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I can't stand the stuff I'm afraid. Last coffee I had made me ill for a while!.
I was 'forced' to drink a double espresso to celebrate my (late) boss' new beans to cup espresso machine at work, and I don't drink coffee! I had a headache, stomachache and shaking hands for some time after - ruined my afternoon.
On the other hand, like @liratheal I do am happy to eat coffee cake and coffee ice cream...
Fascinating treatise on coffee machinery IMHO. Is there an equivalent to expensive audio cables??

 

Yeah: Don't pay £5000 for an audio cable

 

Unless it's a gold plated toslink cable

 

Like all things, when ignorant one happy lives with mediocrity... I started down the coffee path after I was given an old Bellman Stovetop Steamer and started steaming my own milk.

 

Two things ruined it for me. I had a Gaggia Classic and a KitchenAid Artisan for around 10 years. This was an upgrade from a very entry level Delonghi and bagged coffee, and a revelation in comparison. I was pretty content with this setup, but occasionally I would get a really good espresso, which was just a tease when most of the time it was merely passable. But it was better espresso than you would find in most high street coffee shops and I never had a good comparison.

One day clever me decided that on a trip to London I would seek out espresso in places that weren't Costa. I had espressos at Noble Espresso (cart at King's Cross), Knock Box and Espresso Room. My eyes were opened to what good espresso was all about. I also discovered I really liked certain light roast coffees. This was problematic because it's much easier to make a passable coffee at home with a dark roast than a light roast - without proper care and equipment the latter is liable to come out as a sour mess.

Mistake two was starting to up my game at home. I replaced the burrs in my KitchenAid grinder for that of a Mazzer Mini - fairly easy mod, and made a huge difference. I also learned how to temperature surf the Gaggia - and was able to more regularly get the more elusive once-in-a-blue-moon good espresso in favour of the merely passable ones. The bug was caught.

Fully cleaned - backflushed with cafiza a few times, shower screen off and clean, then backflush with water, then a sacrificial shot, then it's ready to roll.
I clear the screen after every shot with a brief flush through, and backflush once with water at the end of every day as well that keeps it cleaner through the week.

 

Thank god for water. It comes out of the tap and goes in my face-hole.

No boiling, no back-flushing, no burrs. Just a big glass and a handle. Delicious in its simplicity.

 

Eugh, tap water!

 

Love water me.

Mind you i'm quite specific about using my mouth face hole, not a fan of snorting it.

 

I drank tap water in America, and that tasted like it had grit in it. I'm about 50% sure I can drink out of a puddle.

I mean, typically, so am I. But sometimes I get a little excited and gravity makes fools of us all..

 

Going to the US? Get a Brita bottle with filter.

 

GRAAAVVITYYY!!!! *shakes fist*

 

I usually make my own now, unless its gold plated toslinks, dem is too much to make, all that gold.

 

Anyone serious about audio knows that more expensive materials sound better, conductivity be damned. Rhodium plated platinum for the win. Especially with optical cables.

 

The irony is, you're all talking great things about coffee and machines, and i'm the one who's "Part Barista" at work, and frankly, i'm very grateful for my Eversys E4 machine that does everything for me

Sam

 

It's a funny thing, I have a friend who is into coffee and whenever he makes me one I think "man this is nice", and then I go home and drink Asda own brand instant that I don't even stir, and still enjoy it.

The taste isn't as good but the convenience more than covers the gap.

 

The bottom line with coffee is the caffeine. Even manky coffee has it The rest, really, is about how you like it delivered. Me personally my favourite coffee the world over is Dunkin Donuts Hazelnut. Which I am fully aware is artificially flavoured but hot dang it tastes good and with a shot of espresso in it I am wired for hours haha

I only really discovered and got into coffee when I was 28. Bloody America

 

Nothing wrong with a bit of artificially flavoured coffee. Enjoying exquisite coffee and enjoying less-than-exquisite, and frankly even enjoying crappy coffee are not mutually exclusive, or shouldn't be. Too many stuffy types on coffee forums turn their nose up, "oh I can't even bring myself to visit a high street cafe any more, eugh". I may have even been guilty of suggesting as such myself, but it's less that there's no joy to be had in a high street cafe, it's just different. You can't evaluate it through the same lens, just as you can't complain about Burger King because it's not fine dining. It's a different type of enjoyment, but it's all enjoyment.

I ate three meals per day at Costa for a week recently (no, not by choice) and found I'm actually quite partial to a vanilla iced latte.