Silly Commuter Coffee

bracketed

Espresso - nectar of the gods.

Just a simple 15-bar pump-driven machine like this:



Fed with filtered water and Lavazza Rosso, it makes nice, strong espressos (espressi?) with a lovely thick crema, daily (at least), for about 4 years. Seals and joints eventually perish. I'm on my third, and a bit worried, cos I think they are no longer made

welkman

This thread has inspired me to de-coke my gaggia cubika. Now enjoying a lovely Lavazza Rosso based Americana......mmmmmmmm good. I have to use an filter at work which isnt great, but by far the worst coffee I have ever been subjected to is the stuff made in one of those insulated mugs with a built in press, full of grounds, nasty.

John Stevenson

I have one of these, more or less:



I say 'more or less' because just as there are bike manufacturers who supply bikes and frame that other people put their names to, so it is with coffee machines. This machine is sold round the world under various names and mine claims to be a San Marino, but it's substantially the same as the Wega.

It's plumbed in.

Beans ground in one of these:



Beans from the tiny but mighty Colonna and Smalls in Bath. Origin Coffee roasts their blend, I've raved about them to enough people in Bath they're happy to sell me a kilo as and when I need it.

itboffin

Jeez you lot really take your coffee seriously, i'm impressed I have much to learn.

andyrr

I've got one of these :
https://www.i-roast.com/asp/pro_01.asp
and get greens from, amongst a few sources, this lot
http://www.hasbean.co.uk/

Fantastic smell from home-roasted beans and it means you have freshly roasted beans easily and regularly available as and when required.

Coupled with Gaggia Classic machine.

daviesee

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Another stove-top lover here. Am always a bit surprised when people choose a cafetiere, uses mountains of coffee for a decent cup, and then half of the cup is sludge. Favourite coffee has to be Lavazza Rosso. Mmmmm....

At work we have a great selection of freshly roasted coffees from the Edinburgh Tea and Coffee company, their espresso blend is really pretty great too.

+1 - I actually prefer the version that comes in the black packet but it is ground too fine

How does the Edinburgh Co directly compare with the Rosso in a stove pot? Or any of the other mentioned above?

John Stevenson

Aah I was wondering how long someone would take to trump us all with "I roast my own". The "I weld my own frames" of home coffee-making

andyrr, do you have a 240V version, or a step-down transformer?

fishz

+1 for hasbean - been getting my fix from Steve for a while now, but get him to roast in the small quantities that they can send on the day you order it. Great service, and even better coffee

Thinking about dumping the Gaggia and upgrading to a bean-to-cup machine - the fact that the Gaggia is so hard to service now means it's destined for eBay or the bin this year.[/quote]

jrduquemin

markshaw77 wrote:

ste_ wrote:

Usually I'm an utter luddite. However, afew years ago I retired my Gaggia and freshly ground beans for a Nespreso machine.

It goes against many of my principles, but having tremendously fresh espresso available in 60 seconds or so with no mess afterwards is worth the moral dilution.

Yep, I'm tied to a massive corporation to purchase my coffee and yes I'm restricted to buying it on-line or from Selfridges but the pros outweigh the cons.

+1

+1 to that also. we have the Nespresso machines on every floor in our office. We also buy the coffee pods in bulk as they are very popular with the coffee fiends, me included... My favourite is the Ristretto :-)

Initialised

WGWarburton wrote:

Hi,
The fancy version:




My one is a bit more industrial, but the principle's the same. Lots of lovely, strong coffee with no grounds, sludge, taint or overcooked/burnt flavour.

I find espresso a bit unsatisfying as a during-the-day drink- overpowering taste and it's gone before I've really started to enjoy it!

Cheers,
W.

OMG, that looks like a home brew bong made from stolen lab supplies, sure you're not cooking up somesting stronger than caffeine? Makes my DeLonghi look seriously mediocre.

UndercoverElephant

daviesee wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Another stove-top lover here. Am always a bit surprised when people choose a cafetiere, uses mountains of coffee for a decent cup, and then half of the cup is sludge. Favourite coffee has to be Lavazza Rosso. Mmmmm....

At work we have a great selection of freshly roasted coffees from the Edinburgh Tea and Coffee company, their espresso blend is really pretty great too.

+1 - I actually prefer the version that comes in the black packet but it is ground too fine

How does the Edinburgh Co directly compare with the Rosso in a stove pot? Or any of the other mentioned above?

Nothing tastes quite like Lavazza. The Edinburgh Tea & Coffee place's espresso lacks the nuttiness and is a bit coarser milled, but I really quite like it. Plus, they deliver locally for free and invoice us. We also get their Java, Columbian and decaf blends. Obviously I can't comment on the latter, but the rest taste pretty damn good.

mrushton

itboffin wrote:

Jeez you lot really take your coffee seriously, i'm impressed I have much to learn.

