vapourtrail wrote:I received mine this past Friday, it came much faster than I had expected. Very pleasantly surprised that it came with some filter papers!



My coffee beans are finally coming later, however I ordered a light roast Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. I'm only familiar with pour overs, the robot will be my first try at espresso. I've since ordered beans intended for espresso, but they'll come next week. I know I can't wait to try at least once, with the light roast. But from what I've read, should I hold on dialing in the shots, until I get some espresso beans instead?

Short answer: Go for it with the light beans, if you like lightly roasted SO espresso.

Long answer: Pulling shots with the light roasted beans--you have little to lose (if you like lightly roasted SO espresso) and at worst you'll get some practice. Just remember with lighter beans temperature management becomes more of an issue. You'll want to pre-heat the PF.

I had a light roast Yirgacheffe in the Robot, but I don't have any reference how it should have tasted like. Had to dose pretty low and grind quite fine, and it's been good (with pre warming the portafilter), but did not fall in love with that coffee. A bit too grassy if that makes any sense. A Guatemala with similar roast from the same roaster was much more to my liking, so I guess it has nothing to do with the Robot per se. YMMV.

If it's too grassy it may be underdeveloped or may need more resting time before using it.

vapourtrail wrote: My coffee beans are finally coming later, however I ordered a light roast Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. I'm only familiar with pour overs, the robot will be my first try at espresso. I've since ordered beans intended for espresso, but they'll come next week. I know I can't wait to try at least once, with the light roast. But from what I've read, should I hold on dialing in the shots, until I get some espresso beans instead?

Just a heads up: you may find that fine grinding lightly-roasted beans with good consistency on your Helor 101 is a challenging task, especially if you're a novice at dialing in espresso, even on as forgiving a machine as is the Robot. Also, 18g or more of light beans might require a lot of effort on a smallish manual grinder. If you experience frustration trying to get good shots, a good-quality grinder that's designed for espresso should help solve any obstacles you encounter. OTOH, if the Helor works for you, let us know!

@Wilfried, how well does your M47 work with light Ethiopian beans?

Balthazar_B wrote: @Wilfried, how well does your M47 work with light Ethiopian beans?

I started using the M47 with nothing but light roasts. Works well. Only after trying some South Italian roasts do I know how much easier grinding with the M47 can be. Light roasts require more effort for sure, but grinding time is not that bad, 18g in 40s is doable in Winter at least

If you are referring to the quality in the cup: Don't have a reference, so can't really say.

Just saw a video of the Pink Expression Manual Espresso Machine, it seemed almost effortless to reach a high amount of pressure. Wondering if it's possible to make a version of the Robot with a hand crank instead of levers.

Javier wrote:A $370 premium and handmade product that produces shots as good as shots from $15,000 espresso machines. A manual pressure-profiling espresso machine. No fancy electronics or pumps to go wrong.

Don't be sad or apologetic. We love the Cafelat Robot.

+4

drgary wrote:The shower screen doesn't go that far down because the basket tapers. I suppose you could cut a paper filter to fit. If you grind fine enough, it can work otherwise. Why would you want to dose that low? Pulling a single? Working with a very light roast and wanting a full extraction?



It depends on the coffee. My usual dose is 18 gm but that is tuned by what I'm trying to achieve in the extraction. I just pulled a shot with a 20 gm dose that was rich and delicious.

I'm mainly looking to reduce my caffeine intake as my caffeine sensitivity has been getting worse lately. I was thinking something like a single shot wouldn't cause me too many issues, hence the question about the low dose.

gumchum wrote:How well does the Robot work with lower doses of coffee, say 10g?

FWIW, one of my best shots was when finishing off the last 11g of some northern Italian roast beans. That's the only time I've done a small shot. I just guessed how much finer to grind, and got lucky.

Balthazar_B wrote:Just a heads up: you may find that fine grinding lightly-roasted beans with good consistency on your Helor 101 is a challenging task, especially if you're a novice at dialing in espresso, even on as forgiving a machine as is the Robot. Also, 18g or more of light beans might require a lot of effort on a smallish manual grinder. If you experience frustration trying to get good shots, a good-quality grinder that's designed for espresso should help solve any obstacles you encounter. OTOH, if the Helor works for you, let us know!

I tried pulling two 14g shots, didn't get enough pressure the first time. The second one was much better, I got very strong tasting notes, just slightly acidic. I also ordered a mini timer/scale that haven't arrive, overall I think the light roast will be better with my usual pour over routine. I'll experiment with the variables when the scale and darker roast comes.

Considering that I'm not even using the "espresso burrs" for the Helor 101, the grind quality is surprisingly consistent and good. I'm definitely looking at upgrading in the next couple of months, but this set up should work fine in the mean time.

This is a lot of fun, I haven't been excited about coffee in a while!