not sure if you're trying to brag or you've actually read about thermoblocks improvement over the years.. not all thermoblocks are made the same (try find out about thermocoil?)
2 cups a day.. extracted in 20-25sec.. "can't maintain consistent brew temperature"? ... the temp graph may be a little convex/parabolic/curved.. can your taste bud/tongue withstand +90C of fluid without getting burned and yet discern the complexity of the taste?! ... lol



have you heard of the "tulip mania" incident? ... coffee is similar to that.. some freak/snobs worship the stuff to a point of unrealistically stupid.. but not knowing that the coffee industry is and has alot of hidden agendas..

so, if you taste good.. it's good coffee to you.. don't have to subscribe to others' force fed standards..
like for us.. no other brewing method of coffee taste good.. with only espresso+milk.. so, this will make selecting equipments (e.g grinder, machine, etc) easier.. cos we can only grind to 1 setting.. lol

so lower grade? not necessary.. it's an investment choice.. and not everybody here is a savvy investor..


traditional, old folks thinking.. white will always get dirty easily.. not actually, the paint they use on the machine has a good lacquered paint.. it also has a 3-way solenoid valve.. to prevent those messy "coffee sneeze"
total damage with shipping from door to door.. is less than rm2.4k for all the stuff in the picture.. if we were to opt for a rancilio silvia.. the price for the machine alone is already rm2.4k..
yes, everything is from tb.. you have purchased from tb, haven't you?


we required alot of "practice coffee" for the entire setup.. that was one of them.. cheap2.. waitrose espresso..
our other practice beans are... ikea's dark roast espresso.. lots to learn on dozing, tamping and extracting...

This post has been edited by Tikietic: May 19 2015, 06:34 PM

one observation about taobao is.. alot of you folks carry some unfortunate biases about buying stuff from there.. some are just too proud to admit their biases.. as the current defacto "factory of the world".. parts or the entire products of most physical goods today, have some origins from china..

then again, not all purchasing paths at taobao are the same.. and not all seller/manufacturers at taobao are the same either..
i've read some poor dude here previously got bombed by a huge shipping fee, buying an espresso machine.. with the link given, it's so easy to have spotted why such surcharge was levied.. (on a separate issues, that agent of his; the poor dude, has imposed a too excessive surcharge).. another poor dude i've read has the issue of having his stuff stucked at custom for taxes/levies..

so, it's not out-of-the-blue, one fine day, impulsive kinda way that we just purchased something worth thousands of ringgit from taobao.. there're ways/methods to mitigate fears/concerns and like any other caveats that applied to any buy-sell transactions.. it can minimize risk.. or even leverage the risk involved.

so for those who spent rm5k-9k on their machines and frowns over how we execute our purchases and preferences.. i can only pity you for there're so many other facades to life than merely an expensive(and perhaps depreciating) hobby..

"good is not always expensive... and expensive is not always good"

thermoblock heats up fast.. that's a given dude.. it's just a generic passing remarks..
and drinking coffee for years... sounds like a seniority up-manship.. why would i even need to conflict that?
should i have your tongue? should i have the same level of love towards coffee? and should i even emulate your lifestyle?!?.. tad too shallow
look ma'cha... everyone have a different palate... how it's develop, it's only goes as far as how genuine one's given natural sense (vs nurturing)

one dude here once asked this question.. how do i know what a good espresso taste like and where can i taste them?!
it's a spring loaded question i must say... good cafes? not necessary so.. stale beans/drinks have been served by so called good cafes in m'sia before for the usual premium price..
so-called home barista like yourself?... maybe?.. it's a reducing/dying circle of people ba..

if however i may add an observation about where to get an idea of a good espresso is..
go volunteer yourself for tasting an espresso after each heat/presentation of a given barista at the country/wbc ... at least it's a competition-worthy cup of espresso from a qualified and selective fresh coffee beans... chances of having the barista to select you for tasting his/her espresso is another issue..

