Any coffee/espresso nerds on here?

[Rusty Nails]

Yes those were the ones I was thinking of.

I remember one or two in London in the very late 70s.

Seriously ahead of their time in a way - could have coined it in age of the latte/frappucino/crapuccino.

Me? i prefer a decent hit of caffeine.

The trouble is a bar mainly selling espressos to commuters and local workers like they have in Italy wouldn't survive for very long in the UK. Cafes need customers to survive. When I'm in Italy I either have espressos or coffee with hot milk served in separate cups, much better value than cappuccinos and you set your own strength

Coffee threads can become as pretentious as beer and wine threads, can't they.

 

[Blue Hills]

In my defence rusty, I don't think I'm being pretentious - I just like I good strong hit.

I can reassure you that I have no intention of roasting my own beans/getting anyone else to custom roast for me.

I very often pick up cheap 1kg or 1.2kg bags of beans from Lidl with my cheap veg and cider.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

I’ve been using Lavazza Rosso beans with a DeLonghi Bean to Cup machine for almost a decade now and fancy a change.

Where do you buy your beans from? Looking on their site I can only buy 1/2kg at £6 or 6kg for £52

Trouble is the 1/2kg incurs a £4.25 postage fee which is a bit steep.

Exactly there - we get through about 6x250g beans pcm, so I order 12 bags per delivery, equiv to a delivery charge per bag of about 30-40p, which I suck up because I rate their coffee as something of a bargain - their Sumatran or Costa Rica is in the second hopper of our B2C machine at all times, too

 

[Rusty Nails]

In my defence rusty, I don't think I'm being pretentious - I just like I good strong hit.

I can reassure you that I have no intention of roasting my own beans/getting anyone else to custom roast for me.

I very often pick up cheap 1kg or 1.2kg bags of beans from Lidl with my cheap veg and cider.

Sorry, I was mocking my own response.

 

[SheilaH]

coffeecompass.co.uk is well worth a look. You can make a small saving on espresso blends by getting their 3-pack espresso trial, which allows a choice of 3 bags from about 8 or 9 different blends. The Jampit hit is great for flat whites.

For pure ristrettos, ie. what you'll get in any bar/cafe in Italy, you need a touch of robusta for the body and taste. Some hate it and see it as a defect but I quite like it, and to that end tkmaxx is great for cheap 1kg bags of Italian bar coffee. You've got to do your research though because some of it is pure shite.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

In Spain, I asked for an Americano and basically got a very large Lungo. I've tried to get the same at coffee shops here but I just get blank stares. In Starbucks I tell them to press the L button on their machine but it's just like a double espresso I get. Is there a term I'm missing?

 

[alecstilleyedye]

In Spain, I asked for an Americano and basically got a very large Lungo. I've tried to get the same at coffee shops here but I just get blank stares. In Starbucks I tell them to press the L button on their machine but it's just like a double espresso I get. Is there a term I'm missing?

ask for a double shot

 

[MntnMan62]

But you can suppress some of the flavours you want and concentrate some of the flavours you don't want.

Good coffee the drink starts with good coffee the beans. Big brands are not good coffee - they are commodities blended down to a price for a bland consistency. They are the McDonald's of coffee.

If you start with good beans, roast them carefully (better done by a pro), use them within a couple of weeks and grind them shortly before making the drink you can't go far wrong. Everything else is just flimflam.

I agree that good coffee starts with good beans. And good coffee also is highly dependent upon what you do with those beans. Namely, the quality of the grinder.

But I'd be interested to know what you mean about suppressing or concentrating favors. I know light roasts tend to need water as close to boiling as possible.

 

[slowmotion]

But you can suppress some of the flavours you want and concentrate some of the flavours you don't want.

Good coffee the drink starts with good coffee the beans. Big brands are not good coffee - they are commodities blended down to a price for a bland consistency. They are the McDonald's of coffee.

If you start with good beans, roast them carefully (better done by a pro), use them within a couple of weeks and grind them shortly before making the drink you can't go far wrong. Everything else is just flimflam.

Being a bit of a savage, I'm quite content with Tesco's ground coffee that costs about £15 a kilo but I do appreciate there might be a whole other world of delights out there. Last night I was thinking of getting a Krups burr grinder and idly wondered where to get some beans from. I was a bit shocked to see that some chi chi London suppliers charge £200 a kilo for some beans. Not quite my league really. Can you recommend a bean supplier? Thanks.

