What’s on your coffee bench?

[stackie]

I think the Monolith's biggest advantage is the zero ground retention. I upgraded to it from a Compak K10 with a doser and I don't miss finagling with the doser to get all the grounds out. Not that the Compak isn't a great grinder. It is, but just better for a shop. Now that Monolith is on the scene it beats any shop grinder for home use.

The Monolith flat gets me a bit more body than the Compak which was a conical of course. I'd love to have a Monolith Conical too, but I can't justify buying one. Maybe if I could try them side by side, I might consider...

You'll love the Monolith. Denis is a class act all the way. Sends you the grinder fully dialed and with coffee that it is dialed to. Your first shot will be a winner. I asked him to make my Monolith with all black accents as didn't want red. He did so, but sent a red dosing funnel and leveler. I asked him if I could swap to black and he happily did so. He also gave me some good Slayer tips and info.

GS3 a great machine. I had one before the Slayer. Kind of bought the Slayer on a lark as a guy as work kept bugging me to sell him my GS3.

Jon

[arazate]

Thanks for the detail Jon. All I've read about Denis follows what you have written; look forward to it. -AJ

[echappist]

Originally Posted by stackie

Echappist,

My advice is to go to a shop and watch them. If you go when they are slow, ask the barista for tips.

I watched so many videos and never really got it until I went into Intelligentsia in Chicago about 20 years ago and watched the barista pour. I went home and poured a rosetta on first try after that.

Or, if you're ever in Monterey, CA hit me up for a stop in at Left Coast Roasting world headquarters for free lessons and all the espresso you can drink!

Jon

Hi Jon,

Many thanks for the suggestions and generous offer. Might be a while before I can make it out to the Left Coast though. In the mean time, i'm hoping to learn from a coffee shop near me.

Jim

[jpritchet74]

Ya tops on my list right now is learning how to do latte art. I need to see if I can find someone to teach me, but for now, it's YouTube....

[stackie]

It’s mostly in the milk steaming. Bleed wand. Submerge wand deeply in milk and begin steaming. When pitcher gets warm to touch drop pitched til you start up gear slight tearing sound that is air being entrained into milk. Do this until You have desired increase in volume. Then submerge and continue until desired temp.

Right cup helps. My wife likes latte so I have these old peets cups that are like shallow bowls. They are super easy to get big beautiful rosettas.

Jon

[echappist]

Originally Posted by stackie

It’s mostly in the milk steaming. Bleed wand. Submerge wand deeply in milk and begin steaming. When pitcher gets warm to touch drop pitched til you start up gear slight tearing sound that is air being entrained into milk. Do this until You have desired increase in volume. Then submerge and continue until desired temp.

Right cup helps. My wife likes latte so I have these old peets cups that are like shallow bowls. They are super easy to get big beautiful rosettas.

Jon

I think i may need to pony up for the Linos. Unfortunately, Starbucks doesn't sell them. Perhaps I could just buy some used cups from a local coffee shop. I realized that part of my problem was that I'm using a small cup (7 fl oz capacity) with a double espresso (the Silvia can't do single shots properly), not to mention that I was using perhaps only 4 fl oz of milk. Upping it to 5 fl oz this morning helped a bit. Poured a heart by following procedure suggested online (start high, drop down, then rotate pitcher + cup to be parallel to draw design), but it was off-center (or anatomically correct )

Btw, could someone comment on the shot of espresso coming out of my machine. Have a video and an image. My suspicion is that there's very little i could do to improve the espresso shots per se, but i could be mistaken.

[ptourkin]

Originally Posted by echappist

I think i may need to pony up for the Linos. Unfortunately, Starbucks doesn't sell them. Perhaps I could just buy some used cups from a local coffee shop. I realized that part of my problem was that I'm using a small cup (7 fl oz capacity) with a double espresso (the Silvia can't do single shots properly), not to mention that I was using perhaps only 4 fl oz of milk. Upping it to 5 fl oz this morning helped a bit. Poured a heart by following procedure suggested online (start high, drop down, then rotate pitcher + cup to be parallel to draw design), but it was off-center (or anatomically correct )

Btw, could someone comment on the shot of espresso coming out of my machine. Have a video and an image. My suspicion is that there's very little i could do to improve the espresso shots per se, but i could be mistaken.

Looks great to me. Is that the Rancilio OEM bottomless?

[Marcovelo]

I would suggest looking at an Expobar. We have had ours for about 5 years. No problems. It was the least expensive heat exchanger model (didn't want tp shell put for a double boiler) that I could plumb into the house's water supply. If you go this route, you should put a pressure regulator in-line to take some stress off the machine's pump.

