bringyoutomyhell wrote:Hehe, then it's all good, I see you're a man of culture as well *sips whiskey*

out of curiosity. is the Red Clix made BY commandante, or is is a third party thing made for it?

Red Clix are made by Commandante.

welp, I got the robot in, and am ready to rock.

quick question though. I'm going to be starting out using the classic dark roasts for milk based drinks to fine tune and dial it in for hte first bag (ish) so I was thinking of hititng up costco and just grabbing a cheap (ish) bag to play around with, add milk and "drink my mistakes" so to speak.

anything at Costco stand out as "oh yeah, try that stuff, it'll work decently".

the kirkland signature espresso blend?
the Mayora dark?
Peets Dickanson ???

It will probably be stale. I don't think it's a good idea, you'll be frustrated. The Robot is easier to dial in with good beans, fast. You'll have better luck with cheap but fresh beans from a local roaster if you can, they'll probably cost little more or the same

All right. I'll take a look around town. Happy mug is moving to their new warehouse and won't be up for another week and my usual s&w roasting is almost too light for espresso even according to Nick. So I'll see if in town has something

I do have some happy mug sidama that just hit the 14 day mark from roasting so I might just dial in with that

Definitely don't go to Costco. You will be extremely frustrated with the results as the beans will be too stale to produce anything worthwhile. For some reason that's a common idea, buy cheap old beans to learn on. But it's a very bad idea.

If you're looking for cheap and a good dark roast, check out Nossa Familia's Teodoro's blend. Use the Home Barista discount code and you'll find it's quite reasonably priced. Also as others mentioned, check out your local shops for good stuff as well.

followed the advice, went to my local roaster who does GREAT light roasts and found out that they have a dark roast espresso blend that they use for their clients so I grabbed that (not wild, $21 a lb) and went home to test out the Robot.

well, being that this was my very first time pulling a shot it didn't go too badly. especially since I was using a brand new 1zpresso X-pro that just came out this last month (12.5 micron adjustments similar to the JX-pro, except using the heptagonal burrs of the K series).

1st shot was utterly swill. Completely under extracted to the point of a dark roast tasting sour and OBVIOUSLY way too coarse as it ran through the cup at barely 3 barrs.

2nd shot was almost as bad. pretty much chocked the machine going too fine and the shot was still sourish (I could barely get 4-5 bars due to it choking)

3rd shot was the one I kept. it was livable. I backed off on the grind just a bit and it came out liveable. I was able to hit the 6-8 bar range pretty easily doing an 18 gram in, 36-38 ml out recipe. Still tastes KINDA funky (bitterish/slightly sour, and a bit watery) but it was liveable when I foamed some milk and made a simple Cap out of it. I'll probably pull a 4th one later today and see what else I can do.


EDIT: decided to pull a 4th, ran it at the same ratio, but dialed it back ONE click on the grinder. it came out a bit better. easier to hit the 8 bar mark without straining and the shot was a bit smoother.

Part of me honestly isn't sure what to EXPECT for a straight espresso when I'm taste testing it, but the best way of describing it is that it's a bit "sharp" on the tongue. I can taste some of the caramel and chocolate, but it's very sharp, even though it's not "sour" like I would expect from drip coffee.

I'm noticing the shot is a bit watery though, so I'm wondering if I should change my technique. I'm doing a 5 second pre-infusion at about 2 bars, and then a straight pull up to 8 bars for the rest of the shot. 1:2 output.

as I said, it's not bad for my very first time, but it's definitely not GREAT tasting so far (that sharpness is the limiting factor, outside of that it would taste great). With milk it's not half bad though. A straight double cap (is it really a double though at only 36 ml output? lol) it's quite decent to drink my mistakes

As a reference point, if your roaster also brews espressos, have them pull you a couple of shots to see what the flavor profile is "supposed" to be. It's fair to assume that they are shooting for an optimal result with that roast and that they can pretty much hit it themselves. Now you may find it may not be your cup of tea, but even then, having it as a target may help you dial in your brand new grinder/brewer combo to reach the best extraction, and those learnings will still be useful for other beans. Another thing to ask them is their target for water temperature with those beans. Out of the box, the Robot will brew cooler than a commercial machine, although you can raise water temp through preheating the basket and piston. There's some very good discussion about this earlier in the thread.

I was actually thinking that on my way home. I probably should have had them pull a shot and see how the flavor profile is.

I preheated the basket, and I left it alone too. Didn't seem to do much. As I said it's a little bit sharp and almost like I'm tasting solvents but not quite. I'm going to play around with grind size and consistency of pressing levers. Because the first couple of times I could tell the grinds were way off, and I also had a problem with keeping consistent bars just because I was trying to focus on the gauge so much I didn't realize I was either slipping or putting too much pressure on.

One question though. For a dark roast should I be keeping a 1 to 2 ratio or should I be shooting for a higher grind to water ratio?

wormraper wrote:(I could barely get 4-5 bars due to it choking)

wormraper wrote:easier to hit the 8 bar mark without straining

It's the second time I've read these kinds of comments. Doesn't make sense to me. If the shot chokes, you should be able to achieve a lot of pressure (not that it's recommended..) and 8 bars should be the same amount of strain regardless.

My favourite strategy with dark roasts is to grind fairly coarse and go for a brief pre-infusion or none at all. I'm guessing that's a good idea with the grinder you're using (at least with my K-Max it seems coarser and faster is preferable). If you're not used to drinking espresso, I'd suggest increasing the ratio to 1:3-4 even though you're using a dark roast (or dilute with a small amount of water afterwards).