 

[srw]

Being a bit of a savage, I'm quite content with Tesco's ground coffee that costs about £15 a kilo but I do appreciate there might be a whole other world of delights out there. Last night I was thinking of getting a Krups burr grinder and idly wondered where to get some beans from. I was a bit shocked to see that some chi chi London suppliers charge £200 a kilo for some beans. Not quite my league really. Can you recommend a bean supplier? Thanks.

Coffee is just about the only thing I drink during the day, other than water. It comes plopping through the door three times a week from pactcoffee.com - probably not the cheapest way to get it, but it's good quality and freshly roasted. It's noticeable that on the odd occasion we don't get to a bag for a week or so it espresses differently than when it's completely fresh. It's also much fresher than anything the supermarket will sell. The plan I've got is a mixture of blends and single origin coffees.

I've got a discount code if anyone wants to try it - use the PM facility to get in touch.

Union coffee also do a mail order service, but our local postal delivery person didn't manage to get the box through the postbox so we were having to pick it up.

But I'd be interested to know what you mean about suppressing or concentrating favors. I know light roasts tend to need water as close to boiling as possible.

It's not really my field, but as I understand it the flavours in coffee are volatile oils which evaporate at different temperatures. Some of them - the ones you probably want to retain - evaporate at nearly 100C. So you need to keep the water under that temperature to retain the flavour in the mug rather than lose it to the atmosphere.

Of course, I could be talking utter nonsense.

 

[HMS_Dave]

Being a bit of a savage, I'm quite content with Tesco's ground coffee that costs about £15 a kilo but I do appreciate there might be a whole other world of delights out there. Last night I was thinking of getting a Krups burr grinder and idly wondered where to get some beans from. I was a bit shocked to see that some chi chi London suppliers charge £200 a kilo for some beans. Not quite my league really. Can you recommend a bean supplier? Thanks.

I wouldn't pay that for beans. Far from being some sort of coffee connoisseur, just like Genesis, i know what i like and i like what i know... I pay no more than about £20-£25 for a KG of Beans. I generally shop about online, but places like Amazon are not uncommon for me to buy from...

 

[MntnMan62]

Union coffee also do a mail order service, but our local postal delivery person didn't manage to get the box through the postbox so we were having to pick it up.



It's not really my field, but as I understand it the flavours in coffee are volatile oils which evaporate at different temperatures. Some of them - the ones you probably want to retain - evaporate at nearly 100C. So you need to keep the water under that temperature to retain the flavour in the mug rather than lose it to the atmosphere.

Of course, I could be talking utter nonsense.

Ok. Yes, I agree with what you said then. But I guess you also didn't watch Hoffmann's video. The hottest he was able to get the water that was in contact with the coffee grounds was 94 degrees C. HIs point of his video was to show that even if your water is boiling in the kettle, by the time that water reaches the grounds it will have lost at least 6 degrees of temp, and probably more.

 

[Blue Hills]

Being a bit of a savage, I'm quite content with Tesco's ground coffee that costs about £15 a kilo but I do appreciate there might be a whole other world of delights out there. Last night I was thinking of getting a Krups burr grinder and idly wondered where to get some beans from. I was a bit shocked to see that some chi chi London suppliers charge £200 a kilo for some beans. Not quite my league really. Can you recommend a bean supplier? Thanks.

Good move on the burr grinder.
Aldi do decent espresso beans as i recall.
If you want cheaper, lidl 1 or 1.2kg bags for under a tenner.

 

[slowmotion]

I watched a video by James Hoffmann where he showed that for french press you cannot possibly "burn" or "scorch" your coffee with water that is too hot because even as you pour it into the carafe it is nowhere near the temp it would need to be to burn the coffee. Here's the link:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_r5kpXPRYo

{Geek alert}
Err.......I don't agree with his findings. I poured a kettle of boiling water on to the probe of my digital thermometer from a height 200mm. It read 98C. That means the water would hit the ground coffee in my cafetiere at the same temperature. I have no idea if that is high enough to degrade the taste.

 

[MntnMan62]

{Geek alert}
Err.......I don't agree with his findings. I poured a kettle of boiling water on to the probe of my digital thermometer from a height 200mm. It read 98C. That means the water would hit the ground coffee in my cafetiere at the same temperature. I have no idea if that is high enough to degrade the taste.

Err, well, the water may be 98C as you pour it on the probe but the water sure won't be at that temp for more than a couple seconds once it hits the grounds and the carafe. And you also seem to have forgotten that brew times for french press style brewing tend to last 4 minutes or so. And pour over is also a pretty long process where much of the temp of the water dissipates as the coffee is brewing. You may not agree, but you seem to have left out a great deal of the science of this experiment.