Inverted Reality

A week with Mazzer

It's been a week since I picked up my coffee grinder, a Mazzer Mini manual. I thought it would be good to post about my time with this bad boy. Firstly, my coffee has improved. It tastes better. You are probably thinking "what, how can just changing your grinder improve your coffee". Let me answer by saying It's ALL IN THE GRINDER. Look at my grinder, it's a $750 Mazzer Mini. Look at my coffee machine, it's a $600 Sunbeam. Through research and help from others, I decided to upgrade my grinder before upgrading my espresso machine. Because it's all in the grind! :) The Mazzer is awesome, it's quieter, built solidly and performs amazingly. I've put together a list of pro's and cons: Pro's - build quality, quieter, better grind, better control over grind Con's - messy, throws grinds sideways when 'clacking' (now fixed with schecter mod), big The pro's speak for themselves, I'll discuss the con's. It was really messy, until I did the 'schecter' mod. This modification is basically a small paper funnel in the doser chamber outlet that allows the grinds to drop straight down when 'clacking' the lever. Out of the box, this thing threw the grinds somewhat sideways, making for poor distribution and a fair bit of mess. The size of the machine doesn't bother me much (it's the smallest grinder they make), but could annoy those with small kitchens and tight spaces. For low volume use, you can easily use it without the bean hopper, which I've experimented with. An old tamper can fit in the throat of the machine above the burrs, so you can dose the beans in to the throat, then cover with a tamper, and grind for a single shot. Yesterday I entertained and made coffee for five guests. I dosed the bean hopper with enough beans for the five shots, and began to grind in to the doser. I'd never done it this way before, previously I'd grind only enough beans for one shot, in to the doser, then dose. Almost like grinding on demand, almost making the doser nothing more than a coffee grinds agitator. I struggled with a half-full doser. Don't get me wrong, it provided stunning doses of grinds in to the PF, but, I really needed to have that doser dialed in to drop the right amount of grinds each time. I ended up with a lot of over-dosed PF's, and I even threw out two wasted baskets which choked my machine because it was too over-dosed. Not ideal when your coffee is $40/kg. Second batch of coffee's for my guests and I was able to have the doser adjusted a little better for this kind of dosing. I dialed the doser in to probably about 7gms a dose. Three clack's gave me maybe 21gm's (at a guess), it was a good basket level after tamping. I'm able to dose and tamp, without distribution, most of the time, and I'm getting even extractions (from what I can tell in the cup and by breaking up the puck (waste). My coffee is just that much more enjoyable, a great improvement over the Sunbeam EM0480 grinder, which for the money, is a great conical burr grinder. Next step in my coffee utopia (or quest?) is a new espresso machine. I've talked previously about issues with my current machine, so I won't go in to it. I will say, it's hard to justify the expense when you have a wife that doesn't drink coffee!

Filed under // coffee espresso grinder mazzer mazzer mini sunbeam em0480

Posted April 5, 2010

Coffee

Let me tell you something. I love coffee. The smell of a bag of freshly roasted beans, the whir of the grinder, the aroma of freshly extracted espresso. Yum yum! My love for coffee is growing stronger every day, trying different coffee's is a pleasure, but preparing good espresso is just as pleasurable as consuming the final product. A while back I purchased some coffee equipment to begin my journey in to the coffee world. I bought a Sunbeam EM6910 espresso machine and matching EM0480 conical burr grinder. Together this equipment has allowed me to explore fresh coffee and put together a variety of coffee based drinks and treats. (I made some coffee-filled cream biscuits once!) I made the decision to buy this specific equipment after much research on the internet (specifically the coffeesnobs.com.au web site) where I found like-minded coffee fanatics willing to help me get started. The equipment had to fit the following criteria:

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Filed under // coffee em0480 espresso mazzer mazzer mini sunbeam em6910

Posted March 26, 2010

Buy me a Coffee Machine

Here at Inverted Reality, we are fueled by coffee! No Coffee? No fun! ~~Help fund our new espresso machine by donating your hard earned cash. Just click on the donate button on the right col of this page!~~ If you are a business and are interested in sponsoring the site. Feel free to contact me. Make a killer donation and I'll throw your logo, product, whatever all over this web page. Got a product you want reviewed? No problemo. Want me to come to your special event and blog it, or splash it all over the social media networks? No problemo! The things we do for a good cup of joe eh?

