La Marzocco Home Espresso Subscription - Vagrant Coffee Nomad

#1: Post by **clc12rock** » August 17th, 2020, 9:48 am

Link to blog post/recipe: https://home.lamarzoccousa.com/vagrant- ... gust-2020/

Got my beans last week, so had a few days with this coffee. I'm not that crazy about it. Roast is a little too dark for me. Tried it as a pourover too and really didn't enjoy that. I've also had some trouble nailing the suggested parameters. Pretty finicky for a relatively dark roasted espresso blend. What's everyone else's experience so far?

#2: Post by **nuketopia** » August 17th, 2020, 2:40 pm

Pulled first shot this morning, I wouldn't call it dark. It's a medium-light roast by my eye.

First pull was to suggested params, I think I'll reduce the temperature a bit and slightly coarser grind. I pulled 18:29 grams, 35 seconds, with about 7 seconds before flow really started. I think that was just a touch over-extracted.

#3: Post by **limonengelb** » August 17th, 2020, 3:33 pm

I would agree with nuketopia. I adjusted the temp down from 204 to 202 with a 2s on 2s off prebrew and 30s total pull. At 204 the acids were too bright, though I may go back to it and see. also tried running it at 2:1 with 36 out, but didn't like this as much as the suggested 1.5:1

#4: Post by **mike01** » August 18th, 2020, 9:17 pm

This coffee seems to be getting better for me after a couple extra days of rest. I was originally getting some harshness in the shots, so I tried lowering the temp as suggested. This resulted in a sour, under extracted shot. I switched back to the suggested brew parameters, which with the extra rest is giving me a nice bodied, tasty shot.

#5: Post by **nuketopia** » August 20th, 2020, 3:44 pm

This coffee extracts easily, so it teeters between over-extracted and under-extracted. There's not much room between the extraction levels. However, it is quite good when you nail it. It is a pretty typical, "west coast" espresso and it will pretty much like many of them.

At 18g dose, I find that pulling 28g is a bit under and pulling 30g is a bit over, and getting the time just right also makes a big different. The sweet spot is pretty narrow, get the time and the output right and you'll be rewarded to a nice cup.

August 30th, 2020, 9:30 pm

I'm up at my mountain house so pulling shots with my Flair Pro2 and yielding much better results than with my home setup. Pretty solid espresso blend. Nice sweetness.

September 3rd, 2020, 10:46 am

Finally pulled a good shot of this on my BDB. Had to grind REALLY coarse. As others mentioned, this bean overextracts very easily and I was getting a lot of bitter notes if ground too fine. Shot this morning was nice with sweet almond notes.

Anyone know who this month's roaster is? No blog post yet.

#8: Post by **Sgoldberg89** » September 3rd, 2020, 5:43 pm

I also finally hit the sweet spot with this. I'm at 202 and a coarser grind with 19g. I dial down the pressure to about 3-5 for the last 10g. It's finally enjoyable (only took 1 bag).

#9: Post by **Nitz369** » September 8th, 2020, 6:04 pm

clc12rock wrote:Anyone know who this month's roaster is? No blog post yet.

Looks like Parlor Coffee. But I went to their site and their sell 8oz bags, are they really sending us 2-8oz bags? this is my 2nd month on the program and I thought it would be nice to have some curated coffee, but it seems to come at a steep price.

#10: Post by **IcemanT** » September 8th, 2020, 6:23 pm

It is pretty steep!
I've suspended my subscription, not worth the 39$ for the curating they provide IMO