phaelon56

They also serve a tiny pitcher of simple syrup to use in sweetening your iced tea and last time I was there (three years ago) had the best restaurant coffee in NYC - Puerto Rico Yauco Selecto. I wish more restaurants paid attention to the small details like this. I was there at lucnh but am I correct in thinking that one could easily have a good dinner for two at under $100 in GT's front room?

Does this mean it uses a plastic lined holding tank or plastic tubing somewhere? I should think that for $100 they could just make it with a stainless steel tank and copper tubing. But the very act of holding water that hot for any extended period of time creates hot water that differs in qualities from freshly boiled. You'll find that most savvy coffeehouses do not use the hot water from the espresso machine boiler for making tea - it's safe enough but yields tea that doesn't taste as good as hot water from other sources.

Unless consuming wine would, at some point sooner than later, render one incapable of enjoying life, great food, good company and the ability to function well enough to earn a living and afford dining out Some of us don't drink wine or other alcoholic beverages for all the right reasons. But that brings up one of my ongoing pet peeves: I have yet to find a restaurant anywhere (including NYC although hopefully there is one) that offers non-alcholic apertif's (e.g. Chinotto) or any suitable non-alcohlic beverages to consume with a meal (e.g. Ame or something of its ilk other than mineral water)

If you're looking for a drier paella that uses authentic paella rice, is less soupy and focuses more on high quality of ingredients rather than quantity... I don't think there's a place in Ironbound or any other part of the Newark area that will satisfy you. Some are better than others but having tried it at Seabra's Marisqueria, Spain, Casa de Vasca, Brasil, Iberia and also Iberia Peninsula (different than Iberia but same owners and across the street from one another)... I always found it to be satisfying but less than authentic. Oddly enough the best paellla I ever had when I lived in Norhte Jersy was at Cafe Iguana in Manhattan (west 40's near 7th or 8th Ave). It's a moderately upscale Mexican joint that has a big bar scene on Thursday nights and a disco downstairs. I met a friend there for drinks one afternoon and we ended up staying for dinner. The paella had better quality ingredient than I ever had in Ironbound, a better balance of rice to "stuff" and had a nicely developed soccarat (sp?) on the bottom of the pan it was served in.

Reports are generally good but mixed in some respect about Mignon in Rutherford. It's been discussed here extensively. It definitely does nto have any sense of privacy - it's small and the tables are very close together. Although I haven't eaten there I've seen some favorable reports about CK's Steakhouse which is in the Renaissance Hotel on Rte 3 at the Rte 17 exit just west of the Meadowlands complex. I suspect they might have a private room option. I don't think it's in the same category as Smith & Wollensky, Peter Luger's etc. but might compare favorably to Ruth's Chris. It's worth investigating and seeking feedback on.

I'll respectfully disagree. I lived in the NYC area from 1999 to late 2003 (I assume prices have risen a bit since then). If we're talking about a dinner for two that includes two appetizers, two NON-alcoholic drinks (or one large bottle of mineral water to be shared), two entree's, two desserts, tax and a 20% tip..... there are many choices but not as many as implied. I had more than a few shared meals that included only one app, two entree's, one dessert, mineral water and two coffee's. It invariably came to about $100 or a bit more for two after tax and tip were added in. But if one eschews alcohol (at least when dining out) and opts for either appetizer or dessert but not both... ther's a huge array of great places to eat in NYC under $100.

Both great points. 220V will heat faster and be more efficient (electrically speaking) than the 110V model. And you're based in Seattle - you should be able to finagle a chance to see, touch, feel both machines in person once the LM home machine is ready for market. ESI does not sell direct to end users but you'll have several local vendors including Visions Espresso who should have it available.