dude.. seriously.. maintaining brew temperature for a hx machine is a bit oxymoron..
the huge steam boiler will eventually brings up the brew boiler within it to a steam temperature(~100C).. henceforth, to maintain a brew temperature, one needs to flush the hx in order for the brew water to cool down.. so, please explain/educate us with yours years of coffee experience.. how this is call consistency?

didn't know you've got a sidekick there now.. the 2014/2015 lavazza hater.. lol
might wanna muzzle up your sidekick since he's not man enough to converse directly but rather pussyfooting around.. like a 8-poh
unless this pussyfooting, 2014/2015 lavazza hater sidekick of yours is a bitchez.. then it risk some wholesome bitchez slapping liao..

i know where you're coming from..
it's not the understanding part, rather the human intervention part..
that was why commercial machines rather go down the boiler part.. huge boilers.. if you're familiar with the nature of water, which has a very high heat propensity.. it makes sense.
thus, in commercial machines with huge boilers, little human intervention is required to attain the temperature stability.. not on a hx

it's odd that you seemed to mixed up grouphead types(e61) with heating elements(hx).. they don't necessary go in the same breath.. not unless your machine is an e61 hx.. then it make sense why you're adamant at defending it.. once you start going machine bashing or coffee bashing.. it'll prevent others who're potentially able to add flavor to this thread from participating..

old thermoblocks comes in a small dimension/piece.. hence it's very unstable to retain heat consistently.. since thermoblocks are usually made with good thermal conductive material (e.g aluminum), it's also because of this conductive nature that allows heat to dissipate away quickly.. say as opposed to brass.. your passing comment on thermoblocks has not taken into consideration of the size of the thermoblock itself.. if you open up the wpm machine, you'd quickly notice the enormous size of the 2 separate thermoblocks within the machine(hence it's weight).. a huge block of metal retains heat quantitatively much better from a small piece of the same type..

am not trying to sell the machine (haven't even provide a review on it yet).. but to quickly qualify that all thermoblocks are inherently unstable, temperature wise.. is like throwing away all sense and logic and apply the 1-size-fits-all.. but if you do that, it will also contradict on how a usable and stable temperature as a synonym attached to a hx machine.. which i find it utterly flawed.

one needs to be mindful of keeping the hx cooler by means of flushing.. else, the brew water temperature in the hx will find a temperature equilibrium stability towards 100c (because of the steam's heat).. so, stable? yes, but at a too hot temperature and thus requires cooling flush.. this is why i find your logic of temperature stability a little bit warped.

a heavy, big and thick wall brass/copper dual/double boilers are better..
of course there're reasons as to why people choose an hx and should i criticize them? (i could say something scathing like "they're just not-here-not-there, poor fags not enough to go double".. does this justify? of course not)

so, not all e-61 runs on hx.. here is one that runs with 2 huge boilers and a rotary pump..


This post has been edited by Tikietic: May 21 2015, 01:15 AM

some observations about this machine..


here are some points we found about the machine:

* has a 3-way solenoid valve (no more messy "coffee sneeze")
* has pre-infusion for both the manual and volumetric extraction
* 58mm heavy brass portafilter (non-standard pf ears though)
* has a replaceable calc filter in the water tank (we have both poe and pou filters, so it'll help too)
* the entire machine weights >10kg, so it's stable on a kitchen counter-top and doesn't gets rock around
* 2 separate huge thermoblocks and vibe pumps for independent brew and steaming
* able to program a customized shot(single or double) by time variable and store it in memory
* a pid machine:
able to control the brew temp(factory default at 92c) with increment of +/-2c(max +/-4c)
able to control the steam temp with increment of +/-5c(max +/-10c)
able to control the steam wetness via the steam pump rate with 2-steps on either way +/-

it's not the best in the market. this is what you'd get for the price of a little less than rm2k(inclusive of door-to-door shipping), this is certainly not your everyday seaco/delonghi counterparts..