If you can ping Scrumple who posts on BR then you'll find someone who REALLY gets into it - even roasting his own beans. Stovetop machines are fantastic , we have 3 plus a Gaggia Classic but the world of espresso machines is as varied as bikes with machines rebadged as other brands.

itboffin

Come on surely someone is growing there own? or at least owns a plantation

John Stevenson

itboffin, that'd be a seriously impressive achievement in the UK. Coffee likes to be grown at 1-2000m above sea level, in warm, humid conditions. You'd need a seriously advanced greenhouse to create the right conditions.

itboffin

Ah but I didn't say grown here

John Stevenson

asprilla

John Stevenson wrote:

itboffin, that'd be a seriously impressive achievement in the UK. Coffee likes to be grown at 1-2000m above sea level, in warm, humid conditions. You'd need a seriously advanced greenhouse to create the right conditions.

Well Mrs A does get hers from friends in Guatemala and Colombia and family in Zambia who grow their own, does that count.

itboffin

Asprilla wrote:

John Stevenson wrote:

itboffin, that'd be a seriously impressive achievement in the UK. Coffee likes to be grown at 1-2000m above sea level, in warm, humid conditions. You'd need a seriously advanced greenhouse to create the right conditions.

Well Mrs A does get hers from friends in Guatemala and Colombia and family in Zambia who grow their own, does that count.

We're stilling talking about coffee right ..?

Initialised

itboffin wrote:

Come on surely someone is growing there own? or at least owns a plantation

We are still talking about coffee yes?

Canny Jock

Bow down to the coffee geek:

http://coffeegeek.com/

EKE_38BPM

I think coffee is foul and disgusting and the ejaculate of the devil, but I do have land in Jamaica (where they grow Blue Mountain coffee).
Make me an offer and I'll get them to grow Silly Commuter Coffee.

Could be on to a winner here.

davmaggs

My observation from going to lots of homes in Italy is that people use the stovetop pots, and don't bother with all the machinary and the fuss. If you want that then you go to a bar where it is done properly

As coffee is a cultural thing in Italy, I for one believe them and not the US inspired faff factor.


PS for the coffee machine-porn posters in the earlier part of the thread. There was an Aussie short film in the 80s where an average geeky bloke going out with a yuppie girl keeps getting critisised by her for being a peasent for using instant and that starts him off buying better and better machines to impress her, but then he becomes so obsessed that he dumps her so that he can dedicate himself to making thousands of cups and running a full coffee shop steam machine in order to find the perfect cup.

I can't remember the title, but it was ahead of its time

John Stevenson

davmaggs, the difference is you can get decent coffee within walking distance of just about any random location in Italy, whereas in the UK you can get dreck. And where I previously lived in Southern Sydney it was worse - I am quite sure I made the best coffee for about a 5km radius.

So those of us who like our coffee get a great excuse to an yet another thing to our collection of things to be geeky about.

sketchley

This is what we are currently drinking at home

http://www.waitrosedeliver.com/wdeliver ... nbr=295252

Waitrose Organic Fairtrade Sumatra Mandheling Roasted Coffee Beans

Ground daily and then made in filter machine with a timer.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000 ... e=&seller=

Coffee then warmed in Microwave if not drunk before cold. Whoever drinks last cup puts another pot on.

After trying lots of different coffee settles on Sumatra beans as even though it's fairly strong stuff the low acidity means it's very very smooth.

Also have an expresso machine but use it rarely.

bails87

Sketchley wrote:

Also have an expresso machine but use it rarely.

Same here, they're too slow

meanredspider

bails87 wrote:

Same here, they're too slow

All the best things in life take a little time

sketchley

bails87 wrote:

Sketchley wrote:

Also have an expresso machine but use it rarely.

Same here, they're too slow

Not a speed thing, I've just come to prefer good filter coffee with a splash of cold milk. Having gone through shots of expresso and latte phases in the past. IMO you just can't beat good filter coffee.

JonEdwards

Gaggia Classic and a Mazzer Super Jolly here.

I use Monmouth beans most of the time, but Deep Mills in Suffolk do some great stuff - the Monmouth beans can be a bit variable in quality. DM do mail order for less cost than I can buy over the counter from Monmouth too, although I then don't get the extra journey to collect them

One of the joys of commuting across London by bike is that the REALLY good coffee shops are only ever a couple of minutes ride away.

Milk Bar
Flat White
Sacred
Fernandez & Wells
Monmouth (great for filter, less so for espresso based)

moonio

itboffin wrote:

Come on surely someone is growing there own? or at least owns a plantation

We have coffee growing on our farm in Jamaica

itboffin

moonio wrote:

itboffin wrote:

Come on surely someone is growing there own? or at least owns a plantation

We have coffee growing on our farm in Jamaica

You win

So how you doin' ...?