SonVolt wrote:How many days post-roast do you receive your beans from Acme? Do they include the roast date on the bag?

Consistent with comments above, Acme still doesn't list their roast date on their bags. But even as drip coffee, I get an enormous bloom out of Motor City, followed by a thick, rich "volcano" of outgassing "crema" during my V60 pour, even up to 7 - 9 days after receipt when the bag is all gone.

I've received my beans within 3 days of shipment in both cases; they shipped two days from order date. HTH.

Even if no one else can, I'm pretty sure Motor City is capable of Making America Great Again...

Another pure "Snickers bar" brown sugar, caramel and some chocolaty-goodness I discovered after my 'Sis sent a bag of their local Buena Vista Roaster's Black Canyon Blend. I've read about the Snickers bar taste but until pulling the BCB I have never tasted it.

I did pull it with my EspressoForge which typically makes pulling bullseye shots easy and consistent with medium to dark roasts. But if you're looking for intense flavors described above...highly recommend.

When I'm at Acme I ask about the roasting date and pretty much all I get is: We roast daily. If Amber or Chris is working (or Larry of course ) then I seem to be able to get the exact date per bean I'm interested in...otherwise its vague. That's the one thing IMHO they need to up their game on...

mgwolf wrote:Just finished two bags of Nizza espresso from La Colombe roaster (which I bought on a trip to DC). Very smooth, lots of chocolate, not too dark. I'll order more. Quite forgiving. Pulled on a lever.

I'm about halfway through the first bag of Nizza I've had in well over a decade, and I found exactly the same thing despite my having given it up years ago because it wasn't like that out of my earlier grinders and machines.

For some reason, there were no fresh beans on the shelves the last week of 2015 and the first week of 2016 at Square One or Bodhi (where I usually get a freshly roasted bag of Thaddeus or HairBender every Friday afternoon). Being down to a single dose when we returned from vacation, I set out in desperation to find something fresh and drinkable - and only La Colombe had anything close to fresh. I found a few bags of Nizza at the back of the shelf with 4 weeks to the "best if used by" date, so I somewhat reluctantly grabbed a bag. And to my pleasant surprise, it was definitely "very smooth, lots of chocolate, not too dark". I've settled on an 18 gm dose extracted to 25 gm in the cup as the most pleasing to me so far.

I used Nizza when it first came out, but I never had a machine as good as my Lelit or my Oscar back then and I used a Kitchen Aid grinder. I'm assuming this is why I didn't get great satisfaction from Nizza and spent years auditioning other beans. If so, Nizza is definitely more sensitive to technique and machine than many - but it's worth the work to dial it in. FWIW, I also haven't enjoyed it as much at La Colombe shops over the last several years as I do now at home.

I may be wrong, but it seems that LC paid a lot more attention to quality and consistency in the preparation of their coffees when they first started than they do now. As I recall, they maintained the machines of every restaurant and shop that used their coffee very very tightly in the good old days, and an LC espresso (which was always Nizza, as far as I know) was equally great everywhere. I guess they have so many more outlets now that they either can't or can't afford to sit on them all like they used to do.

I live in Charlotte NC and just purchased the Profitec Pro 700 and the Ceado e37 back in November 2015, been very happy with both.

During my research for my machine I also researched where I could buy fresh roasted beans both locally and on the internet. I guess I got lucky because I have a coffee shop called Dilworth's a couple miles from me who has their coffee blends roasted up in Raleigh NC by a company called Stockton Graham and overnighted to their stores in Charlotte every Tuesday. So when I first got my machine I ran down to my local store and picked up one of their Espresso blends called Traditional Espresso.

This has been by far my favorite Espresso blend and cannot find a bean that can beat it. My wife and I go through about a pound and a half a coffee a week so it gives me the opportunity to by my one pound of Traditional Espresso from Dilworths and then I will by another pound from an online store that fresh roasts. I usually read these forums to find out what other people have found to like and I have tried a bunch, this week I am trying the Red Bird but nothing seems to even coming close to the Dilworth's Traditional Espresso blend.

