What is a good, well rounded starter coffee - Page 4

#31: Post by **nameisjoey** » May 21st, 2022, 10:24 pm

OK31 wrote:I'm beginning to realize this myself. I'm in NYC no just recently was near a roaster which doesn't deliver doesn't sell online but is accessible and tried theirs. I have to say it's absolutely the beans and roast level. The one I'm talking about is Arabica% but the blend they use for espresso roasted onsite in some super quick roasters was truly awesome. I'm going to try finding some local Italian stuff or maybe will order direct because as others I'm doing this for 4 years and yes I love milk drinks but would love to enjoy a double same as I do when at a restaurant where sadly they are likely simply using pucks. I can say water did help with some flavor and I now have an LMLM and an atom 75 so equipment is not an issue. What I think may also be the key is volume. You mention 14g with 50-60 out in how long is it 30sec? Because to get that it's a larger grind size which makes sense.

I've also tried a salami shot on one of new I had and the middle was the best suggesting it's the right blend, I just couldn't figure out how to get the middle as the whole shot. At one or two shots a day it's really not enough. So back to feeling discouraged yet excited.

Do yourself a favor and try some Saka Caffe Gran Bar from CantinaCoffee.com

I don't think you will be disappointed!

#32: Post by **OK31** » May 23rd, 2022, 9:01 pm

nameisjoey wrote: Do yourself a favor and try some Saka Caffe Gran Bar from CantinaCoffee.com

I don't think you will be disappointed!

Sold out ugh

#33: Post by **drH** » May 23rd, 2022, 10:30 pm

Try Milano.

Butter and Espresso Pudding are wonderful blends.

https://www.milanocoffee.ca/

#34: Post by **ShotClock** » May 23rd, 2022, 10:37 pm

Saka is great, and cantina is restocked pretty regularly.

A couple of bits of advice from here that i found very useful with Italian espresso: a slightly more restrictive basket like the EPHQ one is good here; shorter shots are better with increasing amounts of robusta - i found that with Saka Gran Bar, i got the best results with a 1.5:1 extraction, so just 21g liquid out for a 14g dose.

#35: Post by **PIXIllate** » May 23rd, 2022, 10:39 pm

Jeff wrote:
"Dark" is relative. George Howell tends to roast lighter than many US-based roasters. Their "darker", in this context, is more of what I'd call "medium" on the scale that I am used to. Checking with a roast-level meter, the Alchemy I have is "Medium" (Roast Vision 19).

Which is about where Lavazza Super Crema comes up on the Roast Vision. Not all Italian blends are dark.

#36: Post by **OK31** » May 24th, 2022, 10:21 pm

drH wrote:Try Milano.

Butter and Espresso Pudding are wonderful blends.

https://www.milanocoffee.ca/

That's a steep shipping fee and the pudding is sold out what luck.

#37: Post by **OK31** » May 24th, 2022, 10:29 pm

ShotClock wrote:Saka is great, and cantina is restocked pretty regularly.

A couple of bits of advice from here that i found very useful with Italian espresso: a slightly more restrictive basket like the EPHQ one is good here; shorter shots are better with increasing amounts of robusta - i found that with Saka Gran Bar, i got the best results with a 1.5:1 extraction, so just 21g liquid out for a 14g dose.

So are the true Italian roasts better at lower doses to begin with? Have you tried this in a 18g or 21g baskets with same ratio? Just curious what that might do and only asking because I do predominantly enjoy a milk drink and at the smaller ratio of an already small dose it feels like there's a chance it would get lost. For a straight double if I can make it taste like say a well rounded non acidic shot then I may opt for more straight shots but till then milk it is. I also tend to make more latte rather than flat whites and macchiatos for ease of milk steaming even if that's a terrible answer. Just curious

#38: Post by **PIXIllate** » May 24th, 2022, 11:21 pm

OK31 wrote:That's a steep shipping fee and the pudding is sold out what luck.

Try Blackout and Gamma from Hatch. Best roaster in Canada as far as I'm concerned. And I've tried most of them.

Including Milano. They're very expensive, no roast dates on the bags, high shipping and to be honest just nothing really great in the cup.

#39: Post by **ShotClock** » May 25th, 2022, 10:11 am

I find that longer ratios can bring out the bitterness in these coffees - especially the ones with more Robusta. The suggestion to reduce the ratio came from here (I think in the big Saka thread), and I found it to be effective. Probably 70% of my shots of Saka went in to milk drinks, and I thought that they were great.

I found that I was down-dosing from 17g to 16g, as the coffee is much less dense than my normal medium roast espresso. Using the EPHQ 14g basket (which is actually sized like an 18g basket), I was pulling around 24g with a lever profile on the DE1 in around 40s - equivalent to 25-30s on a 9 bar machine.

I found that these ristretto shots were incredibly rich and syrupy, and made fantastic milk drinks. My normal milk drink is a cappuccino with around 4oz/110ml of milk, so quite coffee dominant. I don't think the coffee would get lost if a normal 2:1 espresso with the same dose would work well. Straight shots had the same richness and texture, but I found them to be a bit on the bitter side compared with my normal coffees. I believe that some people are adding a small amount of sugar to their espresso for this reason, but personally I'm not a fan.

#40: Post by **lancealot** » May 25th, 2022, 10:49 am

Try Saka Top Selection. It's in stock and very good.
Italian doubles are 14 gram doses of ground coffee. they are probably roasted with that requirement in mind. I have found that the Italian coffees do best at 14 - 15 gram doses.

I pull Top Selection at 15 in and 30 out @190 degrees in 25-30 seconds. Good luck in your quest.

Ps: I have the 30 gram shot of Saka in a latte and find it has just as much "punch" as any other medium roast pulled at 18 in / 36 out