Aaah...dear friend...in reality I would do your bidding without pay or praise.
I am, always, your humble servant.
Aaah, why, thank you.
"Back in the day, sonny boy, we didn't use any of these fancy electric grinders or water pumps. We actually pulled our espresso!"
Oh, yes; the old, we used a well to get our water and ran barefoot uphill with a dripping bucket......
Actually, I am a fan of technology, progress, and artificial power.
While I love good craftsmanship, physical work of the kind that demands effort and involves strain is something that has never much interested me.
Craving finally satisfied... For now. Is it time for my morning espresso yet?
This afternoon I kept the grind setting the same as this morning and reduced it from 17 grams to 16 grams and it tasted even better yet. The splendid flavor is still on my lips as I type this up. I want more!
Atomic Coffee Roasters "French Roast"
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Sounds fantastic.
So, it's almost pointless to give Amazon links, since the forum hijacks them for marketing purposes and that process redirects to the country specific store. Sometimes it isn't the same product; sometimes it is a radically different price, as we observed with the grinder before.
Anyway, I believe
@SandboxGeneral has quite a solid one that he'd recommend. Mine isn't anything special, although it is a far cry better than the plastic thing that came with my machine.
Good suggestion.
I ordered - and bought - a beautiful one from Intelligentsia (wooden handle and all), but, as I don't make much espresso (must get that Bialetti pot out when I return home), the point is moot for now.
For that absolute best fit edge to edge, even if you're not using a VST filter (which I would suggest),
this tamper will give you the snuggest fit eliminating any channeling at the edges.
I'll be honest, VST is a new term for me, too. When reading the post, I skimmed it, and hadn't even noticed the term. (My mind is elsewhere, including on my next espresso).
However, I take the long view on such things: If it is of vital importance, someone will repeat it sufficiently often for me to pick up, en passant, what is going on, and why this piece of knowledge needs to be known, digested, and internalised. Otherwise, I filter it out, simply exclude it as irrelevant, unless it strikes me as the kind of interesting information that I might find intriguing in and of itself and worth paying closer attention to.
Just finished our first cup of Irgacheffe for the day, delicious as always. It's a very understated coffee for my tastebuds, very subtle in flavour profile, with some nice light fruity finishes to it.
Showing my novice-hood here, but since
@Shrink mentioned channeling at the edges of the basket, I'd love some information as to what this does to ones coffee? I'm assuming it may allow for the few misses, where there is weak extraction happening. My tamper doesn't quite fit accurately and I'm always left with this channeling, to which I do my best to get an even tamp all around the edges. My shots are good, but not stellar, by any means, which is not an issue for us drinking milk based coffees here, we still get 25 second shots and a nice blonde crema with a nice flavour profile, nearly as strong as the roasters do when I have a cup there.
On another note, our importer/roaster has been recommending a "Chagga Peaberry" bean to me. Does anyone have any experience with this type of bean? We'd be using it for milk based coffees.
Thanks in advance for any help offered.
Love Yirgacheffe; possibly my very favourite coffee at the moment.
Now, re the 'Peabody' beans.
From what I have seen, these are very small, - tiny - coffee beans (and varietals) that small, high quality lots sometimes produce, or specialise in. Yes, they are highly regarded, and greatly prized. Yes, I love the idea that they exist and that the cultivation of such varietals can happen, but - to be honest - I have been rather underwhelmed by the examples I have tried to taste (the auto correct suggested and inserted 'date'; do I 'date' my coffee? That is - frankly - a somewhat unsettling and deeply disturbing idea...) and have used when preparing coffee.
Intelligentsia have produced charming small tins with tiny samples of these "Peabody" coffee beans. Not only are they a pain to grind (being tiny, and my grinder, - the wonderful OE Lido 2 - while a splendid monster that makes mincemeat of everything I throw at it, is still a manual grinder: Grinding tiny beans is a nuisance), my experience is they are also exceedingly mild in flavour, - too mild in flavour, for my taste, if I am honest, - and I am writing this as someone who has come to greatly like some of the lightly roasted coffees, such as the Ethiopian coffees. In fact, I found that I had to blend them with something a bit more robust - such as a Kenyan - for a bit of heft to be added which would then allow their subtlety to be shown to best account.
We had two wonderful espressos which were consumed (by us) this morning (the hotel's machine had suffered some form of cardiac arrest and was unable to function); one before a meeting - at the café across the road, and one immediately after the meeting. Divine.
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VST, to my knowledge, is a fancier gold plated filter, sans gold and in cold rolled stainless steel. With the gold filters, I've never tasted stainless steel but I wouldn't be surprised if there was some detectable taste until the filter had oil sheens cover any natural pitting in the metal. Provided they ask the customer to simply wipe with a clean sponge under hot water.
Stainless steel does not impart a taste to either food or any beverage; it is one of the reasons it is used so frequently in the manufacture of eating utensils (cutlery), good quality cookware (good saucepans), and in the preparation of all manner of food (and drink).
