Neglected Food Bubbles: The Espresso Coffee Foam • Hacker News Board

Re: Neglected Food Bubbles: The Espresso Coffee Foam

#61

Post by arcticfox » Tue, Sep 13, 2016, 9:40 PM UTC

lytfyre wrote: post #52

gwynplaine wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree, Italian espresso was considered great decades ago, but standards have risen faster elsewhere since then. Italy still makes the best espresso _machines_ such as Simonelli. My experience of coffee there is coffee roasted so dark as to be considered burnt. See the World Barista Championship winners, not a single Italian yet, unfortunately. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Barista_Championship

> Italy still makes the best espresso _machines_ such as Simonelli Even that I think they're losing ground on - Slayer or Synesso out of Seattle, or Mod Bar out of Indiana are pretty great, certainly right up there with any Simonelli or La Marzoco. For consumer level espresso machines, I think Breville (Australian) has been blowing away just about everything under 2k$. It's been interesting to watch them bring more m…

Also, I know some of the top Italian manufacturers have started sourcing at least some of their most technical electrical components out of Seattle already

Re: Neglected Food Bubbles: The Espresso Coffee Foam

#62

Post by js2 » Tue, Sep 13, 2016, 9:51 PM UTC

BurningFrog wrote: post #51

luckydata wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ritual's coffee is terrible: acidic, unpleasant to the palate and lacking in aroma. I hope your coffee is better than theirs. - disclosure: I'm Italian and I believe espresso in San Francisco sucks almost universally

Could it be that taste differs in different parts of the world? Just trying to have everyone get along and get to be right.

American coffee snob here (not that I necessarily have good taste though): I was blown away by the espresso in Italy. On a two-week trip, every espresso I had there was better than any espresso I've had in the U.S. Which isn't to say I haven't had great coffee in America, just not great espresso. I think mostly Americans just don't care about espresso.

Pet peeve: high-end restaurants in the U.S. mostly don't care about the coffee they serve. A high-end restauarant will employ a bar tender, a pasty chef, a somellier, but not a barista. So you enjoy a fantastic meal and then when you order an espresso at the end, you get something the server pulled out of an automatic machine. Nooo, why!?

Re: Neglected Food Bubbles: The Espresso Coffee Foam

#63

Post by CalRobert » Tue, Sep 13, 2016, 9:59 PM UTC

luckydata wrote: post #23

HoppedUpMenace wrote: post #20

My first machine to make espresso was a espresso/drip coffee combo. Not knowing any better, I was merely pulling strong coffee and not espresso shots. Then I got a stand alone espresso machine, much closer to the real deal but still a far cry from what a coffee roaster like Temple Coffee could make in their store. Finally, invested in a Breville BES870XL and after many trials and errors, my espresso shots are fairly…

Ritual's coffee is terrible: acidic, unpleasant to the palate and lacking in aroma. I hope your coffee is better than theirs. - disclosure: I'm Italian and I believe espresso in San Francisco sucks almost universally

Maybe it's a matter of preference? I really miss just having a big pot of drip coffee. The machines where I am now (Europe, but not a part known for its cuisine) are all these Gaggia things that make a lot of noise and take ages to produce a cup of kind of flavorless, mediocre coffee, even with decent(ish) beans.

Re: Neglected Food Bubbles: The Espresso Coffee Foam

#64

Post by silverlake » Tue, Sep 13, 2016, 10:03 PM UTC

luckydata wrote: post #23

HoppedUpMenace wrote: post #20

My first machine to make espresso was a espresso/drip coffee combo. Not knowing any better, I was merely pulling strong coffee and not espresso shots. Then I got a stand alone espresso machine, much closer to the real deal but still a far cry from what a coffee roaster like Temple Coffee could make in their store. Finally, invested in a Breville BES870XL and after many trials and errors, my espresso shots are fairly…

Ritual's coffee is terrible: acidic, unpleasant to the palate and lacking in aroma. I hope your coffee is better than theirs. - disclosure: I'm Italian and I believe espresso in San Francisco sucks almost universally

Third wave espresso is acidic on purpose.

