Picked up an Aeropress and a Comandante C40.
Also pictured is my very cheap kitchen scales, has been accurate enough to measure beans and water.
I know Comandante are expensive, my justification was they are a very well regarded brand and I wanted something I could rely on as I played with different brewing techniques.
Been having a great time, producing some lovely cups, and all cheaper per cup then the Nespresso I was drinking before
I felt like my Baratza Encore was expensive at the time, but after using it daily for a few years I feel like it was totally worth it. If you can afford nice things, they perform well and last a long time, then get the nice things.
Exactly. Something you use every day can be $300 and work out to a good deal. Divide by the number of times you use it. Less than $1 per day for anything is great.
I was starting to get into different ways of making coffee with my aeropress, and I had a hand cranked burr grinder. For about 3 days I was hand grinding a lot of coffee finely so I could make espresso-style drinks, and my arm was SORE. It would take me at least 5 full minutes to grind 18g coffee.
Miraculously, I found a working Baratza
VirtuosoPreciso at the thrift store for $11. Took it home, brushed out the burrs, and it’s amazing. Best purchase I’ve made. I really feel like that is the best luck I’ve ever had! Well, besides my straight-white-male middle-class American privilege. That’s probably the best luck I’ve had. Gotta acknowledge the privilege.But the $11 coffee grinder, definitely the sixth luckiest thing that has happened in my life
Spending the money on the grinder first is such a wise choice - followed obviously by spending the money on the beans themselves - and you can’t go wrong with an aeropress. It’s also ridiculously portable, especially if you measure out your beans beforehand into little single dose containers…
Great way to get started!
Excellent kit, enjoy! Nicer scale does make it easier to get consistent results.
Any recommendations for nicer scales? I’m kind of sick of the cheap kitchen scale I’ve been using and have been thinking about upgrading.
Hario scale is nice and has a timer too. Works great for V60 pour over as well.
I quite enjoy my Timemore Black Mirror Nano. It’s definitely not cheap (around 100€) but is much better than any cheap, wildly inaccurate kitchen scale or any cheap, painfully slow dealer’s scale.
Tiny footprint so it fits under most machines, 0.1g accuracy, super fast (but has a tendency to settle ±0.2g about 1s after stopping pouring whatever), has a few cool modes like an auto timer for espresso and Aeropress or real time flow rate for pourover. I think you can connect it to a phone too but I’ve never tried it.
How loud is the grinder? Been looking at options for my desk at work.
It’s not toooo bad.
How quiet is your office?My office varies but what I do specifically is normal to get a bit noisy. Been heavily debating just keeping some ground coffee at my desk as even if it did get a bit stale it would be leagues better than the burnt coffee available in the lounge.
It’s really not that loud based on my unit.
Welcome to the money pit of speciality coffee! Thats a great setup.
How I figured out you’re in New Zealand:
- Ozone Coffee Roasters is in the UK and NZ.
- It’s sunny outside your window.
- The last two bags I got from Ozone have had a different resealing mechanism, more of a Ziploc thing.
- Oh and your Lemmy instance is a giveaway I guess.
Kia ora from an expat.
Chur cuz, proud home of the flat white.
Loving Ozone so far, I will have to branch out into other roasters eventually.
Their cafe in Grey Lynn goes off.Glad to hear an expat is enjoying a taste of home.
Aeropress makes such a good cup of coffee, this is a solid setup!
It’s the best £25 quid I’ve ever spent! Well I’ve spent more than that as I have a travel one for work as well.
That is a very good set up and will make great coffee for years.
Good choise! I have a similar setup: Comandante C40, AeroPress Go, Timemore Black Mirror.
I like your grinder:)
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Holy shit that is rad!
I didn’t know people brew Kava with the Aeropress.
I’m glad me posting the start of my adventure helped you start yours. :D
I’ve owned a ton of coffee gear through the years and will always have a comandante around. It’s my favorite hand grinder by far. You made a great purchase that will last you a long time.
That right there is a starter set-up done right.
It’s a great starter, but you might wanna be careful using aeropress on these kind of cups. I’ve got similar ones (they do keep temperature long 😁) and had them shatter when pushing on aeropress :(
Yeah, I have been proping up the Aeropress with my free hand when I press.
I also press rather gently, as the prophet Hoffman suggests.But yes, I need to remember to be careful :D thanks!
