/coffee/ - Coffee General

>learn to tasting notes you fucking mong. this chart is made by one of the best roasters in toronto

And? Explain it, moron. How does a finer grind with more coffee content produce a "weak" drink?

idiot. you don't repeat the same steps every single time you make coffee, there are variables you need to make adjustments for like the type of beans -- which CAN vary even when you buy from the same vendor, becuase hurr durr OBVIOUSLY they rotate their blend based on the season and availability of beans from their supplier. but even more basically, the exact same bag can require fine tuning based on how long it's been sitting on your shelf and how many tenths of grams you decide to load into your portafilter.

I'm sure a lot changed between the 18 hours I pulled a good shot and watery ones

You're reading the chart wrong. The symptom is listed next to the solution.

OK then just assume God is telling you that making good coffee isn't for you. Just give up already. You obviously are doing nothing wrong.

>Definitely isn't 1-5, it's the same grind size I always use, process was the same (I did make adjustments to extreme where applicable just to test it) and so on, could be something with the machine but it's not that old

Have you checked the following:

1. Extraction Pressure
2. Extraction time
3. ml of water to coffee grind grams
4. Temperature

Pressure gauge on the machine was lower than usual and the extraction time was lower. I just use a preset amount of water and grounds on the machine.

I've done what I can in regards to pressure and nothing seems to really help

>You're reading the chart wrong. The symptom is listed next to the solution.

Oh, so it's saying:

"If the drink is sour, hollow and weak make a finer grind."?

$10 grinder + $10 melitta pourover is objectively the best way to enjoy coffee.

Also OP here let me clear, it was fine for weeks (when I got the process and settings down) then suddenly bad, it's not something that happened gradually

you bought a piece of shit

I'll probably return it under warranty if I can't seem to fix it in a week or so

You should note that "home" espresso machines under $2000 are basically poorly built steam toys that are fully capable of exploding and destroying your kitchen and melting your face.

wtf I'm dead now

basically this
(i.e. wasn't just shit posting)

these cheap brevile grinders have terrible grind retention and unless you are RELIGIOUS in cleaning and maintaining your grinder (I mean like once a week at least or if you're a heavy user once every other day), the retained grind builds up and eventually throws off the calibration on the grind settings and can even mess up the alignment of the burrs. if you do use one of these cheap brevile made grinders I would STRONGLY recommend not storing any beans in the hopper. at all. period. measure and dose whole beans before you grind, and after grinding use a brush to dislodge grind or shake the unit to dislodge any under the burrs or in the grind chamber (i know it's even more of a hassle when you're using a built in grinder). this is pretty much the ONLY way to use these things without them breaking within a week of the warranty ending.

tl/dr - should have bought a $500+ grinder

The Virgin Tea
>Slowly sips to avoid making noises
>Has to wait 10 minutes to start drinking because his mouth can't stand the heat
>Drinks relaxing herbs because he can't deal with his anxiety attacks
>Ordinary tea tastes too bitter for him, so he always adds two sugar blocks.

The Chad Coffee
>Violently guzzle the cup, then he loudly exhales in satisfaction
>Gets the coffee on his mouth as soon as it's ready, never scalds his mouth
>Dark roasted coffee gives him all the energy he needs to bang all the Stacys that he wants
>Double Shot Espresso tastes somehow sweet

Please add more ideas or fix the ones i came with.

Not how that meme works faggot

Would the grinder really cause a difference that abruptly?

yeah kinda
optimal extraction comes down to grind particle uniformity, everything else is an afterthought

dude. the grinder is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT piece of equipment when making espresso. YES, it is more important than the espresso machine itself.

>Why is my espresso machine suddenly making watery as fuck shots despite me not changing anything in the process edition

user, do a good descale

didnt fix? get a better grinder

didnt fix? start over with your sweet spot. start on the coarsest espresso grind you can manage. tamp normal pressure and pull shot. itll be watery and really fast to 2oz. bring grind size down until you hit 1.75-2oz with normal grind and normal tamp in 25-35s (assuming temp is on. if not, look up temp surfing).

Lately I've thought about making my coffee at home and I was wondering what the best way to do it is if I don't want to spend a whole bunch of money all at once
I already have a french press, should I buy a bag of pre-ground beans at first or use a shitty kmart grinder on some whole beans? pic related was what I'm thinking (costs AUD 20$ which is about 16$ U.S.)
before anyone spergs out I realise the coffee won't be nearly as good without a proper grind but I'll probably buy one of those in a few weeks if the pregrind or shitty grind is decent

...

Friends I come to you with a request, is there a starter guides for retards like me who have only been drinking folgers garbage from a 20 dollar brewer forever? My coworker brought a french press and it was amazing. I'm not sure where to even start.

Bought a French press a while back but only recently bought a grinder. The French press change my views of coffee but now I feel as if I'm truly a bit closer to seeing the light

Clean your system.
Water will cause calcium buildup and you'll lose pressure

It's not a big deal to start into brewing processes, you just need to take into account that freshly roasted beans and grinding at the moment you prepare your cup are what gives a great flavor.

