So after many years of debating I'm getting a coffee machine for Chrimbo.
Nothing fancy bcos we don't have the space, dripper + steamer.

I've been drinking Nescafe Short Black for the past 8 years, which I think tastes pretty good vs coffee shop stuff. I know it's instant but unless you've tried it, keep your opinion bottled up.

4 heaped teaspoons Short Black.
180ml boiling water
140ml steamed milked
2 Dark Loaker Tortinas... on the side.

I don't have a grinder, but I could use the Nutri Ninja for a coarse grind.

Questions:
What's the least hassle way of getting the freshest roast 100% Arabic - Ethiopia, or Colombian, beans?
Are there any pre-ground beans worth considering?

Sorry for off topic, but I would like to take an opportunity and thank theDoctor for recommending a Shell's coffee machine, which I became a big fan of..
Genius !

I guess the "least hassle way" is to order them online and have them sent to your front-door. Then you have a trained chimpanzee to collect the beans, grind them, and prepare you a coffee. Simple.

As for your second question: yes. But you'll have to be more specific as to where you live. I'm sure a local will suggest somewhere.

PS If you're going to grind it up in a Nutri Ninja I'd actually suggest forgetting the idea of a machine entirely and just going with a French Press. Or, buy a hand grinder. Or both.

PPS I keep hearing many exaltations about the Aeropress.

Select to expand quote

evlPanda said..
I guess the "least hassle way" is to order them online and have them sent to your front-door. Then you have a trained chimpanzee to collect the beans, grind them, and prepare you a coffee. Simple.

As for your second question: yes. But you'll have to be more specific as to where you live. I'm sure a local will suggest somewhere.

PS If you're going to grind it up in a Nutri Ninja I'd actually suggest forgetting the idea of a machine entirely and just going with a French Press. Or, buy a hand grinder. Or both.

PPS I keep hearing many exaltations about the Aeropress.

Way to go with the specifics.
What's wrong with a Nutri grinder... does coconut well enough.

Location: Sydney north shore.

Had an Areopress in 2004 ... it's just a reverse plunger.

Always use a paper filter, there is a very bad type of cholesterol that gets filtered out only by a paper filter.

I think there is a website called grindr that might be able to help you, go look it up

My wife has a Nespresso Pixi. She loves the coffee. Me, I like the smell but can't get coffee past my lips.

Select to expand quote

Chris_M said..
website called grindr

Thanks, but I'll leave you to it... all they've got is decaf crap, and their interpretation of expresso and crema differs from mine.

Select to expand quote

KIT33R said..
My wife has a Nespresso Pixi. She loves the coffee.

Did you know it's a sin for a woman to make coffee? Yup, it's in the Bible. It says . . "He-brews"

Just an article on the impact of "Pod" coffee like Nespresso
www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-24/former-nespresso-boss-warns-coffee-pods-are-killing-environment/7781810

Select to expand quote

FlySurfer said..

Way to go with the specifics.
What's wrong with a Nutri grinder... does coconut well enough.

Getting the grind right makes more difference to getting a good shot than the beans origin or age. Something like a Sunbeam conical burr grinder is relatively cheap. It's really not worth it otherwise IMO, you will always be disappointed with the results, especially if you try and use pre ground.

Select to expand quote

FlySurfer said..
What's wrong with a Nutri grinder... does coconut well enough.

Location: Sydney north shore.

The grind is super important. Perhaps THE MOST IMPORTANT part of the entire coffee making process. You need to be able to finely adjust the grind to get a good shot of coffee. Much more than a Nutri thing can do unfortunately.

coffeegeek.com/guides/howtobuyanespressomachine/getagrinder

I would include a video here but it's all american ****-wits that go on-and-on...

Basically: you want to extract 30ml in 30 seconds. This is the rule-of-thumb to get a nice, creamy crema out of your ground beans.

If the grind is too fine you won't get that. If it's too coarse you won't get that. If it's too inconsistent (both too fine and too coarse) you won't get that.



Personally I prefer 30ml in 20-25 seconds, but that's me.

Good grinders allow you to finely adjust the grind, down to really tiny variances. You need to adjust when you use different beans, or when you're using single or double shots for example.

A couple of "clicks" the wrong way and you chuck the results down the sink.

Good news is once you've tuned it it pretty much stays tuned (unless you change beans). You don't touch it much after that.

Bad news is a $5k espresso machine won't make a good coffee if the grind isn't just right.

Having a nutria ninja AND coffee machine means you have officially stopped being a bogan and graduated to caffe latte p o o f mate

Drug addicted p o o f. There are so many of them around.

I find it embarrassing to be honest.

When it comes to coffee, beans, roasting, grinding this thread could get more heated that the 9/11 thread

A compromise at this stage would be to find a small business that locally roasts beans and get them to grind them for you.

