# Settling down to make the choices



## TobyAnscombe (Sep 28, 2014)

Evening all..

So having spent quite some time trawling through various threads we (as in the royal we!) are sort of there..

The debate is still raging as to new vs. "pre-loved" but I am fortunate enough that new is on the cards..

My current coffee setup is Aeropress - 18-20g, Hario mini mill'd and then brewed standard, paper filter, fill to No4 stir and wait 30, top up to 4 and then plunge for another 20-25 sec directly into my travel mug (Contigo if you must ask..). Bean of choice is currently HasBeans Breakfast Bomb as it is wakeup on the commute beans. Sometimes a dash of regular, cold milk to sweeten.

It looks like the first thing to get is going to be a grinder - I've gone for the Eureka Mignon as it seems to do well, is small enough to fit in our kitchen and I quite like the look of it! This will allow me to keep brewing while I sort out the next phase...

Now, the next phase - this I am happier with the pre-loved aspect and will stalk the forum to see any deals going. If not then the Gaggia Classic seems to be the best option. I'm not really a milky drinker and MrsToby doesn't do milk so the HX, DB and every other acronym doesn't make much difference. If I do want to get into latte art then a SB will have to do. We also have a Pixie Nespresso machine as we wanted the fastest bleary-eyed baby feed to drinkable coffee machine going. Capsules were the way forwards with the Aeropress being weekends.. we still have the unused milk heater/foamer thing that came with it (god bless father christmas for gifts that never get used..)

So, that sounds like the machine choice sorted and a waiting game to see what occurs....

And then we get to the "stuff"...

Tamper, mat and basket from Made By Knock - coz they are shiny and love the wooden handles but then which size basket to get...

Cloths from pound land....yeah, I'm cheap!

Coffee beans from anywhere that take my fancy..

I've already got scales so that sorts that out.

Naked PF from somewhere - the range of brands is just nuts! There is clearly no "best" so will any brand do or is there a hierarchy ?

What have I missed? What do I need? Why the hell is the move from brewed to espresso so bloody hard? etc


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Do you have scales that go up by 0.1g steps?

Cleaning Stuff to descale and back flush your machine with


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## TobyAnscombe (Sep 28, 2014)

Yep - the (seemingly) ubiquitous digital scales that go up to 300g in 0.01g increments.

If I use filtered water (we have a fridge with a filter built) then do I need to descale? The nespresso has gone 3 years without a descale as its always filled from the fridge. Not a challenge but a genuine question!

and many thanks for taking the time out to reply ;-)


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## Eyedee (Sep 13, 2010)

The three way valve needs to be kept clean by backflushing.

Ian


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