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Coffee

Ginolius

Ginolius

Sean Davis
Staff member
I spent the first three decades of my life convinced i didn't like the stuff, thanks to horrible instant rubbish and starbucks things that tasted like someone had burnt some milk but a mate at work managed to get me hooked on good, freshly ground filter coffee a while back and now i can't seem to get enough.

I started using a site called pact coffee which i'm really enjoying (first bag is only a quid if you use my referral code MICHAEL-ZDH9QG or click through on that link, a bargain even if you never use them again - and i get a discount too for anyone who signs up, so win win) which grinds and then posts the coffee to you the next day - very nice but fairly expensive to use every time. They set you up to receive a bag a fortnight to start with but it's easy to cancel if you just want to one off.

Anyone know of any other good options out there? I've found a few good bags in the supermarket (Cafedirect Machu Picchu and Aldi's own label) but nothing much else has been particularly striking.

A proper espresso machine is way beyond my budget but I've been experimenting with cafetieres, a v60 and an aeropress and i'm amazed by how different each of them makes the same coffee taste.
 
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Welcome to one of the greatest beverages ever. I would suggest an espresso machine, if you want a cheap but fantastic option, get a Mr Espresso 'turkish' espresso maker (stove-top jobbie)...but beans? Depends on how you like your coffee, thus offer more info on this (taste, colour, sharp versus earthier, that sort of thing) and I'll steer you towards some beans I like.
 
Look on the website for the London coffee festival - went a couple of weeks ago, loads of really good brands.

What are your views on the v60 vs aeropress?

For supermarket ground coffee Taylors is nice for the price.

I recently discovered the joys of the chilled Vietnamese espresso too - espresso and condensed milk over ice.....heavenly
 
thfcsteff said:
Welcome to one of the greatest beverages ever. I would suggest an espresso machine, if you want a cheap but fantastic option, get a Mr Espresso 'turkish' espresso maker (stove-top jobbie)...but beans? Depends on how you like your coffee, thus offer more info on this (taste, colour, sharp versus earthier, that sort of thing) and I'll steer you towards some beans I like.
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I’m loving the ones I got from Pact (‘Columbian Finca La Joyeria’ -lots of bright berry flavours, almost sweet, and the ‘Mexican El Retiero’ - chocolatey bitterness but not too much with a roasted nut sort of flavour). In terms of supermarkets they’ve all been ‘ok’ really, but they tend to have a lot less subtlety. If you've not tried them i'd be interested to see what you think as they're by far the best my inexperienced palate has tried.


There’s a local roaster that’s at a market near me, I can only get to him once a month but I picked up some amazing sundried Ethiopian beans (he said he’s the only person in the country that imports these particular ones) which had an almost port sort of flavour, and a Brazilian one which was really rich and chocolatey.


I’m basically loving the subtle flavours some of them have, but like pact the roaster’s ones are at the rather high end of the price scale whereas I find even the more expensive supermarket ones tend to only have the bitter end of things… It’d be nice to find something cheaper as an every day coffee that still has that fruity, sweet flavour.
 
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monkeybarry said:
Look on the website for the London coffee festival - went a couple of weeks ago, loads of really good brands.

What are your views on the v60 vs aeropress?

For supermarket ground coffee Taylors is nice for the price.

I recently discovered the joys of the chilled Vietnamese espresso too - espresso and condensed milk over ice.....heavenly
Click to expand...

They both make very different coffees. The Aeropress is much, much quicker, makes a really strong coffee and when you do it right it’s much better, but I tend to find it can ruin things if you get your timing or amounts wrong. The v60 is really forgiving even if you use it half asleep, it doesn’t create that occasionally magical cup the aeropress does but it’s hard not to make a pretty decent cup that tastes the same every single time! They both taste way better than a cafeteria though.


I actually went through a bag of taylors a few weeks ago and it didn’t do much for me, tasted pretty poor tbh!


Condensed milk sounds a bit too much for me, but then I did discover double espresso and warm brandy a few months ago and it’s become a firm favourite of mine so I’ll give it a shot!
 
big fan of pact, have a v60 coming with the next bag although I usually use a cafetiere, managed to avoid buying an aeropress thus far, don't want to be to fussy about it

El Retiero is a favourite of mine as well, Colombian Toledo is the next one I have to open
 
galeforce said:
big fan of pact, have a v60 coming with the next bag although I usually use a cafetiere, managed to avoid buying an aeropress thus far, don't want to be to fussy about it

El Retiero is a favourite of mine as well, Colombian Toledo is the next one I have to open
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Let me know what you think of the Toledo - i treated myself to their limited edition 'Finca El Cairo' to see whether that was worth it, should arrive Monday. I can't imagine it will be worth the premium it but i was drunk when i decided to get one and then I couldn't be bothered to change my order ;)
 
thfcsteff said:
Welcome to one of the greatest beverages ever. I would suggest an espresso machine, if you want a cheap but fantastic option, get a Mr Espresso 'turkish' espresso maker (stove-top jobbie)...but beans? Depends on how you like your coffee, thus offer more info on this (taste, colour, sharp versus earthier, that sort of thing) and I'll steer you towards some beans I like.
Click to expand...

Any link to that machine? I was looking at the classic Biatelli thing a while ago but after reading a few reviews which said it’s effectively just strong coffee rather than a proper espresso, I figured it probably wasn’t worth adding another ‘low end’ solution to my current collection of aeropress+v60+caffetiere and it would be best waiting and saving for maybe getting a proper steam+pressure machine one day, but if it’s cheap and good enough….
 
