The coffee geek thread - post your rigs, ask your questions, discuss your addiction!

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#673098 16-Aug-2012 04:57

I have given up drinking coffee, after something like 20yrs drinking the stuff and it gets to the stage when i drink my first coffee for the day i turn into a hypo crack addict its time to give it up. I love coffee but i don't like how i get hyperactive so quick, no sugar just pure black, but the heart starts racing & the hypo kicks in. Something not right. Maybe i should go Decaf coffee but ive read even decaf has caffeine in small amounts.

Anyone know of any herb tea that tastes like coffee minus the caffeine? lol

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Asrafrate

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Ultimate Geek

#673120 16-Aug-2012 08:12

*waves the TEA WINS banner*

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nate

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#673256 16-Aug-2012 12:34

BlueShift: the barristas might know coffee, but they suck at chocolate.

What don't you like? I reckon its the wide spectrum of chocolate that each cafe uses, not the barista per se

crackrdbycracku

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#673261 16-Aug-2012 12:39

nate:
BlueShift: the barristas might know coffee, but they suck at chocolate.

What don't you like? I reckon its the wide spectrum of chocolate that each cafe uses, not the barista per se

I once worked at a cafe, West Coast Coffee at Sylvia Park, and they were looking at an amazing hot chocolate that was made from ganache. Us staff got to try two kinds and give some feedback. After that nothing has come close.

To me basically most cafe hot chocolate substitutes an actual chocolate flavour for sweetness.

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NZtechfreak

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#673266 16-Aug-2012 12:48

crackrdbycracku:
nate:
BlueShift: the barristas might know coffee, but they suck at chocolate.

What don't you like? I reckon its the wide spectrum of chocolate that each cafe uses, not the barista per se

I once worked at a cafe, West Coast Coffee at Sylvia Park, and they were looking at an amazing hot chocolate that was made from ganache. Us staff got to try two kinds and give some feedback. After that nothing has come close.

To me basically most cafe hot chocolate substitutes an actual chocolate flavour for sweetness.

Bleh, most of them just steam chocolate milk.

I do it at home with a mexican dark cocoa and chili powder, make it super concentrated so it's like liquid dark chocolate. Delicious.

Anyways, enough talk of hot chocolate and blasphemy about tea "winning" in the coffee geek thread ;p

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NZtechfreak

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#673269 16-Aug-2012 12:50

mattRSK: I'm going to have to give this siphon thing a go. Anyone seen any in Christchurch, or even a coffee shop that makes it?

You can actually buy hario siphon coffee gear for very reasonable prices, I'd just get one and try it out! Glad to see siphon coffee making it's way over here, tried some in Melbourne earlier in the year and enjoyed it.

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BlueShift

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#673285 16-Aug-2012 13:26

NZtechfreak:
crackrdbycracku:
nate:
BlueShift: the barristas might know coffee, but they suck at chocolate.

What don't you like? I reckon its the wide spectrum of chocolate that each cafe uses, not the barista per se

I once worked at a cafe, West Coast Coffee at Sylvia Park, and they were looking at an amazing hot chocolate that was made from ganache. Us staff got to try two kinds and give some feedback. After that nothing has come close.

To me basically most cafe hot chocolate substitutes an actual chocolate flavour for sweetness.

Bleh, most of them just steam chocolate milk.

I do it at home with a mexican dark cocoa and chili powder, make it super concentrated so it's like liquid dark chocolate. Delicious.

Anyways, enough talk of hot chocolate and blasphemy about tea "winning" in the coffee geek thread ;p

I have nothing much to add to the two comments above - most cafes use oversugared "hot chocolate" powder, and not enough of it. There are exceptions, but generally if I'm at a cafe with others, I'll have a coke or water rather than risk it.

SumnerBoy

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#673306 16-Aug-2012 14:09

Hello coffee experts,

I have decided it is time I got in on the act of making decent coffee at home, after years of instant...

I am prepared to spend a bit to get something that will last and will give me cafe-style brews, but don't want to break the bank.

I have done a fair bit of reading, including this thread, and have come to the realisation you need a very good grinder, a good machine, and then a fair degree of skill (and experience) to make the perfect cuppa.

