Coffee

Tamyka Bell said:

Which is why everyone should get their how-to lesson from the World
Barista Champion (2004)

😄 Tam

Glad to see you're not name dropping! 😉

trek-man said:

Coffee and Bianchi, now your talking

The Italians certainly know how to make Machinery! Love my Gaggia & Lux, but lust after Giotto & Mazzer (and of course Bianchi).

On 2005-09-22, cfsmtb (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

TimC said:

I think PubBUG has gone lazy now that we have the Goat.

Not that that's a bad thing. The goat is a good place to default to
🙂

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

When I am able to attend, we must make it to the Belgium Beer Cafe
(unlike lasttime when I was in another city 🙂

Pfff, you haven't been around since the beginning at the Imperial beer
garden years ago. We've done Team PubBUG Hawaiian shirts, a Sidewall
Stout Home brew,

This idea intrigues me. I wish to subscirbe to your newsletter.

Quoted message said:

a Kona24 Team entry, organised civilised
pubcrawl/rides, made an annual event of the Triple R Community Cup and
handed 60+ Hawaiian lei's at the '03 SingleSpeed Worlds.

lei's?

Civilised pubcrawls? What a strange concept!

--
TimC
Like most computer techie people, I'll happily spend 6 hours trying to figure
out how to do a 3 hour job in 10 minutes. --Rev. James Cort, ASR

"DeF" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Like all proper cyclists, I'm a regular
coffee drinker. In fact, seeing as how
I'm also a mathematician, I've got to drink
it by the bucket.

Anyway, some of the staff at my local insist
on letting the first bit of coffee from the
machine drain away rather than putting it into
the cup. I asked them about this and they claim
that the first flush is bitter and it's best to
let it go. Personally, I think it just makes
for a weaker cup of coffee, which is not a good
thing.

Opinions?

DeF

--
e-mail: [email hidden]
To reply, you'll have to remove finger.

When I did a short coffee-making course I was told that the 'foxtail' (the
first bit should dribble down the cup) was essential. It's supposed to show
that the oulet has been cleared of stewed coffee from the last cup. Coffee
should have some bitterness but not from oxidised old coffee that's been
sitting in the delivery pipe.

Frank (gotta have that coffee!)

Tamyka Bell said:

Which is why commercial coffee machines are usually designed so as to
only extract for the correct amount of time, so as to produce 30mL
for a single shot or 60mL for the double.

Commercial coffee machines do not extract for an amount of time, they
measure volume. If you pack the coffee in harder, they will take longer,
loose, shorter. The trick is to get the correct amount of coffee in the
holder so that it takes around 25 seconds. Cheaper home machines use a
vibrator type pump and commercial machines use a rotary pump. Vibrator pumps
are obvious by the noise they make. Rotary pump machines are not available,
as far as I know, for less than $2000. I have a rotary pump machine which is
plumbed in so has no water reservoir to fill, or drain to empty.

Theo
Who loves his coffee.

David M said:

Tamyka Bell said:

You can get a decent espresso machine for a few hundred dollars. Then it
only costs you about $25 a kilo for beans, and your average coffee costs
about 50c, so if you drink a few cups a day... woohoo! (Yes, I have a
small one at home, our office has a big one, and my best mate has gone
commercial.)

Agree that the espresso machine is important but the most important are
the roaster and grinder.

The roaster need not be expensive (a $20 popcorn machine works fine)
but you've got to have a good ear and a bit of practice to get it
right. The roast should only be between 24 hours and about 3 days old
imho. I now have a "Cafe Rosto" that's a bit easier to get right.

And the grinder is critical. I set mine (Saeco MC2002) up so that's
it's fine enough that having rejected the 1st second's worth, the next
17-20 seconds extract 30mm. Longer than about 20-22 seconds always
tasted burnt to me (La Cimbali Domus).

With the right beans, and my roaster and grinder, I'll bet I can make a
better espresso with some $200 department store espresso machine than
at least 75% of espresso I buy in cafes.

Cheers
David M

So do you return bad coffees? I remember being at a Bne Cafe that had
average coffee, so I always went for a flat white. Then one day I really
wanted a short black and decided to take a chance. It was delicious. It
was the milk they were burning, not the beans.

