Cadorna prestige newbie help

TheWolfman

Hello!

As an introduction, my name is Mike and I have had a variety of coffee machines for a number of years now.

My current machine is a Gaggia Cadorna Prestige bean to cup which, although easy to use, I have found difficulty in getting decent results. I am currently using Rave Signature blend and generally use oat milk. Results are really disappointing so something isn't right. I would be happy just to get something akin to the High Street chains taste wise instead of the sickly liquid currently being produced by the machine.

Actually, our French press / Cafetiere produces a much more palatable drink using the same beans and milk!

I have the grind setting at around mid point (lower numbers give a finer grind on this machine). This is adjusted be moving the yellow thingy up and down the scale during grinding.

I like Flat White and the wife prefers Cappuccino and I have both saved in the favourites menu. However, I'm pretty sure the drink size, proportions of milk to coffee and grind size are all out. I am hoping that someone on here either has this machine or can steer me in the right direction.

I have attempted to include links to photos of the grind setting, Cappuccino and flat white recipes below. The Gaggia Cadorna has a basic menu, so information on things like weight of beans and extraction rate is not given.

Any pointers from you knowledgeable people would be very much appreciated as there is a lot of information out there beyond my barista skill set 🤣 Please go easy on me 🙏

https://freeimage.host/i/Kp6d9f4

https://freeimage.host/i/Kp6dJg2

https://freeimage.host/i/Kp6d2JS

I hope the above links work.

Thanks in anticipation

Mike

dfk41

TheWolfman Hi and greetings. I do not think that many on here will be familiar with your machine. I think that most BTC machines work along the same principle. One of the problems is that the variables that you need to tinker with are often fixed. Without sounding like a lecture, the basics in coffee are you grind a bean, run water through it and voila! But, if you aim for a basic recipe of 18 gms of ground coffee, to produce twice that amount of liquid over about 30 seconds then it is a starting point. The 30 seconds refers to the amount of time the coffee pours for so excludes grinding and tamping and any time the shot takes to saturate the puck.

If you time is too quick the norm would be to tighten the grind up to recreate more resistance (and the opposite if it takes too long). Sometimes you many need to adjust the temperature of the water to achieve this. The lighter a bean is the less soluble the coffee is but from memory Signature is not that light. I doubt that there will be much scope to vary grind and temp and tamp. This leaves the beans. When were they roasted? How do you store them?

I suspect that the nature of a BTC machine is that if you are lucky you may be able to make an acceptable cuppa, bt the reality is that you get what it gives you. This is a rabbit hole! Even a basic home setup will make better coffee than any BTC can produce, but it is also a steep learning curve. My local Holiday Inn has a commercial Costa supplied BTC and it is absolutely terrible. I have to go once a month and of recent drink tea. How they can charge the amount they do for pressing a button to make coffee out of beans that have been murdered is beyond me but as long as there are idiots buying they will continue!

TheWolfman

Thanks DFK.

I totally understand. Bean to cup has less scope for ‘dialing in’ extraction rate etc. I guess I bought it for convenience.

All I can do is try different beans and alter the grind (perhaps also temperature as you also suggested).

Actually the machine has preset drinks so I will go back to those instead of the ones saved into favourites.

I’m pretty sure the coffee pour time is a lot less than 30 seconds. I’ll time it tomorrow but I guess we don’t know the quantity of ground coffee anyway.

Signature looks like a medium roast. Rave have a quiz on their website and for my requirements it suggested…

Italian Job

Espresso Blend No 4

Costa Rica Coope Dota

Thanks for the response 👍

Cuprajake

Which milk are you using? Theres only a couple that steam well.

In terms of the machine, few will have used them as most on here are well down the rabbit hole

I welcome you but bid turn back this is a slippery slope to having a big hole in your bank balance,

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

TheWolfman

Cuprajake thank you!

I use Oatley No Sugars oat milk normally. I see there are a number of Barista versions out there, but I have no problem with the texture.

memzey

Rave Signature is medium roast, I’ve gone through several kilos of the stuff and find it very consistent and forgiving. I’m currently at 94c temp and it seems to behave well at that level. Is it possible to measure your inputs (ground coffee) and outputs (liquid coffee) with a scale on this machine? That would help significantly on knowing where you are and what direction to adjust to, in order to get where you want to be.

delta76

You’ve come to the wrong place.
Don’t get me wrong, these are the most friendly and helpful guys you’ll ever met. But they will eventually lure you, probably unintentionally, into the rabbit hole of espresso world. You’ll be lucky to keep the house
Kidding aside, the superautomatic machines have very limited control over how you brew a cup. But read the manual and see if you do

grind size
dose
temp

adjustments, and try to dial to your taste. Basically

too sour: grind size is too coarse, dose is too low, or temp is too low, or any combination
too bitter: grind size is too fine, dose is too high, temp is too high.

try to lock in 2 variables and adjust one. For example, it it is too sour, then keep grind finer. if you already at finest setting, try to increase dose. if you are at highest dose, then adjust temp. if it is still too sour at highest temp, change bean to a dark roast (easy to grind and extract at lower temp)

remember that your options are quite limited and you might not get drinkable results all the time. you know how to fix that, but as I said, it’s a rabbit hole …

Adrianmsmith

delta76 You’ve come to the wrong place.
Don’t get me wrong, these are the most friendly and helpful guys you’ll ever met. But they will eventually lure you, probably unintentionally, into the rabbit hole of espresso world. You’ll be lucky to keep the house

I don’t know what your implying….

@TheWolfman

After my 2 or was it 3 x nespresso, dolce gusto, Tassimo i knew there was better. 3 x super autos later i was ready to give in. It was all crap. Starbucks was better !!

Since then I’ve only had sage dual boiler ( wow, coffee can be good) , synchronika (more steam power egor), evo mk1 (wow), vesuvius (wrong time unfortunately but great coffee) and now evo mk2 (prayers answered)

Anyone would think it could become obsessive from what i read in the post above 🤓🤦🏼‍♂️

If only someone told me how much better the levers were it would have saved a kot of faff!! (Sorry @Grahamsphillips if your reading, you did when i had the sage!!! I started to listen after that 🥰

Needless to say you’re never going to get decent coffee from anything i had in my first 15 years or so of trying before i found this forum and the (free!) advice coming with it!!

Its not a rabbit hole at all ☕☕

Grinders, did anyone mention grinders 😹

delta76

Adrianmsmith this right here is what I was implying ;)

Elcarajillo

Adrianmsmith It’s not a rabbit hole.

NO it’s a bloody mineshaft with a huge cave at the bottom Giphy - Despicable Me Lol GIF

Adrianmsmith

delta76

I stand corrected 🤓🤓🤓☕

Grahamsphillips

@Adrianmsmith mate you are forever forgiven!!