A lot of coffee shops can do half-caff drinks these days. That is my usual go to (half caff cappuccino) as I also don’t like having a lot of caffeine. Similarly, at home, I blend caffeinated beans and decaf beans for my morning cup to reduce my caffeine intake. You could try to start doing something similar.
1 Like
So interesting how everyone reacts differently to caffeine. It literally does nothing to me. I could drink an espresso on my way to bed and be totally fine. Although that also means I don’t get any of the wake-you-in-the-morning perks.
3 Likes
This is brilliant idea, I might give it a shot!
I’m so jealous.
3 Likes
Same. I start the day with a full-strength cup, but after that I go 50:50 or more
1 Like
I brew an oat milk latte each day after waking up with my Rocket Cellini espresso machine that I have owned and used for the past decade. Definitely better than Starbucks and far less expensive over time. I see crowds of people waiting in cars burning fuel to pay $5 for an expensive Dutch Bros sugar coffee and scratch my head on how foolish people are with spending.
plocking coffee:
Caffeine content of canned coffee
Bonus
1 Like
My partner had to point out that the last one is actually a Hames Joffman video. (She started drinking coffee after seeing me fuss with it at length, and I’m the one who makes each of us our respective variations in the morning, but she was the one who found our current machine, on a local FB expat group.)
1 Like
La Pavoni is all you need
1 Like
For me that was just the start, as I found it inconsistent, and not suited to treating a friend (or group of friends) also…
My work has a breville barista that see 30+ uses each day and has never shown any trouble over the last few years I’ve be here.
Been eyeing the markets and found myself a mint condition, open box Pro for $400.
Enjoying the brews and learning to dial in. Daily small tweaks, marginal difference in taste but all fun.
3 Likes
That’s a shame
I learned a lot from it, but there came a time when I was ready to move up the curve, and I’m currently at a still modest but more comfortable point on that.
1 Like
Apologies for spamming Hoffmann, but he did a very detailed takedown of the pros and cons of traditional lever machines.
I’ve got GAS for a better espresso setup, but am stuck at a local optima of my Flair lever machine and Breville grinder.
I think I need to spend more than $300 to get a better grinder and more than $1000 to get a better means of producing single espresso shots. Hoffmann’s videos are excellent for killing espresso gear GAS and sending that budget back to the synth budget.
2 Likes
Hopefully my next espresso machine will be a La Marzocco Linea Mini!
3 Likes
yup grinder is most important
2 Likes
I bought a Rocket Mozzafiato during Covid. Got a Rocket burr grinder to go with it. I taught myself to do it all. I can even make latte art. I had it plumbed in, and I have someone come and look at it 3 times a year to give it a good checkup. It’s a pricey thing, but it truly adds to the quality of our lives. And it looks really cool.
2 Likes
I used an Elektra Micro Casa a Leva in Waterloo/Toronto until Oct 2023, but I always knew I could get one good shot out of it, and that’s all I have each day. With meticulous work, I could get a second reasonable shot out, and I would sometimes make coffee for visitors in the afternoon/evening, when I wasn’t having any. It’s now on semi-permanent loan to a coffee friend, who in turn lent me the Uniterra Nomad, which I used for the last few months in Canada and the first few weeks in Lisbon (see my Apr 7 post). Hoffman uses it in a video comparing portable espresso machines, and makes a cup with it on the top of a tourist bus moving through Picadilly Circus. Anyway, I wouldn’t buy a lever machine again, despite the years I spent with one, and I don’t think I’d recommend one to anyone else.
1 Like
I have been using this grinder since August and have been very happy with it. Only annoyance has been static electricity, which spreads the coffee grounds around the kitchen, especially with darker roasts. But now it seems that I have found a solution. Adding a couple of drops of water to the beans before grinding, known widely as the ”Ross Droplet Technique” and studied in the linked article, seems to work very well.
”Granular materials accumulate surface charges through triboelectrification and fractoelectrification—charging resulting from material friction and fracture, respectively. These processes occur during coffee grinding and impact coffee production at both the enthusiast and industrial-length scales. By sourcing commercially roasted coffee as well as roasting our own, we find that roast color and grind coarseness impact the charging; fine, darker roasts acquire charge-to-mass ratios comparable to those inferred from particles in volcanic plumes and thunderclouds. Furthermore, we elucidate the influence of residual internal moisture on electrification, concluding that moisture can tune both the magnitude and polarity of charge. In addition to possible technological applications, we demonstrate that the addition of external water simultaneously suppresses surface charging and clumping of ground coffee and results in notably different flow dynamics in espresso formats, likely yielding markedly different taste profiles and more concentrated extracts.”
https://www.cell.com/matter/fulltext/S2590-2385(23)00568-4
”The inspired reader is encouraged to experiment using the water addition technique but to further include both coffee mass (controlling the brew ratio and resultant strength) and grind setting (controlling flow restriction and resultant contact time) as variables. Wide implementation may reveal that a few simple squirts of water have solved the problems of clumping, channeling, and poor extractions while aiding in the pursuit of attaining the tastiest espresso.”
2 Likes
La Pavoni
I’ve started using a Hario Switch for filter coffee, better results than just filter.