Inverted Reality

 

A week with Mazzer

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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

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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
 

Short Macc, Fremantle

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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
 

Sydney Coffee

Well we're back in Perth from our Sydney trip. While I was there I tried a lot of coffee. I would have to say my fave was Mecca Espresso on King St in the CBD, what a brilliant ristretto (despite asking for espresso). LOVELY. Unfortunately no pic. I had two, and a capp. YUM, and served instantly! thumbs up. Ettalong Beach Hotel, War Memorial Club (like RSL). This young bloke really new how to work his equipment, while not using a propper tamper (using the grinders tamper) he made a decent coffee from supermarket-type beans

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Customs House, Newcastle. We had Melissa's grandmothers 80th' here (mouthful!) The food was great, the coffee wasn't bad either (again for supermarket-beans). This girl knew how to make a lot of coffee, fast. Impressed. Lovely machine too.
La Palma Pizza Cafe, Ettalong Beach. This is a pizza bar, the coffee was very stale
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Jam Cafe, East Gosford. Not bad supermarket-type coffee from this gourmet deli/grocer/lunchbar, well made. Excellent food.
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I also had an espresso from Adria Rybar & Grill in Darling Harbour which was actually pretty decent. Also in Darling Harbour an Espresso and capp from "Cafe & Bar" (i think) in harbourside, the coffee was terrible, watery, bitter. The espresso also sat on their machine for probably 5 minutes before being served to me. It's the coffee shop with black signage right opposite the large circular water feature opposite IMAX, stay away!

Filed under  //   coffee   espresso   sydney  
Posted January 29, 2009
 

Spoonz, Fremantle

Russ and I went to Spoonz this morning to get a coffee, a lot of Fremantle Hospital staff go to Spoonz for their morning fix. I walked in, ordered a latte and waited. As I waited, I watched as they dosed their PF from a near-full dosing chamber, and lock the PF straight into the group. NO TAMPING. I cringed. I won't be going back. spoonz

Filed under  //   coffee   espresso   fremantle   latte   spoonz  
Posted January 29, 2009
 

got espresso?

So after owning my espresso machine for a few months now, I'm getting better at pulling shots. I did a little video up. Note that in this vid the extraction is a little fast, the grind wasn't fine enough, so no critique thanks!

Filed under  //   coffee   em0480   espresso   sunbeam em6910  
Posted January 27, 2009
 

got coffee?

I'm not a huge coffee drinker, but lately I've been drinking pretty much a cup a day. I've only ever liked good coffee, the real stuff you get at the local cafe, not the crap that comes out of the packet. I've never thought about making my own coffee, until recently. I did a little research on some equipment for home (within a price range) and found a great site.. coffeesnobs.com.au check it out. I settled on a Sunbeam EM6910 machine and EM0480 grinder. The EM6910 is about $570 AUD retail... It's a well featured home machine that has twin thermoblock's (allowing you to steam and extract at the same time), large water tank, hot water spout, commercial size group head, etc. Since last thursday (in the last four days) I've made about 10 cups (about four for me). Flat white's, Mac's and a hot chocolate. My first two attempts at dosing and extracting were not that great. First was too quick/runny, the second was too slow and thick. Both probably due to my grind courseness and my dosing technique. My third extraction attempt was reasonable and as it should be. It tasted okay too. It doesn't help that I'm using beans from my local Gloria Jeans (which I'm told are garranteed to be stale). I've ordered some fresh stuff today which should be few-day-since-roasted stuff, so I'm looking forward to it's arrival in the mail. Texturing milk is much easier than I thought it would be. To be honest the majority of the work is in the grind and dose/tamp. I'm really looking forward to making some tasty coffee's!

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Filed under  //   Gadgets   beans   coffee   em0480   espresso   flat white   grinder   hot chocolate   latte   sunbeam em6910  
Posted November 24, 2008