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Vancouver Off-Topic / Current EventsThe off-topic forum for Vancouver, funnies, non-auto centered discussions, WORK SAFE. While the rules are more relaxed here, there are still rules. Please refer to sticky thread in this forum.
15 years ago, owning a Silvia with a diy PID was like equivalent to owning a La Marzocco Mini. Nowadays, it's crazy to think it is entry/mid-tier machine.
I think the Silvia has made a lot of nice improvements over the past 20 years. Parts are easy to find and the construction is straight forward. I also love how they kept the big switches and away from any fancy touch screen or buttons.
lol yes i remember installing the Auber PID to it (that was hot shit back in the day) and is now a common item in most prosumer machines. Not enough love for Rancilio but I do like their stuff. Had some amazing shops in Los Angeles/Santa Monica where a shop owner swore by Rancilio.
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Originally Posted by whitev70r
When I had a 2 yo, attending those were friggin painful as hell. I rather get the Chinese water torture for 2 hours.
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Originally Posted by Badhobz
excuse me, i would never date a mainlander... thats disgusting.
Yeah, I added to the waitlist for a few flat burr machines and we'd see which one becomes available first. From what I could gather, they are all quite amazing (as one'd expect), but availability is fucked up for anything except EK43s. But it's just ugly imo.
I ended up going with the Slayer because the shot I tried was so good. It paves a new way to experiment with roast or anything that I found difficult to extract before. This really made me feel actually "upgrading" as it opens up possibilities of trying new beans/roasts I used to avoid because they were relatively harder to get it right and tasty with R58.
Yes, there are ways... but just the same reason I upgraded from 870XL to R58. I wanted to get some guesswork out of my coffee-making process. And I just didn't quite find that on a GS3 while trying at the Slayer/GS3 simultaneously. Don't get me wrong. GS3 still makes a terrific coffee. However, just like bcrdukes said, I'd most likely have buyer remorse by going that route. And considering the guy who owns the Slayer just "upgraded" from GS3 to that, I think since the budget allows this time, I'd skip that step.
Just waiting for the plumber to come and hook everything up as they should and I will unpack this badboy.
I ordered from out of province to save a bit of tax. The dealer happened to have one that I wanted (220v) in stock and was able to ship immediately. I was pleasantly surprised how fast their freight was able to bring it over here. (3days?) I guess I was lucky to have all the logistics aligned without having any delay in between.
As for the R58, I was totally happy with it. If my parents didn't ask for it, I'd still be using it right now.
There were 2 reasons for the upgrade: 1. dad needed an espresso machine for their cabin, and they were ok for me to go something better as they are enjoying coffee now (they were more of a tea person).
2. Some roast/beans that are hard to extract, I tend to spend a lot of time by purely trial-and-error; messing around with grind size, brew temp, dose... etc to get an extraction I was happy with. And even then, the result was not really consistent.
And that day when we tried the Slayer at my buddy's friend's place, we made 3 drinks, and all 3 came out the same. With GS3 AV that he had, it was a bit messing around a la R58.
At the end of the day, I believe R58, or GS3 would be able to extract certain roasts/beans the same or perhaps better than just straight with Slayer. But that involves messing around with them, and I just want to enjoy my coffee. I know messing around with them is part of the experience, but I was very impressed what the Slayer could do without having to mess around with it too much. So, I can't wait to see what it can do when I start messing around with it.
I think the next step would be to buy a grinder that can take advantage of the Slayer. And start buying all kind of beans, whether they are something good for day to day drinking like Stumptown Hairbender that I personally enjoy very much to some exotic beans like Geisha and their different roasts. That's where most of my coffee $$$ is going to go in the foreseeable future.
I dig deep into all the reviews and owner feedbacks before pulling the trigger. The Slayer, among LM GS3 MP/Strada EP1, Synesso Hydra... etc are all at the top of their game. It's more about further minimizing the variables, however small they might be.
With the tech constantly evolving, I'm sure a few year down the road, probably every prosumer machine might be able to pull a "Slayer shot". And by then, something better would be around.
Technically, the Decent Espresso Machines can mimimic the Slayer profile. But of course, the Slayer wins when it comes to 'wow' factor when you have people over.
The thing about Decent is that the machine is not really anything to write home about.
In high-end machines, they all have some or all commercial grade stuff that are not only good for longevity, but also consistency. Because ultimately, the major difference between a home-based machine vs. a commercial grade one is that the commercial machines can pull shot after shot with little to no variation in flavour assuming everything else stay equal.
That's the main reason I decided against a Decent. It's amazing to mess around as one is able to tweek pretty much everything on the fly. However, its hardware is sometimes not up to the job. That is why I don't think any higher volume cafe would actually feature Decent as their main machine. It's actually really hard to keep up even if you want to make say 3-4 shots continuously.
My best guess is that Decent would eventually one day introduce a model that features all commercial grade components. And if Victoria Arduino P1 is any indication, we'd see other manufacturer to come up with machines that have commercial grade components with a software that can rival Decent.
However, I'm not really into messing around coffee from a nerdy/geeky perspective. I still truly believe in the artistic form of coffee. Where a good cup of coffee is not defined by numbers, but actually working with the beans... to taste them and adjust the grind, dose... etc to make a great cup. A machine such as Slayer just eliminate some guesswork out of the equation.
Coffee slushies from "Soon coffee" at the new Brentwood mall foodcourt are pretty good. It's like a Viet ice coffee ice cap, pretty strong. They also have Lee's donuts too which is plus!
Does anyone know the idea behind grind sizes when you start mixing them?
Playing around the Slayer, I got the consistency down to perfection. As long as the grind is the same (which I tried by mass grinding say 5*18g at once, and then weight 18g for every shot for 0 variances on grind), all shots come up perfectly equal.
So, I think it's time to start experimenting a bit.
I remember when I was looking for random expresso vids on youtube, there was a video about kopi O' that involves fine grind at the bottom, then a coarse grind on top, albeit some special bean or something in that nature.
I always wondered how that would work in home setting. The coarser grind, and assuming a stronger bean with darker roast on top, with a finer grind and light roast at the bottom should be able to yield some yummy drinks... in theory at least, as you combine the best of both worlds.
Anyone tried that can shine some light on the theory behind it?
Coffee slushies from "Soon coffee" at the new Brentwood mall foodcourt are pretty good. It's like a Viet ice coffee ice cap, pretty strong. They also have Lee's donuts too which is plus!
If I understand correctly they are a branch off of Monogram coffee in Calgary. Really enjoy their coffee when I’m there and their beans have been great. Looking forward to checking them out once I’m back in BC
I'm nowhere near your guys' expertise but I have recently started grinding my own beans and using a mocha pot. I have definitely noticed an improvement in flavour
Enjoy the moka pot journey! I often switch up my routine and brew coffee using the moka pot and it's one of my favourite methods of brewing coffee and experimenting. I'm trying to find a camping / portable / mini butane stove to be able to control the temperatures better.
My only mistake so far is buying a 6-cup moca pot. I wished that I had gotten a smaller one to contain the size for more espresso-forward yields.
so... noob question. the moka pot says it's a 6 cup espresso maker. does that mean i've been drinking 6 shots of espresso every morning? lol. cuz that seems wrong or at the very least, a LOT of caffeine.
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. Hopefully you get your hands on a Monolith or Titus!