Filed under // buy me coffee coffee coffee fund espresso sponsor

Posted March 4, 2010

BarCamp Perth

Is fast approaching. April 10th to be exact. While I've not been in the past (I was busy last year), I'd like to attend this year, and perhaps even contribute something. I'm just trying to think of some topic's that I could maybe discuss at BarCamp. Here's a list of things I've thought of so far... (I'll pick one): Webmin - A web systems administration package for servers (mainly Linux) Virtualmin - A web hosting administration package for servers Sysadmin on the road - Consultancy and systems administration whilst mobile. Apple iPad demonstration and practical uses in industry (health / medical uses) Social Networking as a business tool Or maybe I will just go and suck down all the Five Senses Coffee? Taken from their site:

BarCamp is an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment

If you've never been to a BarCamp before, the idea is simple. BarCamp Perth is a free, single day event held at Central Institute of Technology. It's kind of like a conference in that most of the day is filled with talks (both formal and informal) but anyone and everyone is welcome to speak (hence, an unconference). If you have a topic you're passionate about or you just want to help spread the knowledge, you're invited to submit your talk topic (once that part of the site is up) and people attending on the day will get to choose which talks go when. In past years, we've had talks on everything from Ruby on Rails to Hardware Hacking to Second Life. If you have something to contribute or just want to learn, BarCamp Perth is for you. The motto of BarCamp is simple: No spectators, only participants.

Filed under // 2010 Gadgets Internet Linux barcamp barcamp 2010 barcamp perth coffee perth

Posted February 23, 2010

Life as a Coffee

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university Professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the Prof. went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the Prof. said “If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. That all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other’s cups.” “Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn’t change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.” So friend, don’t let the cups drive you…enjoy the coffee instead.

Filed under // coffee life

Posted February 20, 2010

Latte sipping techno weenies

Are Apple Mac owners Latte sipping techno weenies? If so, what about Latte sipping, Vespa-riding Mac owners? What kind of image are Mac owners portraying, and what about coffee snobs? and what about Vespa riders? Mac owners like good coffee. Vespa riders like good coffee. Not all Mac owners and coffee drinkers ride Vespa's. Not all Vespa riders own Mac's. But I bet there are a whole bunch of people like me.

Filed under // Apple coffee mac stereotype vespa

Posted February 17, 2010

Coffee Fix

Two days without a coffee. I've run out of beans at home and my recent order has not arrived yet. GASP. I did the right thing and brewed up the very last of my beans for my father in law who helped me lay down my new lawn on the weekend. So no coffee for me at all over the weekend. It's Monday now, I'm at work, I HAD to go buy a coffee... $5.50 for Fiori coffee brewed at Pekish Cafe in Osb Park

Filed under // coffee

Posted February 15, 2010

Coffee Van Experience

Who's the goon that put my coffee cup in the dish washer this morning, and switched it on? at 9AM? I've just walked in to work. I didn't manage to pull a shot at home this morning so it was going to be crappy-coffee-at-work day. That's fine. I get to work, where's my mug? It's in the dishwasher. The dishwasher is on. Who the hell puts the dishwasher on, first thing in the morning, when everyone want's their coffee!? -anger- In a huff, I grabbed my goofy looking hat, sunnies and wallet from my desk and stormed out of the building on a quest to get some freshly made coffee.

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Filed under // coffee

Posted November 11, 2009

shit coffee

Filed under // coffee delonghi espresso shit

Posted October 21, 2009

Short Macc, Fremantle

This is where I had my first ever date with my now-wife Melissa. We had coffee here at Short Macc several years ago. I think it was called something else though. 2002? I remember she was wearing her blue wide-neck-top showing a shoulder. How could I forget? I've never been back here since. I wasn't really into coffee much back then. Coffee was coffee, I wasn't a coffee drinker, at least not like I am now. Russ and I walked past Short Macc yesterday, on the way back from Spoonz. I looked in the door and noticed the Faema 2-group and said to Russ, we'll try this tomorrow. We talked in today and I instantly noticed the Mazzer grinder full of lovely medium-brown beans, and then the bag of ' 5 senses coffee' on the shelf next to the paper coffee cups. Aaah, '5 senses' I said. This could be good. The first thing I tried was an espresso, just how good could this be? It was delicious. It tasted just like the '5 senses' shots I pulled last week at the Barista Academy in Northbridge. The espresso was just full of flavour with great crema. Not some botched espresso cut short and passed off as a ristretto. lovely. Russ and I ordered a Latte and Capp to leave with. I don't like coffee in paper cup's much, but hey, my capp was just excellent. The cups are quite big compared to other take-away coffee's so well worth the $4.10'ish that we paid per cup. I will be back again and again as I think I've found my work-cuppa!

Filed under // 5 senses coffee coffee espresso faema fremantle mazzer short macc

Posted January 30, 2009