After several weeks of reading and re-reading various threads with varying recommendations, arguments discussions, and personal tales of joy and woe, I've ordered my first serious espresso setup. Final decision: Crossland CC1 and Baratza Vario (+ assorted accessories).

I settled on the Vario right away, as it seems like the most recommended in its price range, and I like the idea of being able to quickly go back to a coarser grind for rushed mornings.

I started off looking at the Silvia, then dropped down to the Gaggia Classic, then my attention was drawn to the CC1, and then I started looking at the all-metal, classy flip-switch Silvano, but if I'm spending $1100 (CAD) I might as well start looking at HX machines... and then I went back to idrinkcoffee.com to price everything out (for the hundredth time), and they had the CC1 and Vario combo listed as a special for $1050. It seemed like a sign, so I reluctantly let go of my price creep, and pulled the trigger.

I'm a bit nervous about the early-adoption of the CC1, but otherwise it seems like more than enough machine for me - it's a big jump from an Aeropress! I'm looking forward to fiddling with the settings endlessly, particularly since I live in a very arid and somewhat higher altitude climate. I'll report back when it arrives, hopefully in time for the weekend!

Welcome, and congrats! Hope you enjoy your new gear. Ever check out Fratello in Calgary, btw? If you eventually decide to upgrade, maybe Russ could give you a deal on a Slayer...

Definitely keep us updated on the CC1.

Jbviau, thanks for the recommendation on Fratello, I'll check them out! I thought about buying locally, but I got impatient. Hopefully upgradeitis should hold off for a few years at least...

jfrescki, will do. Mind you, my only other regular espresso machine usage is a Breville Cafe Roma in my office, so I don't really have much of a basis for comparison. From what I've read, my grinder (a Spong hand grinder that's been in my family forever) is actually pretty good for the Aeropress that I've been using, but my parents want the Spong back to use on their sailboat and I'm kind of looking forward to push-button convenience. Besides, I'm not sure if I have the patience to produce espresso grind from the thing anyways.

My goods arrived today*!

I'm a complete newb at this, but so far I'm super happy (despite failing to get a good shot in ~10 tries). The combo of the Vario and the CC1 are producing variations that I've never experienced with the Aeropress or the Breville, and I look forward to experimenting more on the weekend.

So far, I've got one big problem: everything I make is way too sour! I've tried three different beans: the Tanzanian Peaberry that idrinkcoffee.com included with my order, some Saltspring Metta Espresso that's probably a couple months old, and some SSI Decaf of the same vintage. I've been weighing out 14-16 grams on a cheap and imprecise digital scale.

For my first attempt, I had the Vario accidentally set one notch coarser than espresso, and my 2.5 oz shot pulled through in 15 seconds or so. I tasted it anyway, and the result was... sour. Surprisingly, there was plenty of crema.

I moved the grinder setting to proper espresso, and the next shot took a good 30 seconds or so. It looked pretty, and I was all proud of myself until I tasted it... yuck, sour! Some more flavours happening, but still overshadowed by a terrible battery-acid flavour. Another shot down the drain.

I tried changing a bunch of things, including grinding so fine that my shot took 70 seconds, pre-infusing for a few seconds, raising the temperature, tamping harder/lighter, etc. I'm getting beautiful crema, but so far I still can't get rid of the unpleasant sourness. I finally gave up, steamed some milk (poorly), and got my caffeine fix.

After all my experimentation, chewing through most of the bag of Tanzanian Peaberry and finishing off the last of the stale Metta Espresso, it dawned on me that I should test out the new coffee in the old tried-and-true Aeropress. I switched the Vario to filter, pressed through the bloomiest coffee I'd ever seen (a sign of freshness?), and sipped on the result. Battery acid! I normally prefer bitter to acidic in my coffee, and use higher temperature water than recommended by Aeropress, but no matter what I do to this coffee it tastes acidic. There's definitely something fruity hiding in there, but to me it's ruined by the acidity.

And so, I conclude that in the case of the Peaberry, I simply don't like the style of coffee. I'm guessing the acidity of the two stale coffees is caused by the staleness, though I don't taste it when Aeropressing. However, I think my distribution/tamp needs work as well, as the left-hand spout always seems to have more coming out of it (bottomless would be nice, if I could find one for the CC1). We'll see what happens once I get some non-acidic coffee.

As to the CC1 itself, it's much prettier and more intuitive than I thought it would be after watching SeattleCoffeeGear's videos. The ability to change all the variables makes the engineer in me happy, though I still need to figure out exactly what effect pre-infusion has on the final taste. The only thing I don't really like about the machine is that the filter basket is almost impossible to get out of the portafilter... a pretty minor concern.

--------- TLDR to follow ----------
- I went crazy trying to get rid of acidity until I realized it's likely the beans
- I have a lot of learning and experimentation to do
- I love it!

