Espresso quality machines you know

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Juniorcoffeelover22
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#1: Post by Juniorcoffeelover22 »

Hi all!

I'm curious for what your opinion is about what are the better espresso machine out there capable of outputing the thickier, syrupy texture and delicious espresso. Whether your opinion based on your experience\information you seen in the web or from a friend, I would like to hear.

I was able to make thick syrupy texture coffee with my cafelat robot when I used ~25-30g coffee for a shot, it was great but a lot of coffee :D

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Jeff
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#2: Post by Jeff »

Those thick shots are more likely due to the coffee than the machine. Classic blends tend to be thicker in body than third-wave blends.

As a secondary effect, some modern, flat-burr grinders (a handful generally above $2,000 and generally with SSP burrs) tend to have less body than conical or classic flat grinders.

Marmot
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#3: Post by Marmot »

The thickest creamiest espresso I could pull so far was with a Bezzera Strega and a Ditting grinder with cast iron burrs. The second thickest was with a Cremina. I have several machines to test and the Strega can easily give me a very thick mouthfeel even at low doses. I used Quarta Rossa which is a blend with Robusta and really dark. I only dosed 16 grams but it was still like heavy whipping cream. The cast iron burrs of the Ditting are also important. I used other large steel flat burrs and a Versalab M3 but the result was still not as good as with the Ditting.
I guess the Robot will pull similar shots as a Cremina. But in the Cremina I used even less Quarta beans. I usually dose 12 to 13 grams dark roasted beans in the Cremina. Have you tried a smaller dose in your Robot?

Juniorcoffeelover22 (original poster)
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#4: Post by Juniorcoffeelover22 (original poster) »

Well I have tried to use smaller doses but as the dose is greater the mouthfeel is stronger.
Marmot, those machines you have mentioned looks high-end machines, very nice!

henri
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#5: Post by henri »

Juniorcoffeelover22 wrote:I was able to make thick syrupy texture coffee with my cafelat robot when I used ~25-30g coffee for a shot, it was great but a lot of coffee :D
I agree with others that the coffee is much more of a factor here than the machine. However, if you want a smaller dose, I'd suggest looking into baskets with smaller diameters, as otherwise you'll be pushed into the sort of very fine grind territory that has a negative effect on mouthfeel. I've been singing the praise of the Flair Classic in a couple of threads here lately... with its 40mm basket, I can pull a very creamy shot using no more than 9 grams. Of course, that's assuming that the coffee is up to the task to begin with.

Juniorcoffeelover22 (original poster)
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#6: Post by Juniorcoffeelover22 (original poster) replying to henri »

Glad to hear your experience henri. By the way I don't think that there is smaller baskets for the cafelat robot, but would be nice to try the shot from the flair sometime :D

Marmot
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#7: Post by Marmot »

I had the same experience with small diameter baskets. They work really well with dark roasts and low doses. It is also really important to use the coffee at the right time. Quarta Rossa for instance has to be about 2 weeks old but not much older than 6 weeks. It is still good after that but will never be as creamy and intense as in that window.
One thing I experienced with small diameter baskets is that if you out in a lot of coffee the espresso gets more crema but looses complexity. It actually reminds me of espresso from a pressurized portafilter because the crema also seems more like foam. Maybe the high cylindrical shape of such a puck has a similar effect as a pressurized basket?

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BaristaBoy E61
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#8: Post by BaristaBoy E61 »

Coffee
Grinder
Barista
Espresso Machine
Water
"You didn't buy an Espresso Machine - You bought a Chemistry Set!"

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baldheadracing
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#9: Post by baldheadracing replying to BaristaBoy E61 »

... and brew pressure. Lots of Italian machines run their vibration pump machines at a little higher pressure (much to James Hoffmann's dismay), and lots of commercial spring lever group machines run two springs or one strong spring to get peak pressures well over 9 bar, e.g., the Strega mentioned above.
-"Good quality brings happiness as you use it" - Nobuho Miya, Kamasada

Juniorcoffeelover22 (original poster)
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#10: Post by Juniorcoffeelover22 (original poster) »

Marmot wrote:I had the same experience with small diameter baskets. They work really well with dark roasts and low doses. It is also really important to use the coffee at the right time. Quarta Rossa for instance has to be about 2 weeks old but not much older than 6 weeks. It is still good after that but will never be as creamy and intense as in that window.
One thing I experienced with small diameter baskets is that if you out in a lot of coffee the espresso gets more crema but looses complexity. It actually reminds me of espresso from a pressurized portafilter because the crema also seems more like foam. Maybe the high cylindrical shape of such a puck has a similar effect as a pressurized basket?
Marmot, such a puck indeed has that kind of pressurized effect imo because the water has to be pushed through longer amount of coffee, it is the same with my robot - For the same grinding size and pressure, if I extracted 16g or 28g, the 28g came out slower, but I can't remember how was the crema though.

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