Can you buy varieties of beans? Somebody somewhere must make an effort breeding the coffee plants for yield and flavour.
All the coffee fans who carry on about the grind seem to be ignoring that bit. It's like claiming one wine or another is better because of the fermentation temperature while ignoring the grapes. Or discussing craft brews without the hops earning a mention

Select to expand quote

Mr Milk said..
Can you buy varieties of beans? Somebody somewhere must make an effort breeding the coffee plants for yield and flavour.
All the coffee fans who carry on about the grind seem to be ignoring that bit. It's like claiming one wine or another is better because of the fermentation temperature while ignoring the grapes. Or discussing craft brews without the hops earning a mention

Mmm hops make the beer!

I get whole beans from a place in East Vic Park, I never seem to get the same beans twice as they keep roasting different varieties. I then proceed to ruin them with my own grinder and atomic stovetop brewer at home

For all you never knew you didn't know about coffee...
www.coffeesnobs.com.au

Has anyone sampled a coffee stout?

I've been buying my beans locally at $30/kg for about 5 years (grind at home).
Then someone suggested to give the Aldi beans a go @ about $12/kg, getting just as good results with the cheap beans.
Using a Breville BCG800 grinder.

The only commercially available pre grind I use is grinders ( only at Coles now) .the rest are as bland as the cup that the pimply 17 year old makes st your local and charges you $4 for.

If thats not good enough find a local roaster

Select to expand quote

elmo said..
Just an article on the impact of "Pod" coffee like Nespresso
www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-24/former-nespresso-boss-warns-coffee-pods-are-killing-environment/7781810

Australia has lots of holes that need filling. Has anyone calculated how many coffee pods would be needed to fill the space that is made when a tonne of coal or iron ore is excavated?

Select to expand quote

toppleover said..
I've been buying my beans locally at $30/kg for about 5 years (grind at home).
Then someone suggested to give the Aldi beans a go @ about $12/kg, getting just as good results with the cheap beans.
Using a Breville BCG800 grinder.

I think that was me, I've done about 100kgs of home roasting/blending (but I don't claim to have any particular skills or a good sense of taste) and now I just buy the aldi beans. They're roasted/blended in Melbourne, high turnover so they're reasonably fresh, and the dark roast hits the spot well enough for me. Don't get the age control like with a home roast (ie using them only at age 10-20 days post-roast) but apart from sometimes being a bit more squirty through my naked PF I can't taste any really issues. And you can't roast your own for that price.

I also put them through a Breville smart grinder. I've had 2 italian ones before that and they were louder and more trouble.

Fly - NO on the nutri ninja. You'll just bash them without ever getting anywhere near fine enough. Buy a decent grinder and then use cheap french press or stovetop.

Paper filters might let less cholesterol through but they do it by catching all the delicious oils.

Avoid pods unless you like paying $120/kg for 1/3 of a decent dose of stale coffee.

Check CS 2nd hand section, or buy a new smart grinder. The reason you need a fine grinder is 1. surface area, extract oils, and 2. surface area = immediately going stale, hence need to grind at time of use not buy pre-ground.

This is why people pay big money, the heart of coffee is espresso. Can't get the creamy oily goodness without doing everything right. Even though they're decent I can't get this much crema from the Aldi beans.

I had a feeling we'd done all this recently.. www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/General-Discussion/Chat/Coffee-machines/

And now I'm back here's some coffee porn, probably as close to a god shot as I'll come.
Most likely my favourite blend which was 50-50 Ethiopian Gambella sundried and Brazil Yellow Bourbon Especial.
Thick & treacly with tiger stripes, and heavy, golden orangey crema. Mmmmmm.

I found a beer that tastes a bit like coffee

Can't top that.

Correct bar pressure
Correct grinds
Correct compaction
= a good creme
A quality milk at correct temps and polished makes a great coffe
But only if it's a decent bean
Home roasting can give a burnt flavour as it needs to rapidly cool to stop the process
A little 6 cup variable fines grinder works fine for home use
We can do 150 in a 1/2 day stint
Consistency is also important

Select to expand quote

cauncy said..
..
Home roasting can give a burnt flavour as it needs to rapidly cool to stop the process
...

Extractor fan mounted in bucket, chef's sieve. Cool to touch within 30 secs..

Select to expand quote

kiteboy dave said...

toppleover said..
I've been buying my beans locally at $30/kg for about 5 years (grind at home).
Then someone suggested to give the Aldi beans a go @ about $12/kg, getting just as good results with the cheap beans.
Using a Breville BCG800 grinder.