--------- Rant to follow -----------
*Purolator sucks. I realize this is common complaint, but they didn't even bother trying to deliver to my apartment, and when I called they said I had to drive to the airport to come pick it up. It wasn't until I asked if there was somewhere closer that they looked and found a mail room 600 metres from my building. Plus, my shipment got split up and somehow delivered on different days, but even though I knew from the first package experience that the second package would be undeliverable, I couldn't send it to the mail room until they had "attempted delivery" (which didn't actually happen), gone back to the airport, and then back to the mail room the following day. End result: my shipment was in town three days before I actually could go get it. Oh yeah, and once I got there, the woman was too weak/lazy to pick up the box, so she started ROLLING it (flip-fall-flip-fall) across the floor out of the back room. Now, I'm a whole 110 lbs of 5'3" girl myself, yet I managed to carry all three boxes (CC1, Vario, and accessories) at once. Fortunately, idrinkcoffee.com did a great job of packaging the CC1 box inside a box stuffed with padding, so no damage was done.

Congrats on new gear ch$!

Couple of tips on CC1 from my experience. To get to the right brew temperature add 5°F to the PID when you are setting it. So for example if you want to brew at 200°F set PID to 205°F. It should get you into the range, but don't take that as gospel, experiment.

Make sure you flush before pulling shot for 3 seconds as shown on CC1 display. Then lock-in and pull the shot. This will flatten the brew temperature.

If you are using stock basket max you can dose is about 18 grams. Of course this depends on coffee you use so it might be little less or little more. Do a penny test if you want to verify. Prepare your basket as usual tamp and place penny on top of puck. Lock into the group head and then unlock. Remove penny and if you see impression on top of the puck you need to dose less.

Hope this helps.

Have you tried brewing at a hotter temp to deal with the sour taste?

tekomino, thanks for the advice! The 5 degree difference makes sense, though I have no idea what temperature I "want". After posting, I managed a moderately successful decaf shot (too much caffeine today!) by tightening up the grind, setting the pre-infusion to 4 seconds with a 1 second delay, and setting the PID to 205. No acidity! Not much flavour either, but that's probably because of the old beans.

The penny trick sounds neat, I'll have to give that a shot, though if anything I think I'm underdosing. Doesn't the puck get sucked up by the 3-way valve anyways though? I only ask this because a couple of times when my grind was too fine, I ended up with the puck stuck to the shower screen instead of coming off with the portafilter!

jfrescki - I have increased the temp by 5 degrees, but I'm not sure how high I should go. I might try hotter tomorrow and see if anything happens.

Shoot for 200°F and keep it there so set PID to 205°F and play with dose and grind. I recommend getting 0.1 gram scale for dosing. This is good reading, if I say so myself : Digital espresso or a way to consistency

Don't worry about puck sticking or being soggy. It does not mean anything, just an indication that your dose might be low-ish... Always go by taste.

Charbucks wrote:I switched the Vario to filter, pressed through the bloomiest coffee I'd ever seen (a sign of freshness?), and sipped on the result. Battery acid!

First, let me commend you on trying to brew the espresso roast in your Aeropress. Sometimes this is a good way to diagnose extraction flaws. I didn't learn this until a couple of years after I started making espresso.

The coffee is always the first suspect, and it can help to eliminate the complexities of the high-pressure espresso extraction process to determine if there's something wrong with the coffee or if the espresso extraction isn't getting the right flavors out of it. Coffee roasted for espresso may not taste optimum when brewed by other methods, but that's not the purposed of the exercise.

I believe your experiement identified the problem with the Peaberry coffee: it was too fresh and needed to rest. Excessive blooming is an indication that the coffee hasn't had time to fully outgas. What you're seeing is carbon dioxide bubbling out of the grounds when the hot water hits them. This interferes with the extraction process, so the cup is underextracted. Underextracted coffee tastes sour.

So, yes, it sounds like the Peaberry was very fresh, maybe roasted the day your order was shipped. You have to let freshly roasted coffee rest long enough to properly outgas so it doesn't underextract. The rest time varies from coffee to coffee and roast to roast, but generally you have to wait at least 3-4 days. Some coffees take a lot longer to outgas -- a week or even two weeks. Generally it's best to let the coffee rest in the sealed bag, which hopefully has a one-way valve to let the CO2 out without letting O2 in.

Not sure why the stale coffee tastes sour to you. My experience has been that stale coffee is more likely to overextract and taste bitter. That's why updosing and grinding coarser sometimes helps to deal with stale coffee (when brewed the same length of time, the coffee will be less extracted.) It could be that the beans are so old the volatiles have completely disappeared. But it's also possible that your palette isn't yet accustomed to distinguishing between sour and bitter espresso. They both make you want to spit the coffee out. Even after making a lot of espresso, I sometimes have trouble telling the two apart, especially after my palette has been desensitized by tasting a lot of shots.

Finally, some info was just posted that the CC1 may not get up to proper temperature. Check this thread.

My advice is to check into the CC1 mod mentioned above and get some good coffee from one of the roasters recommended on this site. This thread is a good place to start your research. Check with the roaster on recommended rest time. If you can't get information, letting it rest for a week past roast is a pretty safe guess.