Sorry, it was the Biatelli I meant (for some reason I always think of their logo geezer as Mr Espresso) but I think you get a great up of coffee from them and would not discourage purchase at all. Artisanal roasters are going to be the best route, but for a commercially-available bean that is well worth it, try this one:

http://www.carluccios.com/shop-online/coffee-hot-drinks/milano-coffee-beans


I will partially destroy my coffee rep with this confession, but for a quick, dirty charge, I love my small Nespresso machine. Downside? You can only use filthy Nestle pods. Upside? It is a consistently decent espresso/tall strong coffee if you buy the right coffee pods.

https://www.nespresso.com/us/en/pixie-machines-range

It's tough for me to give you much more advice come to think of it, because many of the beans I get are US-based and pretty damn great but simply not available because they are, hmmm,in the US!
 
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It's all in the beans..motor on my trusty grinder went kaput about 6 months ago & also had to ditch my Press..talk about a double blow..now i grind with a crappy dirt cheap krups and steep in a plain old mug & still get a decent cuppa PROVIDED the beans are quality. Using an assortment of single origin roasts from Allpress, Nude & Square Mile that my nephew got for me from the London Coffee Festival...

imho, Monmouth Coffee in Covent Garden sells spectacular beans.
 
thfcsteff said:
Sorry, it was the Biatelli I meant (for some reason I always think of their logo geezer as Mr Espresso) but I think you get a great up of coffee from them and would not discourage purchase at all. Artisanal roasters are going to be the best route, but for a commercially-available bean that is well worth it, try this one:

http://www.carluccios.com/shop-online/coffee-hot-drinks/milano-coffee-beans


I will partially destroy my coffee rep with this confession, but for a quick, dirty charge, I love my small Nespresso machine. Downside? You can only use filthy Nestle pods. Upside? It is a consistently decent espresso/tall strong coffee if you buy the right coffee pods.

https://www.nespresso.com/us/en/pixie-machines-range

It's tough for me to give you much more advice come to think of it, because many of the beans I get are US-based and pretty damn great but simply not available because they are, hmmm,in the US!
Click to expand...

They're the same price as Pact so not the budget option i was hoping for but i'll give them a try! My takeaway is 'you get what you pay for' i guess ;)

Cool I'll keep an eye on the biatteli and see if i can pick one up cheap but i'm happy enough with the v60/aeropress that i don't really need another option right now!

I've never liked those pod things - I tried them quite a few times before i 'liked coffee' when friends would tell me that their new £200 machine made the best coffee you could get at home and it tasted pretty rubbish tbh, but maybe they had crap pods!
 
spasm said:
It's all in the beans..motor on my trusty grinder went kaput about 6 months ago & also had to ditch my Press..talk about a double blow..now i grind with a crappy dirt cheap krups and steep in a plain old mug & still get a decent cuppa PROVIDED the beans are quality. Using an assortment of single origin roasts from Allpress, Nude & Square Mile that my nephew got for me from the London Coffee Festival...

imho, Monmouth Coffee in Covent Garden sells spectacular beans.
Click to expand...

This.
For good filter coffee, I grind for a 4, single cone filter and yes, the beans/roast is everything.

I must say re: Nespresso, I have found their espresso-line of pods to be pretty good for what they are. There are other pod machines which really are brick though...
 
What grinders do you guys use? I’ve got a Rhino hand grinder which is great - at least for an adjustable burr grinder that only costs £35 – when I’m just doing a single mug but when I want to do three or four mugs worth… it’s a bit of an insane process.

I was looking at reviews of electric burr grinders and I was put off making the investment by various claims that you need to spend hundreds of pounds to get one that is worth the money or you'll only end up having to get a new one if you get an espresso machine… Any recommendations on a tighter budget (~£50)?
 
Ginolius said:
Let me know what you think of the Toledo - i treated myself to their limited edition 'Finca El Cairo' to see whether that was worth it, should arrive Monday. I can't imagine it will be worth the premium it but i was drunk when i decided to get one and then I couldn't be bothered to change my order ;)
Click to expand...

The Toledo is very nice, quite mild and smooth, definitely worth a go.

I had one of the limited editions last year, it was Bolivian I think, there was definitely something premium about it as I recall.

I have a little delonghi grinder, nothing fancy but it does the job, if you want to be a real coffee nerd you need a hand turned grinder, and a goose necked pouring kettle obviously ;-)
 
Ginolius said:
What grinders do you guys use? I’ve got a Rhino hand grinder which is great - at least for an adjustable burr grinder that only costs £35 – when I’m just doing a single mug but when I want to do three or four mugs worth… it’s a bit of an insane process.

I was looking at reviews of electric burr grinders and I was put off making the investment by various claims that you need to spend hundreds of pounds to get one that is worth the money or you'll only end up having to get a new one if you get an espresso machine… Any recommendations on a tighter budget (~£50)?
Click to expand...

I have a standard Krups grinder mate, works absolutely fine for me/us...sometimes I will ask the seller to grind to a 4. Hand-grinder sounds great but I want to get the job done and have always found Krups grinders to be the best for the price.
 
thanks for starting this thread Ginolius :) got me off my ample bum & am actually going to get my grinder repaired...
 
spasm said:
thanks for starting this thread Ginolius :) got me off my ample bum & am actually going to get my grinder repaired...
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Without caffeine how are you supposed to have the energy to do that; without a grinder how are you going to get coffee!

That limited edition 'finca el cairo' arrived from pact Having a cup from the v60 to start with and I'm underwhelmed - its very good, but no better than anything else I've had from pact. Will try it in the aeropress later, hopefully that'll bring out some of the 'peach tart' flavours the bag boasts of! As it stands I don't think it's with the 50% premium.
 
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