# Costa CoffeeBeans



## mark8805 (Oct 17, 2014)

Bought some Costa coffee beans from The Coffee Shop Company, been trying to locate Costa Beans for a long time, anyway was looking forward to trying them.

Eventually got them, loaded up and made my first Cappuccino using my Delonghi bean to cup machine and to say I was disappointed was an understatement, there was no taste to them at all.

I know that many of you will say that I am using the wrong type of machine, the thing is that I am Disabled and cannot work the Barista Machines, the best I can cope with, with my disabilities is a Bean to Cup.

Now I also love the Ethiopian Beans that Starbucks sell at the moment, so I thought I would mix the 2 beans to see what came out and I have to say that mixing the 2 bean types brews a brilliant cup of coffee, so that is what I do now to get the best out of both beans.

..

Was interested to know if anyone else had tried the Costa Beans and what kind of results others had had.

The Costa Beans I used are the 1kg bag sold by The Coffee Shop Company and I have been assured that they are the same beans that the shops use, I have everything turned up to the max with regards to the coffee taste on my machine and delivering 2 single espresso shots, just thought there was no taste to the coffee that came out, the Crema was excellent though, any hints or tips or thought would be most welcome.


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## aaronb (Nov 16, 2012)

What Delonghi machine is it?

Whilst a bean to cup is no match for a decent grinder and machine, it does have a place and if it suits you fine then its certainly the right choice!

What I would suggest though is the quality of the Costa and Starbucks beans isn't very good and they are likely a bit stale which causes extraction problems.

Try ordering some freshly roasted beans from somewhere like Rave Coffee and using that instead. I think you will be pleasantly surprised, but if you aren't you can always go back to the Costa beans.

Try and aim for the double shot to be poured in about 25-30 secs, you should be able to adjust the grind size to achieve this.

Hope this helps a bit.


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## ronsil (Mar 8, 2012)

You're right a B2C is not the best of espresso makers but if needs must so be it.

You will improve your output by forgetting about Costa, Star$$$ & the like.

Do try some freshly roasted beans from one of the Forum Sponsor roasters.

You will immediately appreciate the difference.

You may have to experiment to find what suits you best

Good luck in your coffee quest


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

mark8805 said:


> I have everything turned up to the max with regards to the coffee taste on my machine and delivering 2 single espresso shots, just thought there was no taste to the coffee that came out, the Crema was excellent though, any hints or tips or thought would be most welcome.


Can you configure the machine to give you 1 single shot from a double, or biggest possible bean dose?


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

The chains all roast their beans at various depots around the world. They usually have a shelf life of 12 months. Now, if you buy a kilo of beans, it might take you a month to use them. This means that all the time you are storing them, they are degrading in quality and heading towards being stale. This is why they come wrapped in cacao sealed bags, but as soon as you expose the beans to the air, the process begins.

The chains might expect to sell 2 kilos an hour, therefore the age of the bean is not so relevant as it is going to be used up quickly.

that said, they roast to a standard. You need to visit a local independent coffee shop or lots of them, and when you find a cup you really enjoy, ask what it is and who roasted it. A lot of coffee shops proudly present information on the beans they are selling, so, take advantage of their generosity

!


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## mark8805 (Oct 17, 2014)

Thanks for all your replies the machine I am using is a *DELONGHI - Perfecta ESAM 5500B Espresso Machine, *the only thing I was going to add to that is a grinder to see if that made a difference to the taste, have been looking at the Baratza Encore.

My machine is setup to deliver the strongest espresso, you can do a double shot in one go, however I use the strongest one shot and do that twice when I want a coffee.

The only thing that worries me about putting my own ground coffee into the machine is that they provide a serving spoon and tell you never put more ground coffee than the spoon will hold so I just thought, maybe wrongly that, the more coffee you put in the stronger the brew, again open to any advice that members can give me.


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## froggystyle (Oct 30, 2013)

Do you have access to a set of scales that can read grams accurately?

Would be interested to see how much this spoon is putting into the basket.


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

I think getting some decent fresh roasted beans is the first step

Before we go done different grinders and scales

Have a look at the list of online roaster in the beans section

If you like a darker roasted traditional coffee coffees such as Costa or the other chains perhaps try some of coffee compass offerings or rave's italian job .


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

mark8805 said:


> Thanks for all your replies the machine I am using is a *DELONGHI - Perfecta ESAM 5500B Espresso Machine, *the only thing I was going to add to that is a grinder to see if that made a difference to the taste, have been looking at the Baratza Encore.


Baratza don't seem to push this grinder for espresso, a Preciso may be a better bet?

I'm a bit confused about "strongest 1 shot & do that twice", do you run water through the same puck twice, or grind & pull one strong single shot, then grind & brew a second?