This post has been edited by Tikietic: May 30 2015, 11:14 PM

bro,
does your adding an opv to your oscar will somewhat void warranty?
without the opv, i supposed you'd need to cool down the machine way alot prior to extraction?.. how much extra time would that consume?
... opv, sounds like those wastegate on those turbo cars.. does it produce those "phissss" sound when releasing those high pressure from the pipe/feed?

if you have access to a Saeco Poemia portafilter and try it out, then you'll know if it fits.. as your carezza deluxe came from the Philips Saeco lineage..

we finally managed to get the right setting for both the brew and steam (and also the grinding.. pheww)
coffee wasn't bitter and has those subtle taste.. although the freshness of the beans have inhibit alot of those great flavors..

ya.. a good coffee is not defined by the form of the latte art.. however, it's much easier to start exploring latte art with a good micro-foamed milk..
here goes.. wpm kd-210s2 (brew temp +2C, steam temp default, steam rate default, grind setting 18; modded.. milk at 65C within 1min)

oh.. to the lavazza-hater sidekick guy/gal.. dunno why coffee gives you so much hate and seriousness.. dun know u much, but your hateness is already apparent..

by the way, we're in the mist of importing a small bag of freshly roasted bean from a apparently good roaster (in china).. see how it'll go..

yes..

^
from a solis burr to a flat burr... and now looking for another flat burr with a smaller footprint? despite the size, the mazzer is already a very good grinder..
i guessed it's an impulse purchase? else, would make more sense to keep the mazzer then..
of course there're other similiar footprint-sized grinder like the eureka..
the lelit pl-53?
the la pavoni kube mill?

magnolia twinpack price at tesco online was good too..
say for you guys who steam their milk for espresso based drinks.. how easy for you to get your frothed milk to 65C?

our hands weren't exactly reliable as a thermometer tells us that when >50C, it's already too hot to touch the milk pitcher.. we use a digital type of thermometer, the reading can step up +5C during the process so, we had to estimate the stop time inorder to stay on the 65C zone..

there is.. we're ordering a second bag from them(via taobao).. it's from a quite a reputable roaster in china..
if you can afford the surcharge(aka sensitive goods) for air freight.. you'd be looking at about rm30 for a 250g..
will share with you once we get ours.. ok?

ehh.. antipodean's merdeka beans are also sourced from indon.. does the premium you paid for plan b, worth it ah?

bro, do you know how much is the equivalent of antipodean, who uses the same "more body and earthly taste" indon bean is selling on the same 250g basis?..

here's the fresh coffee beans we got from taobao that we're referring to earlier..


we ordered on 15-may and they roasted it on demand(noticed that the roasting date = order date?).. and we received it on 16-jun via sea freight (yeah, air freight would've much much faster though).. they're a reputable roaster in tianjin.. we've tried their basic blend before and was amazed by it.

the basic blend was priced at about rm17 for a 227g(8oz) bag.. the champion blend which we are trying now cost a little more, rm23(227g bag).. they also offered some 90+ stuff(Nekisse L12N2) for those who likes serious siizzt..

there you go.. pure espresso from taobao, china.. the basic blend alone is really worth it (the champion blend has more body compared to the basic blend)
hanny562luvoxwshaziKeng

This post has been edited by Tikietic: Jun 20 2015, 02:46 PM

we're still adjusting our grind setting though.. (with a shim mod, the grind can go soooo fine )

you could ship by air freight then.. flies to you within 5-7 days.. but at "sensitive goods" price lu
still comparable cheaper than locally available alternatives, unless RMB goes unreasonably expensive lu

^
must be very ignorant over how green/raw coffee beans are traded over the world..
beans futures(derivatives) have been plunging over the years and so badly squeezed the beans' growers..
don't you know country such as italy, which do not produce coffee trees but yet able to produce them(roasted coffee) in huge and wide areas of the world?

take lavazza for example.. they average about rm24 per 250g.. unless you're nitpicking about rm17 vs rm25.. else ignorance is pretty expensive to me.

does SCAA means anything to you? before you pass judgement or unfounded skepticism, you could at least read about them first.. ohh i guessed you didn't know about 90-plus coffee.. or you missed it altogether? if all these still makes you suspicious.. i rest my case

if you talk to dankoff, you'd know just how huge a margin is to sell you a cuppa..

This post has been edited by Tikietic: Jun 20 2015, 11:45 PM