International Roast straight from the giant can! With a shitload of sugar and milk!
this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
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I use a plunger at the moment, but I’m getting sick of unavailability of replacement parts. Haven’t been able to get a replacement filter for a 12 cup plunger in ages. Price is going to jump up if/when they’re ever back in stock, too.
Definitely have to grind beans yourself. I use a Hario hand mill. You’re missing out on a lot of the aroma if you buy ground beans.
We got a Delonghi (Dinamica Plus) coffee machine last year. Most of the time I go for an espresso or a cappuccino.
In terms of beans I have found a couple of local roasters nearby and tend to alternate across their blends.
The ones I've been enjoying are:
The Cats Pyjamas https://www.sevenmiles.com.au/products/catspjs?variant=39825374281918
Gusto https://www.sevenmiles.com.au/products/gusto?variant=39843759063230
9Bar Blend https://espressoservicesplus.com.au/product/9bar-coffee-bar-blend-1kg/
Latte maker here. Invested in a Gaggia classic pro over Covid. Paid for itself in a few months. I buy preground beans from colesworth; what ever has the prettiest package. I know I need to hit up a boutique roaster at least but I never find the time.
Are you using pressurised baskets with the pre-ground coffee? I strongly suggest investing in a grinder and grinding your own beans. Then you can start using the non-pressurised baskets. It'll be the next big leap up with your more than capable machine.
Also, don't fret about trying to get out to a boutique roaster. There's plenty of places you can buy online now. I found this site that you can buy from several roasters (mainly Melbourne based): directcoffee.com.au
I'm team moka pot…the Brikka variant. I used to just use pre-ground coffee but recently bought a little Kalita hand ginder and I use Humbler beans from Proud Mary…much more tasty. It's no worse than the 5 buck coffees I get from my local cafe, IMO.
Water temperature, extraction time, and grind size are the main variables dictating coffee taste. Aeropresses are so handy because you can easily control water temperature and extraction time. Get a burr grinder (not the blade grinder) to play with grind size. I have spent a lot of time playing with these three factors alone.
I have an aeropress that I haven't used since I bought a $99 Delonghi espresso machine from Aldi a few years ago. It's a good little machine and makes a perfectly adequate coffee. I've recently upgraded to a Gaggia Classic Pro and the quality of the coffee I make has gone significantly downhill thanks to this machine being more demanding. I'm slowly improving, though.
As for the beans, I like to try local roasters I haven't tried before, but have a couple I fall back on either because I enjoy them or just for convenience (read: I didn't realise how low I was getting and ran out, so went with the best option to get beans ASAP.)
My preferences are:
- Espresso
- Piccolo
- Moka Pot
I invested in a Breville Dual Boiler a few months ago and haven't looked back. Using a Kingrinder K4 hand grinder until my electric grinder arrives. Finally able to get coffee on par with what I'd buy out.
One teaspoon of cheap instant coffee and two splendas, milk.
Do you use the same amount of coffee (by weight?) in the plunger vs espresso? I always felt the plunger needed more, and felt like it was a waste, to get a reasonable tasting/strength plunger coffee.
I guess I've never done any research on how to make a good plunger coffee and never been amazed by the result, so I'm interested in how you make it?!
It’s one of those “it depends” things. You need to play with the quantity, temperature and time depending on the beans you get. If the beans aren’t freshly roasted, you really notice the difference with plunger coffee – it’ll taste flat or stale. In general, the more bitter flavour components take longer to come out. The longer you leave it in the plunger, the more bitter the coffee will be.
I hardly put any milk in my coffee, so I don’t like stuff that’s under-roasted. It needs to be roasted dark enough that it doesn’t taste acidic. (It isn’t an issue if you’re putting more milk in your coffee, because the milk acts as a pH buffer and you won’t get that acidic taste. A flat white or latte is far more tolerant of a light roast.) But if it’s roasted too dark, like a typical French roast, it just ends up tasting bitter.