Definitely the one group. You can easily change brew temps on the fly with the Cyncra. If you're using both decaf and regular - no big deal - just have a grinder for each. The benefit of a two group would be more steam power (I'm assuming that it has a larger steam boiler) and the ability to set the two brew heads to different temperature for different bean types. The benefits of being able to pull multiple shots in shot succession by having a two group machine would be beneficial in a light volume commercial environment but I doubt that it would buy you much at home. I have an Isomac E61 style machine with a far smaller boiler and more limited output (in terms of shots per hour) than a one group commercial machine like the Cyncra. But I can still bang out six espresso's in fairly short order and even do up to six traditional cappa's quickly enough to suit my needs. Doing a dozen in a row would be beyond the capabilities of my gear but I think with the Cyncra it wouldn't be too difficult. You could in theory have a second person grinding, tamping and brewing alongside you on a two group machine but unless you work together regularly and have established a good intuitive rythm it doesn't buy much of an increase in speed.

If mnost or all of the beans show any noticeable amount of oil on the bean tips (called "tipping") in less than 48 hours after roasting it's safe to assuem that you burned them. The jittery effect you describe could be from robusta. I don't want to make assumptions as I don't know about the bean vendor but overroasting will actually reduce caffiene slightly if it has any effect at all. You've already gotten good suggestions especially the fact that fresh roasted beans will usually taste better after a day or so of rest (sometimes 2 - 4 days for espresso blends). But some of the best coffee I've ever had was at the coffee ceremony in some Ethiopian restaurants - they roasted the beans on the spot in an old skillet, ground with a mortar and pestle, steeped and served. It was fantastic coffee. Do keep in mind that green beans can become stale - when this happens it takes longer for them to reach the desired roast level and the resulting coffee can taste flat and lacking in character.

You could wait for the new LM home unit but some of the best espresso purveyors in North America are using the Cyncra and rave about it. Last time I was in Seattle I had some shots at both Vivace locations and at the Vic. Spoke at length with a barista at Victrola about the machine and also with Tonx when I popped back to check out their roasting operation. The Victrola folks, guys like Schomer.... guys like Nick Cho at Murky Coffee in VA.... are dead serious in their pursuit of espresso quality. It's been in the field for long enough that the bugs are worked out and the daily volume at the referenced shops that use it proves that it's a rugged piece of equipment. If and when I have a shop of my own I'll own a multi-group but if I enter the roasting business full time instead ( a distinct possibility in a few short years) I intend to acquire one for evaluating the characteristics of various beans, roast profiles and brew temps. Don't get me wrong - I'm not knocking La Marzocco - I own a four group Linea and work on an FB70 nearly every day but the Synesso is a great machine.

