I want to take a moment to thank all of you who came here before me. For all the sweat equity you put into this hobby and this Web site, and how generous you are with all that you've learned. Thank you for giving away professional tips, tricks, information and expertise that cost you many hours of work (or play). I am so grateful today...

Thank you for making mistakes (especially the expensive and foolish ones) and posting them for me to see and avoid - even going to the extent of photographing your blunders to make sure that I don't repeat these errors on my own gear.

Thank you for taking things apart and watching springs launch out, never to be recovered. And for taking valves loose with the wrong tools, never to get them back together again.

Thank you for taking squirts, bitters and sours from countless malformed, malground, malroasted pucks of espresso so that I will have a clear starting point for a shot worth drinking.

Thank you for experimenting for long hours with gallons of water and pounds of coffee to make my life easier and my path to coffee joy shorter and more achievable.

Thank you for spending small fortunes to purchase and then promptly disassemble expensive pieces of equipment, illustrating their guts and explaining how to tear them apart and put them back together again.

Thank you for asking questions on top of questions, asking for clarification, and then posting all the grueling followup results to your problems so that when I encounter them, they're all nicely organized and searchable by keyword like a giant java jerk's illustrated compendium.

Thank you especially for your patience in answering nearly every new question (which has already been answered at least 20 times) as kindly as if it was the first. It can be really hard to break into a new hobby like this, and it can make or break entry into the segment if the people who have figured it out are arrogant and stingy with the knowledge it takes to get started. Luckily, quite the opposite goes on here. It's like everyone wants you to succeed and make better coffee than they do. It's kind of weird. O.o

All those pictures, all those tutorials, all those posts, all those reviews, they've led me to a very, very special day.

I cried a little today when the first hot water flowed from this artful cube of golden brassy wonder, because I thought about all of you whose posts I read over and over and all the PMs and emails I sent to people, tugging on shirt sleeves until I had what I needed.

I hope you'll feel some accomplishment and pride today for all the help you've given me as I say with great happiness,

Elektra GL1 #1255, Built in 2000 is now mine.

Really she's been mine for a while, but I've been dreading the plumb-in and what might happen when I turned her on. As it goes, the JG fittings are a breeze, and they rotate very forgivingly even under pressure. On with the show!









I haven't pulled a shot with her yet, but it doesn't really matter at this point. You have helped me find and purchase an amazing piece of coffee extracting machinery that I would have never been able to approach without your coaching and mentoring here.

Thanks Dan and all HBers. You're too many to list.

Nice rig! Looks like it's pining to make some world-class espresso. Got some Four Barrel yet?

The next big thing over here apparently is going to be SightGlass.

http://sightglasscoffee.com/
http://www.tablehopper.com/2009/06/chat ... -2009.html
http://twitter.com/sightglass

They're not roasting yet, so I can't weigh in. But I'll pick up a pound of something from Ritual tomorrow, and then we'll see what's what with this big brass boiler...

Today, I finished Leonard Mlodinow's excellent book on randomness,
"The Drunkard's Walk". One of Leonards' points is that much in this
world is more a result of random factors and less by experience or
skills. Later I got a lesson of that... I happened to reread the
thread on LM baskets and thought I really had to find that double
basket and try it again (one of the reasons I have a clear memory of
that thread is that Wittgenstein is evoked by Jim S. in the
discussion). When I got home from work, I found the LM basket but to
my horror I had almost none of my favorite beans left. I found some
Indonesian Sidikaland in the freezer and hoped the best for a
combination of a basket and a coffee I had never had any great success
with. An lo and behold a great pour and a great great cup of espresso!
I even got to repeat the success a few hours later.

I should have posted a big thank you to the great writers on HB a long
time ago, but never really had an idea of exactly what to
write... Well, I will have to do with the following; although I do not
post a lot, I read (and reread) HB everyday and I really enjoy it. Not
only do I learn about coffee, equipment, and technique, I also learn
about attitude, testing and much more -- PLUS many posts are written
very well and are a joy to read. Thank you.

EDIT: Dan moved the message to the "Why I love HB" thread, and that makes me want to add, that another reason I love HB is that Dan (and others?) do a lot of work to make this site great: for example moving messages around to create order and answering questions not just with "that has already been answered" but with links to the relevant threads. Outstanding.

Thanks.

I didn't know adding philosopher's quotes made posts more memorable. I'll have to dust off those bookshelves, and shoo off Minerva's owls.

