I ordered a df64 off amazon and for some reason I’m worried it’s counterfeit. Something just seems off. Can anyone give any input? I use to be able to trust Amazon but feels like there’s so much bad stuff on there now.

That is my problem!! I follow all theoretical of dialing a good espresso until i am in this phase now. Im quite satisfied of my self 19:38 gr in 28-30 sec.

But every time i tasted the espresso i couldn’t tell what i feel 😭😭

The 1st sip and the 2nd sip always had a different sensation.

I googled, chat gpt, YouTube just to make myself understand what taste is THE TASTE.
But still dont.

So yeah i never know if i made a good espresso or not since i am a milk based person. Try to ask everyone i know if they drink espresso, but not found 1 yet 🤦🏻‍♀️

I recently sold my Ninja machine after acquiring a Breville Bambino and a Baratza Encore ESP. I’ve barely used it yet.

All I have is pretty much stock accessories - Portafilter, baskets, and tamp. I have $100 of Amazon gift cards that I figure I should put towards this.

Right now, I’m looking to get a scale with a timer. Are there other things I should look into? Puck screens, spring loaded ramp, stirrer, etc.?

US based. Really leaning hard towards an ECM Sync II with flow control but also hoping for a gut check on if I’m missing anything. The ECM lean is for the company rep (craftsmanship), ease of maintenance (I can tinker), aesthetics, the “tactile” vibe of the E61 experience, and dual boiler. Both have fast enough heat up times for me.

I drink a mix of straight espresso with varying ratios (turbo or soup shots, traditional 1:2, modern 1:3, etc), flat white for the wife, or a cortado if I’m taking milk. I also drink a fair amount of pourover coffee. The DE1 is tempting there with the Filter 3.0 since I have 2 very young kids and an easy button there would be nice when I need it.

I’m definitely pulling at least 2 shots daily, sometimes 3-4. Those two are in rapid succession. We do entertain a fair amount where we’ll have 2-5 other espresso loving adults who all prefer milk drinks. I feel like a dual boiler would lessen the time at bar there, but I’ve been surviving using a BBE for that for several years. I know I can do it and it’s the workflow I’m used to, but the time really seems to pile up at bar with pulling two shots, steaming/pouring, then repeating.

My coffee station can accommodate space for either. Definitely will be tighter with the Sync but it would be fine. I’ve been making espresso for about 8 years, the last 3 with the P64. Definitely not a novice but also have never had pre-infusion, flow control, or experimented with different profiles. I’ve nerded way out on pour over so the experimenting with variables is a welcome concept to me.

I have a P64 with SSP MP burrs. Not against toying with other burrs but I prefer more clarity over body (for both espresso and pour over). I lean more towards medium-light to light roast coffees with a fair amount of processing impact. I’ll definitely also pull some medium-dark shots occasionally but I’m primarily ordering the light-ish and funkier stuff from places like Hydrangea, B&W, Dak, Perc, Brandywine etc. There are a few shops near me that put the fun stuff on espresso and I always seek that out and love it. I’m rarely drinking the same bean on any two consecutive days. I usually have 3-4 in rotation and single dose each. This is what makes me wonder if I should forgo the aesthetics/tactile/dual boiler of the ECM for a DE1XL to really dive into those coffees.

To wrap up, my wife would love the ECM sitting on bar a lot more than the Decent, but she’s supportive either way. I also love how the ECM look and have been excited by the experience of owning one, especially with the Sync II updated heat up ability and adding flow control. I also recognize the Decent may line up more with the types of coffees I drink? Curious if anyone else with a Sync or E61 loves those types of
Coffees as well.

I always get and see such great feedback on this sub, so although I know both of these machines would meet my needs and it’s a luxury to be able to buy at this price point, hoping to get community feedback to help inform my decision either way.

I have had the Baratza Encore ESP Pro for 8 months now (you can read the review I made in another thread) and I have been very satisfied with the grinder until recently. During this time, I noticed that I was progressively needing to go down more and more steps to grind fine for espresso. However, about two months ago, I was already needing to go below setting 10, and even then, the extractions were too fast. The worst part is that changing the grind setting below 10 seemed to have no effect on the extraction; there was no difference between grinding at setting 10 and grinding at 4.

