What’s on your coffee bench?

[William]

Originally Posted by stackie

I upgraded from Poppery II to iRoast (which sucked as only lasted a year)...

Jon

That's interesting, I have an iRoast2 which has worked great for years. Small batches but not a big deal to get the fresh roast. Admittedly in the last year or so I haven't been using it because I've found a local roaster who has some amazing blends. The iRoast2 was sent to me by a forum friend for gratis and I've enjoyed it but it might be time to pay it forward since I haven't been using it recently.








William

[PSJoyce]

I had several iRoast and iRoast2 . Neither lasted long .

I've been using a Gene Cafe for several years without problem . I roast outside summer and winter . It's part of my routine on weekends, just have to hope for dry weather for 90 minutes .

[jpritchet74]

I roasted my first batch of beans on Christmas evening. Amazingly it went great on the first try. I had a small bowl of my favorite beans to use a a reference for how dark I wanted the beans to be roasted to. It turned out great - possibly the best espresso that I have ever tasted - well, the best latte since I don't do espresso shots without the steamed milk.




Second batch will be roasted this evening...

[glepore]

I home roasted for years, primarily because I didn't have a good source of beans. Behmor. Now that I have an excellent roaster in town at $11/pound I buy.

Tom Kellogg has a Behmor in his shop, and knows how to use it.

[schwa86]

I've gone freshroast -> behmore -> quest m3s. I am still learning the quest, but I wanted something that is electric, could do multiple batches efficiently, and allowed for a lot of manual control. At this point, it's definitely been an improvement on the behmore. I have a pretty good range fan that ducts outside and smoke has really not been much of a problem.

[glepore]

The newer Behmor controller is MUCH better.

[Tabl10s]

Originally Posted by floxy1

I’m a relatively new barista but really enjoying mastering the craft and experimenting. I went back and forth on best ‘budget’ machine and decided on the Rocket Apparento and Eureka Mignon.

No maker to display, but I do have a box full of 🇯🇲n "Blue Mountain(the real stuff)".

[spiderman]

I have a few methods of coffee brewing
But don’t really do drip coffee these days...
I’m also growing beans at elevation
And have been roasting the past decade.

[echappist]

beginning to move onto more intricate designs, though still nowhere near the skills level needed for a proper rosetta

one thing i'm having trouble with is the "sprouting"/"splashing" shown near the top of the design. it's formed when the milk first penetrates the coffee, and sometimes, if i pour enough, that splashing disappears, but not always



but i got semi-lucky today. Still need to practice on pouring round dots correctly though, as the designs are just a wee bit off center. Reminds me of the stories of Da Vinci having to draw eggs when he started painting...



also learned that it's so much easier to steam whole milk. My partner prefers hers to be made with whole milk, and there's none of the annoyingly stubborn bubbles that I sometimes see with 2% milk (and almost always see with skim). Steaming skim has to be done so meticulously, as it's really easy to mess up the consistency.

[dddd]

Originally Posted by auto_rock

A moccamaster and a cuisinart burr grinder that I run the night before because it's too loud for the before coffee time...

I at first was impressed that the Cuisinart was such an inexpensive choice among grinders that could actually achieve an espresso grind.
It's robust, and I even got mine for a dime on the dollar in still-new condition at Goodwill, but dayam(!) the thing is noisy.

With beans being such a variable in terms of finding a proper grind vs. flow rate (thermostat clicking off at 25 seconds), I think that I actually prefer using my very old Krups pump machine with it's fixed pressure and temperature. Sort of like a bike suspension with fewer adjustments to complicate the dialing-in process, simpler is ...simpler.
I can usually come up with a suitable grind and tamp on the second or third shot with each new bag of beans.
Again though, I wasn't really committed to the investment side of becoming a home barista, so found the old (by now 30-y-o!) Krups machine at the thrift store as well. I'm going on 15 years with it and it's needed no service beyond occasionally flushing the water tank and cleaning of the portafilter top screen.

[Ozz]

Originally Posted by spiderman

I have a few methods of coffee brewing
But don’t really do drip coffee these days...
I’m also growing beans at elevation
And have been roasting the past decade.

I like your insulator collection.....I used to have a couple of those when I was a kid. A neighbor down the street was a lineman for the local PUD.

[stackie]

Echappist

Nice work. That’s better than many baristas. You’re there. You’ve got the milk steaming sorted. Nice separation between the milk and espresso. It’s just perfecting the hand motion for the Rosetta.

Not sure I see what you mean with the “splashing”. Are you talking about those leaves on the sides of your tulip?

Maybe be sure to tip the cup and get the steaming pitcher as close to the surface of espresso as you can.

Those cappas scream delicious.

Jon

[kingpin75s]

Originally Posted by spiderman

I have a few methods of coffee brewing
But don’t really do drip coffee these days...
I’m also growing beans at elevation
And have been roasting the past decade.

Dig the Cona Vacuum Brewer.

Don't use mine much anymore but really does make one of the best cups of coffee. Plus the ceremony is fun for the right setting. Mostly busted out for coffee after a small dinner party.

That said, my French press and a good stir gets close enough.

[jh_on_the_cape]

I am wanting a double walled glass cappuccino cup. I looked and was confused so thought I would ask here. Bodum?

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

[tctyres]

For you guys who don't roast, where do you get your coffee? I thought there was a link to a coffee of the week or month, but I can't seem to find it.

My local grocer seems to have decided to stop carrying the beans I normally buy.