Hello, I've been thinking about purchasing the aillio bullet roaster and their summer sale has prompted me to think a little harder about marginal gains. My set up is decidedly middle of the pile at the moment across the board and wondered what people thought would be best bang for buck to improve the coffee I drink (which includes predominantly milk drinks and a preference for lighter, fruitier roasts). I have the following: Timemore sculptor 078s Sage barista express pro Modded gene cafe roaster Some of the challenges I face: I struggle a little with consistency of the espresso shots I pull, they range from 20 - 30 seconds with mostly the same settings, I suspect this is both the result of the grinder and espresso machine. I wdt and try and ensure consistency. Given I drink milk drinks, I prefer coffees with distinct flavours, rather than being subtle. Which has steered me away of focusing on the espresso machine alone. Time is definitely of the essence, so the aillio offers better roasting that's also quicker than back to back gene cafe roasts. My rational is the roaster will ensure I can get the best from the beans, allowing me to pull distinct flavours from them, while also speeding things up a bit.

@"Dan"#p68974 Just my opinion, but from your description of the kit you own, I think there are other things to spend your hard earned on! Let us just say that beans are the root of your problem. Buying a roaster will take many moons of frustration before you start to get anywhere. If you spent your time (if you are convinced that beans are the issue) searching for a roasted bean supplier that suits your taste requirements then you are way ahead in the game. There is a limit to as to how good a coffee you can produce on a sage barista Pro and if you want to go to the next level, perhaps you could think about upgrading that

@"dfk41"#p68976 Thanks! I enjoy the roasting process, so I will Always roast them myself, either on the gene cafe, or the new roaster. Though the fact the expresso machine might be the constraining factor is interesting.

@"Dan"#p68978 I used to roast on a modded Gene Cafe years ago. Roasting then was not what it is now! I gave up because I quickly realised that I enjoyed the roasting proccess (although my neighbours not so much!) but the end result in the cup was never great. Now that is not to say others might have far better skill sets that I! My comment on your machine……if you have a 5 litre bottle, then no matter how much you want, you can only fit 5 litres in. If you need to store 8 litres then you need a larger bottle. I have had several Sage machines (probably 6 or 7) over the years. The Dual Boiler is a very capable machine with a large hidden menu system allowing you to do many interesting things with temperature and pre infusion pressure. But……they do not have a reputation for longevity unfortunately. You may be able to find one on special or with an extended warranty. The Sage machines comply with EY legislation meaning they auto switch off after a certain period of time. That is not always a good thing in the coffee world as after 20 minutes many machines are not yet at temperature. Anyway, sorry for the lecture!

@"Dan"#p68978 I think using good beans, high quality ones and as long as they are roasted well will bring a great deal of improvement. David made a valid point that roasting well is hard and takes a lot of experience. If you are buying beans, unless you are buying whole sacks, you are not paying anywhere near wholesale and buying smaller quantities makes them almost as expensive as buying coffee from a roaster. It also means that if you want good speciality quality green beans, your probably going to need to pay £25 to £30 per Kg for them! Great beans may well then show up any limitations in your kit, which is most likely to be the Sage Barista Pro. It's the first thing I would change and look toward a dual boiler. I don't know much about the Timemore grinders.

Thanks, helpful suggestions! I've not had any of the drawbacks of the timemore that others have suggested (retention, stalling etc). Though I do think it has been contributing to the inconsistency in the shot times. Compared to the in built grinder in the sage, it has been a remarkable upgrade. On the greens available, I've found I can find some good ~87 88 sca coffees close to my preferences below £20 per kg. Though I do recognise I can't source the best beans unless buying in larger amounts (see the other thread). I think likely the roaster is the way to go!

before i spent a penny i would go buy some good beans from a respected roaster, something like tim wendlebow - try them, see if theres a big difference in what you are making yourself, then and only then would i look to change things, fwiw temperature control is key with coffee, id make sure your machine can do that, before looking at beans, if you want validation to buy a new roaster i give you my backing haha

@"Dan"#p69080 Why don't you buy a few kilos of greens, then select a few folks to receive 250 gms each, then let them tell you how good your roasting is! I quite agree that good quality beans is the way to go, but below £20 per kg you are not in the arena of good quality beans. To make consistently good coffee you need to have consistent temperature, grinding, tamping and beans. You can buy SCA beans graded at whatever you like, but it does not mean that either yourself or the roaster that you buy them from are able to replicate the profile or outcome!

> @"Cuprajake"#p69100 if you want validation to buy a new roaster i give you my backing haha That's what I was after 😅 @"dfk41"#4, do you mean green beans below £20 per kg are not good quality beans? That surprises me a little as it seems equivalent to the £35-40 per kg beans from popular roaster. For example (I think) you can get the rocko Mtn beans from django and the greens from pennine at £19 per Kg.

Bear in mind the Aillio has a lengthy warmup/cooldown time compared to the small roasters. I considered one to roast quicker than my Ikawa but you’re looking at 25-30 min warmup.

@"Dan"#p69148 I guess it comes down to perception as to how you define good beans.

Areas for improvement in my coffee

Dan

Thanks all. I am surprised the costs of greens are that high. Most I’ve seen come in below that price, Falcon micro seems to be the only one that’s consistently above £20, but I defer to the experts! below are the beans I was referring to - same region, sca score etc so presumably the same bean?

I appreciate I’ll never get to the heights of dark woods, sweven or others, but live in hope I can find beans under £20. I’ll work my way up to larger sack sizes, but without a larger roast and a more generous approach to giving out beans, I’ll never get through 20kg, let alone 70!

https://www.pennineteaandcoffee.co.uk/products/ethiopian-arabica-yirgacheffe-rocko-green-coffee-beans-1kg

https://foundrycoffeeroasters.com/products/rocko-mountain-reserve-2023-ethiopia?variant=47512079696153

HarveyMushman

Dan I appreciate I’ll never get to the heights of dark woods, sweven or others, but live in hope I can find beans under £20.

You 100% can roast better coffee at home than many commercial roasts for under £20kg a kilo… unless I’ve been living in a dream world for the last 9 months and imagining it.

The last greens I bought were £13kg a kilo, I bought 2kg.

Admittedly the Ikawa makes it very simple to roast well and consistently given it’s just load a profile and press a button, but as far as I know the Aillio will run preset profiles also so it’s not as hit and miss as manual roasting.

I’m not saying I think the roaster is necessarily the right next step as I agree with some of the posters suggesting a grinder/machine upgrade.

You definitely get the best discounts on high grade greens at huge quantities but that doesn’t mean you can’t get good greens for good prices at 1-5kg per kg.

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