Comments on Niche Zero Review - Page 9

#81: Post by **Lal** » April 11th, 2019, 5:24 pm

mdreuben wrote:At most I've had four or five beans start popcorning and those resolved themselves almost immediately. I don't know how much that could affect the taste or particle distribution.

That's been my experience too, and glad to hear it shouldn't affect the flavor of the shot. Thanks for the reply.

#82: Post by **Nick Name** » April 11th, 2019, 5:44 pm

another_jim wrote:I love posts like this. Seriously, if you can blind taste the difference between the Niche with and without a Pringles lid; stop posting here, and get a million dollar a year job as the nose at some perfumerie or distillery. If you think any of us can taste such differences; somebody has sold you a bill of goods.

Jim, with all regards, I think the consensus here seems to be that the Pringles lid helps to get rid of any external mess coming from the the NZ (sorry if my point seems odd, English is not my native language). Like it has been stated previously THAT is the reason why one would use such a simple 'modification'. Frankly, I think nobody has mentioned taste....?

April 11th, 2019, 6:29 pm

No disrespect intended.

Every few months, I post about not getting too obsessed about one or two details (despite all the posts that do). Espresso is like cooking, first, there's lots of different things to get roughly right; second, it's about learning to taste which of those many things is not even close to right. Nobody ever pulled a sink shot by getting just one thing slightly wrong.

April 11th, 2019, 7:26 pm

Thanks for that really great perspective. I think that'll help me a lot whenever I take a break from reading the HB espresso primer to practice my technique.

#85: Post by **sweaner** » April 11th, 2019, 9:50 pm

another_jim wrote:Seriously, if you can blind taste the difference between the Niche with and without a Pringles lid; stop posting here

Well, I could definitely taste the difference.
When using the Pringles lid the coffee tasted like Sour Cream and Onions!

April 12th, 2019, 12:17 am

Forget the perfumerie; try stand up!

#87: Post by **mdreuben** » April 12th, 2019, 11:15 am

Coffee is just as much a wormhole as is high end audio. I replaced my power cord on my NZ with an oxygenated sterling silver one and immediately tasted more clarity in my shots.

#88: Post by **dominico** » April 12th, 2019, 11:44 am

sweaner wrote:Well, I could definitely taste the difference.
When using the Pringles lid the coffee tasted like Sour Cream and Onions!

Slight adjustment to your routine, remove the pringles before you use the lid.

mdreuben wrote:Coffee is just as much a wormhole as is high end audio. I replaced my power cord on my NZ with an oxygenated sterling silver one and immediately tasted more clarity in my shots.

Don't forget to fill your grind chamber completely with nitrogen before you grind to prevent further oxygen exposure to the beans, as their surface area is drastically increasing during this phase...

April 13th, 2019, 9:17 am

This is the content I'm really here for.

#90: Post by **Magoo** » April 13th, 2019, 6:36 pm

Big thanks to Sam, Luca, John, Julian and Shauvik for their blind test of the NZ and ek43, and the excellent write up.
Very useful data points. I really wish there were more blind taste tests like this. I currently own a eureka specialita and while I like it, I keep see-sawing between two thoughts: 1) I should "upgrade" to the NZ given all of the glowing reviews; and 2) I am kidding myself to think I will notice any difference the cup - especially since I exclusively drink flat whites.

If anybody has a chance to run this comparison in a blind test I would be very grateful.