Silvano and Crossland uses a boiler.

Thermoblock for the Silvano is for steaming only.

Also those two u mentioned mana is "china".

Those are sunbeams no?

time to upgrade liao

In my opinion, the Oscar is incredibly good, here are some things you should know before getting one:

1) Very well designed. Don't let the plastic casing fool you. (heck the "Plastic" is actually of high grade)
2) Articulate design all over, making it super easy to fix even yourself. Understanding this machine is very intuitive.
3) Wide coverage of documentation.
4) For me, this thing is only great provided if you spend the time to "modify" it. My Oscar is modded with OPV, Anti Vacumm and Flow Restrictors, essentially turning it into a baby-Musica. All of Oscar's original parts are exactly the same as the Musica. (you're actually getting a crippled Musica when you get the Oscar)

All that being said, I would still argue for the Quickmill Silvano. It's probably cheaper and performs much better than the stock Oscar out of the box.

P.S. Scout for a good grinder first. Above all, grinder >>>>>>>>> machine.

If you can afford it, get the Oscar + mod it (if you have the balls). Janji won't regret. I can help you mod it if you ever pass by Penang lol.

The Quickmill is probably hard to find if you tarak kangtao. This is the sort of thing you'd have to go deep and ask around.

I did remember someone was going to bring some over earlier in this thread, do search about.

Do remember that the grinder is the most important thing, have you set your mind to one yet?

Some updates to my never ending no-life coffee hobby:

1) Modded the Compak K3 by removing the rubber flab. I've managed to get retention down to less than 0.1 grams with the new sequence, essentially making it a single dose machine. Now that I know that low retention is possible, I've begun to contemplate actually "hacking" the front panel off for ease of access. Perhaps even adding a custom chute...

2) Got fedup with the quality of local beans and get myself an auresso subscription. OMG JESUS FUCK the first bag is OUT of this world. Never had coffee which I could pull a shit shot (due to not being dialed in yet) and still tasted great.

EDIT: First bag of coffee from Auresso is

http://www.auresso.com.my/product/19/Mexico-Salitral-Estate/

GODLY stuff. Highly recommended. Lightly roasted and yet without any hint of sour taste. It's sweet, chocolatey and smells damn fine.



This post has been edited by LittleGhost: Aug 29 2015, 12:10 AM

sure. Been meaning to ask you that.

Probably after the next 5 bags I have in line?

Let me do some calculations first.

Oh fuck me, I just pulled a 24gram in 24 grams out "ristretto".

It tastes like chocolate.

Anyone here does this some time? This is incredibly wasteful of your beans lol.

naw.

I used a triple basket.

Buy the silvano la.

Oscar no mod = no gooding one.

Flat White = diluted diarrhoea.

Is it? I always had the impression that the Silvano is cheaper than the Oscar.

Without the OPV, the oscar is like a slot machine when it comes to extracting consistent shots.

The OPV mod isn't expensive, you should definitely consider upgrading to it.

Water back flush after every session.

Chemical Back flush every 40+ shots or so, this includes a complete cleaning of the shower screen as well.

The instructions are mostly correct, but you can push the intervals between back flushes (the small back flushes you do during backflushing) longer. The longer it is, the less damaging it is to your pump.

This post has been edited by LittleGhost: Sep 24 2015, 06:28 PM

competition shots happen in a short frame of time. Hence any residues won't "stale" during the time. It also makes less sense to do it during the competition as it screws with presentation and rhythm.

In proper cafes, there are standards such as the 1 hour timer cleaning procedure. When the timer hits 1 hour, anyone who is operating it should at least scrub the shower screen and do a water back flush. The whole point is to prevent stale loose coffee.

Apparently the knowledge that a lightly modded Oscar will get them a Musica for cheap isn't appealing enough

The Oscar and the Musica uses the exact same parts and the exact same diagrams!!!

Funny how they have to purposely "cripple" the Musica just to sell an Oscar.

I can lend you my pressure gauge if you want.

Most of the time you only need to set it once, and then use it forever.

Get an aeropress.

It's basically cheating at making good coffee. You can't even screw up with this one.

How much is your budget for coffee beans?

This post has been edited by LittleGhost: Oct 1 2015, 09:48 AM

> coarse tongue is not cultured...

All things equal, tastes is mostly subjective and if it tastes like shit then IT IS shit. (if you've done all the tweakings to your fullest...)

I had "connoisseurs" telling me one coffee is good but in reality tasted like shite. Some of these wankers are even "barista trainers" IRL.

Try the Matt Perger method to tweak your coffee. If it's still bad, then drop the beans.

Compak K3, whatever latest u can find.

I've recently modded it to run single dose, retention is pretty much less than 0.1g

Simple.

Remove the top burr, remove the rubber flap/sweeper(this is tricky and will take some patience due to the angle involved).

Remove the "front panel", it's useless and retains shit tons of coffee.

Then, voila, u have an ugly but low retention K3.

I pretty much sweep with a bamboo stick and only have to short grind a little bit at the end to get everything fully out. Be careful not to stick the bamboo stick in when the grinder is still spinning, this is an easy mistake because the rubber flap is gone.

EDIT: Picture of my "naked K3".

http://imgur.com/0vHmtBm



This post has been edited by LittleGhost: Oct 10 2015, 12:59 AM