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Dazgough Will look forward to your impressions once its all setup… I have not bought my first machine yet… I am still in the research phase 😂

MattH Hi Matt, I was in that phase myself for a while too 😂 To be honest, the Synchronika is at a price point I feel that makes it a tad easier to make a decision. It appears to be a great machine. There are of course good cheaper machines but to ‘step up’ I have found that it would require a significant increase in funds and I don’t believe I am good enough to warrant anything more. At least for the foreseeable future if ever.

Just got back home from BB with the sync and some goodies. Will probably set it up on the counter tonight and start pulling some shots tomorrow 👍

Will post pics soon and then follow up with some of my first impressions.

BB by the way are awesome. Can’t recommend them enough

Congratulations, agree Bella barista are superb

Sync and niche in their new home

May move some bits around as I work out my best workflow. Just ordered a filling funnel too as won’t be plumbing in

Just added a couple of quick upgrades. VST basket (18g), IMS Nanotech competition shower screen and a cafelat silicone gasket

Dazgough I am most impressed how you managed to claim that much space 😂

MattH As was I! Especially as I had to move the wife’s food mixer elsewhere to accommodate it 😂😂

Dazgough Lookng good and not cramped at all. 😁

DavecUK thanks Dave. My wife is clearly very tolerant 😂

Cuprajake I will certainly give that a try. Thanks for the tip.

I plan on using ashbeck water. Also investigating the potential benefits/non benefits of passing the ashbeck through a brita filter. Purely because I already own one.

Dazgough Especially as I had to move the wife’s food mixer elsewhere to accommodate it

Brave move. Very brave

dutchy101 I know 😂 I’m still currently alive 😂

Hopefully when I’m making great coffee, all will be forgiven 😀

So I have now managed to dial in the niche and sync with my current coffeeworks beans. Delicious! It took about 6 shots before I was happy but am now consistently producing 36g shots from 18g coffee in about 29 seconds.

The coffee tastes great and it seems to be repeatable so far. Early days of course.

The pucks are quite wet but it does not seem to be impacting on the taste of the output. The espresso I would say is very rounded and balanced.

Dazgough Glad it’s all worked out well for you. The Niche does make things easy.

DavecUK thanks Dave, Yes I believe the single dosing Niche is really helping me here. given the coffee tastes great, do you think I should investigate the wet puck’s or leave it alone? I dont really want to complicate things if I don’t need too

wet pucks happen, can be a number of things, has no bearing on th shot, just harder to clean a sloppy puck

Cuprajake cheers. Thanks for that. Won’t bother chasing perfection right now then given everything seems to be going ok so far 😀👍

Hi,

I’m not new to coffee, but new to taking the hobby ‘further’ so to speak. Having watched many reviews, etc. on youtube and read many articles/forums, I nearly went down the full path with a machine like the bianca, but instead decided to test myself first and not remortgage the house straight away ;)

So I ended up initially with a really cheap Sage Bambino (learn the basics) and a Vario+ (don’t skimp on the grinder). I also have a Sage Precision Brewer for easy filter, but that’s not my focus at the moment. I upgraded to a bottomless portafilter, an IMS precision basket and a puck disk, along with a decent tamper and WDT, as I know puck prep is critical.

Anyway, so far, really been enjoying things, learning a lot, and glad to be on the journey. Yes, I already yearn for an ‘upgrade’, but I will be good until I’ve hit real limits. Which leads me on to two questions, that I’m sure the experience folk here can help with:

1. Is it possible to reduce the ‘smoky’ aftertaste from dark roasts ? I’ve been enjoying medium roasts (currently from Rave) a lot, but when I got onto the latest two dark, I found them to have a strong smoky aftertaste, which I’m not keen on. One was also stale (the beans were 45 days past roasting - my fault) and had a lot of fines (I guess from the dry beans), but the current is just 5 days past roast, and had wonderful flavour - I just don’t like the aftertaste. Is there anything I can do to reduce this, other than just drink it as filter and/or with milk (I prefer espresso) ?
2. The dark roasts are also having a strange effect on my pour - it seems to come out quickly for a second or two, and then slow down to a usual pace. The overall time/yield seems fine, and I’ve not changed anything in the procedure. There doesn’t seem to be any visible channeling (no spurts from the bottomless portafilter, and a smooth clean puck), but I don’t understand why I’m seeing a faster initial flow, but don’t recall seeing that on the medium roasts. I’m dosing the same - 17g in a B62.52TH24E (which seems to be the limit for a dark roast, but should be fine and doesn’t seem to be clogging) and yet can’t understand the behaviour. I don’t believe it’s causing any taste issue (the most important thing) but just wanted to know if anyone can explain it.

Anyway, that’s me. Still getting to grips with the subtleties, but overall really enjoying the espresso I can make.