episiarch

Another thoughtful review. This one pretty much says it all. Lorem iPad

I actually did find the edge of my unibody MBP to be too sharp for hour-after-hour comfort. I probably would not have done this to it on my own (though after seeing his video of how easy it is, then again I might), but that edge was one of the reasons I traded down to the previous generation MBP after owning a unibody for a while. (The other reasons were keyboard feel and the light leakage around the backlit keys.) I know I shouldn't be surprised, but nonetheless I am surprised at the number of people mocking this guy as a clueless moron at Man files "sharp" edge off his MacBook Pro . Crikey. He has a problem, he deals with it straightforwardly, he contributes a how-to video to the world, and nobody has to do this who doesn't want to. More power to him.

As I was reading this memo aloud to my wife earlier this evening, I realized I was reading it in my Michael Westen Burn Notice voice-over exposition voice -- which is kind of an offense against the material of the memo. But, ya know, it worked. (Quite possibly the very mild irony of that will turn out to be amusing only to me. Oh well, I'm used to it.)

Before my international move I was a mess that way. Woke at 1, 2, or 3, and didn't really sleep properly even up to that point. I did the modern thing and got myself medicated. It was absolutely the right thing to do. I wish I'd done it sooner.

Ear impressions for JH13s. Another set of impressions for ACS sleeves for the Etys too, while I was there. Also went to see if I could hear the Aktimate desktop speakers, but the dealer in that section of London - in a couple blocks of Tottenham Court Road that looks like shitty-fly-by-night-looking electronics dealers row, though this dealer looked better than most - didn't stock them any more. Will phone ahead before I try any more dealers.

A very fast read. I'd be done with it already if it hadn't been one of those sleepy-by-8pm Fridays.

Happy birthday, Al!

Go for a walk. Pick a place you haven't been but have heard about, a trail you've been meaning to explore, or just one that you haven't been on in a while. Bring the camera and probably some kind of inspiration will strike, but if it doesn't, fresh air and scenery will go a long way to helping you out of that in-a-rut feeling.

Less minimal, and currently out of stock, but a useful-looking stand: MovieWedge

So sorry the missing Boo hasn't made it home. Hoping there's still hope. Mrs. episiarch is severely allergic so I don't have a cat of my own any more. Happily my neighbors allow me visiting privileges with their cat Bella. After being reprimanded for jumping on the dining table - apparently she does this only when I come to visit - she spent most of the evening hiding in a paper bag. (She's normally not shy. I think she just liked that bag which happened to be positioned where she could spy on us from a place of concealment.) Eventually she deigned to reappear. [ATTACH=CONFIG]2862[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]2863[/ATTACH] (rollover for decent-sized images)

Nespresso's great. It's fast and foolproof and always makes a really, really nice cup (assuming you've chosen a blend you like). Whenever one of my friends or family thinks they want to get an espresso machine, I try to talk them into the Nespresso system instead. It's really the right thing for most people who aren't sort of nutcases like myself. The product is, as far as I'm concerned, genuine espresso. It's not as good as you'd get at an elite artisan roaster/caf

Friend of mine went to that. Implied the Chewy-on-Threepio action was the best part. Didn't elaborate.

One more post: this just in. MISS SILVIA IN RED LEATHER! Limited edition. To hell with the budget. Edit: turns out it's fake leather. But still. Pretty!

I've never used the Saeco Aroma nor the Kyocera hand grinder, but I'm in complete agreement with Bob on most points. A grinder is to espresso what an amp is to headphones. To get good results you must have a good one. They no more all grind the same than all amplifiers sound the same. Steam toys (no pump or weak pump) don't do the job. Basically they make moka pot coffee but with more parts to get dirty, go wrong, and break. (As I posted earlier there is nothing wrong with moka pot coffee, but it's not the same beverage as espresso. If you want moka pot coffee you are better off with a simple, reliable, easy to clean and inexpensive moka pot to start out with.) Nix on the pressurized portafilter, the crema-aid insert, or whatever other name these accessories go under these days. They are all basically gimmicks intended to make it look like you're getting a proper crema-topped cup of tasty espresso when really you're not. (FWIW Gaggia comes with a regular portafilter as stock, no upgrade needed.) What he said about adding a Silvia wand goes for Gaggia machines too. If you want high-quality milk drinks, plan on the wand upgrade as part of your total budget. However I wouldn't call grinding by hand a workout. It's not even effort, even first thing in the morning when I haven't had my coffee yet . It's not crunching gravel into sand, it's just shaving wee slivers off of roasted coffee beans with suitably sharp burrs. It does take a lot of turns* (I never manage to keep count but I'm estimating more like 300 turns for my 18g dose in a Zass), but it's easy. I imagine the Kyocera's super sharp ceramic burrs would make it even easier. *(This being Head-Case I think I'm supposed to insert an obligatory comparison to some other solitary manual activity here, but do I really gotta?)

