malachi wrote:In my first barista job, I worked almost 2 months before I found out that I could adjust the grind...

You've come a long way baby...

I, on the other hand, when I was back in college, was very sophisticated. I drank those cappuccinos that came as a powder in a jar with the picture of the monk on the side. You know the one. Next to the Folger's in the coffee aisle. I think the company was sued because the amount of actual coffee was so low and it was mostly powdered creamer.

SL28ave wrote:...one 6AM I forgot to grind the coffee altogether and put whole beans in the brew basket

Holy Crud! I was thinkin' about Jason this morning when I found myself loading the just-weighed basket full of beans into the PF instead of dumping them into the grinder!
Fortunately, I noticed that and actually pulled it back out and *did* put the beans into the grinder, but it was close.

Besides all the usual stuff like using preground supermarket coffee, I put my portafilter in the dishwasher to give it a good clean.

Little did I know this stupid aluminum breville thing was coated in some sort of shiny paint. All the coating has worn off now and it looks awful.

I'm thinking of moving to a gaggia after this steam toy (which doesn't make much steam by the way). I guess it was a start.

Psyd wrote:Holy Crud! I was thinkin' about Jason this morning when I found myself loading the just-weighed basket full of beans into the PF instead of dumping them into the grinder!

Yes, unfortunately I seem to have that effect on some some people . . .

Psyd wrote:Fortunately, I noticed that and actually pulled it back out and *did* put the beans into the grinder, but it was close.

Well, thank the gods!

Hmm, I can't think of anything particularly laughable but between not having any clue about fresh beans and thinking that more was better in terms of milk foam, I have definitely come a long way. Oh I did once try to add a little raw coco power to the pf along with the grinds. Messy.

I used to search for the very lightest tasting of Lavazza possible that was the pinnacle of smoothness. Given that most coffee chain espresso was harsh, bitter, and astringent, this response might somewhat be explainable. I'm glad that I discovered that there are pleasant flavours that can be present in coffee a year later.

I started off using a moka pot and over 1 year after expiration date Kicking Horse CliffHanger decaf (and non decaf) espresso blends, I found them quite nice, sort of chocolately and strong flavoured, eventually around 1.5-2 years AFTER expiration though, it started getting this weird honey like after taste, I didn't realize but I think it's due to the oils going rancid. The coffee beans didn't smell like coffee anymore. Not sure what it smelled like.

I recently re ordered from them directly thinking fresh would be better, but I actually prefer the slightly expired stuff, I think they over roasted it or changed something because now it tastes like burnt charcoally starbucks like espresso blend. Maybe it will taste better aged lol.
Kicking Horse does have better lighter roasted coffees which I've discovered do make decent espresso / cappuccinos though.

Don't worry I'm usually using fresh roasted specialty beans now, but as an experiment ill still try my original favorite and see if aging slightly does make it better somehow :p

After purchasing a new Technivorm and a Zassenhaus 169DG back in 07 I thought that I'd never upgrade anything.

My espresso journey started when I stumbled upon an RR45 in a pawn shop back in 1993. I got it for only $100! It was well used and filthy inside, with plenty of coffee bean fudge. I cleaned it up and proceeded forward, getting a thermoblock pump machine and made decent (better than *$) espresso with locally and home roasted beans for the next 13 years or so before I learned that maybe I ought to replace the burrs...

I've only been doing espresso at home for the past 6 months, so when it comes to all things espresso, I'm still a complete rookie. I bought my Duetto and a VST basket to start with, as well as a bottomless LM portafilter to learn on. For the past month and a half now, I've had to get by using the stock spouted portafilter while Dave was turning the handle for my bottomless...

I'm meticulously clean about my coffee gear. But I learned something just last week; you need to pop out the basket on the spouted portafilter and clean it out! Literally went the last 1.5 month pulling shots and quickly rinsing the whole thing under hot water, yet only when my LM bottomless arrived, did I pop out the VST basket and find the 1mm thick layer of coffee oil goo coating the bottom of the portafilter, and the basket. Ooops... Yeah, I always carefully cleaned the bottom of the basket when it was in the bottomless. Somehow, I had just assumed it was also clean in the spouted because I was rinsing it.

Oh, and I got fired from Starbucks back in 2002. 3rd day of training, I wasn't allowed to do anything but sweep the floors, replace napkins, set up the pastry display and brew the 4 gallon stainless steel coffee of the day brewkettle... The very last step during set up before you open for business is flip the switch on the coffee brewer and have the coffee hot and fresh ( it gets thrown out every 2 hours if its not consumed I recall) but the prick who was training me ( who told me to flip the switch and get it going) didn't tell me that he hadn't opened the pour spout to drain out the 4 gallons of pre-heating water that was still in the reservoir, so I had 4 gallons of hot coffee quickly flowing over the top of the kettle, over the sides and all over the floor right as we opened for business.

I guess it was a good thing. Couldn't stand the snobby SOB's I worked for anyway. I still look back at that and laugh.