Are you a fan of espresso, cold brew, aeropress? Do you try new beans and roasters regularly, or stay with what you know and love?
I generally prefer filter coffee (with a re-usable filter, no oil sucking paper!) or plunger, but currently have only the plunger because of lack of space. A good syphon can also be supurb. I’ve also started roasting my own beans - I’m definitely a long way from expert, but am getting pretty solid results and am am slowly improving.
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Moka pot is real coffee to me. I find everything else some sort of compromise - even buying coffee from a barista with an espresso machine. Espresso machines are comparable in coffee quality, the compromise you are making is price for time. That goes for caffe machines with a barista or the fancy machines you can get at home.
I’m surprised to see how few coffee drinkers seem to make coffee on the stove. It’s the real deal, and while it takes 5-10 minutes longer, it’s the cheapest way to get good coffee.
Love a Moka Pot. It’s all we used to have growing up and still enjoy having it. But it’s not the same as an espresso. Everyone has a preference for how they like coffee, I wouldn’t necessarily call anything other than a Moka Pot a compromise, just a preference.
Moka Pot is what I’ll always recommend to someone who wants to make coffee at home and is starting out with nothing. In my opinion it’s the cheapest and easiest way to get good coffee with little effort.
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On the topic of stove coffee, have you ever tried Turkish coffee?
If you happen to be in Melbourne, I ❤️ Istanbul on Lygon St does a good Turkish Coffee with Turkish Delight.
I have! It’s black magic to me how much coffee they get out of that little pot. It looks like the coffee is coming out of the sand itself!
I like Turkish Coffee, but I doubt I’d choose it every day over espresso-style.
Too bitter? Just run the bottom of the pot under a tap before it starts “sputtering”. This ensures the water doesn’t get too hot during extraction.
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International Roast straight from the giant can! With a shitload of sugar and milk!
We got a Delonghi (Dinamica Plus) coffee machine last year. Most of the time I go for an espresso or a cappuccino.
In terms of beans I have found a couple of local roasters nearby and tend to alternate across their blends.
The ones I’ve been enjoying are:
The Cats Pyjamas https://www.sevenmiles.com.au/products/catspjs?variant=39825374281918
Gusto https://www.sevenmiles.com.au/products/gusto?variant=39843759063230
9Bar Blend https://espressoservicesplus.com.au/product/9bar-coffee-bar-blend-1kg/
I use a plunger at the moment, but I’m getting sick of unavailability of replacement parts. Haven’t been able to get a replacement filter for a 12 cup plunger in ages. Price is going to jump up if/when they’re ever back in stock, too.
Definitely have to grind beans yourself. I use a Hario hand mill. You’re missing out on a lot of the aroma if you buy ground beans.
I’m team moka pot…the Brikka variant. I used to just use pre-ground coffee but recently bought a little Kalita hand ginder and I use Humbler beans from Proud Mary…much more tasty. It’s no worse than the 5 buck coffees I get from my local cafe, IMO.
Latte maker here. Invested in a Gaggia classic pro over Covid. Paid for itself in a few months. I buy preground beans from colesworth; what ever has the prettiest package. I know I need to hit up a boutique roaster at least but I never find the time.
Are you using pressurised baskets with the pre-ground coffee? I strongly suggest investing in a grinder and grinding your own beans. Then you can start using the non-pressurised baskets. It’ll be the next big leap up with your more than capable machine.
Also, don’t fret about trying to get out to a boutique roaster. There’s plenty of places you can buy online now. I found this site that you can buy from several roasters (mainly Melbourne based): directcoffee.com.au
One teaspoon of cheap instant coffee and two splendas, milk.
My preferences are:
- Espresso
- Piccolo
- Moka Pot
I invested in a Breville Dual Boiler a few months ago and haven’t looked back. Using a Kingrinder K4 hand grinder until my electric grinder arrives. Finally able to get coffee on par with what I’d buy out.
I have an aeropress that I haven’t used since I bought a $99 Delonghi espresso machine from Aldi a few years ago. It’s a good little machine and makes a perfectly adequate coffee. I’ve recently upgraded to a Gaggia Classic Pro and the quality of the coffee I make has gone significantly downhill thanks to this machine being more demanding. I’m slowly improving, though.