Re: Neglected Food Bubbles: The Espresso Coffee Foam

#65

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 13, 2016, 10:03 PM UTC

luckydata wrote: post #23

HoppedUpMenace wrote: post #20

My first machine to make espresso was a espresso/drip coffee combo. Not knowing any better, I was merely pulling strong coffee and not espresso shots. Then I got a stand alone espresso machine, much closer to the real deal but still a far cry from what a coffee roaster like Temple Coffee could make in their store. Finally, invested in a Breville BES870XL and after many trials and errors, my espresso shots are fairly…

Ritual's coffee is terrible: acidic, unpleasant to the palate and lacking in aroma. I hope your coffee is better than theirs. - disclosure: I'm Italian and I believe espresso in San Francisco sucks almost universally

[deleted]

Re: Neglected Food Bubbles: The Espresso Coffee Foam

#66

Post by hammock » Tue, Sep 13, 2016, 10:07 PM UTC

NetStrikeForce wrote: post #46

hammock wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Espresso machines need not be fancy or ultra-expensive. That's a terrible myth. The best one I've found (in terms of quality espresso and reliability) is the Delonghi basic model and costs $99.[1] The Italian Americans I know also use this model, despite having tried others. [1] https://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-EC155-Espresso-Cappuccino-Ma...

What's an Italian American? I'm asking because an Italian grows up in a coffee culture very different than the American. E.g. what you do around the water cooler South Europeans do around the coffee machine. If an Italian American is an American that grew up in America and has Italian ancestors... well, I can't see how that's relevant when it comes to coffee. And sorry for the slight offtopic, but Americans always lo…

I mean Italian immigrant. The guy I'm thinking of right now lived in Rome until his mid-thirties.

Re: Neglected Food Bubbles: The Espresso Coffee Foam

#67

Post by dougk16 » Tue, Sep 13, 2016, 10:13 PM UTC

HoppedUpMenace wrote: post #20

My first machine to make espresso was a espresso/drip coffee combo. Not knowing any better, I was merely pulling strong coffee and not espresso shots. Then I got a stand alone espresso machine, much closer to the real deal but still a far cry from what a coffee roaster like Temple Coffee could make in their store. Finally, invested in a Breville BES870XL and after many trials and errors, my espresso shots are fairly…

The amount of crema is definitely tied to air exposure so the quicker you can use up your beans the better

Check out this simple vacuum sealer: http://www.pump-n-seal.com/

No affiliation, I've just been using this device for years. It's basically a simple bike pump in reverse. Put your coffee in a mason jar, give it a few good pumps, and you have delicious crema for weeks and weeks. Every time you pop the top the aroma is like you're opening a fresh bag.

One of those things that you're surprised most coffee shops and connoisseurs don't use religiously as it makes such a huge difference.

Re: Neglected Food Bubbles: The Espresso Coffee Foam

#68

Post by DiabloD3 » Tue, Sep 13, 2016, 10:30 PM UTC

Surprised to see no mention of the Aeropress yet.

Only way I'll make coffee.

Re: Neglected Food Bubbles: The Espresso Coffee Foam

#69

Post by jpmattia » Tue, Sep 13, 2016, 11:12 PM UTC

Several years before this publication, Ernesto Illy had an article in Scientific American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-complexity-of-...

The article is funny in one respect: SciAm is pretty strict against anything remotely resembling corporate PR disguised as science reporting. However, it was such a good article, and most of the science community is so caffeine addicted, that the editors gave him a pass.

Re: Neglected Food Bubbles: The Espresso Coffee Foam

#70

Post by hanklazard » Tue, Sep 13, 2016, 11:18 PM UTC

lobster_johnson wrote: post #55

hammock wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Espresso machines need not be fancy or ultra-expensive. That's a terrible myth. The best one I've found (in terms of quality espresso and reliability) is the Delonghi basic model and costs $99.[1] The Italian Americans I know also use this model, despite having tried others. [1] https://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-EC155-Espresso-Cappuccino-Ma...

Those cheap plastic coffee machines actually are pretty poor, and tend to break fast -- planned obsolescence at its finest. I recommend going a step up and buying something like a Rancilio Silva [1]. All metal, has replaceable, serviceable parts, has a good community of tweakers who document mods for things like temperature control, lasts practically for ever. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Rancilio-Espresso-Machine-Stai…

Agreed. I have a similar machine, the Gaggia Classic, and couldn't be more pleased with its overal build quality. Makes it a pleasure to use--I actually look forward to making the next morning's espresso as I'm going to bed at night!