Life is too short for bad coffee - The Off Topic thread

The Nal

Blush_01 wrote: »

They buy some of the best beans in the world, roast them past the second crack, and buy up so much space that people go from unable to find an alternative in a hurry (high global brand recognition) to addicts. Plus, they sell the experience, the free wifi is an excellent lure for WFH / student / OOO travelling workers, and they're like spots on a teenager - absolutely everywhere.

Its incredible really. Also had a sausage and egg brekkie sambo from them. I may as well have put ketchup on a chunk of warm plastic.

Hodors Appletart

cnocbui wrote: »

Who got it for you?

Parents

caviardreams

Swore I'd give Ponaire a shot but got sucked in by my old favourites Bell Lane again as I dug out a €7.50 coupon they sent me after my last order as a thank you.

Free shipping on top means 2kg of coffee for €42.50. Not bad!

Ponaire next time :-)

Blush_01

caviardreams wrote: »

Swore I'd give Ponaire a shot but got sucked in by my old favourites Bell Lane again as I dug out a €7.50 coupon they sent me after my last order as a thank you.

Free shipping on top means 2kg of coffee for €42.50. Not bad!

Ponaire next time :-)

We had a B2C machine in the last place I worked, we always had Ponaire, made a delicious cup of coffee, though we used to get a big order of beans a few times a year, would have made more sense to just get them fresh as we needed them.

cnocbui

Hodors Appletart wrote: »

Parents

In that case, a divorce is definitely appropriate.

caviardreams

caviardreams wrote: »

Swore I'd give Ponaire a shot but got sucked in by my old favourites Bell Lane again as I dug out a €7.50 coupon they sent me after my last order as a thank you.

Free shipping on top means 2kg of coffee for €42.50. Not bad!

Ponaire next time :-)

This arrived - ordered 15th, delivered 17th - roast dates of 14th & 15th for each bag. Top marks!

mad m

caviardreams wrote: »

This arrived - ordered 15th, delivered 17th - roast dates of 14th & 15th for each bag. Top marks!

Report back now....

Krusty_Clown

adrian522 wrote: »

Is anyone doing this James Hoffman coffee tasting?

They send out 5 samples and some water, cost is £7 plus £1.10 delivery.

About €9 all in. I'm going to give it a go.

Received my kit earlier this week. Really looking forward to it. Just need to make sure I don't run out of coffee beans before then, and go on a raid.

adrian522

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Received my kit earlier this week. Really looking forward to it. Just need to make sure I don't run out of coffee beans before then, and go on a raid.

Same, it's a good setup, something to look forward to anyway.

There's a couple of videos here that I've found useful:

https://www.worldslargestcoffeetasting.com/resources

DaveyDave

What are people's thoughts on syrups? I'm on a mad pumpkin spice buzz, I see Monin have one and it's available on discount coffee. I've only ever had little syrup gift sets at Christmas and they were never nice. I wonder would a branded syrup work better along with having an actual espresso machine now?

alec76

DaveyDave wrote: »

What are people's thoughts on syrups?

Isn’t it a blasphemy?!

DaveyDave

alec76 wrote: »

Isn’t it a blasphemy?!

Probably, but so is paying €5.70 for a coffee when you have an espresso machine at home!

Blush_01

DaveyDave wrote: »

What are people's thoughts on syrups? I'm on a mad pumpkin spice buzz, I see Monin have one and it's available on discount coffee. I've only ever had little syrup gift sets at Christmas and they were never nice. I wonder would a branded syrup work better along with having an actual espresso machine now?

Used to work for a company that had plenty of involvement with syrups.

They're a good way to mask the taste of bad coffee, but if you're drinking nice coffee the syrup is unnecessary. It's like adding more seasoning to your dinner. You don't need to load it with salt and pepper if it tastes flavoursome when it's put on the table, so it's really dependent on what you're drinking.

No snobbery intended, I'm a big fan of a dirty Chai myself, but I wouldn't use my best beans for it.

I love a French Vanilla or real Hazelnut, but I haven't been swayed by Pumpkin Spice - I think Chai is nicer.

r439z5ifwt8soq

Got a bag of Starbucks Blonde Roast beans from Tesco recently for €4. It's actually really nice. Will be getting it again as long as it's still on offer there.

Definitely not as good as the 'premium' type beans but unreal for that price

DaveyDave

Is anyone using subscription or just ordering each month? Badger & Dodo have 1kg x 6 months for €156, €26 a bag. We pay anywhere between €25 and €32 per bag depending on whether we have free shipping codes or not. A subscription makes sense for convenience, plus would save a few euro.

Darren Bumpy Cork wrote: »

Got a bag of Starbucks Blonde Roast beans from Tesco recently for €4. It's actually really nice. Will be getting it again as long as it's still on offer there.

Definitely not as good as the 'premium' type beans but unreal for that price

I really like their Cafe Verona coffee, I must try some in the espresso machine. It was the only one I liked when using the French press.

mossym

1kg would only do me couple of weeks, so by the time i get a couple of bags it always free shipping anyway.plus you get to choose your own.

