Ernie1 Iām very similar! Got into coffee around 2000, enjoyed the third-wave boom living in London and have very fond memories of some of the now huge East London shops opening in the late 00s. When Shoreditch Grind was just a little circular building on (a very very different) Old St roundabout.
Almost every shop had a Linea and a couple of Super Jollyās usually painted in their colours
Hah nice, I lived in London from 2010 so I wasnāt that early, I worked on Tottenham Court Road so I went to Monmouth Coffee in Seven Dials, that was always really nice. Sometimes ventured out to other places, Prufrock etc - all very nice coffee!
Ernie1 We had a Mazzer Mini Doser and big old Gaggia commercial machine at the design agency i was working at and I learned to make espresso from a colleague. We didnāt weigh anything, just fill the basket, and hit the double button on the machine!
Lucky you! The web agency I worked at had a Nespresso Pro!! š and then worked at made.com which had a Delonghi bean to cup, rubbish!
Ernie1 To me this is what I still love about making/drinking espresso. A mix of nostalgia, efficiency and great coffee. I have no interest in portioning out single doses, freezing beans or 0.1g of retention. I buy a coffee I like the sound of, dump a bit in the hopper each day and work my way through a bag.
So Iām guessing you are not on board with all the tools/techniques? RDT, WDT, whatever-else-DT? :) Iām halfway between I think, I like to be precise so I try, but then sometimes I just donāt bother and I love just winging it! That said I do remember the days of owning the Silvia and tweaking time and time to get the āgod shotā!!
Ernie1 Iām not really a fan of the space-age styling of a lot of the progressive equipment.
Yeh they do seem to be changing, I was looking at the Meticulous yesterday, looks mad.