We get our coffee fresh roasted from the big Merlo shop in the valley.
The grinder was donated by the WBC and goes okay.

Tam

Tamyka Bell said:

So do you return bad coffees? I remember being at a Bne Cafe that had
average coffee, so I always went for a flat white.

Nah, I'm not really the returning things kinda person. Don;t want to
seem like a cafe pratt, you know? I have very occasionally though, but
generally where I know that they usually do a lot better. Though
usually I just suffer it or don't finish it.

Quoted message said:

Then one day I really
wanted a short black and decided to take a chance. It was delicious. It
was the milk they were burning, not the beans.

heh...the old burnt milk thing is one thing that many cafes get wrong.
Caramelised lactose is a way to ruin coffee. If I'm in a macciato fram
of mind I always get the milk cold, and in a little jug so I can add
the right amount and know it's not burnt.

Funny coffee story - Mrs DavidM goes into a cafe and orders a "short
macc" which most baristas should be able to take a wild guess at. Gets
a very long macc. Brews about it for a couple of minutes and then
decides to take it back. Barista asks the problem, she says "for a
start, it's a large macc, and I asked for a short". Says barista
(seriously) "then just drink half of it then"! And this from a place
that should know better...

Cheers
David M

Tamyka Bell said:

David M said:

Tamyka Bell said:

You can get a decent espresso machine for a few hundred dollars. Then it
only costs you about $25 a kilo for beans, and your average coffee costs
about 50c, so if you drink a few cups a day... woohoo! (Yes, I have a
small one at home, our office has a big one, and my best mate has gone
commercial.)

Agree that the espresso machine is important but the most important are
the roaster and grinder.

The roaster need not be expensive (a $20 popcorn machine works fine)
but you've got to have a good ear and a bit of practice to get it
right. The roast should only be between 24 hours and about 3 days old
imho. I now have a "Cafe Rosto" that's a bit easier to get right.

And the grinder is critical. I set mine (Saeco MC2002) up so that's
it's fine enough that having rejected the 1st second's worth, the next
17-20 seconds extract 30mm. Longer than about 20-22 seconds always
tasted burnt to me (La Cimbali Domus).

With the right beans, and my roaster and grinder, I'll bet I can make a
better espresso with some $200 department store espresso machine than
at least 75% of espresso I buy in cafes.

Cheers
David M

So do you return bad coffees? I remember being at a Bne Cafe that had
average coffee, so I always went for a flat white. Then one day I really
wanted a short black and decided to take a chance. It was delicious. It
was the milk they were burning, not the beans.

We get our coffee fresh roasted from the big Merlo shop in the valley.
The grinder was donated by the WBC and goes okay.

Tam

I've returned bad coffees, although they have to be very bad.
My standard cup is a "mug of flat white" - a double shot mug -
it's stronger than a cup. For a while there, there was a coffee
maker who, if two mugs were ordered at the same time, would
use a *splitter* to make two mugs from one double shot. I would
refuse to take that - it was like drinking warm milk, urggh.

Mmmm, loyalty card is full, a free cuppa coming up soon!

DeF.

--
e-mail: [email hidden]
To reply, you'll have to remove finger.

Tamyka Bell said:

So do you return bad coffees? I remember being at a Bne Cafe that had
average coffee, so I always went for a flat white.

Nah, I'm not really the returning things kinda person. Don;t want to
seem like a cafe pratt, you know? I have very occasionally though, but
generally where I know that they usually do a lot better. Though
usually I just suffer it or don't finish it.

Quoted message said:

Then one day I really
wanted a short black and decided to take a chance. It was delicious. It
was the milk they were burning, not the beans.

heh...the old burnt milk thing is one thing that many cafes get wrong.
Caramelised lactose is a way to ruin coffee. If I'm in a macciato fram
of mind I always get the milk cold, and in a little jug so I can add
the right amount and know it's not burnt.

Funny coffee story - Mrs DavidM goes into a cafe and orders a "short
macc" which most baristas should be able to take a wild guess at. Gets
a very long macc. Brews about it for a couple of minutes and then
decides to take it back. Barista asks the problem, she says "for a
start, it's a large macc, and I asked for a short". Says barista
(seriously) "then just drink half of it then"! And this from a place
that should know better...

Cheers
David M