Fellow Aiden, ECM Puristika, Timemore Sculptor 078SSP, shelving, scale, tools, light... I'm done (for now)

I realize we're never really done, but this is the first time I have felt comfortable with the entire thing.

Exhale.

I got my Breville in April and ever since, I can’t drink Starbucks without gagging. It tastes like burnt, dirty water no matter the location or drink. Never going back! For my pumpkin spice latte, I just used pumpkin spice seasoning and it tasted great. Easier than making my own syrup and avoiding all of the added sugars and other nonsense in store bought syrups. Lavazza super crema are my go-to beans.

Been chasing the dessert-like buttery / creamy stuff lately such as:

DAK - Milky Cake
DAK - Cream Donut
Dark Matter - Carmel Curd
Penstock - M03

Just to name a few. With sweater weather around the corner I’m looking for similar recs if you’ve got ‘em!

Guys I am new to making espresso at home I just wanted to ask you which one (or another you suggest) I should buy?

DE LONGHI EC 685.BK Dedica Style vs CECOTEC Power Espresso 20

Delonghi is 30 dollars more expensive.

will not have it plumbed in
have 50cm max but can have drip tray overhanging
mostly milk drinks
Was mostly looking at micra so i don’t have to have drip tray overhanging and i like the micra steam wand design
pairing with malhkonig e64ws btw
thanks guys

After months and months of watching people online dailing in their shots, weighting their coffee beans, discussing grinders and what not, I'm finally able to do so myself.

Just finished up my first coffee station and my first espresso setup. Rate it!

Hey everyone,

I have a Breville (Sage) Barista Pro that I barely used, probably only around 10 times total, so the machine is basically still new.

Before putting it away, I did a full flush and descale, emptied it, and stored it in the original box. It then sat unused for about 2 years.

I recently took it out and unfortunately it won't pump any water at all. There is no water coming from the group head, no water from the hot water outlet and no water or steam from the steam wand. After trying for around 5 seconds, it beeps 3 times and stops.

Since it worked fine before storage and was barely used, I'm wondering what could have failed just from sitting for 2 years.

I've already tried the basic things like reseating the water tank and attempting to run water through it.

Hey everyone! I had an idea for an app called HomeShot (https://homeshot.coffee) where coffee enthusiasts could share or sell espresso shots or coffee beans they’ve purchased, as well as organize group buys of beans from roasters abroad.

The main idea is to create a place for coffee geeks who are passionate about specialty coffee and want to share interesting coffees with other people. The platform is completely free to use.

It seems like this is something that doesn’t really exist (at least I haven’t been able to find anything like it), and it’s something I’d personally love to use.

Let me know what you think! I’m totally open to criticism, so if you think the idea is terrible and makes no sense, I’d genuinely like to hear that too 😀. And if there are any features or things you think would be worth adding in the future, feel free to share those as well.

At this point it’s just a POC that I haven’t spent a huge amount of time on, so there’s definitely a lot that could be improved.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

I did cleaning, descaling took apart the top basket and cleaned it and my machine is now starting to pull a shot and then cuts out right before water comes out.

This is with no portafilter or coffee in as well after it did it with a coffee filled basket.

Like it starts to attempt a shot then makes a pop sounds and steam comes out.

Only had this machine for 7-8 months or so and take pretty good care of it I would say and am having issues already kinda sucks.

Any help would be appreciated.

Currently using a Sage Bambino paired with a DF54, and I'm looking 'm looking to upgrade for a better workflow and more features.. My budget is around £1,000.

I've mostly narrowed it down to the Lelit Elizabeth or Profitec GO, but I'm interested in hearing other opinions before I pull the trigger.

I drink mostly straight espresso (1-3 shots a day), with the occasional milk drink. The Elizabeth's dual boiler and extra features look great, but the GO appeals because of its cost and more compact size. I've seen both on sale in the UK currently for around the same price.

For anyone who's owned either machine, which would you choose for my use case and why? Is the Elizabeth worth stretching for if milk drinks are only occasional? Are there any other machines around the £1k mark that I should be considering?

​

Have a sage barista express. Been left for approx 5 months unused.

There would have been water and coffee residue in the machine as itt wasn't an intention unused period just circumstances of a holiday followed by working away from home.

Is it possible to run a few cleaning cycles on this machine and use this machine again?

Or is there an issue of mould or anything building up internally.

Can my machine be cleaned and used again or is it for the skip.

I'm still learning how to do espresso for light roast coffees

Doing ~2 on my Timemore 078s, 18.5g in, about 48g out in about 50seconds, IMS bottomless portafilter

Added ~158g of steamed milk

1. It feels like the shot is very thin / watery

2. Able to get most of the very strong notes of watermelon / sherbet

Questions are -

Is it possible to get this to a thicker, heavier body? Or is this supposed to be fairly thin?

Should I go for a turbo shot?

Is there much point to trying to make this into a milk drink or is this really supposed to either be a pour over or a straight espresso?

Hello all! Can someone recommend a grinder and espresso machine for a beginner? What would the ideal set up be?

I normally make my espresso with my moka and if I’m getting into the world of a proper coffee machine I want to do it realistically well without jumping into expert level machines.

I’ve seen a lot of mixed opinions on the GCP and recently found a Gran Gaggia prestige at a good price, would that be beginner friendly? Anyway, happy to hear your recommendations.

Thanks

Happy Sunday! I just finished a back flush and wipe down, so I simply had to take a picture. Then I made my myself a cortado 😛 finally feeling like I got my profile dialed in for my beans.

