# Helloooooo



## le'deps (Jul 14, 2017)

Hello everyone, this place seems pretty grand & useful so I thought I'd say hello.

My coffee obsession began with cappacino's (& cake) on shopping trips, then I moved on to a Dolce Gusto pod machine to experience this at home, then after feeling very guilty at all the waste plastic I got a cheap delonghi espresso machine & eventually a bodum bistro grinder to go with it.

In between I've had an aeropress (which I still use a lot) a cheap French press (which always let's too much residue into the drink), a hario pour over thing (no matter what I do the coffee tastes of filter paper) & a stove top espresso maker.

Mainly I use the delonghi thing & I've just bought a s/h Gaggia Classic from this forum which will hopefully arrive on Monday to replace it.

I bought a non pressurised basket for the delonghi & when I was still getting decent crema I thought I'd got this business cracked but alas there's usually a slightly bitter taste & I can see the espresso pours out way too quickly. I can't grind any finer & I doubt I could tamp much harder without actually standing on the basket  could this be down to the delonghi (or maybe even the basket?) or am I going to have to look at a better grinder?

Anyhoo back to the introductory nature of this post, other than coffee I enjoy music, film, tv, art, walking in the rain, tv, cake, dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight & the occasional run to stave of abject terror from the prospect of an early death brought upon me by the excessive consumption of the other things I enjoy.

Hi!


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## eddie57 (Mar 21, 2017)

Hi welcome mate


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## Tiny tamper (May 23, 2014)

Hi there, long story short yes you need to upgrade your grinder, most people on here at the start seem to the eureka mignon a brilliant little grinder id start there for your basic set up.


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## joey24dirt (Jan 28, 2017)

+1 for grinder upgrade. I used to have a delonghi espresso machine and paired it up with a sage grinder. Made a huge difference. But as mentioned the mignon is the go to grinder it would seem. I'll be upgrading soon hopefully once the wife is on board


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## le'deps (Jul 14, 2017)

Thanks folks, I've always known a grinder upgrade would be needed eventually, but it might have to wait a while, hopefully the Gaggia will still give me better results than the delonghi, but I might try getting some beans ground at a local shop rather than grinding myself & see if that makes a big difference, while they're fresh at least


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## DaveP (Jul 14, 2017)

> but I might try getting some beans ground at a local shop


Hi and welcome.

Could do worse than get some sample packs in the post (saves the bother of going out, lol)

Here are a couple web sites

https://ravecoffee.co.uk/collections/taster-packs

https://www.pactcoffee.com/shop/the-pact-coffee-discovery-pack


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

I can see the espresso pours out way too quickly. I can't grind any finer & I doubt I could tamp much harder without actually standing on the basket

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

There is one other way available to you to slow the pour down.

Increase the dose of grinds in the basket.

Just add more, start with another gram, if tgat doesnt help jyst keep upping it, eventually you will be able to control the speed of the pour.

This is just until you get your new machine / grinder.


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## Obnic (Jan 14, 2014)

Also work on your distribution to make sure you are not getting speed because of channeling


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## le'deps (Jul 14, 2017)

Thanks for all the advice folks, it's good to find a place on t'interweb where you can ask a question & get several useful answers instead of abuse 

Re: Dave P. I used to have a Pact subscription so could try them again, Rave are new to me though. I have just had 400g of beans delivered by Django so I need to get through them first & feel like I should try out the local newly opened bean shop so they'll hopefully stick around.

Re: Jumbo. I never know how much space to leave in the top of the basket, quite often there is a slight ridge pressed into the top of the puck when I take it out where it's obviously met the shower head & even then it's a fast pour. I'll be trying the Gaggia out tonight so I'll see how that goes.

Re: Obnic. I need to get a bottomless portafilter I think, the pucks always look pretty good to my eye after I knock them out, but I guess it's hard to tell in that way?

Anyhoo, thanks again folks, I'll report back after Gaggia attempt no1 tonight


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## hotmetal (Oct 31, 2013)

Hello and welcome. You're going to struggle with pre-ground for espresso, even if it's good fresh pre-ground from a respected roaster. They cannot know the exact grind you need. Jumbo's suggestion of varying the dose to slow the extraction will work up to a point, but will only get you so far, depending on how much too coarse the grind is. You may get lucky asking for espresso grind from a proper roaster, but anything off the shelf is going to be way too coarse. If you haven't got a grinder capable of grinding for espresso, worrying about headspace is premature. You're probably going to have to overdose the basket anyway. It is normal to see an imprint in the top of the puck *after* extraction, and as a rough guide, people say that if you place a coin (such as a 5p or 2p not a thick one like a pound) and lock the portafilter in, there may be a slight imprint in the dry coffee when you take it out (obviously without pulling the shot, just as a guide to dry fill level). But that only becomes relevant when you've got a grinder that you can adjust to suit. Overfilling to slow the shot can also bring problems - it might flow really fast because the puck could fracture, leading to channelling where the water flows through the crack, as Obnic says.


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

If you have not already get some scales capable of 0.1g resolution


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## le'deps (Jul 14, 2017)

Geewhizz, it flies out even faster on the Gaggia  18g of grounds = over 35ml of muddy water in probably under 5 seconds. This is going to take some work & possibly a tonne of cash


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## le'deps (Jul 14, 2017)

Good scales are also on my shopping list, I've long doubted my regular food scales are accurate. Hopefully I can get some of those for less than the cost of a good grinder


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## jimbojohn55 (Jan 15, 2016)

save yourself a lot of money - buy coffee gear scales and avoid the drug dealer scales on ebay


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## le'deps (Jul 14, 2017)

Can anyone tell what this is? It's La Pavoni but that's all I've been able to find out


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## DaveP (Jul 14, 2017)

https://www.amazon.com/Pavoni-PA-JV-Jolly-Grinder-Black/dp/B000FEJAXO


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## DaveP (Jul 14, 2017)

And also ... https://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?20930-La-Pavoni-Jolly-settings


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## le'deps (Jul 14, 2017)

Thanks  I have some reading to do


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## jimbojohn55 (Jan 15, 2016)

50mm burrs - as far as I'm aware it just dumps the coffee into the cylinder at the front, so its not a doser or an on demand - if the burrs are aligned and the motor is a decent construction then it might grind as well as a other 50mm grinders - to be honest get a bigger 64mm burr grinder


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## le'deps (Jul 14, 2017)

So I didn't bother bidding on that there jolly upthread in the end. I think I'll be saving for a mignon for a while.

However! I just ground myself 20g of Fazenda Pantano from my Django sample set after having decided to give the classic another go. After grinding I did think to myself "hmm, this looks considerably finer than it has done for a while" but convinced myself it couldn't be because that would be impossible? But alas! The stream was much slower, still not slow enough, but just as slow as I ever got from my delonghi, there was a thick layer of crema which lasted & the coffee itself was black as the sky on a moonless night. Best of all, it tasted pretty good!

So, while I look forward to even better results from my eventual mignon & whatever other improvements I may make to the classic, I'm pretty happy for now  Just need to get the hang of the steam wand, which is not as easy as what I was used to


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