Same goes for me, I basically won't buy espresso (and I don't drink coffee) at a cafe unless it's one I know is good, which is highly limited in town, although anytime I'm in Portland or other good coffee places, then it's great to go to the cafe and enjoy. I'll say that I'm coming up on a year of having my BII and a nice Macap grinder, and I am still learning and fiddling around. I've changed a few things up recently, and found Scott Rao's book to be interesting too.
As people have pointed out, beans are critical, anything that wasn't just recently roasted (and we're talking in single digit days), is just not going to work for espresso. Get stuff that has a roast date written/printed on it, don't buy anything from a supermarket - even stuff in the "bulk" bins, etc. Proper technique and such is huge too. I'd recommend getting the following two books to get a good baseline on technique, and then as Mink said, you just gotta pull a ton of shots: Espresso Coffee Professional Techniquesf by Schomer: http://is.gd/2iIy The Professional Barista's Handbook by Scott Rao: http://www.professionalbaristashandbook.com/ On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 2:35 PM, Mink <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Ann - try some freshly roasted beans, in line with Ben's definition. > Splurge and buy a couple of pounds. Don't drink or even taste every > shot - keep pulling them until you have one that looks fantastic. I > think it will be a revelation. As I've said before, the biggest > problem I have with my BII is that it has utterly ruined the coffee > shop experience - the best espresso in town is in my kitchen! > > > -- Chris Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Brewtus" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/brewtus?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