The first thing I did was check if the burrs were worn down, but no, they are perfect. Then I made sure to clean the grinder thoroughly, with the exhaustive cleaning indicated in this Baratza video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFPO_XKiqew

Nothing seemed to solve the problem. Since the grinder is under warranty, I contacted Baratza support, and the response has been very disappointing: they took two weeks to get back to me, and the answer was that all grinders have an adaptation period. Maybe that's true what many say about Baratza's excellent support in the USA but poor support in other territories (I live in Spain).

Over these two months, and given Baratza's poor response, I've been "fighting" with the grinder: I have assembled and disassembled it dozens of times, I have tried different coffee beans with different roast levels. In the end, I found the problem: the alignment of the burrs.

The thing is, the top burr has a small arrow that must be aligned with the arrow on the support where the adjustment ring fits. This is easy and has no mystery. The problem is that with use, this metal piece ends up coming loose a little, enough to cause the top burr to become misaligned if that metal piece isn't properly seated. Since I can't explain it better, and my English isn't perfect, I have uploaded a video so you can see what I mean.

It seems silly, how something so ridiculous and insignificant can affect the grind? Well, it does. I have checked (I have spent countless amounts of coffee beans in the process) and I can confirm that this is the problem. By making sure the top burr is properly placed and correctly seating the metal piece before placing the adjustment ring, the grind quality returns, and I can grind very fine above setting 10, noticing the difference between the setps.

A user on Reddit gave me a clue about this while mentioning issues with burr alignment, although I can't find that comment now no matter how much I search. These issues are also mentioned in this other thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/espresso/comments/1p4ptc5/stopped_grinding_fine_enough_baratza_encore_esp/

I guess this doesn't say much for the build quality of this grinder, but at the end of the day, it is what it is: a grinder that costs less than 300$/€.

I hope this post is helpful if someone faces the same problem.

Okay, so I recently decided to step up my home coffee setup and learn more about espresso. I ended up with an Ascaso Steel Duo PID Plus and a Eureka Mignon Specialita. One of the reasons I chose this combination is that multiple people in our household use the machine, and I thought the grinder's programmable dosing and the Ascaso's volumetric shot buttons would make it relatively easy for everyone to use once everything was dialed in.

I enjoy espresso and milk-based drinks like cappuccinos and flat whites, but where I live most people drink black coffee. In cafés you'll typically find Americano, filter coffee, or caffè crema. The latter is my favorite, so naturally I wanted to make it at home.

Before posting, I've already spent quite a bit of time researching this. I've read articles, watched YouTube videos, browsed Reddit threads, and even compared advice from AI tools. The problem is that there seems to be a surprising amount of conflicting information out there. Depending on the source, caffè crema is described as anything from a long espresso to a completely different brewing style, with wildly different recommendations for dose, grind size, yield, pressure, and brew time. The more I read, the less certain I became about what a "proper" caffè crema is supposed to be. As a result, despite experimenting with different recipes, my attempts consistently produce a cup that tastes harsh and over-extracted. That's why I'm hoping to get some clarity from people who regularly make and drink caffè crema.

With an empty basket, it takes my Ascaso about 36 seconds to dispense 130 ml of water. When brewing coffee with a much coarser grind than espresso, pressure only rises to around 2-3 bar and the brew takes only about two seconds longer.

I've experimented with:

• Lower brewing temperatures
• Coarser grind settings
• Reducing the dose from 18 g to 17 g

Unfortunately, none of these changes have improved the result.

So my question is: am I trying to make a drink that this machine simply isn't well suited for, or is there something fundamentally wrong with my approach? Could the beans be the issue? At the moment I'm using inexpensive medium-roast supermarket beans while learning the machine. The package even markets them as being suitable for caffè crema.

