillsy, think outside that soap filled box of yours.

I realise that having a Nespresso barrs me from joining the upper echelon of coffee Nazism but there you go. Bite me!

This is where my 1970s lever machine is so much better than all those fancy electronic machines.
The only things that can go wrong are the thermostat, element or plastic seals, all of which are easy fixes.

 

[Monsta_AU]

Yeah, lever machines rock. They are difficult to get used to thought for the uninitiated.

Almost every coffee shop in Darwin use Vittoria, and I haven't had one decent coffee out of any of them.

Luckily in the last year a couple of places have opened that aren't too bad and they are packed, but in general Darwin is a coffee wasteland.

There's nothing wrong with the beans at all, unless they drag them to Darwin by Camel. I would suspect that they are not storing the stock correctly (cool dry place, not within coolroom/refrigeration) which I understand is difficult there with heat & humidity. Could be that they have put a bag in the hopper and left it overnight, come back in the morning and yuck. Plus I don't think that the Darwinians have the knowledge to pull a decent shot. It will take some Melbournians to open up shop for the market to mature.

Vittoria is good in the fact that their roasting is very precise and reliable with the absolute minimum in batch difference, plus you can always get stock. I have known Campos and Tobys to be 'unavailable' at times and can vary considerably between batches. Lavazza always has stock but seems to vary from batch to batch somewhat, more than Vittoria and less than Campos/Tobys.

With the cash rebates, discounted branded cups etc, and free MAINTAINED machines - Vittoria would be the supplier I would go with when starting up a cafe of my own hands down.

 

[eggbert]

But you pay considerably more per kilo for beans through someone like Vittoria and never end up owning the equipment

 

[MrT]

Yeah, lever machines rock. They are difficult to get used to thought for the uninitiated.



There's nothing wrong with the beans at all, unless they drag them to Darwin by Camel. I would suspect that they are not storing the stock correctly (cool dry place, not within coolroom/refrigeration) which I understand is difficult there with heat & humidity. Could be that they have put a bag in the hopper and left it overnight, come back in the morning and yuck. Plus I don't think that the Darwinians have the knowledge to pull a decent shot. It will take some Melbournians to open up shop for the market to mature.

Vittoria is good in the fact that their roasting is very precise and reliable with the absolute minimum in batch difference, plus you can always get stock. I have known Campos and Tobys to be 'unavailable' at times and can vary considerably between batches. Lavazza always has stock but seems to vary from batch to batch somewhat, more than Vittoria and less than Campos/Tobys.

With the cash rebates, discounted branded cups etc, and free MAINTAINED machines - Vittoria would be the supplier I would go with when starting up a cafe of my own hands down.

Please. Lie down before you hurt yourself.

I agree that you can sometimes get varying quality with the batches of specialty coffee (and I use that term loosely for Toby's particularly). But that goes with many things: craft beer, artisan soap, restaurant food. By the same logic you would be drinking New, using Gillette foam and eating at McDonalds.

Here is a test: roasted coffee is best used about 10 days after roasting, and should always be ground directly into the basket (rather than having it sit in the doser for a while). If your barista can't tell you the roast date of the coffee, and they aren't grinding on demand, then they aren't getting the best out of their beans. In theory it is possible to get an ok cup from Vittoria beans (they are seriously over roasted though), but usually the coffee is super old and has been sitting in the doser for a while.

Once you learn to identify the taste difference between fresh and stale coffee, there is no going back. Stale coffee has a very distinctive taste to it. On top of that, most places that use Vittoria don't have particularly skilled barristers either, as they aren't that passionate about their coffee.

(Coffee has been a hobby of mine much longer than shaving has... Can you tell?

 

[filobiblic]

In any case this leads me neatly to what I really want to say and that is that we've recently joined the dark side and bought a Nespresso machine.
...
I realise that having a Nespresso barrs me from joining the upper echelon of coffee Nazism but there you go. Bite me!

It would be cheaper still to buy a French Press or Aeropress with fresh coffee... (Anyway, it's not the expense of your coffee "machinery" that should be the greatest expense, but the grinder.)

Pod coffee is OK and convenience is its greatest strength. But the environment is getting absolutely hammered by those disposable pods cases... Even Nespresso acknowledges that fact.

 

[Pjotr]

..........Pod coffee is OK and convenience is its greatest strength. But the environment is getting absolutely hammered by those disposable pods cases... Even Nespresso acknowledges that fact.

Yeah, that was a consideration. But they have a recycling set up now. Just drop them off at the store when you pick up your next batch.

 

[filobiblic]

Yeah, that was a consideration. But they have a recycling set up now. Just drop them off at the store when you pick up your next batch.

Hmmm... "Recycle"...
Anyway, skepticism aside, does that mean you're always having to buy from a bricks & mortar Nespresso store? Seems like a nice little lock in.

 

[eggbert]

And they are trying to DRM the coffee pods too.