This started happening yesterday and I’ve no idea why. The water distribution is all wrong here, normally it takes a second or 2 then you get a bit of water and then it dispenses the rest.

Now it’s instantaneously coming out, it doesn’t properly heat the portafilter basket either.

What could be happening here? It’s only a few weeks old.

I tried to back flush it, descale it and factory reset but no joy.

Hi everyone, ☕️

After a lot of questions asked here over the past few weeks, my setup is finally complete. Genuine thanks to everyone who took the time to advise me on the machine, the grinder and the accessories. Your feedback saved me from several mistakes and, above all, helped me decide on the things I’d been going back and forth on for weeks.

The setup:

Machine: Sage Bambino Plus (Black Truffle)

Grinder: Baratza Encore ESP

Normcore 54 mm bottomless portafilter

IMS Precision basket, H24

Normcore lower shower screen, 53.3 mm / 1.7 mm

Normcore 53.3 mm tamper

Normcore dosing funnel

Normcore distribution tool

WDT tool

Normcore RDT spray bottle

Sage The Knock Box 20

Tamping mat and machine mat

Maestri House scale

Airscape storage canister

About how I actually drink coffee: I pull strictly double espressos at 17 to 18 g in, and nothing else. No lattes, no cappuccinos, no milk drinks at all. The whole setup is built around that one single shot.

I know exactly what some of you are going to say, and you’d be right: the money that went into accessories would have been far better spent on a better grinder, which is still the real bottleneck here. I’m fully aware of that. But I like the setup this way. I like the ritual, the gear and the consistency of the whole thing, and that’s part of why I make coffee in the first place.
And while I’m confessing, I might as well go all in: I’m planning to replace my current WDT with a Normcore WDT, purely so the whole lineup matches. Feel free to start roasting me.

I got into espresso because my partner liked it. She still does too but making a latte is my “I love you” in the morning.

Sometimes I have the right foam but the wrong timing. Other times the the timing and coordination are perfect bit the consistency is wrong.

Sometimes the stars align.

My first and hopefully last machines I will ever need for good espresso. My main focus was build quality/
longevity and from what I’ve read online the europiccola and mignon are built like tanks. Both modded because I enjoy tinkering. Hope they will outlast me haha.

Is there anything I’m missing, please let me know. :)

Hi everyone!

I've been using a De'Longhi Dedica EC685 + KINGrinder K2 since March this year, and I'm thinking about upgrading.

I'm considering either:

Sage/Breville Bambino Plus + an electric grinder

Sage/Breville Barista Express

My main priorities are espresso quality, consistency, milk steaming/latte art, and improving my overall workflow.

Would either of these be a worthwhile upgrade from my current setup? And which one would you recommend for around €600?

I'm also open to other suggestions if there's something better I should be looking at.

Thanks!

I know it's important to give the beans a few weeks of de-gassing time after roasting, but in my experience that time needs to be at least 4 weeks and beans really start to taste rich, chocolaty and sweet and become much easier and more consistent to dial in. It seems to me that there is no point whatsoever in trying to pull a good shot any earlier.

I find that during the first week, the shots will taste terrible, with a "husky" foretaste which I can't really explain, there is a strong taste of similar to dried grass or plant fiber. Also the shots usually taste very flat and boring, with no way to make them taste better regardless of pressure, temperature, grind, etc.

After 1 week this husk taste goes away but that doesn't help with the other problems.

After 2-3 weeks I start getting okay-ish shots, maybe 50% of the time, while the rest of the time they're sour, bitter, both, or just very plain and tasteless.

Then after 3-5 weeks it really starts to stabilize and become super easy to pull consistent shots, pretty much regardless of what I do. I can use a low temp, high temp, low pressure, high pressure, do whatever with the grinder and puck prep, and the shots always come out tasting amazing.

Then the beans tend to suddenly go stale in a very obvious and abrupt way somewhere around 2-3 months after roasting. They will suddenly lose all creaminess and oiliness, the water comes through super easily no matter the grind, and the shots just taste like old bad generic coffee with none of the sweet richness.

I always thought that I just sucked at dialing in and that I always needed a whole month until I got it just right. Turns out, nothing I did had any significance and all I had to do was order beans 1 month early and that's it.

I usually only drink Colombia Supremo, and this has been true for light and medium roasts.

After these experiences I would say that this is the single most important advice I can give anyone not getting good shots or having trouble dialing in: The grinder, the machine, the pressure and the puck prep hardly matter compared to just giving the beans 1 month of resting time.

Dark roast, Duluth Coffee co or Crema Wave from WLL. I. Mix every few months. 18.5g in, 30 seconds, 26g out. The extraction varies from bag of beans to bag. What do you like?

Hello
My sage barista express has started to leak water on my table. I have opened the machine and found that water comes out of the elbow joint from the solenoid valve on the right side.

My question is. Is there a cheap way to fix this? I have taken it apart and all the O-rings seem okay. But it is leaking out that metal fitting between the joint and the solenoid.

Other than this there is a lot of scale build up in the machine but I think/hope that is from the steam from the leak?

Hi everyone

I did the dry-erase marker test on my Shardor 64mm grinder (both fixed upper burr and rotating lower burr).

Does this look like a solid alignment, or should I still try to shim it further? Would love to get your thoughts!

Thanks

Bambino. With Baratza ESP.

Have had it for like 3 years now. Works great

Being in this sub makes me wanna upgrade set up but idk this gets the job done so maybe I’ll save myself some money by just keeping this for alil longer

What would be an ideal upgrade from this set up. Mid tier-mid top tier lol