Thanks for all the great contributions to this thread. Especially grand master ninja powermd. Couple ?'s
-So on a typical day I get up around 6:20am and I'm out the door by 7am. How much time do you give yourself to make early morning coffee on the way out to work (cleanup included)?
Here's the breakdown of how long it takes with each of my methods:
Espresso - I timed it at 3:20 start to finish. It only takes 30 seconds to pull a shot and simultaneously steam the milk. So everything else is just setup/breakdown- weighing out 20g of beans (15s), grinding (15s), tamping (5s), getting the milk/pitcher ready (10s), letting the milk settle for 20s before pouring, etc. I dump the puck, rinse the portafilter, and wipe the steam wand while the milk is settling. Another detail you might not realize until you're pulling shots is that every bean (and indeed every individual roast I do) has an optimal grind setting that needs to be worked out. Small changes in the grind setting make the difference between a shot that under extracts over 15s (undrinkable), over extracts over 30-60s+ (not ideal, but quite drinkable, btw), and just right at 25-30s. The good news is that if you're consistently using the same bean, you shouldn't have to tweak the grinder much.
Technivorm - 7 min. This thing is awesome... Assuming a minute to gather beans and water, I brew 24 oz of great coffee in 6 min using this machine. I will ordinarily use 40-50g beans for 24 oz drip coffee.
French press - 12 min. 5 min to boil water on the stove (or 1 min in the garage on my 3500W induction burner!), and 7 min to brew.
-You said you had a timer on your semi automatic... I've read you need a minimum of 45 minutes to get the machine warmed up and ready to go. Do the automatics bypass this warmup time...? ie turn on, press the magic button and 1 minute later you are ready to go? It seems that the automatics leave a lot to be desired with regards to flexibility with foam/frothyness unless you do it separately... am I correct on this?
I had a Tork 701A timer (SDN won't let me post an Amazon link) installed in the wall behind the machine when I upgraded the outlet to 20 amps
The Izzo Alex needs a solid 10 minutes warm up to brew properly, but 20-30 minutes is ideal so all the parts come up to temperature. It takes a bit longer if you're running it on a 15 amp circuit, because the boilers can't fire simultaneously without 20 amps.
Superautos just wing it. Most of the parts are plastic, so there's not much to heat up. I recall my Gaggia would be ready to go in 5-10s.
I love the thought of a semi-automatic and I like what I've seen on the ECM Technika you suggested. It's quiet, looks beautiful and is super engineered.
Take the red pill. It's your destiny, Neo.
My family from South America is coming up in May. I'd like to have this dialed in by then... and want to learn how to poor a nice cup so it looks like this:
Pouring latte art is not that hard.... the patterns just kind of unfold in front of you (the few times I've actually done it). The hard part is steaming the milk just right so it will not push the crema aside and make a big foam dot in the middle of the cup. You want milk that is full of very tightly packed foam that is closer to milk than foam, "microfoam" as the baristas say. Once you get the basic steaming technique down, it's easy to make a pitcher of billowy foam for a cappuccino. It's much harder to dial back on that power so you get the raw material for latte art. I removed the restrictor from inside my steamer wand when I first got the machine because I was trying to compensate for bad technique. Now that my technique is better, I actually think I need the restrictor back. A few things that helped early on- use a small tapered pitcher. Save the larger pitchers with straight sides for when your skill improves. Keep the pitcher in the freezer. The longer it takes for the milk to reach 100F, the more "expansion" you will get. Once you are over 100F, you're not expanding the foam anymore, just heating and texturizing the milk. Don't bother with a thermometer unless you're steaming a big pitcher of milk. Learn to use touch as your thermometer. I lightly tap my finger on the side of the pitcher as it steams. Once the pitcher reaches body temp, you're at 100F (about 4-6s for 6 oz milk), once the pitcher is hot enough that 1s of contact hurts, you're at 150F, so stop! I've gotten very good at hitting these numbers based on time and feel alone.
If I had it to do over again, this is probably what I'd plunk down for:
http://www.1st-line.com/store/pc/EC...-Commercial-Espresso-Machine-115V-89p6643.htm
For some reason I'm not finding the ECM online that has double boilers. The ones selling for $2400 are the heat exchanger models. The heat exchange mechanism is cool, but if you want the best temp management, you gotta have dual boilers, dual PIDs. The Izzo Alex will be the budget choice here, Profitec next, then the ECM dual if you can find it.
You have some aftermarket options to think about. One thing you need is a bottomless portafilter. This allows you to watch the coffee stream, which looks cool, but also allows you to evaluate the quality of your grind and tamp. If channeling is happening, it will be obvious because espresso will spray outside the cup. Clive coffee sells nice custom wood handle portafilters. I really wanted zebra wood, but that was out of stock, so I have wenge. You will also need a tamper. The most important thing about the tamper is that it fits the portafilter basket well. You will read that 30 lbs of force is needed to tamp a puck properly. This is demonstrably false. You only need to tamp hard enough to squeeze the air out between coffee particles and create a seal around the edges. The 500 lbs of pressure from your espresso machine will do the rest!
Another option, for the Izzo anyway, is joystick handles for the steam wand and hot water tap. Joysticks allow you to flip the steamer on/off full power instantaneously. That's much less awkward than turning a dial while steadying the pitcher with only one hand.
Oh.. and you may not have thought about cups. Check out Visions Espresso, their cups are perfect. I have the Renaissance 10 oz for lattes/big caps, and the 4 oz Revolution cups for small caps. These are about the perfect size for a double/single shot, respectively.
This whole discussion has me salivating over... a new grinder perhaps?
https://www.chriscoffee.com/Mahlkonig-K30-Vario-WBC-Single-Espresso-Grinder-p/k30variog.htm
Let me know if you want my Mazzer Mini!
