Handle9: Watch Jane’s Hoffman’s aeropress video. It’ll give you a good baseline technique and some recipes to play around with.

jonathan18:

Handle9: Watch Jane’s Hoffman’s aeropress video. It’ll give you a good baseline technique and some recipes to play around with.

Is that James' less famous sister or mother, perhaps?! But, yep, his videos are always worth a watch.

Handle9: Watch Jane’s Hoffman’s aeropress video. It’ll give you a good baseline technique and some recipes to play around with.

i based it off james hoffmans aeropress series. his moka series was really helpful and worked well with my moka pot. i really like his technical side of it.

whats interesting is all the aeropress champs recipes are all the other way using very large amounts of under extracted coffee. i'll stick with the small amounts of coffee, its cheaper.  

today i fished my supermarket coffee and got onto the specialist coffee and thats a lot nicer. 

bumping this back up.

what to do while its wet, brew coffee.

i'm on the third different bag now and made quite a few changes to the recipe. whats working really well is a coarser grind setting. just a bit finer than whats recommended for aeropress. 12g coffee, 200g water, inverted.

i was having issues with having good and then at random bad cups of coffee which where very sour. but i found a site that explained you can get that with the grind being way to fine, which is the opposite of whats normally recommended. but its worked, a courser grind has been more consistent. 

tweake:

 

i was having issues with having good and then at random bad cups of coffee which where very sour. but i found a site that explained you can get that with the grind being way to fine, which is the opposite of whats normally recommended. but its worked, a courser grind has been more consistent. 

 

Yeah, I think this has to do with the fact that despite all the "pressurized extraction" marketing, it's really just faster filter coffee, which will always respond better to more surface area from a coarser grind. In reality, it's a bit like a jet engine; it will run best on high quality AV gas, but it will also run on anything combustible haha... I switch between AeroPress and espresso but I CBF changing the grind setting. Mignon's aren't designed for that...

While it's not quite a coffee machine, since this thread has morphed into coffee and coffee accessories, I decided to splurge on some ACME cups... while I'm sure it makes no difference to the end product, it really completes the experience

ShinyChrome:

 

 

 

Yeah, I think this has to do with the fact that despite all the "pressurized extraction" marketing, it's really just faster filter coffee, which will always respond better to more surface area from a coarser grind. In reality, it's a bit like a jet engine; it will run best on high quality AV gas, but it will also run on anything combustible haha... I switch between AeroPress and espresso because I CBF changing the grind setting. Mignon's aren't designed for that...

 

Fine grind will have a greater total surface area.

blackjack17:

 

Fine grind will have a greater total surface area.

 

Right you are, clearly needed to drink my coffee before posting that

ShinyChrome:

 

While it's not quite a coffee machine, since this thread has morphed into coffee and coffee accessories, I decided to splurge on some ACME cups... while I'm sure it makes no difference to the end product, it really completes the experience

 

absolutely. its all part of it. 

ShinyChrome:

tweake:

i was having issues with having good and then at random bad cups of coffee which where very sour. but i found a site that explained you can get that with the grind being way to fine, which is the opposite of whats normally recommended. but its worked, a courser grind has been more consistent. 

Yeah, I think this has to do with the fact that despite all the "pressurized extraction" marketing, it's really just faster filter coffee, which will always respond better to more surface area from a coarser grind. In reality, it's a bit like a jet engine; it will run best on high quality AV gas, but it will also run on anything combustible haha... I switch between AeroPress and espresso but I CBF changing the grind setting. Mignon's aren't designed for that...

While it's not quite a coffee machine, since this thread has morphed into coffee and coffee accessories, I decided to splurge on some ACME cups... while I'm sure it makes no difference to the end product, it really completes the experience

I also have some Acme cups but more the rounded version (cappuccino?) and not the tulip version. Who stocks them in Auckland these days? We got ours from Flo & Frankie in the city but they don't seem to stock them anymore. I would like to get a couple more.

lookout: Any thoughts on the Breville Barista Express vs the Sunbeam Barista Max?

an espresso machine + grinder for the same price as a good entry level grinder.

Breville is known for issues and lack of replacement parts, the Sunbeam reviews have not been overly kind.

lookout: Any thoughts on the Breville Barista Express vs the Sunbeam Barista Max?

The BBE has been around for a while now. It's a well proven design and pretty good at what it does but has some compromises. It's definitely a good way to get into espresso and you can make really nice drinks.

Breville have by far the biggest market share in the value segment but also own a number of higher end brands such as Barazza and Lelit. 

It's a thermoblock machine, which is what you get at this price point. A thermoblock is used on lower priced machines as it's much cheaper to manufacture than a boiler. It means it's very quick to heat up compared to a boiler and it has PID temperature control which means it has very good temperature stability. Breville offer a very similar thermoblock and control across a number of their machines, including the BBE, the Infuser and the Bambino.

It uses a 53mm portafilter which isn't "standard" (58mm) but because of their marketshare there's plenty of accesories available.

It's not dual boiler which means you are either brewing or steaming, you can't do both. The steam is fairly weak, which is normal in a thermoblock machine. 

The grinder is a bit mediocre. You lack the number of steps you get on a more capable grinder. It may be be a bit tricky to dial in because of this. 

I wouldn't buy one if it was me. For similar money you can get the Infuser and Smart Grinder Pro which gives you a much better grinder with the same espresso maker. You could also spend a bit more and get the Bambino which has automatic milk frothing if that's interesting to you. It also gives you an upgrade path if that's important to you.

I don't know the Sunbeam but I wouldn't buy one. The BBE is much more proven and easy to get serviced/repaired. There's a lot more accessories available and a good second hand market.

I'd also have a good look at the second hand market. Espresso machines are the kind of thing people buy and move on after a year so there can be good deals found. I bought my old setup this way (Infuser / Smart Grinder) around 10 years ago. It's since moved on to a friend and still going strong.

As a previous owner of a Sunbeam espresso machine (scratch that - make that a current owner: I have a Mini Barista at work) I've had good experience with the brand.

If you're looking s/h I reckon check out the Sunbeam Duo or its predecessors (I think mine was the EM7000). It can be bought new for about $900 but the older version will be way cheaper s/h.

It has a couple of key advantages - it has a 58mm portafilter, so is compatible with the most commonly available accessories (and these accessories will be more likely to work with any upgraded machine). It is also a dual thermoblock design - so while not a boiler, it does allow for heating milk and extracting the coffee at the same time (a big time-saver, especially if you're making more than one coffee at a time). I had nil problems with mine the many years I owned it, and got a really good price for it s/h so clearly there's a market out there. Having not had any problems I can't report on replacement parts and service! (By contrast I've had to take the machine I bought to replace the Sunbeam - a Breville Dual Boiler - in for repairs after two years of ownership; Breville were great to deal with, but it was annoying - plus it's still clearly leaking a bit from the steam boiler.)