Hi, I'm a PhD student at Cambridge University (UK) and my need for coffee is thus demonstrable. I had a cheap superautomatic for a couple of years but, unhappy with the quality, I began surfing this site for recommendations for a new machine. The 'starter' recommendations for the Rancilio Silvia were tempting and challenging all at once. When one appeared on Ebay-complete with digital temperature control already installed-I took the leap. I then took everyone's advice and bought a good grinder as well. I got a naked portafilter to learn the craft. I bought beans the day after roasting, once a week.

Three months of frustration followed, and then, almost magically, it all came together. I don't know what you all refer to as 'God Shots', but I can say there is noplace else in town that I would rather drink a ristretto than my own kitchen. It hasn't been easy, but it has been highly instructive and, in terms of the coffee, worth every pull.

So thanks, you guys made my mornings. My only concern now is that the dreaded 'upgrade' bug is going to bite me and I will be putting out silly money in search of-search of what? A better cup? Easier brewing?

Best

David

This is my first post on HB; I lurked for more than 2 years since the virus of "the best coffee I can get" reached me.
I wish to thanks all on HB (Dan Kehn, Cannonfodder and all the others) for the great information I can "extract" on these forums.

I'm from Italy, there are very few people (afaik) from here on this site; in Italy there are also very few guys with a strong interest in coffee, who are pushed in search for constant improvements; there are many brands who make research for coffee machines, but nobody, from people who don't make a living from coffee, has some serious interest about it. We all know that we can find a bar at the corner and a get a coffee...; now I can say that only very few bars delivers consistent coffees with good quality. After I'm trying to get something drinkable with coffee flavor, by myself and with help almost from nobody, times where I pay for coffee and don't drink it are countless. Italian baristas don't like this at all. They aren't used to people who leave cups on the counter, sometimes even without taste it.

After some months of reading HB forums, I purchased a second hand Cimbali Junior. Then I went to a Cimbali dealer (Mr. Balugani from Ferrara, I wish to thank him also) and purchased a used Mazzer Mini and some Cimbali pieces. Unsatisfied with the results, I ended with a fully rebuild. While I had Cimbali dismantled, in doubt about results I could get after rebuild, I purchased and old Vibiemme Replica 2 groups. My sons call it "gear acquisition syndrome"... recently I purchased a 1966 Faema E61 2 groups in really good shape for a reasonably price. All machines work but need a rebuild, I started with Vibiemme to make some training with E61 groups.
Without HB all of this would have been very hard.

Thanks to all
Pierluigi.

Welcome to HB, Pierluigi,

Your post echos what I learned from a brief business trip to Milan. I had hoped to find some outstanding espresso, but instead I found espresso everywhere but no one could recommend a place to go for really great espresso. The locals I was working with explained that most people just use Moka pots at home and rely on the espresso at the bars and the espresso vending machines at work. I did enjoy having uninterrupted access to espresso whenever I wanted and did have some good shots of espresso, but I was hoping for something more.

To be fair, the one day that I was free to go into central Milan was a Sunday and August 1st to boot, so a lot of the places I hoped to visit were closed, and I really enjoyed the great food that I had while staying in Italy. It was a working trip and not a vacation, so I didn't get much time to enjoy Italy, hopefully I'll be able to return some day in other circumstances.

Maybe it's because here in North America that we don't have ubiquitous access to good espresso that the Home Barista community has grown so strong and self reliant while the coffee bars here are just starting to catch up.

andrewpetre wrote:...
I hope you'll feel some accomplishment and pride today for all the help you've given me as I say with great happiness,

Elektra GL1 #1255, Built in 2000 is now mine.

Fantastic, love seeing the older Elektra being brought back to great condition! Mine hasn't let me down yet!

Mark

Been lurking for a couple months. Basically since I decided I would go the in home machine route for espresso.Thank you all for all the info I have learned here while lurking. It helped immensely.

I am only interested in espresso, not added milk drinks, so I decided on a Quick Mill Alexia. I really wanted a Salvatore machine, but the lack of vacuum breaker was a deal killer for me as I wanted the machine on a timer.

Anyway, while I'm a long way from producing excellent espresso, I've only had the set up for 2 weeks and I'm already producing better shots then most local places. That is due to all the info I learned here. Thank you! Only took about 4lbs of coffee upon initial set up to produce a shot even worth tasting. The ones previous were horrid just to look at, wouldn't dare taste them. LOL

By systematically using all the info I learned here I was able to control the variables and slowly get dialed in. I probably could have saved a lot of time, and coffee, if I made larger adjustments in the grinder right from the get go. But, live and learn.

If anyone knows a local teacher for lessons (private or class) other than Heather Perry, I'd appreciate the info as I'd sure like to shorten the learning curve.

It's pure bliss having espresso at home.

Thanks once again!

TonyM