EdipisReks1

I’ll have to supervise my coffee routine myself in the morning, I guess.

I feel like it would have been selfish to have prolonged things. I was asked if I wanted to take him home first. Why would I? He hated car trips. Why would I make him be in the car two more times? For what? It’s not like he was going to say good-bye to his treat bowl, one last time.

He was a very good cat. That’s not true: he was a very good one.

Silver got promoted from being “the other one,” so there’s that.

Dunhill is riddled with cancer. I’ll be putting him down at 1.

The vet mentioned that medication! And thank you for the litter idea. He’s at the vet right now. He’s not in good shape. But not really in any way that supposedly I would have been specifically worried about if he hadn’t started peeing. I feel like a piece of shit, though.

Not a bad cup.

Thanks guys. She’s 80, which is certainly up there. She started showing signs about four years ago. Well, she had had shown signs before, but that is when she failed her first neurological test (the draw the clock one, and she failed it in the most stereotypical “early signs of dementia way,” with all of the numbers bunched up on one side), and it has slowly progressed. It’s much worse at night, of course, and she has been in a great deal of pain due to her hip (replacement scheduled for March, but we’ll see), which hasn’t helped things, but it has progressed to the point where in bad days she’s not really able to take care of herself. But that’s not every day. It may not even be most days. But it’s too many for my comfort with her living independently, even just living 15 minutes away from me. Yesterday was one of the less good days. I did get her to eat, at least, but it’s sad when you use the same strategy with your mother that you do with your partner’s picky 8 year old: “one more half a ravioli and then you can be done.” Dunhill is just old, and his hips hurt too. Maybe he can’t reliably get to and into the boxes. I know he is not doing it on purpose, and he seems to do his best to get to a box. I may have to break down and put one in my bedroom (that’s the location I’ve been resisting). We’ll see what the vet says.

Dunhill has been having urinary incontinence issues the last few days. Going to the vet tomorrow (wanted today, but I had to deal with my mother this afternoon; her dementia has progressed to where I’ll have to force the issue sooner rather than later). Push comes to shove I’ll wash his butt three times a day and I’ll spread newspapers on the floor (I’ll have to start buying newspapers), but I don’t think he’s a fan of it either.

Normcore tamper may be funny looking, but it works really well. And I’ve definitely been over tamping my pucks lately, so I know to have a little bit of a lighter touch now. Maybe I’ve been getting frustration out on my coffee. Highly recommended. It’s very well built and not super duper spendy.

Only a couple dozen ways to find out!

You could always start with tea and then go to coffee! Though I know much of the point in going coffee to tea is to reduce caffeine later in the day…

Oh this is a good espresso day. That’s… just damned good. Coarser and no particular bloom time, other than the pre infusion that is simply part and parcel to the Flair, and a standard pressure profile for the 58 (hit 7-8 quick, then ramp down). Complex, well textured (wonderful mouthfeel), sweet and bitter and astringent vanilla, and just huge, huge cocoa. Malic acid. Apricot. Strong apricot, This was a blend of beans that was the dregs of three other light-medium “espresso roasts,” so I’ll never reproduce it. edit: Lychee at the back end. Usually when I taste lychee at the back of the palate I know I rode the line on extraction and came out on the right side.

I’ve finally figured out that I want Node 5 on the Acaia Lunar, not 4, though I can see why I would want 4 with a different work flow. The Lunar is much more complicated than the Pearl 2021 or the Pyxis, and I’ve barely scratched the surface.

How much is the Mahlkoenig X54? It’s sort of a high retention grinder, from what I’ve read, though. The DF64 is probably a worthy consideration, but even the 2.0 version seem kinda clunky to use, unless you have a 3D printer. The Niche is hard to compete with at its price point, assuming you can get one. It’s performance is better than good enough, even for pretty high standards of what “good enough” means, it’s well built, and it’s easy and intuitive to use. It’s also just… pleasant to use. They could probably sell it for 50 percent more. I think the Vario+/W+ are worth looking at, and if I can check them out when I’m at Prima I will. I believe the W+ is the same burr set as the X54, but it’s designed to be low retention. I think it’s a very good burrset. Alex, I think there was a tea thread years ago, but I don’t know if it has been active for a while. I sort of got to the point with tea where I was getting good enough results from the cheapest tea I could get away with, which was a consideration because I used to drink a lot of tea, and quit paying attention. I’m pretty happy with my cheap and cheerful Numi gunpowder; I get honey and bright, sweet jasmine, which is what I’m looking for with a gunpowder. I’m not sure I have found coffee beans that are at a similar place for me. Coffee is sort of like beer; the price difference between “acceptable” and “very good” is either small or non existent, so you might as well get very good. I find tea to be much more like wine.

