Anyone still buying beans during this lockdown period.

Hey guys! Just a quick question.

I'm just starting out with latte art and making espresso and am currently interested in getting an entry level espresso machine. However, I'm not sure for beginners like me, would a single-boiler machine be sufficient? Or should I look into a double-boiler one instead?

Thanks!

I got my beans from Ymeng. No problem for 2 weeks.

Yeah should be fine. Delivery services are still running. I just got a bag via shopee since they have free shipping. As a precaution, just disinfect your parcels.

The inception story…

For many years I couldn’t accept the taste of coffee because it tasted bitter, like the Chinese medicine. I tried many times and drank an accumulated of not more than 1 cup of coffee. Every time when I must go to a cafe, wife will have to make the order since I couldn’t tell any names of these coffee “race” or “tribe”. I knew nothing about espresso, latte, cappuccino, mocha, americano…. If I were to make the order, I can only do with drinks like hot chocolate, fruit juice, mineral water, soft drinks, ice cream etc.

Things changed when I went to Bali. I told myself that I must try the most expensive coffee in the world - Luwak coffee. Well that was the only name I knew, and I never heard about Geisha coffee then.
We went to a coffee farm and tasted the Luwat coffee with syphon brew. For the first time, that “opened” a new dimension of impression about coffee. I bought more than a kilo of that Peaberry civet coffee right after that. Then I bought the Hario ceramic coffee mill (manual grinder) in Jaya Grocer and Hario syphon set online.
Felt that I made the right purchase decision when wife sent me pic of a cafe in Penang selling civet coffee with syphon brew (slightly more than a cup) at the price of RM 80 (not peaberry).

Problems…
I didn’t know why it worked in the coffee farm in Bali, the fire of the syphon set was just not strong enough and it took ages to heat up the water. Then I pre-heated the water before brewing it. Still not happy about that, so I bought a micro burner.
That didn’t last for long as I felt that the preparation effort and time taken are way too long to enjoy a cup of coffee. That was when I started to want to explore and learn more about coffee specially the tasting of coffee.
Yes, you are right saying its very much individual taste and preferences. Still, I wanted to learn about what’s the commonly acceptable range of taste, what’s right and not right. Sometime later, when I learned more about coffee, I have friends from the Australia and the western world said Malaysian coffee drinkers are nice and easy to serve because they don’t complain about the served coffee. My thoughts were probably combination of: Malaysians are just generally nice, they have high taste tolerance, they have been “pampered” by the kopitiam “gao gao” coffee, or simply like me – they don’t know what’s right / not-right. They are also those who are happy so long as there’s enough syrup.

Another problem - I drink and keep Chinese tea. With almost zero knowledge about coffee then, I thought coffee is like “raw” Chinese tea that will undergo fermentation especially good in Malaysia’s climate. I thought the longer I keep these beans the better they will taste ☹
I had more than a kilo of peaberry but with slow manual grinding, syphon brew that is taking quite a bit of time and effort, for 2 cups of coffee each time. I could taste the difference for coffee brewed over months, but I didn’t tell more about what went wrong.
That's why I decided to attend a training: Introduction to Coffee and then started to brew coffee with French Press.

That's how I started my coffee brewing journey...

This post has been edited by MyHobby: Mar 19 2020, 04:55 PM

Please read this url. Hopefully it helps to decide on single / double boiler.
https://betterespressomachinesreviews.com/s...-which-is-best/

My experience - it's good to consider starting from a used unit, as you can learn and explore more from there. Grinder is another thing you have to consider if you don't already have one.

welcome to the club!

Yup, we're still taking in online orders and sending them out on post. All's good

Hi ymeng, I'm still exploring and trying different beans, do you have like taster bags I can buy to try your beans, and if I use your espresso beans with pour over method would how would it be like?

Experimenting with 50 degree C water in water reservoir to stabilize brew water temperature in thermoblock machine. Been pulling few shots for past 3 days and I no longer have any sourness in my espresso.Note that ULKA vibe pump is only rated at 25 degree C but the normal water temp that I measure are at 27 degree C. Will monitor how long the pump will last as changing the pump shouldn't be difficult and it's quite cheap.

This post has been edited by pierreye: Mar 22 2020, 08:22 PM

Hi guys.
Anyone has any recommendation for espresso machine under RM1k?
my friend is looking for one, he is just getting into coffee hobby.

is delong ecov311 + non preassurized basket and removed steam wand cover be good enough? lol

single boiler is good enough imo. just need to wait awhile between steaming milk and pulling shots.

I'm using a modded cheapo delonghi (preassurized basket mod + wand mod)
my routine goes as follow:
1. weight out beans + turn on machine
2. manual grind with helor 101
3. dump off initial steam wand ( mostly just hot water, not yet turn into steam yet, since boiler isn't powderful enough )
4. froth milk after steam ready. after that turn to espresso mode, and wait while i distribute and tamp my grind.
5. dump hot water from espresso mode ( mostly steam, since just frothed and the water temp is still too hot for pulling shots)
6. pull a shot

with this i'm able to get ok result, not the best milk since the wand is bad lol.
single boiler needs to temperature surfing (kinda like what i did) to get the best espresso shot.
if i've to go back in time, i would buy a rancilio silvia for my 1st machine or at least something that can froth latte art level of milk. i wouldn't mind if its single boiler.

warm water harbor germs etc easier...just check n clean more regularly

I just use the hot water dispenser and pour hot water back into the reservoir before brewing. Shouldn't have any problem as the reservoir temp will drop to room temp after brewing.

anyone found any good deals for coffee on lazada for their upcoming birthday sale?

Just received new toys that hopefully can help killing the boredom of CMO a bit. :-)

Maybe you can get something good from here (new and used).
Try to join this group in Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/498787200501907/

Try to join this group in Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/498787200501907/

This post has been edited by MyHobby: Mar 24 2020, 04:05 PM

First brew using the new portafilter basket...

Physical differences between the new and old portafilter
Old with truncated and new with straight wall.
Old can't really fit more than 20g, while the new old can hold up to 22g.

With no other changes made, the brew time changed from 27s to 21s. The "Marmite" I mean espresso :-) tasted a bit more sour, as expected... The rule of shorter brew sour x longer brew bitter applies herr. It's not really sour but can still taste a bit of sourness.
With that, I have a chance to grind the beans finer. To me, by theory finer grinding should give a stronger taste and more flavour, but am not sure. Anyone can share your opinion?

Nothing to show on the espresso. Here's the Latte from the same brew.

cool! thanks for the recommendation ,just joined the group! will explore more then