If you want to start into brewing pretty much what you need is
-Your favorite brewing method (French Press, Aeropress, Chemex, Pour Over, etc.)
-A coffee grinder

And not mandatory but highly suggested
-A waterproof thermometer or a way to control water temperature
-A kitchen scale

c-can anyone answer me
should I just buy some decent whole beans from my local roaster and use a cheap grinder for it at first?

>best roasters in toronto
Hey guys I'm the healthiest aids patient in the world! give me props!

If you plan on buying a propper grinder later then buy it and grind it with your local roaster, just tell him to grind it for french press usage, otherwise you may be getting lots of sediments on your cup.

Just don't forget to keep your coffee at vacuum in a dark and dry environment to keep it as fresh as possible

thanks, that's what I'm leaning towards atm. doesn't make sense to spend 20$ on a shitty grinder then spend another 60$-80$ on another grinder straight after
any tips on which one I should buy? the manual ones look fun (and cheaper), how's something like this look?

I would highly suggest an electric one. Manually grinding is really fun at the start but it becomes a pain in the ass on the long run. As long as you go with burr grinders, either manual or electric, you are fine. I have a cheap Black and Decker burr grinder because I'm kind of a poorfag, but I'm sure you can find way better things with a bit more of money

not really. GOOD coffee is about consistency and a skerton is best bang for the buck in the low price range. that's including electric. because all electric grinders on the low end are fucking pieces of shit.

I'm not sure manual grinding would bother me tb h. normally I make stovetop oatmeal in the morning so I can grind it while I wait for that to heat up
The only thing that really bothers me about cooking is cleanup, and I imagine most electric grinders (especially cheap ones) are a fucking pain to disassemble and wash. Also don't like that they take up a lot of space
is the skerton the absolute best for its price? I'll probably get that but it seems a bit boring to get the grinder absolutely every site recommends - although I suppose that's with good reason

I have that model, have you unscrewed the screen thingy and cleaned it?
I do mine about every 2-3 months, lots of tiny coffee particles get backwashed and it gets clogged/oily very fast
The tablets aren't enough, you have to remove it

Cleaning is not a big deal most of the time. It's not like you have to do it daily. In fact I only clean the grinder whenever I get new beans, since it isn't in contact with the air or dirt in general.

porlex grinds marginally faster and has marginally better consistency than a skerton

True but I just don't find them appealing, might be the bulkiness. Don't like electronic appliances that much either.
I've been looking at that too, only thing is I like the look and glass bottom of the skerton better, the steel looks a bit cold
though it looks more durable and the longer handle looks easier for grinding. I'll probably get that de su

Skerton is garbage at best.

Get an Anonymous for $75 or an Aergrind for $85

Skerton is a piece of shit too. Same for Porlex and mini mill. There is no bang in that price range, period. They're all horribly inconsistent thanks to poor burr design, quickly dulling burrs, total lack of alignment, lack of lower stabilization, total lack of rigidity, and play in basically every part. And on top of that, they're slow. It *might* be fine as a pepper mill or something, but for coffee it's 100% useless trash.

Starting with a Porlex is the only thing I've done coffee wise that I'd truly consider a mistake. Even thousands worth of gear later. I only want to save other people from the same experience.

You're better off getting it ground when you buy it until you can afford something decent (which starts with the manual grinders I mentioned here )
: prima-coffee.com/learn/article/grinder-basics/is-it-always-better-grind-fresh

btw this was my first coffee grinder. For a chinese bootleg it made some decent grounds. Now it belongs to a friend who has it as an ornament

I just use a $10 grinder.

I'll link the cheapest things I can recommend in good faith

Anonymous for $75ish: shop66804714.world.taobao.com/?spm=2013.1.1000126.2.Y9vrJH&v=1

Aergrind for $85ish: madebyknock.com/store/p39/aergrind_pre-order.html

Feldgrind for $115ish: madebyknock.com/store/p24/the_feldgrind:__October_2014_-_September_2017.html

Then start getting it ground at the roaster. Your coffee will improve exponentially.

kek that looks pretty fun
idk I'm pretty set on the porlox by this point but I'll give it a think. don't know if I trust that site, this graph looks awfully simplistic
I'll buy pre-ground in a few days anyway and see how it goes

>taobao
I'd trust a Japanese grinder over chinkshit any day
just because it's more expensive doesn't necessarily mean it's better

>ground at the roaster
I buy my coffee at aldi

I don't think you appreciate just how far removed you are from the coffee drinking public.

grim

I'm not the one blowing $100 on a coffee grinder.

not me but aldi coffee sounds dire
at least get preground at a local roaster

It's CDM, not export market. Japan makes some damn fine grinders in the electric grinder market (Fuji Royal, Kalita Nice Cut, etc), but their hand grinders are trash. Because they're aimed for unknowledgeable mass market appeal. Anonymous is aimed at the specialty coffee market and actually has decent steel burrs and real stabilization.

Or pay $10 more for the Brit one.

