BEST COFFEE

[t-bone]

I am consistently finding that for home use Italian coffee blows everything else out of water. Any regular Illy can or even Lavazza are better than any organic-artisanal-fair-trade-locally-roasted-by-hippie-lesbian-farmers-eco-super-green-my-shit-don't-stink-yuppy-hipster coffee. I don't know what they do to it, but it's the truth.

I'm gonna have to say that recently roasted and freshly ground is 98% of the good coffee equation most of the time, and you are just not going to get that from any Italian beans you buy here in NYC. Try a shot from Stumptown and then walk down to the espresso bar at Eataly and tell me that they even come close!

[casem]

It must be that you like robusta, how vulgar.

I am consistently finding that for home use Italian coffee blows everything else out of water. Any regular Illy can or even Lavazza are better than any organic-artisanal-fair-trade-locally-roasted-by-hippie-lesbian-farmers-eco-super-green-my-shit-don't-stink-yuppy-hipster coffee. I don't know what they do to it, but it's the truth.

[Faust]

I'm gonna have to say that recently roasted and freshly ground is 98% of the good coffee equation most of the time, and you are just not going to get that from any Italian beans you buy here in NYC. Try a shot from Stumptown and then walk down to the espresso bar at Eataly and tell me that they even come close!

I am talking about home use. I don't buy ground coffee, only beans, but I do feel like Illy, at least for my personal taste, is smoother and richer than most others. So far the best cup of drip coffee I have found has been from Gimmecoffee! in NoLiTa. The rest seem to claim their fame by making overly strong coffee.

[theetruscan]

I am consistently finding that for home use Italian coffee blows everything else out of water. Any regular Illy can or even Lavazza are better than any organic-artisanal-fair-trade-locally-roasted-by-hippie-lesbian-farmers-eco-super-green-my-shit-don't-stink-yuppy-hipster coffee. I don't know what they do to it, but it's the truth.

How do you make coffee at home?

[Faust]

French press and a grinder.

[david s]

illy

I worked on a project for illy about 5 years ago, and we got to go to Trieste to tour the processing plant. Crazy complicated and scientific.

One of the reason there coffee is so good is that as the beans are fed through the entire process they have multiple checkpoints to check quality. One of the most amazing things is that all of the beans are fed into what is basically a giant vat before they go off to roasting.

That vat and the way it is set up allows analysis of each bean. If the bean is not up to snuff it gets dumped from the batch. Logistically crazy considering the millions of individual beans that are fed through the plant each day. I think they said on average they reject somewhere between 8-12% of the beans depending on the day.

[theetruscan]

Hmmm, I know I prefer different beans when I make coffee different ways. For Chemex or single-cup drip, I don't much like Illy or Lavazza, but for French Press they work though they're still not especially to my taste.

david s, have you seen the optical scanning machines (for grapes of course) the big Bordeaux producers use? Those things are truly crazy.

[t-bone]

I am talking about home use. I don't buy ground coffee, only beans, but I do feel like Illy, at least for my personal taste, is smoother and richer than most others. So far the best cup of drip coffee I have found has been from Gimmecoffee! in NoLiTa. The rest seem to claim their fame by making overly strong coffee.

Yeah I was just using the shots at those two places as an example of how you could easily compare the two. Granted, espresso requires much more of a bean then drip/press coffee, so the deficiencies are exacerbated. We brew drip coffee with a Chemex in the office, though, and I feel like I definitely prefer freshly roasted. We should set up an SZ cupping to really resolve the issue!

[david s]

@ the estrucsan : I think it's probably the same idea. They didn't go into detail about anything it was more along the lines of the following

Group walking and we see a big machine

illy Rep gives run down on how bad coffee beans are spit out & we ask how it works exactly.

illy rep says trade secret.

[Faust]

Yeah I was just using the shots at those two places as an example of how you could easily compare the two. Granted, espresso requires much more of a bean then drip/press coffee, so the deficiencies are exacerbated. We brew drip coffee with a Chemex in the office, though, and I feel like I definitely prefer freshly roasted. We should set up an SZ cupping to really resolve the issue!

Ha! Well, I don't consider myself a coffee expert, but I do trust my taste buds!

[Chinorlz]

Certainly there is no end-all-be-all but I was wondering what you guys would recommend for an espresso machine in the $1000-1500 range that does good work and does a good job of foaming milk.

At the same time some good grinder recs would be much appreciated!

There are almost too many resources available online and everyone has their own opinion but I'd love to hear what you guys use.

I'm like Faust and use a french press for coffee... and I won't even admit to what I use for espresso/cappuccino hahaha

[t-bone]

I have a Rocket Giotto Premium Plus that I love, though thats a little outside your price range. I've heard great things about the Expobar machines:

http://www.wholelattelove.com/espresso_machine.cfm?cid=1&scid=1&prid=60

Grind quality is equally important as the espresso machine itself, so don't skimp there. There are a lot of people who love the Rancilio Rocky, and I think Macap makes some good, reasonably-priced grinders, but I went ahead and picked up a coffee-shop standard Mazzer Super Jolly used on ebay for under $500 that I know will last longer than I will. If you're buying new, the Mazzer Mini is more of a home standard but will cost you more than that.

I'd spend some time reading coffeegeek.com and home-barista.com if you want to see what the real coffee nerds are recommending these days. I stopped reading once I had my setup perfected.

[theetruscan]

Certainly there is no end-all-be-all but I was wondering what you guys would recommend for an espresso machine in the $1000-1500 range that does good work and does a good job of foaming milk.

At the same time some good grinder recs would be much appreciated!

I'm completely sold on the Faema E61. I think some of the La Marzocco machines and others ( http://www.keesvanderwesten.com/) are clearly better, but for what they cost, they better be. If you're spending some money, but not "fuck you" money on a machine, nothing I've seen has been better than stuff built around the E61. Sadly, it's not nearly as easy to get one as it was 10 years ago. Prices, due to demand and exchange rates, are about 2x what they were.

Off the top of my head, since steaming milk is a big deal, I would go with :

http://www.1st-line.com/machines/home_mod/isomac/Isomac_tea_espresso_machine.htm

http://www.chriscoffee.com/products/home/espresso/anitanew

or http://www.chriscoffee.com/products/...presso/vetrano if you can plumb it in.

Though, if you can find a good double-boiler unit used, that would be perfection itself.

I used the earlier version of http://www.chriscoffee.com/products/...spresso/alexia for a long time, and it's an amazing machine, but the time to change from coffee to milk is probably a non-starter for you.

I bought a Mazzer Super Joly back when Starbucks switched to super auto (for $100!). I love it. Mazzer grinders are just incredibly durable, well made, and easy to service. Electronic dosing seems a waste to me when at home though.

EDIT: One person I know uses this one and likes it, but I don't know jack about it: http://www.1st-line.com/machines/hom...l_duo_prof.htm

[Chinorlz]

Sweet. Thanks for the info guys!

I'm just sick of my weak ass machine I have right now (I got what I paid for hahaha). The milk gets watery before it foams because the steam isn't high powered/hot enough and the espresso is nowhere near as rich and dark as it is when I get it at the good joints. Need to up my game!

[jscl]

I had a real good shot of black cat the other day at ground support. Nice spot with bench seating, definitely recommended after shopping.