# This massive Tea drinker wants to love cappuccino.



## BigBaws (Aug 20, 2015)

I drink on average 20 mugs a tea a day & love the smell of coffee,but the taste does not give me the WoW factor.

I do however love a good cappuccino you get in those restaurants & most takeaways that are rich in coffee flavour,smooth & creamy (licks lips)

Now I've gone & bought myself a delonghi ec330s & wanted to make a nice Cappuccino.

I'm more of a Tea drinker (as stated),but wanting to master these coffees.

I went to Tesco & was not sure what grounded coffee to buy & so just went for Tesco's own French brand that had Number 3 on it (not sure why).

The result from using the machine with this coffee is that the coffee tastes a little bitter & not smooth & creamy as I was hoping for.

I've been using pasteurised milk, but can I heat up double or single cream with the steam nozzle (aka half n half) ?

Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong & is the grounded coffee I'm using poor ?


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

Where to begin!..

Just use regular milk, full fat or semi skimmed preferably.

Your machine will have what is known as a 'pressurised basket', this creates a fake crema out of old stale beans but doesn't benefit the coffee. But short of a lot of mods or changing your machine it is all you have to work with.

Yes Tesco ground coffee is awful. Order some pre-ground coffee from a place like http://www.ravecoffee.co.uk (many other quality roasters are available). They roast fresh so this will be a big step up over the stale Tesco pre-ground.

In an ideal world you would buy a decent burr grinder (£100ish) and a machine that is not based around a pressurised basket (around £200) but this is all additional cost you may not want to get into.

Basically, the best you will get out of your current machine will be to buy fresh coffee from an online roaster, abandon the supermarket stuff.


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## AL1968 (May 3, 2015)

Agree with the above comments, we used to use Tesco pre ground. The Epiphany was watching Food and Drink which featured Extract Coffee artisan roasters in Bristol. At this stage we were using a cafeitere and very occasionally our Francis Francis machine. The difference in taste between Tesco' s and freshly roasted was like night and day!!

So started the journey, if you check out my signature you'll see how far it's gone!!

I was also a massive tea drinker importing puerh tea blocks from China, still drink it but coffee has taken over since discovering freshly roasted.


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## "coffee 4/1" (Sep 1, 2014)

ha,ha, 10pints of tea a day, at that consumpstion you might need to cut back on coffee,

you need good power steamer for half-half for paint texture finish.


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## Fevmeister (Oct 21, 2013)

is consuming 20 mugs of tea a day healthy? it surely cant be good for your adenosine receptors


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## "coffee 4/1" (Sep 1, 2014)

not sure on receptors, but defiantly a life-jacket


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## YerbaMate170 (Jun 15, 2015)

Out of interest, do you drink that much tea as a source of caffeine, or just a general habit? I'm sure you don't need to be told that it seems a pretty inefficient way of consuming caffeine - I'd struggle to drink that much water in a day if I tried!


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## BigBaws (Aug 20, 2015)

Guys I want to thanks you all for the replies & hopefully I can get a decent result from using this coffee machine.

I would have also responded earlier, but for some reason I'm not receiving replies/updates to my email account.

I've since bought a coffee grinder & I know it's cheap,but can't afford more expensive items just now.The grinder is a De'Longhi KG79 Professional Burr Grinder & hopefully this will help with buying coffee beans that I believe are better than grounded coffee.

I had actually no idea how much info you need to read-up on about making a decent coffee & with 25 years as a qualified chef I've had to work with lots of ingredients & tools to get the perfect result for what I'm trying to make, but would never have thought a simple decent coffee would involve so many things :-/

Dylan: You suggested buying from ravecoffee,but can you tell me what would be the best coffee bean for me to buy that will be good for regular coffee & also cappuccinos, now I have a grinder ?

As for drinking approximately 20 mugs a tea p/day, I see no harm in this as the Chinese have been doing it for 100's of years.My biggest problem is I take 2 sugars & so may explain why I'm still flying like a kite after a 12-14 hour shift & all the other chefs want to shoot me


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## Fevmeister (Oct 21, 2013)

Bloody hell forty sugars a day, I'd try cut down on that if I were you!!


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## Fevmeister (Oct 21, 2013)

And unfortunately the de loghi grinder won't grind fine enough for espresso, it may do filter grind size so buy a chemex/v60 and filters and have a bash at that. It's the most inexpensive way into the hobby!


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## Fevmeister (Oct 21, 2013)

No bean is better at making one drink than the other it is the way you prepare it and the way it is roasted that makes the drink! You won't be able to make espresso based drinks such as latte flat white or cappuccinos using that grinder, it just won't grind find enough


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

It will grind fine enough for a pressurized machine however, and will at least allow him to buy whole beans that won't go stale as quickly.

It's far from ideal but it's a first step I guess.

Baw, all their blends are pretty reliable, signiature blend is reliable and popular. If you typically prefer a 'stronger' tasting coffee you can try the Italian job blend, or try a different roaster called CoffeeCompas who do a Brighton Lanes blend which is very popular.


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## BigBaws (Aug 20, 2015)

Fevmeister said:


> And unfortunately the de loghi grinder won't grind fine enough for espresso, it may do filter grind size so buy a chemex/v60 and filters and have a bash at that. It's the most inexpensive way into the hobby!





