# Dealing with pressurised portafilters in the short-medium term



## scanana (Jul 9, 2020)

Hi all

First post but long-time coffee forum nerd. About to have the same experience as many here, dealing with a pressurised basket whilst waiting for sage to re-stock/a single walled one to arrive from China. I'm wondering about the best way to try and make do for a bit.

I've got a Rok grinder and manual espresso setup at the moment, have massively got back into espresso over lockdown, and got a bambino plus arriving next week. I've got quite a lot of great coffee from hasbean, square mile and workshop (very poor sequencing of birthday coffee subscriptions and all arrived at once!).

I know there obviously won't be the same kind of experience getting a decent espresso from pressurised, but just wondering what kind of grind is likely to maximise my chances of getting something drinkable. Do I just freeze my good stuff, go and buy a bag of pre-ground lavazza and try that? (Philistine but I don't mind that style so long as the cup itself isn't poorly made). I've got a bodum bistro burr grinder, which at the lowest setting doesn't quite get me fine enough for any crema on the Rok, so might be a solution for consistent grind for a pressurised basket.

Have to say I've had very few bad shots to my taste from the Rok, even from very light roasts where there was a good bit of channeling and spurting through the naked pf, so I'm kind of hoping that my palate isn't sophisticated enough yet for me to hate the pressurised shots and just go back to the Rok until the single wall basket arrives!

I know a lot of people are going through this at the moment and I've watched a LOT of the YouTube videos on the machine and am just really interested in other people's experiences.

Thanks!


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## dutchy101 (Jun 12, 2020)

Where did you get your Bambino Plus from? Are you sure it won't come with unpressurised baskets too?

I bought mine from Curry's about a month ago and it came with both sets of baskets despite the website stating it was only the dual walled baskets in the box. Seems like it's pot luck who gets them and who doesn't but you might be lucky like me.

P.s. I'm absolutely loving the Bambino - think it's a great machine


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## scanana (Jul 9, 2020)

Well I totally missed the boat on a lot of offers a month or two ago (I'm looking at you Curry's £229) because I was on furlough and wasn't sure if I'd rotate again. So I both resented and refused to pay full price! I got it in white from Ireland on sale so I'm assuming it's old stock, whilst crossing my fingers. On the plus, if I can ever afford one a niche zero will go perfectly!

Really glad you're enjoying it, very reassuring. It just felt like so much manual intervention, doing a PID mod etc is required to get something drinkable from a gaggia or a Silvia for a higher price point - didn't compute for me. And the auto milk is going to be a gift from the gods.


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## dutchy101 (Jun 12, 2020)

The Bambino is great because if offers you both. You can do manual or let the machine do its thing. It's perfect for me as I am completely new to the game and only drink milk based coffee and every single coffee I've had from it has been lovely. Admittedly I've been using nice beans, but there's a massive learning curve with all of this for me and being able to dip my toe in it gradually suits me perfectly


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## AlexR (Jul 16, 2020)

Pressurised baskets worked like a charm for me so far, with Lavaza ground coffee. BUT.

You need find the perfect recipe for yourself. Through fiddling with dosage. 1:2 never worked for me. it always works out closer to 1:3.

AND, your coffee needs to be fresh. I noticed my results get very inconsistent closer to the half of the small Lavaza pack. Even tho I store it in an IKEA sealed glass jar.

Other that that, double wall and Bambino work great. I think it's a great setup to get your foot into the third wave barista world. Before you invest 2-5 grand in DE1 or Linea Mini


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## Ljeezy (Jul 6, 2020)

scanana said:


> Well I totally missed the boat on a lot of offers a month or two ago (I'm looking at you Curry's £229) because I was on furlough and wasn't sure if I'd rotate again. So I both resented and refused to pay full price! I got it in white from Ireland on sale so I'm assuming it's old stock, whilst crossing my fingers. On the plus, if I can ever afford one a niche zero will go perfectly!
> 
> Really glad you're enjoying it, very reassuring. It just felt like so much manual intervention, doing a PID mod etc is required to get something drinkable from a gaggia or a Silvia for a higher price point - didn't compute for me. And the auto milk is going to be a gift from the gods.


 Totally get this I've come to the exact same conclusion. A sage never mind the bambino was never in my mind. However after a few weeks looking through this place I think it's ideal for my current needs. Just gutted I missed the curry's deal and being a tight Yorkshireman I'm hanging on to see if any deals pop up.


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