Gaggia machines start under $250 for the Evolution model. That model is as technically proficient as my $500 retail (I got it for less) Gaggia Classic - same boiler/heater, same pump, same grouphead - it just doesn't have the automatic pressure-relief valve to dump excess water after the shot. A convenience feature but not a necessity. Also the case is plastic and (by reputation) sometimes other componentry like the panel switches on the plastic Gaggias aren't as long-lasting as on the higher models. But my old plastic Carezza (low-end machine that was replaced by the Evolution) saw a lot of use at my hands and those of the previous owner, and held up just fine. The really salient point, though, is what you mentioned: Gaggia makes machines for bars and caf

On my Whirlpool, you press the downward-pointing-triangle-in-a-circle button and the rightward-pointing-triangle-with-no-circle button two over from it simultaneously. Since there are no text labels or legends, these obviously must be universally recognised ideograms that are guaranteed to work for you as well.

No, no, I'm from the USA. Just living in Britain right now. I know Intelligentsia's beans very well, and I've heard of Terroir though I haven't tried them. If you have a clean machine, good beans, good grinder, equipment and technique I have no idea why you're not getting a terrific shot. I agree Turkish is tasty though. Haven't made it in a while. Any tips? Do you use the foam-three-times-then-settle system?

FWIW I really only started getting high-quality shots on a consistent basis when I started getting really consistent in my dose. Weighing helped enormously - the difference between a 17.5g, an 18g and and an 18.5g dose in my machine is substantial - but this is easier in my setup than in most people's. Assuming you're using fresh beans and a good grinder and are decently consistent in your grind and tamp, I'd suggest figuring out next how you can tighten up your dosing parameters.

or . . . you could just give yourself over to it. Man On Internet Almost Falls Into World Of DIY Mustard Enthusiasts | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Congratulations, naaman!

You may want to think of it as getting hooked on a new drug. You'll want to be sure there's a high-quality dealer within reasonable driving distance, at least until you learn to make your own.

You guys will be shocked and disbelieving, but I am getting super results with a $80 hand-cranked grinder. Zassenhaus Conical Burr Coffee Mills It takes a little getting used to, and sure it takes an extra couple of minutes, but I take the grinder back to my desk and catch up on my morning web reading while I grind, so it's not an unpleasant or tedious experience. And you wouldn't think the results would be repeatable, but these days I go back and forth between French press and espresso in this grinder and my espresso grind is bang-on for the first shot probably 90% of the time. Besides being inexpensive it's quiet, which was actually the deciding factor for me since I'm the early riser in the family and I try not to wake the baby (and our UK place is small). I figured I'd try it as an experiment before breaking down and getting a proper electric grinder (had an Ascaso iMini before, would probably go for a Baratza Vario now). But the experiment worked so well that I didn't go back to electric like I expected. A nice feature of these manual grinders is that you can grind by weight and essentially nothing gets lost in the works. So I can measure out an 18.5 gram dose at the start of the grind and know that's very close to what I'll have in grounds at the end. Very helpful for the kind of teetering-on-the-edge-of-overextraction shots that I like to make.

I buy freshly-roasted beans from artisan roasters. I have no idea who does that in the Montreal area or within realistic mail-order distance from Montreal, but it's a really fun exercise in itself to make the rounds of the good roasters and see what you like. When I lived in NorCal I'd drive over to Barefoot for bags of The Boss, and mail order Black Cat from Intelligentsia, Redline (and Redline Decaf, a great dessert espresso) from Metropolis, and Ticino from Flying Goat (they've since replaced that blend). In the UK, different roasters, different coffees, but same general idea. Those sorts of coffees run around US$12-16/lb, or somewhat over $.50/shot the way I make mine. A substantial cost issue was that beans taste off to me by about the 10th day after roast, and are really junk by two weeks, so I was throwing away lots of product. Finally I lost my inhibitions about freezing (see related Home Barista thread) at least for modest periods, and am saving a bunch of money on waste and on postage by ordering a kilo at a time and keeping all but the current 1/4 lb or so well sealed and frozen. As for what kind of coffee, I've tried lots of different things but the pattern I seem to have settled into, for making espresso I like, with my equipment and my skills (in other words YMMV big time), is: always a blend, I never really like single origin espresso except as the occasional amusing experiment arabica blends, not arabica/robusta blends (but that's just because I'm caffeine-sensitive and budget my intake; flavorwise I don't mind a little robusta) never a very dark roast (espresso amplifies the burnt/caramelized flavor of dark roasts too much for me) re bean origin statistically I seem to lean noticeably toward Brazil My current daily standard over here in the UK is a blend of two Brazils, a red and a yellow from the Daterra plantations, roasted in Scotland by MacBeans. If I were home in the US my regular cup would probably be Barefoot's The Boss, part Brazilian and part Indonesian. (Boss coffee signage & tech details) I'm sure I've blathered about this in more detail than you wanted, but I never really get to talk about this stuff, so there it is.

Coffeegeeks is the Head-Fi, and Home Barista is the Head-Case. (Beware. You're as apt to be talked into spending a Stax-sized budget over there as over here.) The Bialetti and similar stovetops - generically, 'moka pots' - make a tasty cup, but it's really qualitatively different from what you can produce with a pump-driven (or manually pumped) espresso machine. If you like the kind of espresso you get at the little artisan places (not necessarily what you'd get @ Starbucks et al), your taste for it won't be satisfied by anything you can get from a moka pot. Not to denigrate moka pots at all - people across Europe use them daily, and they make a super rich and tasty beverage that's quite unlike American drip coffee. But IMO if what you like is an espresso, a moka pot won't satisfy.