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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.

mobius Welcome to the forum.

LMSC I did wonder if I was doing something wrong, but nothing is burnt or ashen - it’s just a slight aftertaste of smoke, which I understand may be a part of a dark roast anyway. That’s part of the problem, is that I’m not sure if it’s something I’m doing, or if the bean is meant to be like that.

I can’t change the temperature, but have been experimenting with 1:1.5 through 1:2.5 and can see/taste differences in the main cup but the aftertaste doesn’t change.

Overall, the main flavour is great. My palette is still developing, but this one stated ‘cherry’ and I absolutely taste that, which amazed me. I will go back to medium roasts after this and validate any assumptions.

I’m still bothered by the uneven pour, but it’s something I can experiment with, I suppose :)

tompoland Thanks. I find it unlikely that I’ve received two completely different beans from Rave that are incorrectly roasted (or burnt) so perhaps it is intended. It’s not a strong flavour, but I find I have to eat/drink something after, as the aftertaste isn’t something I desire.

LMSC Temperature is a no-go, as the Bambino offers nothing on that front, and is ‘stuck’ at 93c I believe. There is no expectation of Caramel and/or Dark Chocolate - the notes are Black Cherry, Anise and Chocolate Ganache.

I will get in touch with Rave and see what they say.

LMSC I have sent them a message, so will see what they say.

I tried another two shots this morning, one at 1:1.5 and one at 1:2. The first was a very uneven pour and my machine didn’t like it much - kept dripping for ages, so I presume just too fine. The second was much more even, with much better (expected) taste for me, but both still presented the aftertaste.

I’m finding dark roasts (only a couple so far) seem to cause me much more trouble than medium, which I find unexpected considering I thought they would be more straightforward. I appreciate that I’m limited with my machine (I didn’t realise quite how much until using it in anger), but it’s frustrating that these behave ‘differently’ (less consistently) than the others, with my experience so far.

Thanks for all of the help.

mobius - I never pay attention to tasting notes. You need to try the coffee to assert whether you like it or not. If you don’t like it, try a different one, and play with the parameters offered by your machine and grinder.

As far as I know, the Bambino operates a lot cooler - in terms of temperature of the water hitting the puck - than what’s advertised. There are lots of information, written and videos, about how to make the machine brew at an optimal temperature.

MediumRoastSteam The tasting notes are fine so far - the Black Cherry is absolutely there, and the ganache is understandable, and I’m really not great usually at finding the notes. It’s all just about the aftertaste, and that’s never listed. I really appreciate that you need to try them to see what you like, but it’s just frustrating to have a 250g bag that isn’t what you want, so then going to filter and missing out on espresso for a week 😢

The bambino is absolutely limited, but I’ve managed acceptable results up until now. I definitely want to upgrade in the future, but I’m not convinced that it’s a necessity from this perspective.

Of course, none of this is critical - it’s an undulgence and ‘hobby’ - but it’s one of those things that when you’re looking forward to a morning espresso, and so far you’ve been managing to ‘understand’ how things work, suddenly a curve-ball like this hits and tempers the enjoyment.

I could probably find one bean I like, and stick to it, but where’s the fun in that 😄