I'm just back from a 7 day cruise (no comments from the peanut gallery please!). Had stops in St. Thomas and St. Maarten. Did a scuba trip in St. Thomas - was the only person who booked for that day and ended up with a private dive trip - just the boat captain, the divemaster and me. Very cool. Had forgotten to bring my coffee on board ship and was dying after two days of no coffee (so bad I could not drink it) and crappy espresso (barely drinkable with a spoonful of sugar added). Tracked down the island's only known coffee roaster - Scotty at Hi-Tech Watersports. He's at the end of a dirt road near Frenchtown next to the defunct Sunset Cantina. Cool guy - has a nice drum roaster and hooked me up with a half pound of Ethopian for $4 (I got a courtesy discount because I'm a coffee roaster by trade and avocation). Stumbled across a classic Caribbena lunch truck on the way out. Run by two Spanish speaking ladies - very good oxtail stew with rice 'n beans and a soda for $8. On to St. Martin (the French side). Stopped in Marigot to visit an Internet cafe and has "un cafe" (espresso) at La Vie en Rose on the corner down near the water. They had some amazing looking pastries in the window but I was saving my appetite for Grand Case. The bartender and waiter, both very friendly, suggested Le Tantevin or Pressoir as good upscale choice but suspected both might be open only for dinner. They also mentioned the Fish Pot as a decent choice. Pressoir was closed, as was a brasserie a few doors down and across the street (that looked interesting and also reasonably priced by Grand Case standards). Tantevin had a $53 US "tourist menu" as their plats du jour price fixe. Ouch. Decided to try the Fish Pot so I could skip dessert and save a few bucks (and I wasn't that hungry. By the way... most desserts were $17 to $23 US (not a typo!). Fantastic view on the porch where I was seated - the most spectacular scenery of any place I've ever eaten. Hint #1 that I made a mistake - broke open one of the dinner rolls that were served piping hot (on the outside) prior to the arrival of my appetizer. they were rock hard and still frozen in the center. This is on an island where good baguettes are made fresh on a daily basis. I should have left right then. The mussels arrived - six on the half shell - broiled nicely with snail bbutter or its equivalent but described in the menu as "stuffed". With what? The sparse sprinkling of bread crumbs atop each? Spare me - please. Now the entree arrives: sauteed sea scallops atop angel hair pasta. Bland scallops lacking the flavor and texture I expect in any decent restaurant and a butter sauce that had a hint of garlic and as not redolent of any other flavors - nada. Did I mention that the pasta was luke warm and a shade more cooked than the appropriate al dente? Total price including a small glass of San Pellegrino: $45 US with tax and tip. I went back to the cruise ship and had an "Italian night" (northern Italian) dinner in the main dining room that totally blew away the quality of my lunch. I realize that food costs are higher in the islands but WTF? The best dinner I had last year on a Paris trip cost me $60 US but was three courses rather than two. It also included an amuse bouche, a large rather than small bottle of Pellegrino AND a foie gras surcharge. The Fish Pot is perhaps a notch above the Red Lobster but just barely. Regrettably, due to last minute hotel and flight cancellations, I wasn't able to research this thread in time to make a better choice. But I loved the French side of the island - quaint and funky in unique mix of European and Caribbean influence. I'll definitely go back for a longer visit and do more exploring. By the way - if the presence of bathroom facilities isn't crucial and you can pack your own chairs and lunch - had down the road past the Butterfly farm and take a left towards what appears to tbe the private beach of an old resort. The buildings are empty shells - defunct and overgrown. But there's a great little private/open to the public beach that's in a sheltered cove. Orient Beach was mobbed (and tacky) but this place was pristine. There were a dozen or so folks on the beach - very nice.

Ahhhh.... a dual group... that does change things I see your point but does the integrated flow controller of the Scace provide enough accuracy to truly and replicate exactly what one will see in a production environment or is it a better choice because it's consistent when moved form one machien to the next? For purposes of this discussion, in this context, my point of interest is the advanced home user who will be using a consistent tamp style and pressure and working on the same machine all the time. Let's assume that a home-made device is used consisting of a bottomless PF and a thermocouple (bead probe) that is positioned atop the tamped puck... and a Fluke thermometer is attached. In your opinion will this give accurate enough readings to be of value? I refer to the type of device that Schomer illustrated in one of the articles that has been widely circulated.

I may be mistaken (always a distinct possibility!) but I think temperatures in a small single boiler machine fluctuate a bit more than you think. But the more pertinent issue is the brewhead temperature - not the boiler temperature. Like most of the other E61 style machines in the $1K to $2K range, the Brewtus is an HX (heat exchanger) design. The copper feed tube that supplies heated water to the brewhead actually gets heated by the ambient heat of the boiler water that surrounds it. The boiler is running at over 212 F - hot enough to generate pressure for steam. If an HX machine sits at idle during warmup period or between shots (more than 8 - 10 minutes) the water in the feed tube supplying the brewhead eventually becomes warmer than the optimal 200 - 205 range that typically delivers best results for espresso. If one bleeds off some of this standing hot water by drawing water through an empty portafilter for a short duration before pulling the shot, incoming cold or room temp water from the plumbed line or reservoir is mixed with standing hot water in the tube. The actual brewhead/brewing temperature will drop to the appropriate range when enough hot water has been flushed. Common wisdom is that 4 - 6 oz of water is enough to flush to lower the temperature enough on this class of HX machine. But now that more home users are checking temperatures with a Espresso Thermofilter Temperature Device the picture is changing slightly. I've seen anecdotal evidence to indicate that the flush needs to be closer to 8 oz rather than 4 oz in order to achieve proper temperature. It IS true that the boiler temperature doesn't vary much on the HX machines unless you're drawing lots of hot water off the hot water spout (e.g. to make tea). But with non HX machines like the Silvia the brew water comes from the same boiler that creates steam pressure. This calls for a different set of tricks to achieve proper brew temp and thus... a PID is very helpful because it regulates temp for brewing purposes. But I agree that PID is a waste on home HX machines. Is the digital temp control on Brewtus just a readout or does it actually change the temp of the water coming into the brewhead when one adjusts the control? By the way... get yourself a spare portafilter assembly, a prior generation Fluke digital thermometer on ebay for $30 - $35, a K style thermocouple lead, a good drill and some JB weld... it's pretty easy to build one of the Thermofilter devices yourself for well under $100.