[echappist]

Thanks for the kind words. It is indeed the Rancilio OEM bottomless.

It is looking that nice only b/c of the beans (decaf from Saxby in Philadelphia). I don't think i've ever extracted as much crema from other beans

Originally Posted by Marcovelo

I would suggest looking at an Expobar. We have had ours for about 5 years. No problems. It was the least expensive heat exchanger model (didn't want tp shell put for a double boiler) that I could plumb into the house's water supply. If you go this route, you should put a pressure regulator in-line to take some stress off the machine's pump.

Out of curiosity, how often do you need to send it back for service, especially the descaling of the HX mechanism?

[kingpin75s]

Originally Posted by echappist

I think i may need to pony up for the Linos. Unfortunately, Starbucks doesn't sell them. Perhaps I could just buy some used cups from a local coffee shop. I realized that part of my problem was that I'm using a small cup (7 fl oz capacity) with a double espresso (the Silvia can't do single shots properly), not to mention that I was using perhaps only 4 fl oz of milk. Upping it to 5 fl oz this morning helped a bit. Poured a heart by following procedure suggested online (start high, drop down, then rotate pitcher + cup to be parallel to draw design), but it was off-center (or anatomically correct )

Btw, could someone comment on the shot of espresso coming out of my machine. Have a video and an image. My suspicion is that there's very little i could do to improve the espresso shots per se, but i could be mistaken.

Looks like a mini Guinness pour. perfect.

Good mention on the Silvia and single shots. Have had for 10 years and only pull doubles, and only want to, but do remember that the single did not work as well.

[jpritchet74]

Originally Posted by Marcovelo

I would suggest looking at an Expobar. We have had ours for about 5 years. No problems. It was the least expensive heat exchanger model (didn't want tp shell put for a double boiler) that I could plumb into the house's water supply. If you go this route, you should put a pressure regulator in-line to take some stress off the machine's pump.

I was going back and forth between the Expobar Office Lever ($1,400 new) and the Protifec Pro 500 PID ($1,825 new) - then a bit over a week ago I checked Craigslist and an Expobar Office Lever was on there - less than a year old with about $200 in extras - for only $750. I emailed the seller but was too late - someone else was quicker than me. I was so bummed. A couple of days later a Profitec Pro 500 (non PID) showed up on eBay and I got that for $1,030 shipped.

The steam quality on the Profitec is SO MUCH better than my Gaggic Classic with the Rancilio wand.

[Marcovelo]

Out of curiosity, how often do you need to send it back for service, especially the descaling of the HX mechanism?

I haven't sent it back. You can totally descale it yourself--I do. It is a little more complicated to descale a HX than double boiler system, but not much. One extra step really to run descaling solution through the HX. And rinse it, of course. Also, most of the scale buildup is in the boiler not within the HX.

[Marcovelo]

Of course, and you have probably already head this, the grinder is --arguably--more important than the machine. We plunked down the bread for a Ceado after running through two Barazzas (~$300) The model we had had a plastic gear, which stripped after a couple of years--twice. I got tired of replacing it. So it might pay to think about grinder longevity, too.

[oldguy00]

Originally Posted by Marcovelo

Out of curiosity, how often do you need to send it back for service, especially the descaling of the HX mechanism?

I haven't sent it back. You can totally descale it yourself--I do. It is a little more complicated to descale a HX than double boiler system, but not much. One extra step really to run descaling solution through the HX. And rinse it, of course. Also, most of the scale buildup is in the boiler not within the HX.

When I had my rocket giotto, I did a descale after about 1 year. After doing that, the pump stopped working properly. I think the dealer thought that it was possible a small piece of scale could have dislodged and got caught. Not sure if that is common... They sent me a free replacement pump which was pretty easy for me to install.
You guys are making me want another machine....lol. But such an expensive setup for coffee/espresso/caps....!

[ptourkin]

Originally Posted by oldguy00

When I had my rocket giotto, I did a descale after about 1 year. After doing that, the pump stopped working properly. I think the dealer thought that it was possible a small piece of scale could have dislodged and got caught. Not sure if that is common... They sent me a free replacement pump which was pretty easy for me to install.
You guys are making me want another machine....lol. But such an expensive setup for coffee/espresso/caps....!

I think the same thing happened to my Silvia, which I inherited from a gf who never descaled. Replacing the pump was easy and I did the solenoid, too.