Welcome to Coffeetime. Please introduce yourself and tell us about your coffee journey too.

I'm a long-term drinker of filter coffee that's relatively recently moved into expresso, or more accurately, espresso-based drinks, and this seemed like a good place to chat and learn.

Welcome to our fledgling forum. You will find a wealth of knowledge available here.

I'm a jaded user of another forum, that needed a change 😆

Up until recently I was only marginally aware that there were people on the internet who chatted about coffee stuff all the time. I'm now over two and a half grand down and it's all your fault. 😅

@"dfk41"#4 grabbed me by neck and brought me here! 😂 Thx guys! Feel at home!

I'm not saying I'm paranoid or anything, but a few weeks ago I walked into a coffee forum, pulled up a chair and sat down; everyone else seemed to get up and walk out! 😆 My coffee journey started over 40 years ago when my wife bought me a Gran Gaggia for Christmas. That was before the internet was invented, so there was no information freely available about the need for a grinder. I made a mess and a lot of terrible coffee. I got into stove top coffee makers through a Romanian student I befriended, we drank a lot of good coffee together before he moved on. My wife decided we should buy an induction hob, so that put an end to my stove top coffee making and I switched to french press. After breaking the glass of my favourite press I decided to try one of those gimmicky Aeropress thingies; that was a real eye-opener for me and started to buy speciality coffee beans and a Baratza Encore. A couple of years ago I retired and started volunteering in a charity shop where I saw a La Pavoni Europiccola. Nobody seemed to know what it was, so I got it at a very agreeable price. I invested in a Eureka Mignon Specialita to feed the LP and have become obsessed with the coffee making process.

@"LMSC"#p138 It is our home now….

On the other forum too(BadBoyR), don't participate much, just been busy reading posts/reviews on a new dual boiler machine. Currently have a bean to cup, but would like a more manual machine, mainly drinking milky coffees or a small shot if doing some cardio fasted. Looking at the sage dual boiler, lelit elizabeth and ACS minima.....so undecided, but want to future proof myself for being able to control flow later as gain better experience.

Got funny looks when I first got my aeropress, bringing it to work etc. decided to try make better coffee about a year ago, started the research. My girlfriend complained(?!) she didn’t see me for a few weeks as I was stuck online researching this thing. Stumbled across this gang (in their/your former space), which made it so much easier to confidently choose an espresso machine and then help when it arrived not working correctly!! Thanks to all again and Dave your stated principles of this forum are so great in these times, must be applauded, cheers for such dedication. It would have been a much much more difficult journey to getting it half right without the help of you guys

Was on “the other coffee forum”, but thought I’d hop over and join you all here. I’ve liked coffee for a long time, with a progression through french press, moka pot, aeropress and Nespresso. I’ve now settled on v60 for filter and since Dec last year I’ve started making real espresso with a Rancilio Silvia coupled with a Niche Zero. I enjoy tinkering, so I fitted a PID almost straight away, and for Christmas I’ve got an Ito board coming so that I can play with pressure profiling (a bit like a decent on the cheap). While a single boiler might not be for everyone, I’m the only person in the house who drinks coffee, so it’s perfect for one. Easy to maintain and less energy use as I’m only heating one small boiler. It’s a bit slow when we have guests, but I can live with that.

New Members Introduce Yourself

mobius

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:

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) ?
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.

DavecUK

mobius Welcome to the forum.

LMSC

mobius I don’t have any idea about Bambino. Burnt, smoky and ashen can be a sign of an over extraction, high temperature, over roasted, and finer grind.

I don’t drink dark roasts. I would pull darker roasts at 88/89C. If you can’t change the temp, I would pull the shot 1:1.5. I would loosely tamp than coarse grinding as the latter would result in faster pour during the second half of the shot. It is possible you don’t like dark roasts as you seem to prefer medium roasts.

Re-2nd point, I won’t bother if you like the shot.

tompoland

mobius If we are thinking of the same thing, I get smoky flavors when I’ve roasted too dark. It’s normally as simple as that. Unfortunately its all but impossible to remediate a burnt bean.

mobius

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 :)

mobius

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

mobius 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.

You shouldn’t, IMO, have the smoky after taste. It is either the temp or roasted on the darker side than intended. You might grind a tad coarser and see if that helps.

What are the notes described on the bag? I wonder if Caramel and dark chocolate are mentioned on the bag.

Please give the roaster a call and describe.

@dfk41 and @Rob666 drink medium dark / dark.

mobius

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

mobius Chocolate Ganache.

May be this is the reason. This is very sweet and creamy, but depending on the flavour of the chocolate, I have tasted them giving smoky, earthy and a slight bitter (dark chocolate) flavours.

Talk to Rave and let’s also know what they thought. Thx

mobius

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.

MediumRoastSteam

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.

mobius

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 😄

MediumRoastSteam

mobius - I don’t know the exact beans you got from Rave, but I know what you mean by the burnt aftertaste. It could be how the coffee was roasted, it could be that was the desired intention.

I suppose you already tried a few things within the parameters you can change.

Was this the Tanzania Gaia N164 from Rave?

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:B4_lmxMaXTwJ:https://ravecoffee.co.uk/products/tanzania-gaia-n-164&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

mobius

MediumRoastSteam It was N164, yes. They’ve since replied to me as well:
“… this coffee can sometimes have this delicate ashy flavour ”

I guess that answers the question, although I’m not sure I class smoky as ‘delicate’ but I realise it’s all subjective. It’s a shame that ‘notes’ like this aren’t listed alongside the other more ‘tasty’ flavours, as it would absolutely help me decide what not to get.

I also had the same with their N50.

MediumRoastSteam

mobius - No worries. The “Fudge” blend was one of those coffees which blew me away when I tried it a while back (I’m talking many, many years ago!). My tastebuds have changed since, but this might be a good one for you to give it a go.

Good luck!

LMSC

mobius It is worth spending some time looking at those information to get the best / optimal temp out of your machine as advised by MRS!

PeteH

Morning all, just joined this forum after seeing Dave Corbey’s excellent review of the Melitta Caffei CI milk system. We’ve had ours for 2 years, and need some help as the milk froth seems to have… well, lost it’s froth!

Jony

Well hello there peeps old member here just waiting on name change 😂 had sign up issues for months. Filter is my goto brew been for years now , speak soon

DavecUK

Jony All done, glad to see you back

Jony

DavecUK

Nice to be back been a while , think I’ve even missed you all😂

DavecUK

Jony Pff

Giphy - Accept Season 4 GIF by Billions

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