Cyrus

anyone ever tried ballsbridge pizza co (previously maia) they serve silverskin coffee, excellent imo

Hodors Appletart

yeah silverskin are often overlooked, usually good roasts

Squidgy Black

Anyone do the square mile cupping? I completely forgot about it, might do it tomorrow and then watch the youtube video back and see

smcclaw

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Anyone do the square mile cupping? I completely forgot about it, might do it tomorrow and then watch the youtube video back and see

Yeah, enjoyed it. Won't say anything more til you've had a chance to try them so I don't ruin it for you!

Krusty_Clown

smcclaw wrote: »

Yeah, enjoyed it. Won't say anything more til you've had a chance to try them so I don't ruin it for you!

Yeah, enjoyed it.

Knew coffee E from the first sniff. By the end of the session I was convinced it was a good example, but not sure I want to use the remaining leftover beans. Really loved coffee D, and I figured it was a caturra (wrong), but it seem that what I may really love from a coffee is not necessarily the varietal, but rather the natural processing. Does it really make that much of a difference?

adrian522

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Yeah, enjoyed it.

Knew coffee E from the first sniff. By the end of the session I was convinced it was a good example, but not sure I want to use the remaining leftover beans. Really loved coffee D, and I figured it was a caturra (wrong), but it seem that what I may really love from a coffee is not necessarily the varietal, but rather the natural processing. Does it really make that much of a difference?

I was the same, liked coffee D the best, followed by C. Funnily I always consider myself to prefer Central American to African coffees, I may have to rethink that.

It makes a fair bit of difference alright. You could try certain coffees where the beans are the same but the processing is different to taste the difference in processing.

I had a mouthful of grounds a few times ;(

Squidgy Black

Well that was great fun, couple of very interesting coffees in there. A and C were instantly recognisable, the less we say about E the better.

D threw me for a loop, couldn't for the life of me figure it out and was surprised. B was similar, guessed the first note sort of, or was in the same ballpark, but didn't get the other two at all.

Hodors Appletart

anyone ever use salt in coffee?

I find it can reduce the harshness of some of the bitterness from over roasting - I'm not talking a huge amount, not enough to make the coffee itself taste salty but a gram or a gram and a half in a cup.

I've seen some suggestions that it can go in with the grounds too, but I've not tried that - and also, it's fairly rare that I'd need to use the method because I normally buy light to medium roast anyway.

DaveyDave

I was wondering where my Badger & Dodo order was as I got the 'your order is ready' email on Monday, I didn't see that their subscriptions get sent on the last Wednesday of every month, feck! I'll have to get beans elsewhere for the next few weeks...

Hodors Appletart

DaveyDave wrote: »

I was wondering where my Badger & Dodo order was as I got the 'your order is ready' email on Monday, I didn't see that their subscriptions get sent on the last Wednesday of every month, feck! I'll have to get beans elsewhere for the next few weeks...

order from B&D, it takes a day and a half to get to you

I just got the Fairy Floss blend and after one cup I'd recommend it

adrian522

I've had some issues with my grinder over the last few weeks but I'm finally back up and running with my Vario (on the go since 2009!)

I first decided I was going to re-align the burrs based on a method posted on Reddit.

This went ok (not great) but when I re-assembled nothing was grinding. Looked like the belt wasn't tight enough. Then it turned out I needed a new Belt and Pulley.

Not too expensive but I was waiting a week for the delivery. Then I had issues with the set screw not fitting the pulley (I put super glue on it as advised by Baratza but then it wouldn't fit into the pulley

I had to remove all the dried in super glue with great difficulty and then put it in again. Hopefully it stays put but I may run into problems down the road on that front.

Then I had an issue with the levers moving around by themselves during grinding. There is a fix for this involving rubber shims. I improvised this myself and now all seems ok.

I also ended up spending around a day and a half and a bag and a half of cheap super market beans trying to calibrate the grinder properly.

Finally the hopper wasn't really locking in place in order to grind I had to hold the hopper in place, but I think I've sorted this now too with some electrical tape.

Eventually I've got a grinder that is producing very consistent espresso grinds with no issues for the moment.

I also discovered that supervalu's cheap beans are less than useless. I think they are robusta, they are undrinkable and when you grind them they seem to produce more grounds than standard beans for some reason.

On the plus side I got a bag of cheap beans in Aldi (Velo coffee roasters), 200g for around €4 I think. Actually fairly drinkable given they are so cheap. Would be fine in case of emergency.

have2flushtwice

I used to buy the alzerra cups with the coffee in the base, handy in the mornings.
I haven't seen them in a long time, anyone know where I can get them?
Thanks

.

dball

bottom shelf in the coffee aisle in tesco

SouthWesterly

I've been buying Note d'Espresso Cremoso Coffee Beans 1000g x 2 pack from amazon lately for my b2c.
A nice coffee.