Treacle

Played around with the OPV the other day giving it a 180 degree turn anticlockwise. The results are clear: a creamier mouth feel with more body. The drips are more syrupy which is great. I tried a 270 degree turn but it tasted more watery again which I found odd. I would like to build one of those pressure gauges that can attach to a portafilter to test how many bars I'm at. Something to think about?

Really learning the necessity of a decent grinder. I don't feel there's a lot of point buying any freshly roasted coffee until I get one as there aren't enough steps with the MM. I would like to buy a stepless grinder, preferably a Mazzer, but this does mean quite a bit of money. It's annoying because I really want to have a play but I know that it's just money down the drain until I get a real grinder.

Home-Barista has lots of great stuff on it to help the budding barista. I want to get into coffee cupping. I had a go last night using some stale pre-ground rubbish and a Le Creuset ramekin. It just smelt like coffee with no obvious notes. I need some nasal training and some freshly roasted coffee so I can get to know my beans. Looking forward to doing this once I get my grinder.

Anyway, coffee making is on hold for the moment. Fortunately I have Nespresso at the moment which is pretty good and good bench mark for when I do brew. I have my eye on a second-hand Mazzer at the moment so we'll see how that goes.

£1.79 descaler

Pretty good day on the coffee front. As I couldn't find any citric acid I bought some descaler from Boots on one of their staff's recommendations. I first wanted to test it out on the non-working Nespresso machine as I was a bit dubious about running a non-branded product through the Classic. The Nespresso didn't want to budge despite attempting to run the water for quite a few minutes. I decided to leave the solution in the water reservoir as y'never know. Thought what the heck and decided to run it through the Classic which I'm very glad I did. Vast improvement of water flow through the group head; water streaming in one solid central flow like a pour from a naked portafilter. The smell was gross but just shows you the muck inside the poor thing. By the way, I also bit the bullet and invested in a Brita water filter as it didn't make much sense not to if I was going to have a nice descaled machine. Nice and clean.

I bought some espresso beans from Sainsbury's today of which I've made a few shots. It's quite nice, far better than that decaff stuff from Waitrose, anyway. Went out for a spot of summer evening tennis with Oli and upon returning I thought I'd give the Nespresso one last chance before it got sent off to eBay. What d'you know? It paid off to leave it stood there all afternoon! Water, water everywhere. Run the descaler through and used a few capsules. Nice but a little weak. I can really see the difference of freshly ground coffee using a proper machine and that's just with my basic set-up. At least I'll be able to use the capsules up and then I can decide whether to eBay it or not.

Spent almost £70 on bits and bobs for my new hobby. Group seal, two blind baskets, shower screen, group head cleaning brush and Puly Caff from Happy Donkey. Really nice lined shot glass, Domestic Lava tamper(!), rubber Cafelat tamper puck, a sachet of Urnex Dezcal scale remover and rubber backflushing disc from Coffee Hit. Pretty chuffed with my choice of tamper (I think) after having read up on them. A good reasonably priced entry level one (level being the operative word).

A good day in coffeeing. My bank account says otherwise.

Grind, grind, grind

Triumphant! I cannot believe that I didn't need my Gaggia MM on its finest setting. Turned the dial to a 6 o'clock and, what d'you know, a half decent 25 second shot with a few mls of crema. Highly delighted.

I took my i-Roast apart to give it a thorough clean the other day but, because of being interrupted and having to leave it in bits, once I returned, yes, I had forgotten how to put it back together. Clever me. Can't find a guide online for repairing one so have emailed Hearthware, its manufacturer, for advice. Haven't had a response yet but that's no doubt because it's the weekend.

I have been looking at second-hand Mazzer Super Jolly grinders on eBay as they go for a good price for some reason. As I have found a suitable grind for the Classic I may delay buying one until I have the money.

A good day.

Gaggia!

Bought myself a second-hand Gaggia Classic from eBay the other day for £56. Working well but using lots and lots of coffee practising. Reading through websites like Home-Barista and CoffeeGeek and taking their advice. Why Gaggia give you a stupid tamper that doesn't fit the filter basket I don't know! So I'll have to invest in a half decent one of those.

Anyway, I'm producing some surprisingly drinkable shots. I only have a Gaggia MM grinder at the moment which, of course, is nowhere near good enough to produce quality espresso with crema but it'll do for the time being.

Searching for a reasonably priced coffee to practice with but I'm a bit worried about how fresh packs of beans are from the supermarket. I'm probably being too fussy, though. Found a website (coffee-direct.co.uk) where I can get a half pound pack of 'roasted to order' Italian dark at £3.99 delivery included. Not bad.

My equipment as of today is:

Gaggia Classic.
Gaggia MM.
i-Roast 2.
Bodum Eileen.