He currently has a Baratza Encore, and was looking at a 270 - he used to carry a manual grinder when he traveled for business more, but now that he's home he's getting lazy. I'll suggest Agro for sure, as I have a $50 gift card (from the Vancity deal where you got half back) and definitely try the stuff they have.

That’s quite the routine so I’d probably trust him in his analysis lol..

I'm likely in the minority, but after three or four shots over two or three days, I find Matchstick beans nose dive pretty quickly. I stopped buying from them ever since Aaron Braun was "exited" from the initial launch of their Fraserhood location. I wouldn't say your dad's observations are incorrect.

I’ve got a story regarding all that matchstick shit that is quite funny but it would take a lot to properly lay it out

Let’s just say that owner of matchsticks father works with Somone I know in a completely different industry and the guy is an arrogant, snobby, POS without much to back it up with so when all the matchstick stuff came out the story read like it could have been his father swapped in his place and the story would have still been completely fitting

Like father like son :lol

lol

I think Matchstick could have done a lot better had the owners simply taken a step back, let their investment ride with the right people to run the business and make it successful.

World Coffee day is coming! :fuckthatshit:

Any tips/tricks/hacks anyone want to share on how they make a better coffee? Or maybe good coffee beans worth buying for this occasion? Or any deal going on?

idrinkcoffee.com is having 10% off most of the stuff. I think it's a great deal and it's only 5% tax to BC! And for any order over $79, they give away a bag of beans... I've gotten one from them before and it's not bad at all. Definitely worth its regular $18/bag price.

I'd start with my lil trick.

When trying to learn how to do latte art, I found that the key really lies in how well foamed your milk is. You could have a bean that produce minimum crema (the part that creates most of the contrast), but with a good milk, you can still pull a decent latte art.

Most of the youtube or guide would tell you to use the spout of the pitcher as leverage in order to get the rotation going to better mix air into the milk. After failing maybe 300 attempts, I asked a barista who one day pulled the most sophisticated latte art (in a matter of seconds) for me about his secret.

He just told me, hold your pitcher perpendicular to the spout instead of using the spout as leverage point because most pitcher are teardrop shape. He finds that by steaming milk that way, he can get the milk to foam much better.

The first try after I took his advice, it came out like a pro.

Latte art is wayyyyy easier with a good boiler/steamer lol..

When I did the latte art class at Platform 7 with their machine I was banging out almost everything basic. At home I've had limited success and it seems much harder to texture the milk with a single boiler as I do

Is the steam tip on your Rocket dual hole or single hole? The one general complaint among all Rockets is the steam tip design makes it impossible to properly steam milk for good latte art, unless it's been improved since the V2 generation of machines, so I'm not 100% sure. I'm not much of a milk-based drink kind of guy, anyway. I prefer my shots of espresso, so I rarely, if ever, steam milk for lattes or cappuccinos etc.

idrinkcoffee's coffees are okay. You're better off getting some of the coffees from the local roasters listed in the post in the previous pages.

cafe22 mentioned Detour and Hatch - Detour is a solid go-to for me as their roasts are consistent and taste great. Hatch is a bit more premium, as cafe22 mentioned, but they do have more exotic/rare coffees. Monogram Coffee in Calgary is pretty good as well.

The key is learning and understanding your machine's capabilities, and working with it. Your machine is capable of steaming milk very well, in addition to pulling excellent shots. Just need to learn its nuances and pain points.

My coffee station quite a bit cheaper compared to you guys LUL

https://i.imgur.com/eac00RC.jpg

Great coffee though, out of all the roasters in HK this one is my favourite. They offer nice 'espresso' roasts for my wife too SeemsGood

For Aeropress I do 14g coffee, 200g water, inverse brew. Press at 1:00, finish at 1:30. Medium-ish grind

Gonna try the few roasters mentioned.

idrinkcoffee's bean isn't anything to write home about, but it's at least better than what you can get from grocery stores... and when it's free (with purchase), I ain't complaining.

My Rocket is dual holes and works quite well. I'm debating whether or not to go for a different ones. But so far so good.

Don't. It's not worth it, or rather, it's useless. I have the set, and if it's good for anything, it's to steam larger quantities of milk in a commercial setting, or you're pumping out traditional cappuccinos all day.

Finer or Coarser than a V60 grind?

I would also suggest you check out Single V in Burnaby. They sell coffee from Cat & Cloud (California based). The owner is also a car guy too.

I would not change the holes because it will have a marginal difference on a home machine. Most home espresso machines lack steam power which causes big foam bubbles to float to the top of the pitcher and leaving all the liquid at the bottom. Therefore this leads to a huge surge of foam coming out towards the end of the pour. A simple solution would be to transfer your heated milk into another milk jug to help incorporate the foam with the hot milk. I find this works well in most situations and I can create basic shapes (e.g. hearts, tulips) with even a saeco aroma.

Friend told me that Single V has started roasting their own coffee as well. I've yet to try it though.

Speaking of which, iDrinkCoffee has 10% off with COFFEEDAY coupon code. I'm thinking about the OCD v3 atm...

That timbertrain I posted from La Foret is pretty meh

Back to Moja I go

Gaggia Classic Pro - Sale

Thought I'd post this here if you guys haven't seen it yet.

Guys, I picked up a Breville Barista Express for $0 from my cousin, and it's been a fun experience so far. Been trying to find a good source of fresh beans in North Delta/Surrey area (bought a lb of Diabolique from Republica).

Has anyone tried oughtred? https://www.google.com/search?q=ough...hrome&ie=UTF-8

I've picked up a bag at Finest Cup in North Surrey/Fleetwood area.

They are single origin, roasted by themselves and very good for the money. (240g bag IIRC for ~$12)

The owner also seems quite knowledgeable. I think it's a good place to start.

I’m not a coffee connoisseur by any means, but I’m realizing that my coffee is going stale quickly with my current storage container. What do you folks use to store beans? Would something like this work? https://www.amazon.ca/New-OXO-Good-G...p?ie=UTF8&th=1

What brand of beans are you buying? And are they whole bean, or pre-ground?

Any pre-ground coffee will go stale very fast. The moment it is ground, it starts to go stale and gets worse from there onwards.

I think an air tight container will help, but not by much. If you are buying freshly roasted coffee beans, general rule of thumb is that it is good for about 10 days, but will vary depending on your environment (i.e. heat/cold or humidity levels etc.)

Try to avoid buying big bags of coffee if you aren't going through the coffee within 10 days or so. Stick to smaller bags no more than 1lb. If you are taking longer than 10 days to finish a 1lb bag (give or take a few days) then you may want to reconsider your coffee regimen.

How???? I put my mouth on the starbucs / Mcdonalds lid and knock it back
Why??? Cuz I'm fucking addicted okkkk

Whole bean. Right now I’ve been buying “work coffee” for Monday-Friday and “home coffee” for the weekends, but that means the beans at home are getting stale. Sounds like I should just drink the same stuff for the 10 days to keep it fresh. Thanks for the recommendation! 😉

Whole bean coffee lasts a lot longer than 10 days. It's fine for like 1 month at least, with some storage methods even 3 (also depends on the roast level). You shouldn't even be brewing it before 10 days after roasting in a lot of cases; you need to let it express gas a bit. Too fresh can be just as bad as too stale! Especially with espresso

I think most great roasters won't sell coffee instantly after roasting it; they'll let it age about a week first. It all depends on the bean though, washing method, drying method, roast level, etc.

Make sure your containers are sealed. You can get ones that have a vacuum pump as well. James Hoffman did a video on various coffee containers, and found a couple to be slightly better than using a jar.

More info here and here