I have come across the Breville Dual Boiler - and can get it here in NZ for $1500 + shipping. I realise Breville don't have the best name in terms of 'high quality' gear, but this thing has received very good reviews. And for what you get, for the price you pay, you would need to spend 2-3K on traditional brands - am I correct?

So my question is, as a novice/beginner, am I wasting my money getting something like the Breville? If so, what would you recommend? Also, what grinders do people recommend?

This may be a stupid question, but could I buy the machine and skip the grinder initially, and just buy pre-ground coffee while I get to grips with my new toy, and learn the art of making a decent coffee? Or is that just crazy talk.

Any and all advice and suggestions will be warmly welcomed!!

Cheers,
Ben

NZtechfreak

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#673331 16-Aug-2012 15:01

You definitely want a grinder.

The quality and particularly freshness of the beans has a very large bearing on the quality of the coffee your machine will turn out (trust me, got my nice machine and one of the first things I learned was how useless ALL coffee sold in supermarkets is - couldn't get a crema worth a damn out of my ~$2,600 Expobar Brewtus II, was feeling very disheartened and then tried some Coffeelab gear shipped the day it was roasted and suddenly had magic happening). If you're buying already ground stuff then it deteriorates even more quickly than whole beans.

Would have to look up the Breville, but being a dual boiler is nice in a Breville machine for sure. Will post back later after had a chance to read up on it.

EDIT: OK, just read up on the machine at CoffeeGeek and a few other places. I'd say go for it, looks brilliant and has a feature set and performance that outstrips similarly priced machines like the Rancilio Sylvia.

I would think about getting a naked/bottomless portafilter too by the way (got mine from Ebay, was never able to source them locally), really nice that the Dual Boiler has a standard 58mm portafilter head so you can buy stuff like that with confidence. Reasons I recommend the naked portafilter: I think the espresso tastes better with it (all the oils are transmitted to the shot is the explanation I've been proffered for that, seems reasonable - I certainly noticed the difference when I started using mine), and secondly it is very instructional - if there are defects from your dosing/leveling/tamping routine they will be very evident with a naked portafilter and allow you to make adjustments (spouted portafilters don't really allow you to see the spurting etc that results from a poor coffee puck, so it's harder to work out what is going wrong and whether your adjustments are imprving matters).

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SumnerBoy

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#673345 16-Aug-2012 15:26

Thanks for that NZTechFreak. Your comments about coffee beans v pre-ground makes a lot of sense. Do you have any suggestions for a decent entry level grinder? I don't want to spend too much as I am pretty much blowing my budget (well and truly) on the Dual Boiler!

I will definitely look into the naked portafilter as well - I will need all the help I can get initially to learn this new craft!

NZtechfreak

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#673347 16-Aug-2012 15:38

What would your budget be for the grinder given the machine is already taxing your budget?

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SumnerBoy

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#673350 16-Aug-2012 15:42

I don't really know what the price range is like for these things. I have seen the Breville Smart grinder for $350-$400 but that will take my total purchase up to close to $2K once I include shipping etc.

Maybe something around the $100-$150? Is that achievable/realistic for a beginner?

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#673551 17-Aug-2012 06:47

Most likely not. The absolute minimum is that it is a conical burr grinder and the cheapest of these that I have seen starts over $200. I have the Sunbeam conical burr grinder. It has a lot of flaws but does do the job and was cheap(ish)

http://www.sunbeam.co.nz/products/kitchen/em0480/

The Breville grinder looks OK although I would prefer a simple model that does the job well then one full of electronics that can go bad.

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#673556 17-Aug-2012 07:33

I'm looking at the Mini Macho which I've seen bundled with a Rocket. Seems to be about the bottom you'd want to go for a machine like that.

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Asrafrate

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Ultimate Geek

#673561 17-Aug-2012 08:05

NZtechfreak: Anyways, enough talk of hot chocolate and blasphemy about tea "winning" in the coffee geek thread ;p

S'only blasphemy cause it's the truth :P

You guys should put together a board like this for your coffeesmoffee, and see who can guess the different beans :D

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