malachi said: Agreed but when it comes to a $1,000 machine for home use it's tough to find a better solution. Sure... fully saturated stainless steel brew groups of a massive build size and heft weight... dual boilers with a preheat system for the brew boiler... PID and digital temp control / readout for the brew boiler... these are great things but the $1,000 - $1,500 price point is still a magic number. There is a critical mass (and growing) of folks who can and will justify spending that much on an espresso machine. But their budgets and or perception of the value proposition simply won't create a large enough number to justify multiple entries in the $4,000 - $6,000 home machine market. Synesso and La Marzocco will not only be able to sell the high end $100K home kitchen crowd - they already have a significant potential market of boutique bakeries, quality driven small cafe's etc. that are ideal targets for the new 110V machines. And those smaller commercial customers are likely to be more inclined to buy a commercial oriented machine that has a proven field support system in place. MGLloyd said: Yes I think you could taste the difference - at least most of the time. One of the things you're buying at that level is far greater temp stability during the shot pulling process and also the ability to "dial in" a temp once you know which brewing temp delivers best results for the bean or blend you're using. In short: consistency is the big value. I use a Super Jolly grinder at home with my Isomac Tea E61 machine. I drain off 4 - 8 oz of water before pulling a shot to cool down the brew water (time based on how long the brewhead has been heating without shots being pulled). In general my shots are very good but the La Marzocco I work on in the shop delivers better results with the same beans - even though it's not PID'd or modified in any way and is used with an auto grinder/tamper (Swift). But my pockets aren't deep at this point in my life. As much as I'd love to have a Synesso or LM 1 group at home it will be awhile before that happens (I do have a 4 group LM in my dark and dreary basement but it's not worth firing up a 220V four group machine on a Saturday or Sunday morning to pull two shots)

There you have it. When I said this... Jay must have already been posting. It would seem that the more complex explanation makes more sense (at least to me) and I defer to the more sensible answer that Jay offers. I think it's NOT very common in commercial environments to pre-wet the filter - most likley because it takes a few extra seconds. That might also be why some of the "extractor" units such as the Fetco CBS 32 series have a programmable delay time between the end of initial grounds saturation and the time that brewing actually starts. Jay - do you think a slightly prolonged delay after initially saturating the grounds might help to reduce the "channeling" effect?

I'll give you my educated guesses but undoubtedly there are more complex reasons than I'll offer up. Keep in mind that many of the recommended practices for brewing coffee are based on years of trial and error experiments and data logging by folks far brighter and more patient than I am It's an accepted fact that paper filters trap some of the essential oils that can provide certain flavor components of coffee. A primary benefit of press pot and vacuum pot coffee is the presence of such oils. But many of us prefer drip coffee based on taste profile or convenience factors. It's also an accepted fact (but a more subtle difference and not as detectable to everyone) that paper filters impart a subtle "papery" taste to the coffee. Additionally - white paper filters have been whitened by a bleaching process. Unbleached (brown) paper filters avoid possible taste artifacts due to the chlorination of the bleaching process. And what of pre-wetting in general? What's the dillio? 1) pre-wets the paper so that any essential oils which can pass through a paper filter are less likely to be trapped during the onset of the brew process 2) pre-wetting and waiting a few seconds before adding the coffee also should lessen any possible impact of the "papery" taste by allowing a few volatile production residue components in the paper to be activated by the hot water and released into the air before coffee is added. Especially important for bleached (white) paper filters. It's also recommended, when brewing drip manually (e.g. Melitta or Chemex) to pre-saturate the coffee with a small initial amount of water and then finish pouring in the balance a moment later. Disclaimer: this info is not in the widely accepted Coffee FAQ but it's what I believe to be the case based on reading I've done. I also accept many such practices as valid because if I follow them all my coffee seems to taste better and if I don't... it's not as good!

