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Naftoor said:
Ironically that’s why I went the espresso route instead of pour over. 😂 Flavors of bitter/sour make a lot more sense to me than dealing with nuanced tasting notes and the faff of pouring which just reminds me of gongfu tea which while I admire the aesthetic of just seems like too mental work for me.
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Once you have your method dialled in you just switch off and go on autopilot for the pouring, it’s quite meditative in my experience as I literally can’t do anything else for about 4 minutes 🙂
 
Once you get past a basic drip maker coffee can be as complicated or simple as you want. Pulling consistent medium dark beans on a good espresso maker is pretty easy and doesn’t require excessive fiddling or measuring. Same with pour over and medium light beans - can basically eye ball it with some practice and get some good results. Or you can push things a bit more extreme and have a maximalist approach to prep and routine
 
OkayMode said:
I enjoy doing what I can to make my coffee the absolute best it can be, but (for me) there’s definitely a limit of reasonable endeavour, after which point the pursuit of absolute perfection makes it not enjoyable anymore.

I just want to be able to drink a really good cup of coffee in my own house without feeling like I’m Walter White or have my GF think I’m mentally unwell.

It’s for this reason I have not delved into home espresso, which by all accounts seems to be orders of magnitude worse than pour over.
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Espresso is a rabbit hole only if you choose to go that way. I keep my workflow as simple and clean as possible. The fussiest things I do are weigh input/output, RDT and WDT because they're relatively quick and have made improvements in the cup. My setup isn't fancy, I'm not a pro barista, but I can still make better coffee than any of the cafes near me, and still on par with what I can get in a good NYC cafe. I have no interest getting into flow/pressure profiling, grinder RPMs, and some of these other concepts that aren't very well understood yet because I think it would probably take the enjoyment out of it. At that point it's more like a research project than a hobby.

Keep it simple and get the basics down first. One should be able to pull a good shot without RDT, WDT, fancy puck grooming tools, etc. Those things might eke out small improvements, but won't make good espresso on their own.
 
MarcelNL said:
it definitely is not, since it was my provision ;-)

The nature of the destillation device is such that I seriously doubt wether it could adequately differentiate between methanol and ethanol.
it DOES do a great job separating lime and crud from tap water though ;-)
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Oh! I did not catch the part about separating the two alcohols. For that job, I much prefer lab glass. Distillation always was one of my favorite lab tasks.

Sadly, the Bay no longer carries much cool glass, and what is there is priced near retail.

Since the salary days are behind me, it’s “buy a large stirring mantle” OR “commission that honyaki Wundermesser”. Most likely “neither” since I just spent any summer surplus on two sharp pretty things currently in the mail. I may have a problem …
 
ehhh said:
Espresso is a rabbit hole only if you choose to go that way. I keep my workflow as simple and clean as possible. The fussiest things I do are weigh input/output, RDT and WDT because they're relatively quick and have made improvements in the cup. My setup isn't fancy, I'm not a pro barista, but I can still make better coffee than any of the cafes near me, and still on par with what I can get in a good NYC cafe. I have no interest getting into flow/pressure profiling, grinder RPMs, and some of these other concepts that aren't very well understood yet because I think it would probably take the enjoyment out of it. At that point it's more like a research project than a hobby.

Keep it simple and get the basics down first. One should be able to pull a good shot without RDT, WDT, fancy puck grooming tools, etc. Those things might eke out small improvements, but won't make good espresso on their own.
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I've only been doing RDT recently since I started doing single dosing as it just keeps my grinder cleaner. Stuff like WDT I feel is pretty machine dependent. Need it for my eureka, tons of clumps but with my df83 with the plasma generator, you can skip it for sure, it almost looks like the grounds have been WDT in the portafilter when they come out.

I feel like it's cyclic with how nerdy you want to be in the hobby, at least for me. At first, just wanted to learn how to make good espresso easy, then I wanted to use all the cool tips and tricks, and the science, and then it became a lot and I even didn't bother to WDT anything. Now, after a few years of not even weighing, or WDT'ing, I'm kinda back into it. One day I got bored and I slayer modded my breville which added flow control. Fun thing with that is, took like 20 minutes to do, and flow control is super easy. Just go with low flow preinfusion, ramp it up slowly to full flow, and then when shot is on the second half, ramp down. I can even do it while steaming now.

That being said, wouldn't be surprised if I eventually say: "go back to monkeh" and get a simple lever machine and don't bother with any of it lol
 
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Anyone? :)
 
I am thinking the pineapple pizza crap was better than this crazy coffee stuff. You coffee guys are nuttier than the knife and especially natural stone people and that is saying something. We need a coffee thread so it is easy to ignore. Putting this here in the hopes of breaking the coffee talk
 
Barmoley said:
I am thinking the pineapple pizza crap was better than this crazy coffee stuff. You coffee guys are nuttier than the knife and especially natural stone people and that is saying something. We need a coffee thread so it is easy to ignore. Putting this here in the hopes of breaking the coffee talk
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Pineapple coffee, ...it's a thing.
 
Barmoley said:
I am thinking the pineapple pizza crap was better than this crazy coffee stuff. You coffee guys are nuttier than the knife and especially natural stone people and that is saying something. We need a coffee thread so it is easy to ignore. Putting this here in the hopes of breaking the coffee talk
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One thing I find really important to properly enjoy my coffee is to use my ex-submarine pressure chamber to mimic the altitude where my coffee beans were grown.

Yes it was expensive, but buy once cry once!

It is a bit awkward to dial in for each different batch of beans, and I did once accidentally depressurise the chamber whilst my mother in law was inside causing her to blow up as though I had jumped on an unopened bag of crisps, but it’s worth it for the clarity in the cup.
 
Barmoley said:
I am thinking the pineapple pizza crap was better than this crazy coffee stuff. You coffee guys are nuttier than the knife and especially natural stone people and that is saying something. We need a coffee thread so it is easy to ignore. Putting this here in the hopes of breaking the coffee talk
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Hear hear. Let us adjourn the coffee discussion. I believe you degenerates have a coffee thread in the off topics room
 
I absolutely LOVE COFFEE, seemingly can't live without it. Usually happy to drink the gamut from high-end cups at coffee bars, to more common cups at McDonald's/Starbucks/Greek diners. I know a sublime cup, but not a coffee snob—my $100 Cuisinart drip machine cranks out a good daily cup to start me day.
 
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