Comment by seanhunter | Hacker News Reader

Comment by seanhunter | Hacker News Reader

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Firstly I would say that the grinder makes an outsize difference relative to cost so I would strongly recommend you first invest in something like a Mahlkohning Vario (this is what I have as a present from my lovely wife who just by pure coincidence also likes nice coffee).

Then I have a friend who is an ex-high-end-barista and gigantic coffee snob (like coffee snob's coffee snob) and insists that once you have a good grinder it's more important to get a reverse osmosis filter than a high-end espresso machine. Make of that what you will, but if you want to investigate that he swears by this book[1] and having drunk coffee at Colonna and Smalls in Bath (owned by one of the guys who wrote the book) I can say he might be on to something. Certainly every cafe that does amazing coffee has an RO filter.

I have an ECM entry-level machine and it's great. I dont' need (or ever use) the frothing parts unless we have guests but they do the thing they are supposed to and the main coffee bit works great. I wish it could get a bit more pressure but it makes a good cup of espresso if I tamp well and use nice beans (which, you should always use nice beans. There's really no excuse for that one).

In the UK you can get great home coffee equipment as well as advice from Bella Barista[2]. Probably most countries have a place like that but even if you're not in the UK I would look at what they have as being a good starting point.

[1] https://www.waterstones.com/book/water-for-coffee/maxwell-co...

[2] https://bellabarista.co.uk/

I’ll check out the book but while I wait for shipping, could you share what you do with the RO water? Do you put your own mineral and salt profile into it, or just use it as pure H2O? I have an RO filter and build my own water profile for my homebrew beer, hadn’t started down that road for coffee yet.

I don't do anything - I just have a regular filter but my understanding is that the people who do this do certain black magic which somewhat depends on the "hardness/softness" and ph of the water as well as other stuff but it's all in that book apparently. I don't know the details.

Edit to add: Actually I just found this resource which you might find helpful https://dailycoffeenews.com/2018/08/15/a-practical-water-gui...

I went down the rabbit hole trying to learn about this, and it’s actually pretty easy to replicate the recommended water. Home brewing (beer) water is far more complex than this.

I’m going to brew some with this profile and see if I can taste the change, and if not I’m just sticking with my filtered tap water because it’s honestly pretty darn close. Just needs the chloramine taken out.

>wait for shipping

Assuming you mean the "notify when back in stock" on that website, unfortunately the book is now out of print.

If anyone else has an alternative source for it, I would be interested in reading it, and it seems like it would make a great gift for my coffee-geek friends.

https://www.baristahustle.com/blog/barista-hustle-water-reci...

RO is really important (along with remineralization), but you can buy RO water without a filter, so if you're not making several coffees a day, maybe it isn't worth it. If your supermarket has available RO water to fill jugs even better.

I would agree with your friend. I typically do pour over, and getting a nice grinder was a huge upgrade for the coffee flavor. I also only use filtered water. Next is fresher beans.

Frowned upon I'm sure, but for espresso a machine like Nespresso or L'Or has worked fine in a pinch.

I have a Mazzer Mini grinder that's pretty old and I suspect it is the weak link in the chain (paired with Rocket espresso machine). Is there an easy way to tell if the grinder is doing its job well, e.g., some reliable way to examine the grain size?

For me the grinder allows repeatability. I was trying to dial in shots with the grinder on my breville and was quickly frustrated. I could do everything else the same and get very different extraction times for the same volume of espresso, I ran 5 lbs of coffee through it in a row with my laptop and a spreadsheet tracking things trying to get consistent times, and it just wouldn’t be consistent.

I bought a HG-1, probably overkill, but now my mid-range breville puts out coffee that is way way better than most cafes, and it’s dead consistent. I have to adjust a little as my fresh coffee adapts to the world once the bag is open, but that’s it.

I’m sure you could find calibrated screens for espresso somewhere, but my bet is they would cost more than a new grinder. If it’s consistent, tastes good, and you have fine enough settings to adjust your extraction, I’d say it’s good.

I do think it's pretty consistent in extraction times. I probably just need to clean it :)

Not sure if very reliable but there's an app to analyse size distribution using camera: https://coffeeadastra.com/2019/04/07/an-app-to-measure-your-...

Oh, that's cool! Will definitely give that a try, thanks.

> "some reliable way to examine the grain size"

I don't own one myself but have seen the Kruve Brewler used, a metal ruler-like device with calibrated meshes drilled into it of varying sizes. They also make the Kruve Sifter, a calibrated sifter set, but that is considerably more expensive.

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