Starter Beans for 1st Automatic Bean to Cup machine

eddiem74

Hi All,

My wife drinks coffee I don't. I have bought her the following from amazon for Christmas.

De'Longhi Eletta, Fully Automatic Bean to Cup Coffee Machine, Cappuccino and Espresso Maker, ECAM 44.660.B, Black https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I6E7CWG/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_dl_2FHNSF76BP93D65W5YD3

I wanted to get some advice on what coffee beans should I get to start her off?

When out she would drink lattes or cappuccinos whether in resturants or from Starbucks. She has also used instant coffee maxwell house mild blend and a Tesco roast but cannot find an old jar to get the name.

Any suggestions of a safe starter bean or variety pack that I can pickup somewhere given the time of year?

Many thanks for your expertise and advice.

Planet X

If you're in Dublin......go in to a specialist coffee shop like 3fe, Coffee Angel, Bear Market, Vice Coffee (Abbey Street) to name a few. But a 250gr bag for between €9 to €13 odd. The difference between these freshly roasted beans v shop bought will be amazing.

Or you can order online if she gets into decent freshly roasted beans. you can buy a subscription from many roasters and a couple of bags will be posted out each month to you.

Still works out vastly cheaper than buying a cuppa from a vendor.

eddiem74

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118350584#Comment_118350584

So I won't get into a store but I see Bear Market still delivers. So just order a house blend as a starter option?

breeno

It's all personal opinion really but I find the Bear Market house blend is lovely.

eddiem74

So I ordered the house blend from Bear Market before their shipping cutoff for Christmas delivery, got a notification from DPD yesterday they had received the delivery request but nothing out for delivery today. I am hoping something changes and I get a notification for delivery tomorrow.

However as a less than ideal fallback plan is there any beans you would recommend in Supevalu, Tesco or Lidl just so she will have something to use in the machine until the bear market delivery arrives?

Thanks again!

sioda

Got some of the Brady's stuff in Lidl weren't bad. Galway roast is middling at best.

SuperValu shoud have some Velo beans. Got a nice Warbler and Wren in Dunnes recently as well.

alec76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118366158#Comment_118366158

Brady’s won’t do for Bean to Cup , definitely better for semi automatic, might be good enough for pour over.

Galway roast would be the best bet for fully auto,I believe ( unless it is top of the line Jura or similar)

Delonghi couldn’t produce espresso shot nearly comparable quality to semi auto,it would be too diluted, simple espresso blends from medium to dark roast would work better.

Snugbugrug28

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118366113#Comment_118366113

I imagine given her preference for a milder flavour you wouldn't go wrong with Starbucks Blonde Roast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058223640/starter-beans-for-1st-automatic-bean-to-cup-machine

Nice gift and I'm sure that the wife will love it as they are very convenient but for what it's worth the grinder that is inside those machines is not going to bring out the full flavour of mild roast coffees and you run the risk of them tasting a bit watery

better off off going for something with a more medium roast if not stronger

also will need to set the grinding setting down near the finest setting which is the lowest number (see manual as it will recommend that it only be adjusted when actually grinding beans)

I find lidls slumber Jack beans work well in my B2C.

Bradys was like dishwater and Galway roast mediocre at best.

murphyebass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118372850#Comment_118372850

Jesus I thought they tasted woeful personally. Over roasted burnt flavour. Wouldn’t buy them again.

All personal taste though

eddiem74

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118367422#Comment_118367422

So tried the Bear Market House blend ((I ordered whole bean?) https://www.bearmarket.ie/collections/coffee/products/house-blend) but she thinks its to watery, I even adjusted the setting from standard to extra strong but no change, although it possibly takes a few cups for the change to filter through.

Attached is the grinder info from the manual, it was set to 5 out of the box.

PXL_20211226_090736232.jpg

alec76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118373701#Comment_118373701

They are , extremely oily look,burnt into ashes. Don’t you forget it is Bean to Cup thread though.

Light to Medium roast won’t work well there.

murphyebass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118373722#Comment_118373722

True but theres dark roast and then there’s slumber jacks incineration blend.

eddiem74

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118367376#Comment_118367376

Forgive my ignorance as I don't drink coffee but when I see expresso mentioned I assume strong coffee in those small shot like cups. When you mention expresso blends is that what you are referring too i.e shots or you just mean stronger tasting/roasted beans?

alec76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118373716#Comment_118373716

It is bean to cup , so there are specific rules involved compare to Semi Auto.

