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Im pretty keen on my coffee, but as a student have to put up with a 'cheap' breville machine (whitewine.com, yeah I know), and accordingly have been trying everything i can to eek out the best coffee i can from it. One particular mod that has been successful is depressurising the filter basket. Cheap coffee machines [Breville, Sunbeam, etc] tend to come with pressurised filter baskets, which makes 'fake crema' so that you can have an impressive looking coffee with stale grounds, but gets in the way of trying to make the perfect coffee. Also, pressurised baskets with only one hole in the bottom tend to clog up easy when using fine grinds.
With a depressurised basket I have been getting some excellent results, producing 'real' crema. Most noticeably, coffee is much less bitter with a depressurised basket, my hypothesis for this is that pressurised baskets tend to brew/stew the coffee in the basket, which is great for plunger, but not espresso. Also, the basket no longer clogs up!
While some overseas forums point to places that one can purchase commercially produced depressurised baskets, I havent been able to find a place with stock and that ships to NZ, so have gone the DIY route. Depressurising is fairly simple once you know what you are doing, it is essentially drilling a big hole in the bottom of the basket, but its also easy to screw up a $30 part if you do it wrong. Now that Ive got the hang of it, i can do a rather tidy job of it.
Im keen to hear from coffee lovers with cheap espresso machines (Breville + Sunbeam especially) that are a) looking for a depressurised basket already or b) just generally interested learning how to make better coffee with their machines. If there is interest, then i will start to make a bunch of these and sell them on trademe or direct to GZ members. I think I could price it at around $40, which is a low price to pay for excellent coffee! Im a student who loves gadgets, so just looking for a little supplementary income.
So yeah, anyone interested? Or does anyone know where to get commercially made depressurised baskets in NZ, such that my entire project idea can be undermined haha?
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