I do understand that Espresso is much like wine or cigars, it's really a personal preference as to what is good and not. For myself I knew I would lean towards the chocolate flavors and thought I would like the nutty and caramels but find they are just okay. During my research on one of the posts someone mentioned that everyone is looking for that chocolate bomb . If this is what you are looking for please try this blend http://www.stocktongraham.com/estore#!/ ... ry=4626131 there is a richness to it that I just cannot find in other espressos.

If you do try this and have something better than this please let me know as I am still trying to put together a small list of favorites but still only have one on my list that I would actually buy again.

thanks for the recommendation, just ordered a bag

scino wrote:I live in Charlotte NC and just purchased the Profitec Pro 700 and the Ceado e37 back in November 2015, been very happy with both.

During my research for my machine I also researched where I could buy fresh roasted beans both locally and on the internet. I guess I got lucky because I have a coffee shop called Dilworth's a couple miles from me who has their coffee blends roasted up in Raleigh NC by a company called Stockton Graham and overnighted to their stores in Charlotte every Tuesday. So when I first got my machine I ran down to my local store and picked up one of their Espresso blends called Traditional Espresso.

This has been by far my favorite Espresso blend and cannot find a bean that can beat it. My wife and I go through about a pound and a half a coffee a week so it gives me the opportunity to by my one pound of Traditional Espresso from Dilworths and then I will by another pound from an online store that fresh roasts. I usually read these forums to find out what other people have found to like and I have tried a bunch, this week I am trying the Red Bird but nothing seems to even coming close to the Dilworth's Traditional Espresso blend.

From the description on their website, it sounds like a dark-roasted Mocha-Java style blend. I used to pull Peets Mocha-Java shots, and the blend worked quite well, especially as macchiatos and cappuccinos, since it stands up in milk very effectively.

Red Bird is mostly Sweet Blue Brazilian, I think, so its flavor profile is quite different. Lately I've been blending RedBird's SO Sweet Blue with various of their Ethiopians (in a 5:2 ratio), a blend I enjoy very much straight or in milk.

scino wrote:I live in Charlotte NC and just purchased the Profitec Pro 700 and the Ceado e37 back in November 2015, been very happy with both.

During my research for my machine I also researched where I could buy fresh roasted beans both locally and on the internet. I guess I got lucky because I have a coffee shop called Dilworth's a couple miles from me who has their coffee blends roasted up in Raleigh NC by a company called Stockton Graham and overnighted to their stores in Charlotte every Tuesday. So when I first got my machine I ran down to my local store and picked up one of their Espresso blends called Traditional Espresso.

If you do try this and have something better than this please let me know as I am still trying to put together a small list of favorites but still only have one on my list that I would actually buy again.

Ahhhh..very nice! I am also In Charlotte and started this thread. I was also searching for local roasters and knew that Dilworth Coffee was one of the few shops that roasted their beans but did not know they had it done in Raleigh. I need to get down to one of their shops and try their products. I have also been meaning to go to Summit Coffee in Davidson. They roast down the road from their shop and they even offer tours. Sucks when life gets in the way of coffee exploration! lol

You should also try Mountain Air Roasting which offers a good variety of roasts. They are based in Asheville and really have high quality product. I buy mine from their online store and have it shipped my U.S. Mail . I believe they roast 2 times per week.

I tried ACME Motor City based on many positive experiences on this list. I really did not care for it. I like the ACME marketing, they seem great. I bought 2 pounds at the first of the year, and I gave up after and threw away 1/2 pound. A first for me. I would not say it was bad, but it was not good no matter what I tried. I would describe it as boring and baked. Chocolate? Maybe...not good chocolate. It could be a water compatibility thing. YMMV.

FWIW I have gotten very good results with Motor City using either my Caravel, EspressoForge or Portaspresso...i.e. pour over lever/lever style machines with resulting lower brew water temps. Ditto for Buena Vista's Black Canyon Blend; pure Snicker's Bar on each of the above. Sorry I can not give you an exact water temp that allows these beans to blossom...if I had to guess I'd say it is in the upper 180's low 190's.