… kind of

Automagical coffee-machine

We’ve been using a DeLonghi totally automagical coffee machine for a couple of years. It’s pretty cool: decent-sized container for beans, which it grinds as needed; a button each for strength, small/medium/large cup size buttons (the size of each can be set); and a “cappuccino” button which sucks up milk from the big container seen in the picture and tries to froth and heat it and then add it to the espresso.

…

It’s good to wake up in the morning, stick a cup under the spout, and just press a button to get an espresso.

It’s convenient … but to be brutally honest, that’s really the most it has going for it. It is a big thing, and we do very much like that convenience, but the result is a loooong way from a true espresso.

Auto-nothing

With that in mind, we’ve just treated ourselves to another machine – this one a totally manual job. It’s a Breville “Professional 800 Collection Espresso Machine ” (pretty good contender for dumbest name ever, but looks cool and my brother-in-law makes a mean coffee with it 8) )

Now I have a lot to learn, as there’s just a little bit more to it than pressing a button or two After a number of attempts (and half a rainforest of coffee beans ) we decided a burr grinder was needed. Fortunately, given that most of them cost nearly $200 we managed to find one at our local Retravision for $76 that seems good; it’s a Sunbeam, so a good brand, and seems to have a nice wide range of grinds, from coarse, to even finer than we ought to need – so we ought to be right.

I also have to get the amounts right: the amount of grounds to use, and the amount of espresso to extract. That’s just practice, and some judicious measurements at the beginning, I guess.

Finally – and definitely not leastly I have to get this tamping thing sorted. I’ve read and heard a bunch of different recommendations: “very lightly” says the lady in the Breville video, “as hard as you can” say various others, and “30 lbs” say a few more specific-minded people. I guess that’s just practice, and careful tasting.

What with my cupcakes and Spaghetti Carbonara, and all the coffee-making, I’ve been rather domestic in the last couple of days

I guess once I get the espresso bit down I have to learn how to make lattes, and flat whites, and cappuccinos and macchiatos, and super-wossnamey-atos, and do all the facncy stuff with the milk.