Thanks for the detailed response! I'll play around with those variables and see how I go, I've probably been using water that's too hot and leaving it for too long!
I don't make espresso, so I can't compare how much coffee it actually uses. Espresso tends to need to be stronger as it is often used in milky drinks. Plunger coffee is often ruined by using water that is too hot, it should cool a little from the boil as the hotter water extracts more of the bitter flavours. Different styles of beans and roasts also work better for the different methods - espresso tends to focus on dark roasts, plunger and similar methods tend to favour lighter roasts and more subtle variations. Some of the difference between them is just what you are used to and looking for - a bit like with wine you can't really compare a rich high-tannin red with a more delicate fruity white. They are both good in different ways.
Thanks for the reply! I'll have to play around with the temp and beans a bit more!
Bought an espresso machine over COVID and have been learning the ropes with milk texture ever since. Almost always a flat white but occasionally a long black or straight espresso.
It's pretty cool what you can do with a $350 machine, fortunately already had a Bodum grinder which helps a lot.
Has paid itself off probably multiple times over by now and is a fun little hobby nailing a latte heart or tulip or whatever.
I usually just pull espresso for a lomg black from my cheap-o machine, but I do love a good, black, cold brew. Also partial to pour overs with a proper ratio.
I used to have a hario hand grinder and french press.
But I just bought myself a miele full automatic
I have a nespresso machine. For my morning coffee I use 4 pods randomly selected from my huge basket of pods (I buy in bulk every time the boxes of pods are on special at the supermarket), add 285ml of boiled water, and a milk froth cycle from the machine. I have a double-sized mug to put it all in.
I used to drink coffees through the day using two Nespresso pods and frothed milk. But I gave up on buying the Nespresso branded pods because I got sick of their website fighting me. They offer a free thing if you buy x number of pods, but literally every time I ordered and spent time carefully selecting the pods I wanted, when I got to the order screen at least one of my selections was out of stock so I would lose my free thing and have to go back and refigure out my order. Why let me select pods you aren't going to sell me? Anyway, Nespresso have lost a customer because of that. Once or twice would be tolerable but it was literally every time.
Now my day coffee is nescafe gold, make sure you add the milk before adding the water.
I really like cold iced coffee with full cream milk with or without a scoop of ice cream, although lately I have been drinking more straight espresso or long blacks (sometimes flat whites too) due to the cold weather. I have a little Nespresso pod machine with some resusable stainless steel pods that I fill with coffee I grind myself. Before this current one I had a larger and cheaper Nescafe machine (also with resuable pods) that I've since passed on to a family member. The beans don't really matter too much to me - I just rotate between different stuff depending on my mood or what's on special.
I have a bunch of other things that I use less, like one-cup filters, plungers, etc. I also tried cold brewing for a while last year but eventually got bored with that and went back to the ol' faithful pod machine. I'd like to have a proper coffee machine but in terms of size and affordability it's unrealistic. One of the things I like about my current setup is that it still replicates a lot of the things I enjoyed about making coffee on a proper machine when I worked in the industry. I still have full control over the fineness of the grind, the weight of the shot, the force of the tamp, the length of the shot, etc. I really enjoy going through the ritual every morning of preparing the shot (another reason why I prefer espresso to filtered and cold brew coffee).
I tinker with roasting my own coffee (tend to go on the lighter end, highly recommend a hive roaster).
I then grind it (used to use a hand grinder, but doing that for espresso got somewhat painful after a few years) and use a manual espresso press (cafelat robot) to make the coffee.
If I feel like a milk drink I'll use a bellman stove top steamer to steam the milk.
Gaggia Classic Pro here with the 9 bar spring mod and a VST basket. Using a Baratza Encore grinder. The quintessential "Dipping my toes into espresso" bundle.
18g grams of beans in, 36 grams of liquid out. Froth and pour in 100ml of full cream milk.