Not coffee, but adjacent: where the Ember mug truly shines is with green tea. I’m much less discerning with tea than I am coffee, but I still enjoy a good cup or 3, and it’s just *perfect.* It’s lovely for coffee, but this is going to have me getting back into tea. PID kettle is also a tea game changer; no more putting an ice cube in the pot while I brew and hoping for the best!

I pulled a Rao blooming, or as best I can without a Decent or the SEP. I ground too fine, the shot never really came together (it peaked fast and I had to ramp down) and it pulled both short and long (1:1.8 in 40 seconds, not including the bloom). I took a sip just to calibrate, expecting to toss the shot down the sink and start over. It’s… not bad. Acidic, but I drink light roast espresso; I find it rather pleasant. It’s not what I would call “sour.” Nippy, but also chocolate covered pickled limes. Really nice texture. Apples? Not a hint of bitterness. It was under-extracted of course It’s not what I was going for, but it was interesting and not unpleasant. Certainly different flavors than I’ve had from this bean before.

Well I’ve made a mistake: I normally have a pour over first thing in the morning and then a bit later make espresso. I went with an AeroPress this morning. Basic recipe. It was delicious. But hooo boy do I feel the caffeine. But I want espresso now!

I’m already afraid that my coffee stuff is going to be family heirlooms! For some reason coffee isn’t a space where I sell gear, unlike audio or cutlery: I’m not sure why.

Just as an aside, the multipurpose burrs are uni, not high. Honestly I don’t think it really fucking matters: bean to bean is gonna be more important than unimodal or high, at a given grind setting.

Niche, then. It’s not perfect, but the next level is the Lagom P64, and it’s twice the price. And it’s also not perfect. I have the same burr set as the P64 (SSP multipurpose, which is one of the options and would be the burr you would want if you got the P64 and wanted to use it for both espresso and pour) in my modified Ode and it’s not a better burr than the Mazzer conical in the Niche. It’s… different. I use the Niche for espresso only (I actively prefer conical for espresso; I like the texture), but I would happily use it for pour. I’m in a position where I don’t have to use one grinder for everything, but I would keep the Niche if I had to choose one.* I do prefer the SSP flat burrs for filter, but this is super coffee dork preference stuff. *That’s not true: I would keep the Orphan OG, but I don’t think you are looking for a hand grinder.

I broke my rule and did latte art, just a rosette, but I also drank from this before taking a photo, so I think I still count as a contrarian hipster: Silk “next milk” is a winner. You can see the layers and the way it clings to the cup. Right there is the pour after the initial mix (after I drank some: I was drinking layer by layer). First time trying this stuff. It steams exactly like whole milk, more or less, and is delicious.

Do you want to single dose or have a hopper? And how much do you want to spend? Unlike with IEMs, where the answer is always “JH13,” my answer is not going to be “get a Niche,” and I really like mine. Espresso this morning was a Rao blooming as described by Covered_ears. We are sure lucky to have her here on this dumb forum. This shot was… one of the better espressos I’ve had. Pic where I pulled up the shot for the bloom: just about to drip but not quite. I sure love levers.

I was perusing my local Marshall’s while I waited for an Apple repair, and I noticed that they had a ton of coffee stuff. Like, good stuff, too. Bodum and Breville kettles. Lots of slightly wonky but interesting pour over stuff. An open box Brim pour over brewer for $60 (if I had a need or space, I would have gotten it). Just an FYI that holiday returns seem to be hitting close out stores now.

I figured it out: it’s a very long stretch like a cappuccino, but not allowed to get much dry foam. It’s quite nice, though much thicker than a typical latte milk. Was good in my hot chocolate.