I have that Breville smart oven too-- it is the Cadillac of toaster ovens. Got them for my parents and brother too. They’re awesome! Don’t know if that translates to coffee machines, though.
If you want to get coffee dorky (this is the right thread) then an aeropress is not espresso. While this article isn’t as ardent as some of the definitions I’ve read (extraction for 25 seconds under 9 bars of pressure yielding 1.5 oz of fluid ), it’s still pretty confident about what the aeropress isn’t.
I didn’t say it was espresso, I said it was essentially espresso, just without the crema.
I’m not sure what “essentially” espresso is. I assume you mean it shares (in your humble opinion) all the same flavor/mouthfeel characteristics as espresso.
On a different forum I could say that a dodge charger is essentially the same as a McLaren P1, and watch people go nuts…This is fhe coffee dork thread.
Yes, it tastes like espresso in every way except the crema on top. It’s not actually espresso, because espresso has that crema.
I’ve been periodically cold brewing coffee again, and it’s been working great… just dump a pound of coffee into a fine mesh bag, and sit it in a big jar of water over night, pull the bag out, and you’ve got some nice coffee extract that’s great for iced coffee.
Much simpler with the mesh bag, vs. the old Toddy coffee brewer thing I had years ago.
In the summer, I do cold brew in a big 5-quart Aldi ice cream tub. I fill it with water and an appropriate amount of coffee, and filter it through a few layers of cheesecloth when pouring into a gallon jug. The cheesecloth just gets thrown away.
It’s a nice large-batch process; iced coffee is a popular drink in my house.
This is an unpopular opinion, but I don’t like coldbrew coffee. It always seems to come out tasting sour, which is a sign of underexposed grounds in traditional hot brewing and espresso. This is from reputable vendors like Stumptown too, so I don’t think they’re doing it wrong.
I far prefer hot brewed american, aeropress, or espresso poured directly over ice japanese-style.
I dunno, the coffee extract I’ve been making definitely doesn’t have the sour taste (I know the flavor you mean, I think).
I wonder if it may be due to the time used for the brewing process.
If my own coldbrew was sour (which it was) and commercially available coldbrew from reputable guys like Stumptown wasn’t, then sure. But all of the stuff was sour. Even the bottled coldbrew I’ve tried was sour, and that should be ultra-consistent. Couldn’t drink it without sweetener.
I did a bit of research on this, and some sites recommended a whopping 1:1 ratio of coffee to water to avoid a sour product. That seems crazy to me when I can just push it through an aeropress at a 1:16 ratio and get delicious espresso-level concentration coffee out the other end.
The other element there is time. My cold brew doesn’t use that much coffee, but I also leave it for about 24 hours.
I made it at 1:4 ratio sitting 24 hours in the fridge, and it came out sour as balls.
Huh?
I was going to stay out of your “essentially espresso” argument, but the challenge is on now. The next time we’re in the same city (provided it has a proper espresso place) I challenge you to bring your 16:1 Aeropress for a taste test against real espresso.
That came from a quick google for “aeropress ratio” which is not what I actually do. Actually I drop in two heaping scoops, 35-40g of coffee, then fill with hot water to just under the 1 cup line for maybe 180g of water, for a roughly 1:5 ratio.
Wait those are weight ratios? I woulda guessed volume.
Volume is fine for water as 1ml=1g, but not for coffee which varies in density particularly in how fine it’s ground.
Yeah I know the density of water. It does absolutely make sense to use weight for things with varying density based on the amount of air in the product. I guess I’m surprised because espresso grounds when I’ve worked with them have been way less dense than water, and if that graph above for ristretto is by weight, that would be an absolutely crazy amount of grounds to water by volume.
Well I don’t know what measurements the graph you posted uses, but the ratios seem about right for espresso. Yes ristretto is extremely tight.
I must be thinking of a different sour taste then, because I didn’t notice any such flavor in the coffee I made. I’ll pay more attention for it when I drink it next.
I ended up buying a Breville Infuser.
https://www.amazon.com/Breville-BES840XL-Infuser-Espresso-Machine/dp/B00DS476HU
Somewhat infuriatingly, it’s $50 cheaper than it was when I bought it? I guess I will be immediately getting in touch with them to see if they want to refund me the difference…
It’s awesome, though. I’ve been having a lot of fun dialing everything in. Pulled the first shot I was really happy with just a few minutes ago – 32 seconds with the pressure right where it should be. Steamer works okay. Not as good as a commercial one, of course, but far better than the ones I’ve used on less expensive machines.
I was also moved to buy one of these, which feels like a ludicrous extravagance.
It’s a box with nested screens to sift out only the grounds of the proper size. It seems like it makes sense in theory. I’m not sure whether it’s just a coincidence that my first good shot was pulled the first time I used this… I did stick with my Encore grinder, which is on the low end for espresso use. According to the Kruve, it was definitely not grinding much that was fine enough. I ended up grinding some extra and basically throwing away my “boulders”. Not the most cost-effective way forward, so I will have to think about what to do.
Overall, though, I’m super happy with the espresso machine. Recommended so far.