My Coffee Journey

Decided to start a little thread, documenting my journey and the vertical learning curve i seam to have been on.

Like most, i got furloughed when covid kicked off and got bored so decided to get more into coffee.

One thing after another with lots of reading on various forums, YouTube tutorials and what not,i bought a gaggia classic.

Along with that i decided to get a 1zpresso for my grinding as i have a wilfa svart for all my pour overs etc.

Well after wasting a good 500g of beans on the gaggia, i decided it wasn’t for me, and promptly sold it.

Decided on the sage duo temp pro which i was initially going to buy in the first place,quick look and £249 later john lewis delivered my shiney new machine

Now as much as i loved the 1zpresso, my shoulder didin’t so, that got sold in favour of an eureka mignon from @Black Cat Coffee

Next up the upgraditus got a hold of me as i wanted a fancy looking machine, and i got a bit of a dark horse off ebay

A la macatec elba one, e61 grouphead.

I had long lusted over a dual boiler, mainly the lelit Elizabeth, with its pre infusion, quick heat up times it really is a fantastic machine, but id also noted the acs minima, another machine along the more traditional looks, and the looks along with the bigger boilers swayed it for me.

So in the never ending revolving door of grinders with me, after having a eureak zenith 65, a niche and another mignon i saw a lightly used 2019 mazzer major on ebay, i added a Daniel wong doserless kit at the time, since gone to a funnel, even added ssp redspeed burrs

I was going to used bottled water, either ashbeck or longhill, but then i spoke to a few in the know and did a bit of digging and settled on using ro water, remineralised with potassium bicarbonate, this will never scale the machine and makes for a tastey espresso to.

After only having the minima for a short while a lever machine caught my eye, a 2014 londinium l1 - that was it i was in love, i sold the minima to fund the l1 and that was me set, the londinium moved home with me.

i had a stunning set of handles turned by nick, they really sent the machine to another level, and i was happy in my own little coffee world, id been toying with med/lighter stuff but always found then too bright, to acidic to my taste, then one day the pressure relief valve blew on the l1, scared me to death, and that set about a refurb of the machine, but id lost all confidence, and decided now we had a bit of equity, that i would buy my first propper new machine, i lusted over the top spec londiniums but at £3500 ish they were just too much.

the next machine came from bella barista, a crem one profiler, very capable machine, but arrived faulty, so had to go back, i have an amazing wife who said just get the machine you want, so i did, an lr24 stunner it was too, but sadly again came with issues and i returned the machine, :(

after a little search i settled upon the lelit bianca- id always fancied a vesuvius profilong machine, but they too were expensive, so the lelit was the machine of choice, (2months later the ves dropped in price!!)

and there a sat, happy as a pig in mud, the lelit a fabulos machine, quiet rotary pump, flow control, great heat stability, tbh it was almost boring as it just did its job, i still longed for another lever machine, once there in your blood they stick, they just look amazing.

and what should pop up but an acs leva…a machine id been quite skeptical about, any lever seems to be quite polarising, just seems to be that way. id heard rumors read stuff saying how the machine was a miss match of parts, no good etc. but they still looked amazing, id followed the machine for a while and at the price it came up, prompted by a life even i thought stuff it! we’re here once, get it!

and that leads me to now.

its been an up and down journey, ive jumped on fads bought stuff that i totally didnt need, learnt less is definately more, when it comes to coffee,

ive noticed that each step ive taken up the ladder, ive inproved my coffee, each machine has been better than the last, starting would i imagined id of spent so much for a coffee - hell no, am i glad i did - yes

jake