I think it's helpful to keep frequency of use, brewing method and tolerance of sediment in mind when assessing the value proposition of various grinding options. I used a cheap whirl blade grinder for many years and made only drip coffee. I'd grind for X number of seconds, shake the grinder to redistribute the grounds and then pulse a few times before adding grounds to the filter. There was a certain inconsistency to the particle size but given the choice of fresh whole beans ground in this manner or pre-ground packaged coffee I'm confident that a cheap blade grinder and whole bean is the better choice. As I've mentioned previously - I'm not a big fan of press pot coffee although I have it on occasion ( I have minimal tolerance of sediment). But I do enjoy vacuum pot coffee on occasion and consistent grind is crucial for best results. Please do report back to us on the $30 burr grinder. I once purchased a $30 Melitta "burr grinder" to leave at my GF's house for my visits there. It was loud, ground hot and yielded more dust than particles. I returned it and got a $20 Krups blade grinder instead - far better solution for drip coffee.

Okay - spill the beans. Seemingly, every other woman I date for any extended period of time is a big fan of Olive Garden and I get dragged along on occasion. Apart from the breadsticks and salad - what to order? And which dishes to be sure I avoid?

Do they serve espresso? If so (and if by chance you're an aficionado) - how is it?

Where were you when I was living in Rutherford with no fellow coffeegeek's nearby to share a shot with?! How are you liking the Macap? It's an interesting looking grinder and seems to get good reviews. I've been lusting after one of these Macap M7 with built-in dynamometric tamper Yeah.... next time I have $1,000 just burning a hole in my pocket!

My cafe sua da usually arrives with the proper amount of pressure having been applied when the filter was screwed down (I have it at the same place on a regular basis). But every now and then a less experienced waiter overtightens it and no dripping occurs. I have been successful using a dime to turn it - would have to request a butter knife as they don't provide me cutlery when I dine there alone (use chopsticks).

Here in the U.S. most Vietnamese restaurants use the New Orleans brand Cafe du Monde - a dark roast coffee that also includes chicory in the blend. Here in Syracuse one of our three local Vietnamese restaurants uses the Trung Ngyuen brand - the one in the red box. The difference is taste remarkable and very noticeable despite the presence of sweetened condensed milk (I always take cafe sua da - have never tried this coffee served hot). You could try regular coffee - I'd lean towards a dark roast and preferably a hearty Indonesian bean - perhaps Sumatran if you can get some. I have not roasted any Vietnamese green beans as I couldn't find any but the cheap robusta variety - I think the Viet quality arabica beans are consumed in their domestic market and perhaps by surrounding countries as well. I did try a 1/2 lb of Laotian beans several months ago when I stumbled across a place in PA that was selling them. I'll guess that Laotian beans may be similar to Vietnamse due to geography. What I had was okay but not distinctly memorable. I think it was less fresh than the vendor claimed (they said it had been roasted two days prior but it didn't seem fresh enough to me). That said... I think there's no substitute for the little coffee press. I was served some very forgettable cafe sua da last summer in a Vietnamese place (in Seattle's ID). It was brought to the table already mixed. Noticed on the way out that they were using an espresso machine to make it.

Any well stocked ethnic market that caters to a Caribbean / Hispanic (but not Mexican) or Portuguese / Brazilian population.

IMHO it seems like a reasonable thought. A stronger and richer coffee certainly makes a difference in cafe au lait style drinks - cuts through the milk much better than regular drip coffee. And moka coffee is in some senses somewhere in between drip coffee and espresso.

What I neglected to mention is that I see his evolution as a logical growth plan and one that I intend to pursue once I'm financially able to make a leap into the coffee business as a full time occupation - starting as a roaster with a regional wholesale and online retail operation and eventually opening a shop (or several) if the local market justifies it.