Fevmeister said:


> No bean is better at making one drink than the other it is the way you prepare it and the way it is roasted that makes the drink! You won't be able to make espresso based drinks such as latte flat white or cappuccinos using that grinder, it just won't grind find enough





Dylan said:


> It will grind fine enough for a pressurized machine however, and will at least allow him to buy whole beans that won't go stale as quickly.
> 
> It's far from ideal but it's a first step I guess.
> 
> Baw, all their blends are pretty reliable, signiature blend is reliable and popular. If you typically prefer a 'stronger' tasting coffee you can try the Italian job blend, or try a different roaster called CoffeeCompas who do a Brighton Lanes blend which is very popular.


From what I've read, this grinder can be hacked 
Thanks for the info guys & will try the beans suggested


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Bear in mind , that just making a grinder , grind finer , isn't the be all and end all. Grinding for espresso is about getting a decent grind , yes fine enough to get a decent flow rate and extraction , but also consistent enough in the size of particle or bit it produces . This is where, i suspect , this hack , leaves this grinder . Fine enough to " choke " an espresso machine but not producing a grind of sufficient quality to make a great cup of coffee .


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## BigBaws (Aug 20, 2015)

Is the grinder more important than the actual coffee machine for making a great coffee ?

If I have to buy a better grinder or machine then I'll buy them 2nd hand if it guarantees me the result of a good coffee the way you get them in lots of shops.


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

Certainly as important, if not more important.


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## "coffee 4/1" (Sep 1, 2014)

if you're gonn'a hack,cheap and works well try kitchenaid grinder with mazer mini burrs, out the hoppers,dose what you need mod,


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## Kyle Rostman (Aug 31, 2015)

Fevmeister said:


> is consuming 20 mugs of tea a day healthy? it surely cant be good for your adenosine receptors


Depends on what tea we are talking about. If it's a cafinated black tea like an earl grey or orange pekoe, then no. But if it is more herbal stuff, or my personal favroutie Roobois, then it is actually quite healthy. You are getting your necessary water in per day. Now, if you load it up with sugar and milk....well then no, we are back to unhealthy.

I normally go for coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon. It's unusual for a coffee lover to also be a tea lover, an vice versa, but they both have so much to offer.


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

Kyle Rostman said:


> Depends on what tea we are talking about. If it's a cafinated black tea like an earl grey or orange pekoe, then no. But if it is more herbal stuff, or my personal favroutie Roobois, then it is actually quite healthy. You are getting your necessary water in per day. Now, if you load it up with sugar and milk....well then no, we are back to unhealthy.
> 
> I normally go for coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon. It's unusual for a coffee lover to also be a tea lover, an vice versa, but they both have so much to offer.


Just the caffeine in the tea isn't necessarily unhealthy, same kind of amount as 4-5 cups of coffee, depends on the individual and how they react to caffeine. The same goes for the milk, cant really call it unhealthy in the amount its consumed in tea, even if it 20 times over.

The sugar certainly is, unless a lot of exercise is done.


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## BigBaws (Aug 20, 2015)

My grinder arrived yesterday & today I got some roasted coffee beans from my work.

I used the one shot cup thing & found it a little weak for my cappuccino & so tried the 2 shot thing & the cappuccino was very nice 

I'm not sure why it needs the 2 shot thing instead of 1 shot & it maybe down to how strong these beans are (guessing obviously)

I had no cream & so will be better when doing half n half.

I find myself heating the milk up first & then making the froth, is this correct ?


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## Fevmeister (Oct 21, 2013)

With the double basket you are using twice as much ground coffee compared to the single basket.

...... Twice as much ground coffee coming into contact with the brew water.

I would say 99% of people on here only use the double

are you weighing and timing your shots?


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## BigBaws (Aug 20, 2015)

Fevmeister said:


> With the double basket you are using twice as much ground coffee compared to the single basket.
> 
> ...... Twice as much ground coffee coming into contact with the brew water.
> 
> ...


I'm not sure what weighing and timing your shots means ?

I just grind the beans & fill that 2 shot thing with the coffee & then press down on the coffee with the stump on the side of the coffee machine.


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## jlarkin (Apr 26, 2015)

Most of us (I think) weigh the amount of coffee going into the basket and then also weigh how much coffee we're putting into the cup (so you can find a recipe you like).

Normally you'd try to introduce air first into milk and don't overheat the milk it'll taste much better. Have a look at the VCR video smarts videos (google it) and they have 2 good ones on stretching milk and pouring it.

That stump you mention is I assume a built in tamper (but I love the idea of calling it a stump as well so either works for me)


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

We have to remember that he has a pressurised machine, so the traditional rules of extraction are going to be different.

Getting some scales and weighing the coffee you grind however will mean that when you get a really tasty drink you will be able to repeat it with the same amount of coffee weighed in and the same amount weighed out.


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## Fevmeister (Oct 21, 2013)

BigBaws said:


> I'm not sure what weighing and timing your shots means ?
> 
> I just grind the beans & fill that 2 shot thing with the coffee & then press down on the coffee with the stump on the side of the coffee machine.


ok

2 shot thing - double filter basket

stump on side of machine - tamper


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