The fuck else you want? A line for the average incom tax in Massachusetts? It's simple because the data is straightforward.

Stop doing that.

Lot more than that on my own stuff, but I don't recommend that to anyone who isn't stupidly into it.

Not him, but the data in the Y axis is a qualitative rather than quantitative measure, that's why it looks weird. I'm not saying his data is fake, just oddly represented.

>Each day, the Encore and EK43 brews were evaluated by approximately a dozen members of our team. The coffees were brewed consecutively on the same brewer, tasted blindly, and evaluated as a set on a "I like this cup better, here's why" basis.
if they really tested blindly there would be a lot more variation in the data. Coffee tasting isn't an exact art, you couldn't get this perfectly straight line that then conveniently arches at exactly the same point and rate for every other method
>"Flavor Axis"
lol very scientific

tbf they probably did test it but simplified the data rather than showing the actual results for some reason. Either way "a dozen members of our team" would probably be able to recognise each cup day after day and just make the same conclusions as everyone else

I wanna explain real quick why shop ground will *always* be better than Porlex ground.

The *worst* an EK43 grind will get, no matter how long it sits, is flat and boring. Day one you have full sweet and flavorful coffee. Day two or three, barely any worse. And a slow decline after that until it's flat in a couple weeks. But the uniform grind will extract evenly the entire time. So while it loses character, it'll never be offensive.

The *best* you'll ever get with a Porlex is astringent. Even at it's freshest, the grind is horribly uneven. Try to fully extract the larger particles, and you'll have smaller ones making your cup bitter. Try to stop before that and the large ones make it sour. A balanced cup is totally impossible. Whether you're brewing, I'm brewing, or some bigshot like Perger or Rao is brewing. It'll be trash every time.

Because the results are general impressions. They're rounding the line because they can't reasonably put exact numbers to subjective tests. The data is still overwhelming in the direction of "the cheapish hand grinder is crap", and this is despite the fact they sell them.

you guys think dodgers coffee will be any good?
dodgercoffeeco.com/

fuck you sound like an insufferable cunt
going to buy a porlox just to spite you

>The data is still overwhelming in the direction of "the cheapish hand grinder is crap", and this is despite the fact they sell them.

That's the other problem with the graph. Since there's no scale rather than "this is better than this", I can't know what's comparable with the lowest rank. While you are comparing it with crap, maybe the lowest rank goes from "tasty" to "godlike", and home brewing people would be satisfied with getting a daily cup of "tasty". Yet again, I can't know that because of the weird representation of the graph

As an ex porlex owner, I can say the baseline is total crap.

Lemme tell you how nice having thumbs is so you cut yours off. Only spiting yourself, mate.

>Lemme tell you
Yeah definitely getting a porlox now, thanks

>$16 for 12oz
>literally $21/lb for coffee
>OFFICIAL
>a fine craft coffee
>the diner coffee experience
>roast: full city +

Is this satire? I don't think you could make this more unappealing if you tried.
Full City + is literally 1 shade away from charcoal briquettes aka "French Roast".

>Because the results are general impressions
You still need to input data for a computer-produced graph like that. There isn't even any scale on the y axis and no sense of what they're actually testing, such as an x/10 rating of their coffee
>The data is still overwhelming in the direction of "the cheapish hand grinder is crap"
Probably based on their preconceived notions

Yalls gonna have shit coffee, but whatever.

>Yall
going to buy a 24 pack of them now tbdesuwy

>the ART of x is a SCIENCE
culinary arts majors, everyone

>Veeky Forums hates coastalfags but can't stand country talk

I'm not a yank you mong
Isn't it past midnight there?

>cawfee thread
>sleeping

Which roasters does everyone here source their beans from?

I'm in the UK and so I'll order from Colonna or Clifton.

If I'm picking some up from the supermarket, I'll go with Modern Standard or Taylors

The gay leather strap, wooden bead and collar are important because reasons.

solberg&hansen

It's to grab it because the glass gets really hot. They have one with a glass handle instead if you don't like the collar.

You aren't putting chocolate milk in your coffee why?

It would only work with cold brew. Heating chocolate milk makes it Ass.

Not dude, but you're an idiot if you're denying the chemistry of the culinary arts.

You missed out on the good thread a few days ago. Sad.

Art doesn't follow the scientific method, faggot.

it's a duality you moron. art in the sense the results are appreciated by the senses. but the act of duplicability requires concise methodology and trial and error that is no different than the scientific method.

are you fucking stupid or what

If you're still in this thread, how much do you know about the Fuji Royal and Kalita Nice Cut? I'm thinking of upgrading my grinder since i'm using a kitchenaid proline that has served for almost 7 years now. I was looking at getting a Virtuoso but both those Japanese ones seem interesting and are readily available on rakuten.

usually local roasters since I like to consume my coffee as fresh as possible.

however pic related is my go to decaf. fucking delicious when they do it right but sadly 1 bag in 3 is over roasted and tastes burnt

You don't know shit about cooking or the scientific method then