Maybe you care to share your setup?

For the coffee is a Faema E61 Legend. I was shopping for parts for a ‘64 model and the parts added up to more than a new reproduction one. For finding is Mazzer Robur I restored. It’s massive. I love all their models but I can’t go past the air vents on the side, and maybe one day I’ll need to grind a years coffee in a day. I doubt it. I roast my beans with a Bosch heat gun (my superior Orzito died) in an old colander.

The Mazzer Robur is a grinder?

Yes, and a monster. It weighs 28kgs and is 70+cm tall. It’s pretty quiet by grinder standards and only runs for 3-5 seconds per shot, so that’s nice for others early morning.

https://c4coffee.co.nz/products/mazzerroburgrinder

Beautiful! Do you make a lot of coffee? It definitely can get through a lot. I have a niche zero. 20s or so to grind a shot but there is no wastage. Ideal for a home setup making 2 a day.

This is paired with a Breville Barista Express. Unlike most espresso people I am not tempted to upgrade this because I am so used to the workflow and it is quite good for a consumer grade machine (except for its grinder). With the niche I can make something 90% of the fidelity of a good cafe.

The Niche Zero and the Mazzer Robur have the exact same conical burrs. The Niche is just a bit smaller and meant for home use.

close, but not quite - Niche is using the burrs out of the Mazzer Kony, the Robur's slightly smaller sibling. 63mm for the Niche/Kony vs either 71mm or 83mm depending on which Robur model.

The Niche is seriously well reviewed.

https://www.home-barista.com/blog/niche-zero-grinder-review-...

On weekdays it’s just 2 coffees a day. On weekends it’s probably 6, but various people show up and are supplied their fix, and 10 or 12 is common.

The niche is interesting, and a far saner choice. My ‘70s orange isn’t for everyone, it’s like a traffic cone.

That’s pretty awesome!

I have a Lelit MaraX and a Niche Zero. I really want to get a lever machine next, but it’ll be awhile before it’s in the budget. Besides, I’m still learning how to use this current setup, having had it for a year and change.

I’d like a lever action too - I’d love a Faema Urania, similar but better styling to what I have.

I love the e61 group head though.

The e61 is pretty sweet.

I think my current dream machine is an Elektra MCAL. I am drawn to the idea of a machine with no machinery. Just a boiler and pressurestat and the spring lever to make coffee. The sweet sound of silence. Only the rush of water and the pouring of coffee to be heard.

You’ve gone a step further.

I nearly got a Linea Mini, then discover the amount of electrics. The plastic, the fake lever. It got me thinking about what would last. I want manual. Prior to engaging the pump (pre infusion) you’re getting line pressure and it’s good.

I need to try a lever, and also a real Linea.

The Electra Belle is a ludicrous machine that looks amazing and is even less practical - saw one in the flesh in the middle of nowhere in New Zealand a while back. Old and tarnished and going strong.

Somewhat surprised to not see any mention of the Flair lineup so far. I’ve had mine for years now and adore it.

My use case is a bit different from most as I don’t often have electricity, but honestly it’s better than most but the highest end coffee shops I’ve been to (across Seattle, Portland, LA).

A cup, a Flair, a hand grinder, and some kind of pot to boil water is definitely all you need to make amazing coffee when you’re out camping. Another one along these lines is a Cafelat Robot. I’m not sure which one is easier to pack or more durable though!

Don't forget quality beans! And Flair packs pretty small and assembles quickly, plus it costs about half as much as the Robot. That said, I do love the Robot's style and color options.

How could I forget the beans! That would be so embarrassing on a real trip!

Yeah the Robot is definitely very stylish but the Flair seems a bit more rugged and practical looking, in a camping way. Excellent to hear that they designed it to pack small and assemble quickly!

Yeah the Belle is the type of machine you’d expect to find in a hotel that costs more per night than even the most lavish home coffee setups.

That machine requires some real TLC to keep in shape, as the clear coat over the brass will get damaged over time if water/coffee splashes are left on it. Once the clear coat is gone, the copper and brass will tarnish and then the machine needs a professional to restore it.

It’s the same story for their home models but on a much smaller scale, so a bit more reasonable for a loving coffee enthusiast to take care of. I’ve heard you can take the machine to some auto paint shops to get a fresh layer of clear coat sprayed on. People have also said you can repair chips/scratches with some touch up tools at home.

Mentioned elsewhere, but the Meticulous Espresso 'automated lever' machine looks really impressive. It finally went live on Kickstarter[0] yesterday. I can't wait. There are a bunch of videos around; the one Brian Quan did [1] is my favourite.

[0]: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meticulous/meticulous-e... [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-dxaLZTfGc

That is actually cool. Really innovative and it actually doesn’t look too hacky.

I always thought that roasting beans is it's own science. Isn't 'beans roasted with heat gun' quite a weakest link in this pipeline to great coffee?

‘Blowing hot air’ is possibly the least technical aspect of the whole process.

Haha but what about "pumping hot water?"

Both of these things are surprisingly difficult to do properly, with enough consistency and control. I believe temperature profile can noticeably affect the roast, and being able to consistently hit a profile (and thus experiment and improve) is really difficult with something like a heat gun.

I did the heat gun thing for a while, and the air popper thing for a while, and even modified the air popper to be able to control fan speed and heating element separately. I got good results but hit a wall and needed more control. I started building an Arduino-controlled air popper to be able to get more consistent results, then decided brewing top-quality coffee coffee was challenging enough when roast quality was delegated to experts. Since then, I've been buying from local roasters.

