The old way of doing things

JonWoo187

Quite the breakdown of equipment… I’ll chime in with a bit of discussion on the Vario/ceramic burr set since they tend to get reamed with some reviews. Yrs ago I had one of the first run of Varios with the serial number being in the lower 200s. The grind quality was quite good, but the inconsistency with the lever adjustments and cheap plastic components was a serious letdown. Fast fwd to around 1.5 yrs ago and I decided to give their Forte AP a try as they had refreshed it with a few changes, mainly a nice negative display, which I find FAR better looking than the original screen. The build quality/performance/consistency with this Forte is night/day compared to that older Vario I gave away some time ago. Yep still uses those ‘old school’ ceramic burrs and I will honestly say that it gives me espresso nothing else has, as in mainly insanely heavy texture, which for me is equally as important as taste. The fines those burrs create no doubt contribute to this and I’ve had some quite good grinders over the yrs, ‘traditional’ flats and conicals as well and honestly don’t miss any of them. The Forte AP is tiny in comparison, very little retention and really is a fine tuned beast for what Baratza offers.

dfk41

JonWoo187 the Forte never really caught on over here. I know in the US, where the forums are heavily policed in favour of commercial interests, they are popular……….but, so is the Sette, the Strega and countless other products that in the open market of the UK, do not fare well.

Look at Londinium. They were pushed and pushed and pushed over on CFUK by people with commercial interests……once that forum shut to proper coffee talk, do you ever hear the Londinium word mentioned? In the open market, folks began to realise that the product actually was not that good and now they are where they are

JonWoo187

No doubt some brands get pushed quite a bit, but personally I don’t buy into that sort of thing, reviews, etc. I’m a firm believer that with enough skill, quality coffee/water, most any machine/grinder can be made to perform as you want/expect.

Want to talk about brand police, bwahaha. Surely you’ve seen that on the Kafatek forum. Granted it’s their products being discussed, but when someone mentions a possible issue they get thrown under the bus as if how dare they question the almighty Kafatek brand, blah blah blah… ANY mechanical device made can/will have issues regardless of build quality, attention to detail, etc. Yet the end user is almost always blamed for those issues with the douches that defend the brand.

Adrianmsmith

JonWoo187 Want to talk about brand police, bwahaha. Surely you’ve seen that on the Kafatek forum. Granted it’s their products being discussed, but when someone mentions a possible issue they get thrown under the bus

To be fair here, there are a lot of people who own equipment that they do not understand and quite a lot of the perceived issues are not really issues at all . Just user error. pretty much the same with other brands as well that are not appliance class .

Also many of the posts I see should never make it to a forum. …..

They are just attention seeking or clickbait.

There should have been an email to the manufacturer , which, with the type of equipment we are talking about is very easy to do. Try getting a reply from the company owner if you have an issue with a big brand appliance.

Sure, talk about it afterwards on the forum but at least give the manufacturers chance to put it right or put the customer right which is more often the case.

dfk41

JonWoo187 I owned a Kafatek Monolith recently that I bought new. I was very careful not to go onto their in house forum. I did not get on with it. As a grinder, it was easy to live with. A couple of quirks one would not expect on a high end grinder but for me, I could not get the Shuriken conicals to give me the taste flavours I like. I am not knocking it bt if I did a side by side with my Zero…..anyway, I believe the new owner loves it and for that I am happy

Adrianmsmith

dfk41 anyway, I believe the new owner loves it and for that I am happy

She saved me an expensive visit to newcastle as well 🤭😭😁

Just goes to show one size doesnt fit all. Not that one is good or bad, but definately different. And we are all different ☕

Platypus

dfk41 I believe the new owner loves it and for that I am happy

Absolutely! It’s a keeper!

HarveyMushman

There’s a lot to be said for efficiency too.

SO many people got into espresso during Covid when you couldn’t do much other than stay in the house and faff around for hours with things that would otherwise take a matter of seconds.

Some people went as far as filming themselves doing this ‘slow living’ and everyone started talking about their ‘workflow’.

I can’t help but feel like this fuelled the demand from the masses for single dosing grinders.

I know SD doesn’t have to take long but I do like how simple and quick OD grinding is.

Dusk

HarveyMushman
I think because espresso is talked about as a hobby that has to be taken seriously with lots of time spent to perfect it. Because of this, everything is about improving taste to the Nth degree which just becomes more and more hassle and time spent. Ease of use is often overlooked and when I stumble downstairs in the morning in need of caffeine is high on my list of priorities.
It’s still more than possible to have a sensible and reasonably fast routine to get very good coffee but talking about good enough doesn’t sell new equipment or get people watching YouTube videos!

dfk41

As is documented, I have ditched single dosing and gone back to a hopper. As @HarveyMushman stated, lockdown brought with it the art f single dosing, and RDT and WDT and stirring and genuflecting because we have nothing better to do with our time. When I first fired up the Mythos all my senses screamed but you do not know how much is in your pf. Therefore how can you know how much to extract by weight? After a couple of weeks of conversion therapy, my answer to all those questions is so what? My coffee is tasting better than it has since I last used a Mythos. I have absolutely no faff in my routine and if 3 friends come round and want coffee, it is a breeze.

The big trouble is that all the discussion around single dosing and the various slow routines you have to add in to the process cannot be argued with, on paper at least……but in reality make little or no difference. I there consign the whole lot to the coffee bollox bin!

Adrianmsmith

dfk41

The Earth

Mostly Harmless

Mostly wrong

But the perfect output is 42g

🐬🐬🐬

MWJB

dfk41 As is documented, I have ditched single dosing and gone back to a hopper.

Maybe worth mentioning that the Mythos is auger fed despite having a hopper, as opposed to gravity fed from a hopper. So bean feed ‘should be’ fairly consistent whatever the weight of beans in the hopper? (At least, this was one of Colin Harmon’s observations when consulting on the ClimaPro).

dfk41

Adrianmsmith But the perfect output is 42g

If 42g is the answer, what is the question?

Adrianmsmith

dfk41 If 42g is the answer, what is the question?

We cant remember.

Maybe what is 9 × 6?

dfk41

Dusk When I single dosed, I weighed out the beans, no water, ground into the Niche dosing cup, tipped it in to the pf, smacked it against my hand once to level, tamped, and pulled. It was pretty quick. I have seen YT videos where after 5 minutes folks are no nearer to pulling shot than they were at the start…..yet, everything is neat and tidy, colour coded and very photogenic

dfk41

MWJB You are right but I never let the beans run out. I tip in an unweighed abount, probably 200 gms into the hopper and every couple of days check the amount left in. Once you get down to the bare minimum I am sure I used to find the grind needed tightened (easier to just add more beans)

dfk41

Adrianmsmith Maybe what is 9 × 6?

54?

Adrianmsmith

dfk41

No, 42…..

….. in base 13 🐬

The real answer is “what is a smallish yet insignificant number”!!

MediumRoastSteam

dfk41 - reference: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy

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