As for the beans, I like to try local roasters I haven’t tried before, but have a couple I fall back on either because I enjoy them or just for convenience (read: I didn’t realise how low I was getting and ran out, so went with the best option to get beans ASAP.)
Water temperature, extraction time, and grind size are the main variables dictating coffee taste. Aeropresses are so handy because you can easily control water temperature and extraction time. Get a burr grinder (not the blade grinder) to play with grind size. I have spent a lot of time playing with these three factors alone.
I usually just pull espresso for a lomg black from my cheap-o machine, but I do love a good, black, cold brew. Also partial to pour overs with a proper ratio.
Do you use the same amount of coffee (by weight?) in the plunger vs espresso? I always felt the plunger needed more, and felt like it was a waste, to get a reasonable tasting/strength plunger coffee.
I guess I’ve never done any research on how to make a good plunger coffee and never been amazed by the result, so I’m interested in how you make it?!
It’s one of those “it depends” things. You need to play with the quantity, temperature and time depending on the beans you get. If the beans aren’t freshly roasted, you really notice the difference with plunger coffee – it’ll taste flat or stale. In general, the more bitter flavour components take longer to come out. The longer you leave it in the plunger, the more bitter the coffee will be.
I hardly put any milk in my coffee, so I don’t like stuff that’s under-roasted. It needs to be roasted dark enough that it doesn’t taste acidic. (It isn’t an issue if you’re putting more milk in your coffee, because the milk acts as a pH buffer and you won’t get that acidic taste. A flat white or latte is far more tolerant of a light roast.) But if it’s roasted too dark, like a typical French roast, it just ends up tasting bitter.
Thanks for the detailed response! I’ll play around with those variables and see how I go, I’ve probably been using water that’s too hot and leaving it for too long!
I don’t make espresso, so I can’t compare how much coffee it actually uses. Espresso tends to need to be stronger as it is often used in milky drinks. Plunger coffee is often ruined by using water that is too hot, it should cool a little from the boil as the hotter water extracts more of the bitter flavours. Different styles of beans and roasts also work better for the different methods - espresso tends to focus on dark roasts, plunger and similar methods tend to favour lighter roasts and more subtle variations. Some of the difference between them is just what you are used to and looking for - a bit like with wine you can’t really compare a rich high-tannin red with a more delicate fruity white. They are both good in different ways.
Thanks for the reply! I’ll have to play around with the temp and beans a bit more!
I tinker with roasting my own coffee (tend to go on the lighter end, highly recommend a hive roaster).
I then grind it (used to use a hand grinder, but doing that for espresso got somewhat painful after a few years) and use a manual espresso press (cafelat robot) to make the coffee.
If I feel like a milk drink I’ll use a bellman stove top steamer to steam the milk.
I really like cold iced coffee with full cream milk with or without a scoop of ice cream, although lately I have been drinking more straight espresso or long blacks (sometimes flat whites too) due to the cold weather. I have a little Nespresso pod machine with some resusable stainless steel pods that I fill with coffee I grind myself. Before this current one I had a larger and cheaper Nescafe machine (also with resuable pods) that I’ve since passed on to a family member. The beans don’t really matter too much to me - I just rotate between different stuff depending on my mood or what’s on special.
I have a bunch of other things that I use less, like one-cup filters, plungers, etc. I also tried cold brewing for a while last year but eventually got bored with that and went back to the ol’ faithful pod machine. I’d like to have a proper coffee machine but in terms of size and affordability it’s unrealistic. One of the things I like about my current setup is that it still replicates a lot of the things I enjoyed about making coffee on a proper machine when I worked in the industry. I still have full control over the fineness of the grind, the weight of the shot, the force of the tamp, the length of the shot, etc. I really enjoy going through the ritual every morning of preparing the shot (another reason why I prefer espresso to filtered and cold brew coffee).
Gaggia Classic Pro here with the 9 bar spring mod and a VST basket. Using a Baratza Encore grinder. The quintessential “Dipping my toes into espresso” bundle.
18g grams of beans in, 36 grams of liquid out. Froth and pour in 100ml of full cream milk.
