So, if you are sitting comfortably…
For some inexplicable reason that I cannot remember, I stopped drinking both tea and coffee at the age of about 20. Many, many years later, I was on an SAS flight to Sweden and they were serving coffee and the aroma hit me and like a siren’s call, tempted me into trying a cup… and it was good.
When I got back home I decided to start drinking coffee again, but unsurprisingly Douwe Egberts (which I thought was a posher version of Nescafe)could not get anywhere near the aroma and taste of that cup served on that flight. So, I started researching on the tinternet and came across the old ‘coffee forum that shall not be named’.
It was there I learned a bit about the dark arts of ‘proper’ coffee. It seemed that as a coffee virgin without two halfpennys to rub together, a good starting point was a third or fourth hand Gaggia classic. Simple, fairly reliable and easy to fix if anything should go wrong with lots of spares and more importantly plenty of on-line advice.
For weeks I scoured Ebay and came across an old Gaggia that even had been modded with a PID at a price I could afford.
Next a grinder and a member, on the old ‘forum that shall not be named’, did referbs on grinders and had a Brasilia RR55OD and offered it to me at a price even Fagin would have been happy with. It was in immaculate condition with a new burr set. It was a monster and suffered with terrible static, but I replaced the plastic shoot cover with a thin copper one I made from a plant label and it worked a treat.
The Gaggia needed more than a bit of TLC (hence the price) and so I set about stripping it down and totally dismantling it, replacing seals etc and even painting some anti-rust treatment on some areas inside that had started to deteriorate.
That’s where my troubles started…. Putting it back together. Everything was fine until I tried to reconnect the PID wiring. Suffice to say I blew the chuffer up 3 times (sparks and smoke) and had to re-order parts before getting it to work again.
But it did, and it made coffee that tasted 1000% better than anything that came out of a jar.
But like everyone on this forum it didn’t/ couldn’t/ wouldn’t stop there. All the paraphernalia ( and snake oil) that goes with this obsession…Tampers, baskets, shower screens, WDT, portafilters, puck filters, bean storage, the correct type of water and most important of all, the plethora of different coffee beans abailable.
Then came the itch that just had to be scratched… upgradeitis. I wanted something like my betters on this forum had. A dual boiler!
Money has always been an issue, but although the amount I had managed to save was as thin as the hairs on my receding bonce, given a bit of luck I might just be able to take another step on the ladder to real coffee nirvana.
Once again Ebay came to be my provider. A chap had been given a gift for Crimbo of a Sage Dual Boiler and separate grinder combo…. But he was not interested in it and so, he put it up for a ‘buy now’ price that would have had Scrooge turning in his grave, Fagin pulling out his beard in disgust and a scotsman crying into his porridge. A quick phone call to ‘she who must be obeyed’ for her approval (luckily she also loved the coffee from my Gaggia) and I hit that buy now button.
It was also at this time a certain grinder was causing a bit of a stir… the Niche Zero. And I wanted one!
But all my money had gone on buying the Sage combo. And there was my answer…The Sage grinder! Brand new, never so much as seen a bean pass through its burrs, got to be worth a few shekels. Plus, what about the Gaggia and the Brasilia? All three went on Ebay and were snapped up giving me enough to buy the Niche.
So, that is where I am today. Okay, the Sage is not an all metal shiny chrome beauty and I know there is still some doubt of its longevity, but in the three plus years I have had it and used virtually every day, it has not missed a beat.
If it lasts another three years without need of repair, for what it cost me, it will owe me nothing.
Oh, and of course, not forgetting the different pour over equipment I have obtained too.
I may still not be able to taste the nuances of different beans, but I put that down to having Neanderthal taste buds and not the coffee making equipment. But it is still a million times better than my freeze dried with added Coffee Mate days.
