Hi All

I am expecting to get a Bezzera Strega TOP and a Bezzera BB005 conical grinder soon. I wanted to thank all the members of this forum who have taken the time to post a ton of information - a lot of which I have read. Lots of nice videos - Dan's Espresso for Newbie videos as well as Jim's video's on the Strega.

I have been drinking coffee for a long time and recently started making espresso coffee at home graduating from packaged roasted & ground coffee to buying freshly roasted beans and grinding it every time I make coffee in a blade grinder. Just fresh coffee beans made a big difference to the taste......the biting bitterness, which I thought was "coffee taste" and hence needed to be blunted with milk and/or sugar was largely absent.

I currently use an old Krup's espresso machine (no pump) and a blade grinder. In the last few months I have been doing some basics like using fresh coffee - buying only 250 gms at a time close to the roast date, grinding it fresh, measuring how much coffee I use each time, heating the porta-filter and the cups, using very cold milk when steaming it to make cappuccinos, keeping every thing clean etc. Even with the very basic equipment I have, the drinks have improved. I am also trying espresso's in a few cafe's in Singapore and buying the freshly roasted beans from there to make espresso's and taste at home.

I shall write again once I have had a chance to unpack and put the new grinder and the espresso machine to use.

My name is Vijay and I am based out of Singapore. I tried searching for a "new Strega to-do" list before putting it to work....I presume the machine will come with a manual detailing what I need to know.

Vijay

Welcome Vijay
That's a big jump in equipment you just bit into. Cheers & best wishes.

One tell I would tell myself (if I could do this all over again), is the importance of tasting the coffee for what it is, and just realizing that whatever's there is there, and whatever's not, is not. I.e. Acid/Bitters can be balanced, but flavors (and their defects) are usually there to stay, especially in espresso.

Joshua

I agree ......it is a big jump up......I have waited for many months before this jump. I used to drink filter coffee, then French Press for a long time and now espresso using my basic equipment. I read on this forum that the Strega is forgiving and that one should go with good equipment (if one is reasonably serious about this) so the "espresso pulling habits" are "good".

I am sure there are coffee enthusiast groups in Singapore. Any suggestions?

Best

Vijay

Got my Strega TOP and the Bezzera BB005 TM grinder today . Have set it up. The orange wire connection (earth?) had come out.....fixed it (I knew what to do thanks to the Strega Owners thread). Got it running in Tank mode.

When I flushed the group I got a mild Vicks like smell in the hot flushed water. Took out the shower screen and there a bit of the grease (grey color) which I cleaned. Flushed the boiler using the hot water wand after 8 hours of turning on the machine. Planning another boiler flush tomorrow morning.

Ran around 500 gms of relatively old roasted beans through the grinder to get a feel for it and to adjust grind size. While teh grinder has a single, double and triple dose setting it wasn't very accurate. I would get plus minus 1 odd grams variation. Finally I decided to weigh and single dose. Retained grinds are around 0.2 grams, which seems fine. Is it Ok to consistently single dose the grinder i.e. from a "wear and tear of the grinder" point of view?

Ran a few shots. Started with too coarse a grind..... too fast an extraction. Gradually went finer and up dosed from 12 gms to around 15 gms. Finally the coffee tasted bitter. Also it felt like some fine powder was there in the espresso shot (akin to TSS). So have gone a bit coarse and up dosed it to 17.8 gms. Acceptable shot. Only using the double basket as of now.

Yet to fine tune and get the syrupy shots which i have had in cafes / read about in this forum.

Also made a cappuccino for my wife. Steaming milk with the 2 hole steam wand frothing tip was quick.

Waiting for the weekend when i will experiment more.

cheers

VP Strega wrote: Flushed the boiler using the hot water wand after 8 hours of turning on the machine. Planning another boiler flush tomorrow morning.

Remember that the Strega is an HX machine so you aren't drinking that boiler water.

I like to use filtered water in my machines, although it need not be expensive. Just use a simple charcoal filter (like a brita) can help with taste. If you water is very hard or very soft, you may wish to add other filters.

For basket, I like about 17.5 -18.5grams in a stock basket depending on how light/dark things are. The HQ14's as recommended are good too. Make sure you also have a good tamper, not the plastic one it came with. If you need to buy one, a 58.4mm flat can be had affordably and is a good place to start.

To keep things easy while learning, just do a quick flush for the HX, then pre infuse until you see a drop or two come out of the pf, then release the lever. That will give you consistent results with the machine while you're getting started. This will allow you to adjust grind/dose to suite your tastes and get your consistency down in tamping/dosing/etc/...

The grinder being new will need to break in as well. Not sure about that one, but by 10lbs of beans it should mostly settle down. Why it's breaking in, you may find it's grind setting wandering around.

Cheers, and good luck!

JohnB. wrote:Remember that the Strega is an HX machine so you aren't drinking that boiler water.

Thanks John. The Manufacturer recommends flushing the boiler on first time use and if the machine has been idle for more than a week.

bostonbuzz wrote:I've had good luck with the HQ 14g basket dosed at 18g from espressoparts. So have others. I would recommend it, although I didn't give the stock basket much of a try. The strega likes a pretty fine grind so don't feel constrained by the "30 second" rule people quote.

Thanks John. I will buy the HQ 14 basket when I am in US next. The one problem I am facing is the espresso gets bitter when i grind too fine. Hence, I am grinding reasonably fine (not too fine) and up-dosing to try for that balanced shot.

nickw wrote:I like to use filtered water in my machines, although it need not be expensive. Just use a simple charcoal filter (like a brita) can help with taste. If you water is very hard or very soft, you may wish to add other filters.

For basket, I like about 17.5 -18.5grams in a stock basket depending on how light/dark things are. The HQ14's as recommended are good too. Make sure you also have a good tamper, not the plastic one it came with. If you need to buy one, a 58.4mm flat can be had affordably and is a good place to start.

To keep things easy while learning, just do a quick flush for the HX, then pre infuse until you see a drop or two come out of the pf, then release the lever. That will give you consistent results with the machine while you're getting started. This will allow you to adjust grind/dose to suite your tastes and get your consistency down in tamping/dosing/etc/...

The grinder being new will need to break in as well. Not sure about that one, but by 10lbs of beans it should mostly settle down. Why it's breaking in, you may find it's grind setting wandering around.

Cheers, and good luck!

Thanks Nick. I have a Bezzera tamper and also bought a Motta 58mm tamper. I will write with further updates on my espresso trials as and when.