I think that was me, I've done about 100kgs of home roasting/blending (but I don't claim to have any particular skills or a good sense of taste) and now I just buy the aldi beans. They're roasted/blended in Melbourne, high turnover so they're reasonably fresh, and the dark roast hits the spot well enough for me. Don't get the age control like with a home roast (ie using them only at age 10-20 days post-roast) but apart from sometimes being a bit more squirty through my naked PF I can't taste any really issues. And you can't roast your own for that price.

I also put them through a Breville smart grinder. I've had 2 italian ones before that and they were louder and more trouble.

Fly - NO on the nutri ninja. You'll just bash them without ever getting anywhere near fine enough. Buy a decent grinder and then use cheap french press or stovetop.

Paper filters might let less cholesterol through but they do it by catching all the delicious oils.

Avoid pods unless you like paying $120/kg for 1/3 of a decent dose of stale coffee.

Check CS 2nd hand section, or buy a new smart grinder. The reason you need a fine grinder is 1. surface area, extract oils, and 2. surface area = immediately going stale, hence need to grind at time of use not buy pre-ground.

This is why people pay big money, the heart of coffee is espresso. Can't get the creamy oily goodness without doing everything right. Even though they're decent I can't get this much crema from the Aldi beans.

Yes it was you Dave & thanks again for putting me on to the Adli beans
You been getting out in all these northerlies ?
I've Kited 5 days straight now.

Select to expand quote

kiteboy dave said..

toppleover said..
I've been buying my beans locally at $30/kg for about 5 years (grind at home).
Then someone suggested to give the Aldi beans a go @ about $12/kg, getting just as good results with the cheap beans.
Using a Breville BCG800 grinder.

I think that was me, I've done about 100kgs of home roasting/blending (but I don't claim to have any particular skills or a good sense of taste) and now I just buy the aldi beans. They're roasted/blended in Melbourne, high turnover so they're reasonably fresh, and the dark roast hits the spot well enough for me. Don't get the age control like with a home roast (ie using them only at age 10-20 days post-roast) but apart from sometimes being a bit more squirty through my naked PF I can't taste any really issues. And you can't roast your own for that price.

I also put them through a Breville smart grinder. I've had 2 italian ones before that and they were louder and more trouble.

Fly - NO on the nutri ninja. You'll just bash them without ever getting anywhere near fine enough. Buy a decent grinder and then use cheap french press or stovetop.

Paper filters might let less cholesterol through but they do it by catching all the delicious oils.

Avoid pods unless you like paying $120/kg for 1/3 of a decent dose of stale coffee.

Check CS 2nd hand section, or buy a new smart grinder. The reason you need a fine grinder is 1. surface area, extract oils, and 2. surface area = immediately going stale, hence need to grind at time of use not buy pre-ground.

This is why people pay big money, the heart of coffee is espresso. Can't get the creamy oily goodness without doing everything right. Even though they're decent I can't get this much crema from the Aldi beans.

holy crap you cant get a crema like that at a specialised coffe roaster even

Select to expand quote

Buster fin said...
Drug addicted p o o f. There are so many of them around.

I find it embarrassing to be honest.

I'd feel embarrassed too if I were you.
Coffee is the most widely used stimulant drug in the world.

Select to expand quote

djt91184 said..
Having a nutria ninja AND coffee machine means you have officially stopped being a bogan and graduated to caffe latte p o o f mate

WTF am I going to be if I get a grinder too?
Btw I've never been a bogan, just a weirdo, and my masculinity can be assured by the fact that the "coffee machine" is a stove top pressure cooker (Bellman CX25P).

Select to expand quote

www.coffeecrew.com/gear-equipment-coffee/392-bellman-cappuccino-maker-reviewed.html
Getting started with the Bellman takes some getting used to, as it is a far cry from any other home unit in terms of design. The unit has a series of valves and removeable pieces which can be confusing out of the box.
the unit is completley manual for heating and is not being driven by a continuous electric pump and heating element. This means you can run out of pressure middway through brewing or steaming. I will say that using the Bellman does take some getting used, very similar to a La Pavoni lever-style espresso machine. However, if you do take the time to learn and are looking for a stove-top unit, look no further.
The CoffeeCrew rates the Bellman as a must-have for all serious coffee fans that have to have a variety of brew methods.

^^^p o o f?

Anyway where can I get some quality beans, freshly roasted?
I'll worry about pressure, and the grind post partum... I aint ever gona get a perfect expresso perché it only goes to 5 bar.

Recommendations:
Grinders Rich Expresso?
Aldi beans.
50-50 Ethiopian Gambella sundried and Brazil Yellow Bourbon Especial, where can I get this?

Select to expand quote

kiteboy dave said...

cauncy said..
..
Home roasting can give a burnt flavour as it needs to rapidly cool to stop the process
...

Extractor fan mounted in bucket, chef's sieve. Cool to touch within 30 secs..

I'd like to see your hydro set up