Funny you mention double filters for Aeropress.

I feel like this brings out more in some coffees. For example I did a geisha from Little Wolf that was just meh. Certainly not bad by any means but it was my first geisha after reading the hype and it didn't wow me. I feel like adding 2 paper filters really brought more out of it and I was much more impressed with the cup. Not sure it's necessary for darker, smoother, more chocolatey roasts but for a super light floral cup it worked nice for me.

Also an Aeropress slappie myself. Been absolutely loving it.

not the cheapest, but grounds & hounds has some pretty good dark roasts and they help out the pups. spouse and i got a three bag sampler as an x-mas present and ordered a few more bags of whole bean with a discount coupon. https://groundsandhoundscoffee.com/

it won't blow you away but it's pretty solid and has currently taken the place of our usual stumptown roasts.

sometimes its the only thing to get out of bed for. sometimes

nothing to add here other than ProblemPlaya is posting in a coffee thread at 4:21am my time.

Brotatoes,

No one cold brews? Summer is coming, yo.

I have cold brew first thing in the morning almost every day because it's the fastest option by far. Just not that exciting though imo.

What ratios do y'all use for cold brew? I like having some on hand but haven't dialed in great results.

For cold brew, I use 140g of ground coffee (Baratza level 20) and 5 cups of water. Results in exactly 4 cups of cold brew concentrate = 8 servings.

So for the final product it's 17.5g of coffee per serving which is roughly 25% more than I use for Aeropress/Chemix/French Press.

Thanks!

FWIW, if anyone uses a standard electric milk frother and wonders which non-dairy milk works: I've tried several different almond and coconut milk brands but Oatly Barista Edition is the first one that gets results that are as good as regular full fat milk.

French press guy here. Perfect balance of quality and (lack of) demands on my attention, imo. I was using a moka pot for a while but I kind of got tired of staring at it and babysitting it.

But as much as I've been using a french press for years, I still feel like I'm just winging the technique. Anybody else use one and feel strongly about brew time or anything else?

I've been using a French press for a few years now. I'm not as OCD as a lot of people about the process, but it's coffee--not pharmaceuticals.

I don't weigh the beans. I grind them just before using and measure two tablespoons for each of my cups (larger than standard) into the French press.

I boil water in an electric kettle, wait a few seconds for it to quit boiling, then fill the French press (mine holds almost exactly three of my cups). Set a timer for 5 minutes and I'm done. Fill one cup from the French press, and put the rest of the coffee into a thermos carafe.

I could definitely add some precision, but I'm sure I could not taste the difference. I can taste the difference between the French press and my old drip-maker though, so I'm happy where I am now.

So in the chaos of last week's cold spell here in San Antonio, I was forced to buy a package of Dunkin Donuts vanilla 12 oz bag off Amazon. Desperate times call for desperate measures and desperate coffee spoons, I think TS Eliot said that once. Anyway I ended up liking it quite a bit, go figure! Often with these flavored ground coffees there's an artificial whang that ruins things, but this DD vanilla was nothing but smooth. I'm even gonna buy more, it was 5 bucks which isn't too bad as fancy coffee goes.

My approach is similar (down to the knowing imprecision with the beans, within reason). I've been going for a longer brew time than that lately, but I'm never confident about it. Sometimes I'm not able to get to the kitchen right when my timer ends and it brews a few minutes longer than intended, and I swear I don't notice a difference most of the time.

Bump!
I'm about to start shopping for an espresso machine. I really want one of the fancier ones where it grinds, tamps, does everything for me. Anybody have one they like/don't like?

What’s your budget? There are good ones starting around $500 but if you’re willing to spend more, I’ve always been a huge Jura fan. We had a WE8 in our old office.

If you’re looking for a cool manual one and don’t won’t to spend a fortune, we had a Rancilio Silvia for 15+ years that was still going strong when my brother decided to upgrade to a Lelit Bianca.

What’s your budget? There are good ones starting around $500 but if you’re willing to spend more, I’ve always been a huge fan of Jura. We had a WE8 in our old office, extremely good and super easy.

If you’re looking for a cool manual one and don’t won’t to spend a fortune, we had a Rancilio Silvia for 15+ years that was still going strong when my brother decided to upgrade to a Lelit Bianca.

I'm willing to go up to 2k. I really want one that has the grinder as part of the machine, if possible, although I hear the grinder is almost the most important part of the process, so I'm not sure how great the grinders are that are included.

That's pretty much what I ended up getting. I got the Breville Dual Boiler without the built in grinder. I can't comment on how good or bad it is yet (especially compared to other machines as I haven't ever used a different machine) because I don't think I've got everything dialed in the way it should be yet. It still doesn't taste great after about a week, but I'm having a hard time pinning down the cause, roast/grind/brew.

What kind of beans are you using?

To experiment with the machine you could get something like Lavazza espresso beans that are reasonable cheap with pretty consistent quality. So you don’t have to pour $15/lb beans down the drain.

I would also use filtered or bottled water to make sure the issue isn’t your local tap water.

There are a million tips/hacks on YouTube and boards like home-barista.com but just using the standard settings on your machine with the recommend ground size and decent beans should yield a good espresso.

I roast my own beans. They're a pretty good Ethiopian, but were roasted for my drip machine, so maybe not so great. I roasted the other day and did three different times to be able to compare and see where they should be. Maybe I'll go buy some espresso beans from the local microroaster and try theirs. I've been thinking about seeing if one of their baristas wants to come give me an hour or so training session, lol.

I've been using water filtered by the refrigerator, I think I'll buy a gallon of water next time I get groceries though.

My milk steaming skills might be lacking too. I've watched several videos and it doesn't seem that difficult, but like everything, practice makes perfect.

For home coffee, I use purified water that I buy by the gallon. If you live in certain areas of the world, for instance, Las Vegas, the tap water can be "hard" and affects coffee taste, in my opinion.

I suck at steaming milk but never cared too much because I'm a black coffee person anyway. You could see if your local coffee shop offers milk foam art classes. I know people who went to that and two hours later they were able to make trees, hearts and that kind of stuff.

I have zero clue about roasting beans. In theory you should be able to use all kinds of different roasts though as long as you adjust the weight accordingly? You should also be able to tell if something with the machine or grind size isn't right based on the pressure displayed. While there are many people who swear on using as low as 7 bar or 10.5 bars and up, I think if you're not getting around 9 bar on the standard setting, something might be off there.