Off topic - has anyone found cheaper sets of sifts than the kruve. The grind us way more important than the machine.
Sifting and particle size distribution are only one small part of what makes a grinder produce a certain flavour profile.
DiyPresso: DIY Espresso Machine
71–80 of 292 posts
Re: DiyPresso: DIY Espresso Machine
#72This looks cool and hackable. I wonder though how much control over the pressure you can get with a vibratory pump.
A vibratory pump is very good at controlling pressure as demonstrated by the Decent espresso machine the Gaggiuino mod and whatever that Rancilio Silva mod is called.
Re: DiyPresso: DIY Espresso Machine
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just based on how horrible of a company Nestle is, I usually encourage everyone to investigate some other options to make espresso at home. Side Note: Personally, making my coffee is a nice process in the morning to kick my brain out of that early fog, it's something I have to engage with, but also something you can learn and get _very_ quick at to the point where you don't need much headspace to do it, not every esp…
I'm not really paying Nestle though. I buy aftermarket cups (10 for 2 euro 50, less than half the price of their own cups!) and the machine is made by Krups. I use those same cups at work because they removed all the coffee machines and put nespressos in place of them. The reason was that the machine coffee was so horrible everyone started bringing their own nespresso machine (they had a really good deal at the time)…
If you're using aftermarket pods then you should use an aftermarket machine too, nespresso puts the gasket required to build pressure on the pod itself, and this gasket is patented preventing aftermarket pods from having the same gasket design. Since the gasket is on the pod it is not on the machine meaning that stock nespresso machines will have issues with aftermarket pods. Some aftermarket machines have their own seal, which compensates for this problem when using aftermarket pods.
For more info see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HouzvJGazs4
Re: DiyPresso: DIY Espresso Machine
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
>If Nestlé hadn't crippled their machines on purpose Nestle invented an entirely new way to brew coffee AGAIN just to extra lock down their pod system from independent competition. The built all this wankery about spinning the pods at like 30k rpm to "force the water through the coffee like an espresso machine" but it _doesn't_. As Mr Hoffman discussed, the foam it creates is just aerated coffee, which is substantial…
I haven't really seen those in the wild yet. On the other hand there are plenty of cheap original Nespresso machines pretty much everywhere in Switzerland. In some countries Nestlé was virtually giving them away around 2010~2015. Shortly after, some patents expired and third party brands started selling plastic capsules, and Nestlé had to fight back and make their machines work poorly with these! As far as I know all…
> As far as I know all patents have expired now
Even the integrated gasket patent?
There's still the proprietary secret of how they grind the coffee. Which nobody has successfully replicated meaning that all else being equal you still don't get exactly the same result.
That being said, from my experience with genuine nespresso pods in genuine nespresso machines, they taste nothing like espresso and nothing like a good coffee.
Re: DiyPresso: DIY Espresso Machine
#75I love espresso. But I don't think I'd be interested in a DIY option. I tend to use Nespresso, especially now that the cups are simply available in the shop (and cheap aftermarket options), it's pretty perfect. I know the manual process is more environmentally friendly but when I wake up in the morning I have no headspace for fussing with coffee grinds. I just need good coffee right away. And I don't even own a car o…
To chime in on the litany of reasons why this is not a good idea--sifting boiling water through plastic is not safe for consumption as plastic nano and micro-particles will leech from the plastic into the liquid. This happens by design when using these pods, meaning you are getting a small serving of plastic every morning, alongside your coffee. What a moronic design.
While it's likely not wrong that these things produce a bunch of suspended microplastics in your drink, we actually still don't know how unsafe microplastics are so I don't think you can outright state it is unsafe (not saying we shouldn't be worried about microplastics, I certainly am looking forward to more research on the topic to determine their impact because I am also worried, but it's just fear mongering to call it "unsafe")
Re: DiyPresso: DIY Espresso Machine
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
It sounds like you are the perfect customer for them but when your machine craps itself I would suggest checking out something like the Breville Barista models. I have the Pro version which has the grinder built in and I've found it makes far nicer coffees than the pods and there is minimal faffing around due to everything being integrated in the one machine.
I'm not convinced on autogrinders. One of my friends had one (A Jura) of 1000+ euro and the coffee was no better. Eventually the grinder crapped out and the replacement cost 3/4 of the machine price. He's now drinking Nespresso like me :) Breville doesn't seem to be a common brand here in Europe but I see it is a lot cheaper. Nothing like the 80 euro of a Nespresso machine though (which has also lasted me 10 years de…
The breville/sage machines are not "autogrinders" they're normal espresso machines with a grinder built into the same housing (which you can use stand alone) which you use to fill a portafilter basket and which you then need to tamp.
Machines which grind internally and produce a coffee fully automatically can be configured to produce decent coffee, but it's not exactly easy.
Re: DiyPresso: DIY Espresso Machine
#77This is needed now that Gagguino in a petty bit of drama is no longer offering source code, and locking into hardware suppliers. Gaggiuino Gen 3 is free to use and will offer free software updates, but the source code is no longer available. This decision was made to maintain high standards for the hardware required for the project and prevent individuals from fracturing the community with subpar, non-standard compon…
Honestly the whole Gaggiuino situation is so stupid it's unbelievable. Let's use "Gagguino" to mean "the authors of the original Gagguino" and "Faceuino" to mean "the guy on facebook" just to make it easier to explain the situation: Faceuino started selling his own kit based on the Gaggiuino designs with some modifications. Since the code and the designs (models and PCB) were permissively licensed, this was done at a…
Thank you so much for breaking this situation down with such clarity. I've had the Gagguino mod on my personal project list for a while, and when I saw that they went closed source I was flabbergasted. Your writeup is the first I've seen that puts the situation in context. And honestly... it's tremendously disappointing. I may end up selling my old Gaggia classic rather than keeping it around just for this.
Re: DiyPresso: DIY Espresso Machine
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well the bigger problem with Nespresso is the coffee/espresso tastes horrible and you have to deal with the waste.
It's not bad, many real espressos I buy in local coffee shops for a euro (This is Spain, things are cheap) are worse.
If you're not in a country where people regularly drink espresso then this is the problem you will find with literally every single non-specialty coffee shop. That being said, while crap coffee shop espresso is worse than nespresso, nespresso is still trash in compared to an espresso someone put in even 10 minutes of effort into dialling in.
Re: DiyPresso: DIY Espresso Machine
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well the bigger problem with Nespresso is the coffee/espresso tastes horrible and you have to deal with the waste.
Based upon the sales of Nespresso machines and pods a lot of people seem to disagree with you regarding the taste.
People still buy supermarket instant. I think the problem is actually that people don't know what good coffee tastes like, nor do they care.
Re: DiyPresso: DIY Espresso Machine
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
People don't buy Nespresso for the taste, they buy it for the convenience. If it was actually a superior method of serving coffee, then everyone would use it. Alas.
People wouldn't use Nespresso pods if they found them to be horrible tasting, as you claim they are, no matter how convenient they are. They use them because they both enjoy the taste and find them convenient. Most people like the taste of Nespresso pods, k-cups, drip coffee and Starbucks. The sales of all 4 reflect that.
They taste horrible compared to a good coffee, but they do taste better than crappy coffee shop espresso served in any country where espresso is not a common drink.