As for the Grinder setting, depending of the coffee roast mostly. Fine setting for Light/medium roast and Coarse setting for Dark beans .

I don’t know why Delonghi has so many settings, 3 would be plenty IMO.

Unlike with the semi auto , you couldn’t control coffee with the grinder really. It grinds on timer, extremely inaccurate, final dosage could be anything between 9 to 14 grams ( depends of a size of a bean , how many bean in the hopper , with full hopper you grind more beans ( more pressure) and half empty hopper you’ll grind less beans with the same settings)

Delonghi not the worst Bean to Cup btw.

With Philips b2c you only be able to grind up to 9g for one shot. Try to make any coffee with this one. Only the darkest roast and Robusta blends…

alec76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118373824#Comment_118373824

Some of the beans roasted for the Filter brewing method / some for the Espresso brewing method.

With the proper espresso machine and good grinder you could use both , no problem.

Bean to Cups are very limited, so yes , better stick to the coffee beans specifically roasted for Espresso method .

as for the Bear Market House blend:

set grinder setting on 3 , extra strong , could you control amount of water in the cup? Don’t pull too much.

Bean to Cups not capable to produce proper espresso shot , but still you could make nice coffee drink , similar to Lungo.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118373716#Comment_118373716

I'd go down to 2 on the grinder setting and leave it there - in my experience will do best for most coffees.

as I said mild coffees are a waste of time (and money) in the machine

go for medium to stronger roasts and you will get a decent cup of coffee

I bulk buy from Amazon Italy and share the purchase with another household (reduces the cost per kg as postage has to be paid - can't order coffee from amazon uk anymore)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118373898#Comment_118373898

What do you buy. Never thought of them.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118375740#Comment_118375740

Nothing crazy - just this sort of stuff

https://imgur.com/a/HldHVFq

bleaks

Been using Lavazza Rossa (Red/Silver bag you see everywhere) for the last while but wouldn't mind trying something different in a semi-auto (philips) bean to cup. Can't say I noticed a big step up in flavour with the Velo stuff I'd tried.

Don't really see the point in spending 40€ a kg of really good freshly roasted local beans if you're not extrapolating the full flavour through a semi auto, but I'd be open to trying something different or something that works if anyone has any good recommendations? Dublin based.

I have blocked the machine using very dark roasts before, so they're out anyway!

alec76

Semi auto bean to cup , what is this mean? Have you meant just bean to cup ( they are all full auto btw)?

Semi auto would have portafilter .

If it is Phillips Bean to Cup indeed then dark roast only way to go. Phillips have the smallest brewing chamber on the market ( I think it is only could take 9 gram of coffee at best ) and you really need 14-16gramm to enjoy decent coffee.

Dark roast only way to go I think. Make a latte with it.

You should set coarse grinding settings of course to prevent machine to choke ( rull of the tumb , dark roast= coarse settings, light roast= fine settings )

bleaks

Thanks Alec, yeah - sorry not sure where I got semi-auto from, it's an automatic with a steam wand.

That's good to know about the option of using dark roast with a coarse setting.

Any particular bean recommendations?

alec76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121112823#Comment_121112823

Some people enjoying slumberjack from Lidl .It is very cheap and probably any better beans would be just wasteful, especially if you drink only milky coffee. You could try Galway roast from Lidl too ( much better coffee than Lavazza or slumberjack and not cheap )

JMcL

Apologies for the thread hijack, but given it's been resurrected and I'd hope the OP still isn't trying to sort beans out for his wife after 2 years, it's probably reasonably fair game..

Regarding dark versus light/medium roasts, this is something I struggle with. I have a Sage Bambino Plus with Sage Grinder Pro, so not B2C and find it very difficult to acceptable results with lighter roasts. Taking Velo Tandem as an example (it's easily available in the local Aldi) trying to dial it in with grind weight/pour time results in something sharp, sour, and to me, undrinkable. I've tried the same with a local producer's beans with the same result. The only way I can get something out of the Velo is by a coarser grind, but this ends up with a very fast pour. For this reason, I've ended up with Slumberjack and some Lavazza blends from Tesco (Rosso and one of their espresso blends) more often than not which at least let me get something drinkable.

I'd love to be able to do something with more interesting beans, but at €40+ /kg experimentation with grind rapidly becomes expensive, so if anybody has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them