Roger that.. At that price for such roasting date(assume shelf life of about 2yrs), yeah agreed with your assessment there.
Curious about the taste once you've dailed in the grinder properly for the espresso shot.. Does it taste like a hundred bucks?

Bitterness, I suppose is not the Blue Mountain taste profile.. You'll be very suprise that once you can get back to the 20-30sec extraction range, the taste will change.. 50sec-1min is like boiling kopi-o(overextract)..

taste is a very subjective matter to begin with.
since you mentioned that you liked latte, and you preferred milk-based coffee drinks.. here is something you can consider.
avoid low-fat, add some evaporated milk into your drink. it is the "fat" that produces the aroma.

boncafe is natural coffee while davidoff is "processed food".. to eliminate artificial flavor enhancing ingredients, do avoid "processed stuff".
you mentioned you like to emulate starbucks, san francisco coffee.. most avid coffee guys would avoid such big-chain establishment. Their coffee quality isn't on par with what you pay for it's price. Why don't you try some smaller boutique/artisan coffee cafe and benchmark from there?

you don't have to be afraid to mix and create a drink. from what i gathered, cost is not your hurdle here yet. Go get a pack of roasted coffee; be it beans or grounded.. start from there. boncafe is a good direction, you may try ikea's ground coffee next.. then move on to a another supermarket brand of grounded coffee; pay attention to what it says on the package.. noticed the roast level, country(ies) the coffee originated from, roast/manufactured date, etc..

next, educate yourself by attending fairs/expo.. if you're living in the klang valley, there're plenty of consumer-oriented coffee fairs/expo.. go sample as much of those coffee as you can from the booth; they're mostly free and you will instantly(if your taste palette is still good) notice that it's mile-different from starbucks/san franciso/etc stuff.. this is what we called "good coffee"

finally.... chiang rai (roasted 7/7/2018.. not exactly on-demand)

fiorenzato.... hmmnn... that's a crazy fast grinder there

If i'm qualified to offer an oppinion about your remark below, i can say NO.. ZD-10/T is not a good and value choice grinder (apart from it's small footprint).. there are better alternatives at similiar price point.

If you can affort it.. the Rocket is nearest to those commercial machine you've worked with in terms of durability/robustness. Avoid the Breville, they're a looker and unlikely a reliable one.



This post has been edited by Tikietic: Aug 31 2018, 04:39 PM

Looking at your company logo, kinda remind me of Reg Barber.. lol

Start watching some relevant YouTube videos..

Hi, anybody went to CAFFA 2018?

We didn't check each vendors there, but did noticed that in general, roasted coffee beans are getting more and more pricy.. Maybe, RM300-400/kg range will start appearing soon?

Maybe a little context is appropriate here?

We have been consuming (and still do) home produce espresso based coffee for the past 4 years. Thus the observation of the price hike over the years.

Quality grade (SCAA or nearing SCAA) roasted coffee is still obtainable at below RM100/kg albeit less M'sian roasters are doing it.

RM100-200/kg is the readily available source now although most boutique/artisan roasters readily offer their products at RM200-ish/kg range.

RM200/kg is expensive bro..

This post has been edited by Tikietic: Oct 4 2018, 05:20 PM

I assume you're not familiar with a nominalization way of quoting things for easy comparison. Per KG, per hour, per kilometer, per square feet, etc are quoted for easy comparison. Doesn't necessarily means I buy in 1 KG bags.

In wholesale, stuff are usually quoted as such.. So, you'll know despite the differences in small packaging, the base price can still be compared.

When we bought our machine back then, it has a sticker price of below 2k. 13kg of steel and plastic, 2,400 watt, 3-liter tank capacity, built in 3-way solenoid valve, 4-bar steam..

it's an interesting question you have there.. if you're referring to the quality of a roasted beans, perhaps folks like ymeng85 can provide you a better view/opinion since they're subject-matter expertise in the field. in general, my observation summarize as follows; better quality beans are bigger in size, less cracked/chipped beans or deformed beans..

if you're referring to the quality of the roast, it's a whole subject altogether.. good beans + bad roasting will end up terrible..

lastly, if you're referring to the quality of the taste as an end-product.. all the factors will play its role; quality(beans), freshness, roasting, appropriate grinding and extraction/pour.. then all the subtle/nuances of the roasted coffee will be presence there..

if you're living in klang valley(or perhaps penang), you may have better chances to visit coffee fairs/expo. such avenues are great place to learn and observe a high level of quality beans being turned into a drink.. we pay attention to the vendor's beans offering(e.g country/estate) roasting date, the general machine(espresso) used..

not all cafes aims for high quality.. some cafes are best to avoid as they use stale beans and masked their drinks with syrup..

i think you're coming from a commercial machines' point-of-view.. no doubt, it's almost an unfair comparison to what is readily available to consumer grade folks.. but you've pointed one aspect of a commercial machine's rightful attribute correctly, which is.. consistency.
there're good consumer-level machine out there; if one disregard the turnaround time for each extraction, consistency can be found; commercial machines can go high volume with an expected level of consistency..

4-bar steaming and concurrent usage with brewing.. that was what i meant to say earlier.. most consumer machines can't do that, but not all. mine does.

i do agree with you on this point.. AP for green beans and those who're gate-keepers on raw beans dictate the downstream industry.
80+, 90+ and some with agtron numbers; seldom seen produced locally unless perhaps for competition.

ymeng85 do offer good roasted beans.. do appreciate all these local roasters having to face increasing competition from imports(e.g online sellers)

You may have misunderstood or assume that these prices are for roasted coffee. No, they're not. These are wholesale prices for raw/green/unroasted coffee beans..

Actually am curious to find out from you guys here.. especially those who consume espresso based drinks. What are your general preference; blends or single-origins?
How/why do you consider them?

If blends, any good blends that you've personally encountered?

As I observe and with some assumption added, I think you may have misunderstood the concept of a role within a larger context.
A barista is a mere role, a specific role within a larger context; cafe.
Running a cafe(cafe operator/owner) is very different from being a barista.

In strictly commercial terms, no cafe owners will readily/willingly train up a person with an end-game of being a competitor to his/her cafe in the near future.. there're much investment (machinery/skills/trade-secrets/etc) that that requires protection..

So I hope that you'll understand that you can't just go and leech knowledge from a cafe and bitch them forward. Pay for the knowledge (via professional trade school/academy, like dankoff or coffex) or learn it free via YouTube or a friend who's willing to share his/her home setup/machine to teach you.. that is, if you're keen on that specific role; brewing coffee (and not a cafe operator)

This post has been edited by Tikietic: Oct 11 2018, 04:12 PM