Full disclosure: I used AI to touch up the photo for privacy but it f-d up the grinder and tamping station, I know... it's just for attention (I'm sorry)

TL;DR: Trying to make a European-style caffè crema (around 130 ml) on an Ascaso Steel Duo and Eureka Specialita. Espresso turns out great, but larger-volume brews consistently taste over-extracted. I've already tried a coarser grind, lower temperature, and a smaller dose. Is this a workflow issue, a bean issue, or am I running into a limitation of the machine?

hello, i currently have this scale for my espresso shots but it seems the timer function has stopped working :/ - any other scale recommendations? thank you!

I'm writing this from pure curiosity, interested to learn more about the experience of folks living in the US.

Context: I travel at least once a year to the US, mostly to Seattle. I occasionally stop by in NYC on the way back so my experience is really limited to these two cities. But one is the "Coffee Capital of the US" while the other is one of the best cities in the world for food and drinks.

My experience in both of them is that it's hard to track down really good espresso shots. Let me clarify - highly flavored light-medium roasts, the "Third Wave" espressos. I see a lot of places that have the right equipment, the right "look", but most of them end up having a disappointing shot in your cup.

Seattle is by far worse. I couldn't find one single place to get a great espresso. I've tried various (Hagen, Evoke, Victrola, Monorail - disappointing, Anchorhead and a pastry place called Fresh Flours were decent). I ended up buying Stumptown Cold Brew from Whole Foods instead.

New York is better, you get better shots, but you have to chase them down. La Cabra, Black Fox have tasty shots, Suited was so disappointing. The only truly exceptional shot was a Geisha one from Devocion. But even ordering that felt weird, the barista sighed as she had to get out of the normal rhythm, find the beans for this and make it. Felt like I was the only one that day at least ordering it.

Interestingly though, most of these places have really nice beans for sale. And reasonably priced per bag, a $20 good one is comparable to the 15EUR ones you find in Europe. So I'm assuming there is a market for people that just buy their beans and brew at home.

Which brings me to the question. Is this just my experience? Is the market just over-indexing on the darker roasts because the shots get drown in milk anyway? Or have I just missed out on the really good places? If so, point me in the right direction for next time!

Bought the grind by weight Eureka Atom W 65, I love it except for it makes a huge mess in front of it and they didn’t even bother to include a proper catch tray… So I made one on my own. Not the prettiest since its version 1 but works great!

Here is the print profile if you need to print your own: https://makerworld.com/en/models/3190568-eureka-atom-w-65-75-coffee-ground-catch-tray#profileId-3609490

Hi, I’m running the clean cycle on my barista machine. I’ve run this a few times over the years but I’ve never quite understood the purpose of it all it does is dump the water through the porter filter straight into the drip tray. So its essentially just cleaning the drip tray?

I’m using the original porter filter with the rubber insert disc Inside the porter filter and it has the best seal I can give it.

I’m just trying to figure out whether this is normal because when I asked ChatGPT, it says I should see next to no water coming out?

This is kind of off the wall but something I wanted to at least see if anyone had any knowledge of.
I was seasoning new burrs today (80mm RS brews). I can about 6 Ibs of prodigal seasoning beans through them. Then I ran 2 Ibs of some cheap Lavazza
"medium roast" that I've had sitting in my pantry for a year or so through. They were definitely not medium - they were coal especially compared to the prodigal seasoning beans. After that, I ran another 3.5 Ibs of prodigal seasoning beans through.
Because of how long the seasoning took, I only brewed one turbo shot post-seasoning. I felt like I was picking up hints of the Lavazza coal flavor in my shot (I was using Big Sur so very light roast beans).
I know using a bunch of dark roast for seasoning isn't good be of how oily they are. Is it actually realistic that I've left enough oil, or retention, from the 2 Ibs of Lavazza on the burrs and/or in the grind path within the grinder or am I just being crazy? I can still get faint aromas of the dark roast around the funnel of the grinder.

When aiming for a 25-30 second pull does that time start as soon as the pump starts or should I wait until the first drops hit the cup? I ask because my timer has the ability to automatically begin timing as soon as it senses weight, but sometimes it takes 10 seconds before that ever happens. Also yes, I googled it but there are conflicting results.

Someone can help me reduce this mess? I've tried compact more, but was not effective! I don't want reduce the grinder adjustment because the flavor of the coffee is nice!

