I bought from there, and a few friends have as well. They are great, and it's good to have an actual store with experts in case you have a problem, as opposed to Amazon. Prices were the best I could find in Canada as well.
The Following User Says Thank You to Fuzz For This Useful Post:
Still the best coffee I ever got was in the old fashioned stove top drip coffee pot. 4 spoonfulls of ground coffee beans and for black press a pinch of salt
Then you waited till it started perking
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Still the best coffee I ever got was in the old fashioned stove top drip coffee pot. 4 spoonfulls of ground coffee beans and for black press a pinch of salt
Ended up going back to one of those. Keurig for when I'm running to work, old-fashioned every other time.
The Following User Says Thank You to DownhillGoat For This Useful Post:
I love good coffee and, when I decided to stop paying $5 for a questionable quality cup of espresso, I had researched this to death. After reading the collective wisdom database from coffee forums, I came to these three important conclusions:
Don't buy a grinder/maker combo machine, unless you're into commercial ones which cost many many many thousands of dollars;
Coffee grinder is more important than a coffee maker; invest in the best one you can afford;
In selecting a coffee maker, choose those ones within your budget that have separated boilers for coffee and steam.
Guys at Fratello here have been helpful (I buy my coffee beans there); but their equipment prices are quite a bit higher than online pricing, not by a few bucks, but 25-30% higher.
I've used the setup below for two years now, fairly satisfied. Grinder is super excellent. Coffee maker is good for the money, but not great. The great ones cost triple what I had paid for this one.
I will second this as a good way to go. I've had the same grinder (with on/off switch instead of timer knob) for twelve years. Probably 600+ lbs of beans through it, burrs are still in great shape. Probably another 4-5 years before I need new burrs. It is overkill for home use but it is super reliable and makes a quality grind.
I have that paired with an Andreja Premium that I have had for 10+ years. Maybe $300 in maintenance and cleaning over that period. When you calculate the per day cost including good beans, milk, and power it's under $3 a day for the wife and I. One further suggestion is to put the espresso machine on an appliance timer to ensure it is hot when you get up in the morning. From measuring fresh beans into the grinder to drinking a capp I am under four minutes.
Further symptoms of the sickness are: scale to measure weight of coffee, smaller scale to measure weight of espresso shots, precision portafilter (VST), Aeropress, Chemex, second grinder for Aeropress/Chemex, many moka pots, a couple of french presses. All on a dedicated coffee station off the kitchen. I have a well caffeinated and understanding wife.
I will second this as a good way to go. I've had the same grinder (with on/off switch instead of timer knob) for twelve years. Probably 600+ lbs of beans through it, burrs are still in great shape. Probably another 4-5 years before I need new burrs. It is overkill for home use but it is super reliable and makes a quality grind.
I have that paired with an Andreja Premium that I have had for 10+ years. Maybe $300 in maintenance and cleaning over that period. When you calculate the per day cost including good beans, milk, and power it's under $3 a day for the wife and I. One further suggestion is to put the espresso machine on an appliance timer to ensure it is hot when you get up in the morning. From measuring fresh beans into the grinder to drinking a capp I am under four minutes.
Further symptoms of the sickness are: scale to measure weight of coffee, smaller scale to measure weight of espresso shots, precision portafilter (VST), Aeropress, Chemex, second grinder for Aeropress/Chemex, many moka pots, a couple of french presses. All on a dedicated coffee station off the kitchen. I have a well caffeinated and understanding wife.
I must ask - do you use all of these? and under what circumstances? What provides the best starting base for a cappuccino or an americano?
I must ask - do you use all of these? and under what circumstances? What provides the best starting base for a cappuccino or an americano?
The espresso machine is definitely the way to go for an americano or cappuccino. I use the chemex on the weekends for brewed coffee to sip while reading the paper. Aeropress maybe once a month, but it is my go to when traveling as I have a small hand grinder to take with it. French presses are not used much anymore, and the moka pot is a backup if the espresso machine goes down.
Scales are used all the time to ensure I have the grind dialled in, whether for a new coffee or as a batch ages or humidity changes.
Initially, I was weighing coffee grinds for espresso shots, but eventually stopped doing that. I just fill up the portafilter the same every time. If a shot is too weak or too dense, it usually means a small change in the humidity, so I change the grind dial slightly up or down and re-do it. Not a big deal; as it doesn't happen too often. I re-check and re-calibrate the grind dial on my Mazzer Mini when a new bag of beans is loaded into the hopper; we go through 4 lbs of beans a month, normally.
__________________
"An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think." Georg Hegel
“To generalize is to be an idiot.” William Blake
In the market for a new burr mill. Was set on the Baratza Encore based on this thread but there is a Bodum grinder for sale on amazon right now. Anyone tried this?
Mostly French Press, Aeropress and occasionally drip. Don't have an espresso machine currently but I would like one at some point. 14 settings not enough?
With espresso you have to make fine adjustments as the beans change character. I'd be concerned 14 wouldn't provide you enough range to make those fine changes. The Encore has 40, which I find is workable, but some days I wish I had a little more. It's mostly why people say the encore is usable for espresso but you need to go to something with more adjustments if you really want to get serious. For me, it's good enough because I'm a cheap bastard.
In the market for a new burr mill. Was set on the Baratza Encore based on this thread but there is a Bodum grinder for sale on amazon right now. Anyone tried this?
Thinking of plumbing in a water line to my dual boiler, does anyone have thoughts on an inline filter system? Calgary's water is pretty hard and I'm curious to hear from like minded coffee enthusiasts.
Thinking of plumbing in a water line to my dual boiler, does anyone have thoughts on an inline filter system? Calgary's water is pretty hard and I'm curious to hear from like minded coffee enthusiasts.
I don’t have a plumbed in machine, but I only use filtered water from the GE Smart Water dual stage filter and I have noticed any problems, but I also de-scale and back flush the machine on a regular basis with descaler.
We need a new coffee maker, and not interested in the single cup ones. We have this one (still in the box) and I was wondering if anyone has any ones which they think would be better:
In the market for a new burr mill. Was set on the Baratza Encore based on this thread but there is a Bodum grinder for sale on amazon right now. Anyone tried this?
I have both the Bartza Encore and the Baratza Sette 270. If you are doing Espresso, get the Sette. The Encore is good for aeropress or mokapot. We used the Encore for a few years until we got our Rocket Appartamento, and then we had to upgrade the grinder. Warranty on the Encore was great. We had an issue after about 6 months, and they just gave us a new Encore. The new one has been going strong and I still bring it out to do grinds before a camping trip when we are going to use the aeropress or if we have a lot of company and a couple of mokapots are just easier.