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## froggystyle (Oct 30, 2013)

Agreed, but you still need to know the basket/dose size with any bean.


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## mark8805 (Oct 17, 2014)

Tried rave's Italian Job and again thought it had no taste, well I thought that, yes I have digital scales, and one other thing I have not tried is to adjust the grinder setting to get a finer grind, may try this to go on with. By the way I still have 2 bags of Rave's Italian job so maybe I could mix and match those, thanks again for all your suggestions.


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## froggystyle (Oct 30, 2013)

Would be helpful if you could weigh what your normally dose in, then what steps in terms of time for shot to pull and weight of liquid output...


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

froggystyle said:


> Would be helpful if you could weigh what your normally dose in, then what steps in terms of time for shot to pull and weight of liquid output...


How easy will that be with a bean to cup?


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

froggystyle said:


> Agreed, but you still need to know the basket/dose size with any bean.


With a bean 2 cup?


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## froggystyle (Oct 30, 2013)

No idea, never used one, would hope you could start it to grind, then stop before the pump kicks in, then weight the grind?


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## mark8805 (Oct 17, 2014)

No I can either push a button that says 2 short coffees or I can press a button for 1 short coffee, I press the 1 short coffee it brews the coffee and discards the grinds so then I press the 1 short coffee and the same process happens again, my thinking is that 2 x 1 short coffees maybe stronger than 1 x 2 short coffees, if I press the 2 short coffee button then it grinds more coffee and puts double the water through the extra ground coffee, hope this explains what I do.


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## aaronb (Nov 16, 2012)

Hi Mark,

Is the Rave Italian job still fresh? A month past roast date it will start to loose its flavour.

If I were you I'd adjust the grind finer. It sounds like the 2 short coffee button is the one you want, try and adjust the grind finer until it takes about 30 seconds for the 2 short coffee button to produce the coffee, if that makes sense!

I think your shots may be flowing a lot quicker than that right now, so it doesnt taste very nice at all?


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## mark8805 (Oct 17, 2014)

Tried the Rave's the moment it arrived in the post, will try and adjust the grinder and I will report back any changes, sorry for not replying earlier, I had to go out.


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## aaronb (Nov 16, 2012)

No worries at all, hope you can get it right!


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## Tewdric (Apr 20, 2014)

Have a try of Compass Mocha Italia, similar in makeup to Costa but much better flavour. If you like that sort of taste Monsooned Malabar from a quality roaster will probably appeal too as well as the very forgiving Union Revelation blend.


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## mmmatron (Jun 28, 2014)

I used one of these machines for a few years, it took a lot of tinkering to get a half decent shot but in my experience, you need to do the following:

Firstly you need to set the grind dial as fine as possible (do this whilst it's grinding). Then set the strength right up and the dose dial to the middle. I did this to control the shot dose myself as I found the machine really unreliable, so you'll have to press the cup button again once you get the desirable dose. I also used the double shot, never the single.

Only use the amount of beans you need.

I tended to get better results using a darker roast (used limini house blend at the time) as the burrs are very small (and fresh beans of course).

You'll need to pull out the diffuser from time to time to clean as it gets gunged, and check the chute just above as that can get blocked with grounds (just poke your finger in there!)

Lastly, I never used pre ground, it just doesn't work.

Hope this helps!


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## Soll (Nov 10, 2013)

mmmatron said:


> I used one of these machines for a few years, it took a lot of tinkering to get a half decent shot but in my experience, you need to do the following:
> 
> Firstly you need to set the grind dial as fine as possible (do this whilst it's grinding). Then set the strength right up and the dose dial to the middle. I did this to control the shot dose myself as I found the machine really unreliable, so you'll have to press the cup button again once you get the desirable dose. I also used the double shot, never the single.
> 
> ...


That's the problem with using fresh dark roasted beans they do tend to clog up inside, I had a Jura but it wasn't easy to take that apart and clean but if you want half decent coffee it's the only way with B2C


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## mmmatron (Jun 28, 2014)

Soll said:


> That's the problem with using fresh dark roasted beans they do tend to clog up inside, I had a Jura but it wasn't easy to take that apart and clean but if you want half decent coffee it's the only way with B2C


Yeah it gets really messy! These machines are a pain to keep clean. The Delonghi is fairly straightforward, the diffuser just pulls out which leaves plenty of space to clear the chute and hoover around where grounds inevitably get trapped.


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## domjon1 (Feb 14, 2013)

mark8805 said:


> Thanks for all your replies the machine I am using is a *DELONGHI - Perfecta ESAM 5500B Espresso Machine, *the only thing I was going to add to that is a grinder to see if that made a difference to the taste, have been looking at the Baratza Encore.


Don't buy the Encore unless you want your frustrations to be increased 10 fold. :bad:Not up to the task for espresso.


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