russell16688

Thanks for that, I've never really paid attention to actual time making the drink. It just seems to take me longer - I'm not sure whether I'm fussing too much for a morning drink.

I've recently found myself only really drinking Aeropress coffee. I like espresso drinks but I'm not a huge milk drinker so find the process lengthy for essentially the same drink I could have in a minute or two. Are there anyways to spice up my espresso routine or to make it a little simpler? I'm currently using a Gaggia Classic and a Saeco Pro grinder. P.s I haven't mentioned this near my partner as I have my allocated space. Don't want to relinquish that if I don't need to!

A slightly random request here but does anyone know of anywhere in the UK that sells or would sell straight up coffee fruit berries? I'm a primary school teacher and we're doing about the Maya people. I'd love to take in a coffee fruit berry as we're looking to do a food tasting. It seems like everyone does the extract but not the fruit itself.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I think a timer to turn the machine on may help. I think the issue with espresso for me for me is that I can’t do anything else whilst I’m making it. With my Aeropress I can make my breakfast at the same time. Got pretty fast at it now!

I've been struggling recently with making espresso drinks as I don't have time in a morning to make one but I don't drink coffee in the evening (it really effects my sleep!) I make a lot of aeropress or filter coffee as I can normally crack one out in about 5-10 minutes. Are there any other methods that are equally easy to do that provide great results - or is there a way I can attempt to squeeze an espresso into my coffee routine. Haven't felt like I can post as much recently as I basically make the same coffee every morning! (I do enjoy it though!)

Slowly getting better. Was the first shot with a new bean so unfortunately the espresso shot wasn't the best.

I have a Gaggia classic and had the same issue as you Silky. Even when I don't change any variables my pour times with the same grind on a naked and spouted portafilter are quite drastically different. I find I always have to grind finer for a naked filter than for a spouted one. No matter what I tried it resulted in the same outcome. Still not sure why.

I've been experimenting recently with different Aeropress filter combinations and wondered what others used. I didn't realise until recently there was such a big difference between paper and metal filters and currently I prefer the metal filter for a cleaner taste (albeit less clean cup!) Do you have a particular combination, multiple filters, filter sandwich?

This seems to replicate the tastes I'm consistently getting on pour over and aeropress. Loving it!

Made a cortado tonight with it and it was incredibly smooth even though I don’t think my espresso was the best it could have been. Really nice taste.

Which beans and would you like? First pour over. Opening the bag was great. Got hit by a face full of chocolate!

I remember 2 particular ones: 1. I still didn't mind instant coffee at this point but at an old work place bought us some Poundland red mountain (I think) and it was by far the worst tasting coffee ever. So bitter and dry. 2. A coffee shop in a poor local shopping centre served the worst cappuccino. I'd barely finished saying the order to the cashier and the barista was proud that the drink was already ready. The espresso was horrendous and was so bitter it overpowered even the milk. The foam was fluffed like mini icebergs on top. It was so bad it was funny. I felt bad because I think the guy actually tried and felt he'd done a good job. It was more the quality of training in a low quality chain store.

On in a bit of a Cortado obsession at the moment. Just need to work on the art more.

Not sure about all stores but I worked in a relatively new franchise and the machine was automated for all the espresso elements. Occasionally you'd have an interruption of service when you cleared out the dead pucks. I really wanted to prep portafilters and master it so was very disappointed with this. The milk jugs were interesting though as you have specific fill lines for each drink size to minimise waste but had to work to get the foaming down. The wand was powerful though and consistent. I enjoyed making flat whites though as you had to use a normal jug for those and really have your technique down. The cup was a nightmare though as you were required to fill it to the brim. I'm awful at carrying full cups so I'd do some OK art but then spill it everywhere.

One I always remember that I just found odd was a woman ordering a venti latte but only wanting half a shot of espresso. I remember because I had to clarify it was half of one shot and not half the number of shots. Half a shot was a bit of a pain in the backside too. Each to their own but just seemed pointless due to the sheer volume of milk in the drink. Some of the other daft ones were the super extra hot ones who wanted it at crazy temperatures and complained anyway. Or the no foam folk who would complain at the smallest amount of stars foam. Obviously this was always when you were at your busiest and were trying to do multiple milks at a time. I always laughed when the name thing was introduced as some people got really angry about it, some were funny with it and some got really annoyed when they had a weird spelling of a generic name and you didn't spell it right. The best however was calling someones name and drink order and them just standing there looking confused and not collecting. Several calls later and still stood there as though I was talking gibberish. Then the same person came up and asked where their drink was - clarified name and order and pointed to the drink on the top........complained it was a bit cold