Home-Barista.com

since ya mentioned hoff he has a vid on crema might be worth a watch
agree with him and others its overrated and not what its about so I do not TRY to get crema I try to get the proper time to extraction amount and it just happens depending on beans more or less

for most things hoff is good for the amount of water thing for the robot he is WAY off and wrong IMHO so just fill near to top

I extract 21 grams 1:2 and have measured some lungo style shots into about 60 grams of water as mentioned so depending on how much you want each drink to have on the espresso end

I wish I got a second basket BUT its not needed as you can just pre grind your next shot dump wipe tamp like any regular machine if you are going to pull a bunch


the first vid dude looks like he is more using that look over the method to see his gauge on the backside mount ? but I could be wrong but looks like that to me

the second vid ? I am not sure I agree on his view ? will leave it at no comment hahahahah

as far as puck lift ? that second video guy had mentioned that in one of his vids which drew some HUH from many here as I remember ? I know I was like HUH
yeah you can get some if you truly lift the handles a lot and quick but you have to try IMHO
so doing any normal continuous or slow ramp up etc. never ever had that issue


I can say I found preheating the piston did nothing for me and taste and a couple times was worse I think a lot has to do with the water being off boil when it goes in vs a set temp lower BUT I say try it make notes find what works for you but do not think you HAVE to do all those steps ! its all personal

also I found one fill in the porta then dump that to be enough preheat ritual and doing more again for me and my beans did nothing in the cup
I fill my cup then my basket twice the second one being the one I lock in then let go the handles so they are just sitting on the pressure they are at (almost nothing I reckon) dump my cup of hot water and place it under then start the pre infusion and pull
I also use a paper filter on top of the puck so from top down its screen filter coffee
I do this for super easy clean up AND biggest reason is I do not have to be slow and careful when pouring in the water

there has been talk of the ring thing on some folks ? again I think this is the nerd side of many here having fun and wondering why I only get that ring now I noticed once in a while with my mazzer never with my comandante ? its pretty even as its showing up
I also only shake the basket no WDT and I use the tamper he created to make a flatter tamp that has the two levels

I'm actually struggling a bit with the mugs. Most of them are too tall when combined with a set of scales or too small. I don't like having to angle the mug in there. The best thing I've found not actually is a 7.5cm high glass mug from habitat. My ideal would be a double sided mug of that height that has a decent capacity. May'be I'll just have to accept that I use one to get the coffee in and a different one to drink from. All ends up cold though.

Honu wrote: as far as puck lift ? that second video guy had mentioned that in one of his vids which drew some HUH from many here as I remember ? I know I was like HUH
yeah you can get some if you truly lift the handles a lot and quick but you have to try IMHO
so doing any normal continuous or slow ramp up etc. never ever had that issue

It's been a while since I have seen that video, but I do remember that when he mentioned puck lift he immediately showed the puck stuck to the screen. Was that his way of proving puck lift? As we all know on the robot the screen sits right on the grounds to begin with. The only time the puck sticks to my screen is if it sits for a little while, giving it time to cake on.

Hmm I think I might have made the mistake here and thought that acidity is a bad thing. It might just be that these are the first expensive beans off the internet that I bought and they're just supposed to taste like this!

Honu wrote:I can say I found preheating the piston did nothing for me and taste and a couple times was worse I think a lot has to do with the water being off boil when it goes in vs a set temp lower BUT I say try it make notes find what works for you but do not think you HAVE to do all those steps ! its all personal

also I found one fill in the porta then dump that to be enough preheat ritual and doing more again for me and my beans did nothing in the cup

Optimal temperature depends on the beans to a large extent. For a lot of comfort blends no preheat at all seems to work great.

I've been buying three coffees from a roaster recently, one that is dark/dark-medium, one that is medium/medium-dark, and one that is medium/medium-light. So a gradation of roast levels. And what I've found consistently is that the darkest one is best without any preheat (I actually cool the piston with a fan before pulling the second shot) and also pulled a little short, 1:1.7. The middle blend seems to taste best when I pull 1:2 combined with a double-pour preheat of the basket. And the lightest one, a natural processed bean, is just a little sour unless I preheat the piston too. I also pull it longer, 1:2.3 or so.

For whatever that's worth.

The little silicone nub on the new dispersion screen broke after 4 months of use.

Cafelat doesn't sell the nub alone (yet) and it costs $37 (including $27 shipping) to get the whole screen set. Too wasteful...

Any suggestion for a cheap DIY replacement option?

As a temporary measure, I would just try to find a rubber band that tightly fits the hole doubled, tie a knot, then snip to the desired length. You might be able to find some silicon sheet material, like a hot pad or tubing, and fashion one with scissors. Just a thought.

A rubber band in hot water might just be something you could taste.

Silicone sheet and food grade silicone adhesive is what I'd use to create one. But I already have those things. They'd probably cost you $20.

Another option is to go rigid like the original screen. Buy a small stainless steel (or nylon) bolt and nut.

Yeah I'm not sure about rubber band due to potential taste and health hazard.

I wonder if a small amount of this silicone sealant shaped into a nub will do. Supposedly food contact safe and high temp resistant.

K7 wrote:I wonder if a small amount of this silicone sealant shaped into a nub will do. Supposedly food contact safe and high temp resistant.

That's the stuff I have. It's possible to do what you're talking about but the adhesive is sticky and takes quite a while to set. So making one in situ would be awkward at the very least. You could mold something elsewhere first and then install it; that might work better. But it would probably be really ugly.

I'm just curious how it broke. And also, if you still have the pieces, maybe you can just glue it back together with silicone.