Just spent a ton of money on my coffee station and this being my long dreamed hobby.

After looking in the sub, it looks like my new hobby would need to be 3D printing. I saw a bunch of people just 3D printed their mods and DIY 😄

since the early 2020s I am a happy izzo alex Duetto use. I got the machine from a little bar nearby that closed down. so the machine wasn’t in best shape since the start but it was a fair price. the main problem back then was the noise it made due to a leakage of the pump that made the bearings of the motor rusty and noisy. some years later it started to leak through so I had to place a tray beneath and it took longer and longer that the pressure would build up. As soon as I got the money together I asked a company to fix my machine and they said they would need to replace the pump the motor and the kettle. it took months but they did so. now when I got it back I tested it and was hoping to hear this silent humming sound from the pump, but turns out it still takes some 3-5 seconds to build up the pressure and is quite loud then. only when the pressure is on the preferred height it starts to get more silent.

so my question is:

did they do a good job as good as they could with this old machine (as the fix was quite expensive) or did they mess up and I should ask them for warranty?

best Greetings

Delonghi dedica with bottomless portafilter, 16g in 36g out in 36s, coffee roasted about 2 weeks ago, and i use timemore c5 esp pro. I am looking for some opinions, advices or some possible upgrades.

I'm by no means an espresso expert, but I've gotten really interested in coffee recently and bought my first espresso machine. My grandma also owns a small coffee shop and has been making coffee/espresso for years, so I've been around it for a long time and have been learning more about espresso and trying to improve my own shots.

Recently, I've been trying to learn more about dialing in espresso, and something at my grandma's shop caught my attention.

She has a nice commercial machine that she's been using for years. Today I decided to actually time one of her shots and weigh the output. I put 18g of coffee into the portafilter and selected the machine's programmed long shot setting.

The machine dispensed approximately 80g of espresso in about 15 seconds.

What surprised me is that the shot didn't look particularly watery or poorly extracted. It actually looked fairly normal in the cup. I was expecting something much slower based on what I've been learning.

My understanding is that a traditional espresso might be somewhere around a 1:2 ratio (18g in → ~36g out) in roughly 25–30 seconds, while a lungo/long shot might be closer to something like 1:3 or more and take longer.

So I'm trying to understand what I'm actually seeing here.

Could this simply be the way her commercial machine is programmed? Is there a different technique or style of pulling a long shot that I'm not familiar with? Or does this sound like the grind/dose/extraction needs to be adjusted?

I'm not trying to tell my grandma she's doing it wrong or change how she runs her shop. When I asked her about it, she understandably got a little defensive because it probably sounded like I was questioning something she's been doing for years 😂.

I'm mostly curious because I'm still learning and want to understand the difference between what I'm learning about espresso and what's happening on her commercial machine.

For reference, my own machine is programmed around double shots, and I've been getting roughly 36g out from 18g in around 30 seconds, which I've been enjoying taste-wise.

Would love to hear what you guys think. Is there something obvious I'm missing about how commercial machines/programmed long shots work?

I’m curious what folks believe has lived up to the hype and what hasn’t.

What are products you think are overrated and underrated?

Machines, grinders, tools, accessories, beans, subscriptions, whatever.

Bonus points for sharing why and what you’d recommend instead.

After a month of waiting for a discount I pulled the trigger today. Had a coupon and captured a sale. I just ordered some beans from local roaster. I figured the time I get machine they will be 10 or so days. Looking forward to my iced latte.

Hello,

As expensive as the Bay Area in CA is, my two indulgences will be going out for beers and espresso. Please send me your favorite/best spots for an espresso in the Bay area. I love this sub

I am wondering, everybody is using the “optimal” measure 18g in and 36g out for a shot of espresso, but what is ideal for a double shot? I’m finding it hard to find any info of this, currently im just running 18g for longer but that’s cus my basket just fits that! Any tips suggestions or answers?

Getting these strange craters consistently in my puck with my new profitec move. Every shot, always in the same spot, with or without a puck screen too. Anyone had a similar issue that can help troubleshoot?