‘Pumping a precise volume of near-boiling hot water at high pressure’ is orders or magnitude harder than ‘blowing hot air’.

Sounds like you need a popocorn maker :)

As opposed to a hot-air popcorn popper or a skillet on the stovetop?

Quite possibly. I’d say it’s just how I like it 80% of the time, and amazing 10% and terrible 10% of the time.

My go to is Yirgachefe.

Every so often I buy beans to see what I’m missing and I’m usually very underwhelmed. It’s time I did this again.

New Zealand is lucky as the importers don’t bring in much crap coffee and so the average is good. A large bulk is brought in by just a couple of companies and all seem to have high standards.

The key to home roasting for me is freshness. I like coffee a couple of days after it’s roasted. I can control this and struggled when I was buying beans.

Holy cow that machine looks crazy - and expensive! $9,995.00??

The really good modern espresso machines are all in that price range.

Well, the automated ones. The manual ones like [1] are just the essence of what makes espresso and hence can in theory produce the exact same thing but at a fraction of the price. Main problem is that most parameters are controlled by the user, not the machine, so consistency is not easy to achieve. Especially temperature control is hard to achieve. On the other hand: want longer preinfusion? Just do it, no buttons needed let alone a manual.

I have such machine and for that price combined with not having to wait for a Faema to heat up, take a rather large amount of space and whatnot, and given that I drink one max two espressos a day, and that those are so close to what a professional automatic machine produces: totally worth it and no regrets yet. I used to dream of an espresso machine producing those super tasty beverages which in my country are really hard to find (compared to Italy of course), now I just have one, and it's maintainance and hassle-free as well and is going to last a very long time (basically only one rubber ring which is replacable). Which cannot exactly be said of automatic machines.

[1] http://www.cafelat.com/robot.html

> not having to wait for a Faema to heat up, take a rather large amount of space and whatnot

And whatnot. I started turning it off at night (not recommended by manufacturer) and at the same point in time I started charging an electric car that is used daily.

The power bill has gone down.

The electric car uses less power than the Faema E61. Not good.

"Really good" starts at $400 for the Gaggia Classic Pro.

single boiler, vibratory pump, temperature surfing, bad OPV.

it's definitely good, but needs love to become "really good"

It’s a lot less in US dollars, it still the most ludicrous thing I own by 100 miles.

> Faema E61 Legend

Pffft... Jackpot! Great machine, especially by the looks!

All the best for your espresso adventure!

Try a cheap popcorn popper - more or less a heat gun with an aluminium cup attached. I've used one for roasting coffee with good results. The thing keeps the beans in motion while roasting them, all you have to do is switch it on and off at the right moment.

Fellow baker here - what exactly are your pain points? Because I can't see how it can be improved - modern steam ovens from AEG or Bosch bake kick ass. The sunmix and famag do amazing kneading. And shaping is very hard to make it non manual.

I’m just lazy.

I make add flour and water to the starter at night. Add the rest of the ingredients in the morning. Knead in the evening and put it in a basket then bake.

I’d like a bread-maker that I can use for the daytime bit where it warms a little and stirs at intervals I can choose. It needs a pan that won’t have the coating come off after a few months. Every one I’ve tried and have been careful with has done this. I’ve never baked with any break-maker I’ve owned, just used various dough cycles and only my hands go into it, nothing sharp has scratched them.

They hate the acidity or alcohol or something from long ferments.

I don’t even want to bake it in the bread-maker, just control the knead and heat while keeping it relatively environmentally controlled. What I want is more like a complicated stand mixer with a warming element.

> What I want is more like a complicated stand mixer with a warming element.

I have a Kenwood Cooking Chef (the older Version, has a 6.7L bowl). It kneads really well and has a heating function for up to 180°C (so you can also use it for cooking or continiously heating malt for bread baking). There is a functions where it stirs once every 15s and once every two minutes iirc. So its to frequent for the ripening but im sure there is a way to hack it. Or maybe check the newer versions they have a touch screen and might be configurable from the get go. The newer version also has a built in scale. There is also a "Patissier" version that is a little cheaper and can only heat up to 80°C.

And the bowl is made from stainless steel, so no coating that can come of.

That sounds excellent. I’m going to explore this option.

my bread machine sourdough recipe:

1. add 500g strong white,2 tbl spoons starter, 300ml water, 10g salt to bread machine

2. start dough mix programme (go for longest duration one available)

3.leave for 24hrs or until has doubled in size

4. bake for 70 mins

Not the best sour dough bread. But I think still quite delicious. And really very low effort.

How much mixing does it do, measured in minutes? When I was making sourdough regularly, most of the work was turn and fold in the bowl every hour or two for the day. Therefore the work of a machine seems like overkill.

I hadn’t really thought about bread machine with sourdough, because it’s “supposed” to be rustic and old world. But having a box that does most of the work and I bake it the next day would probably increase my sourdough production which has averaged zero loaves for the last year or so.

the dough cycle takes a couple of hours, this had rest as well as mix periods though. So I am unsure of the mix duration

That seems like a long bake time for such a firm dough (well it sounds firm). Is the loaf very dark?

not particularly. The bread machine is doing the baking though, so it likely takes time to heat up and does not get too hot.

The best bread maker is an oven. I’ve never had bread out of a bread maker that came anywhere near to the quality of a proper oven-baked loaf.

Bread machines are not to be used for making bread, they are in fact dough machines which mix and knead and pre-rise quit well. Using them this way has the added advantage of being able to bake twice as much in one go since the tin can be filled almost to the top instead of only half. I've been using a knock-off Zojirushi with double paddles - sold in Sweden under the Nordica label, I got it more or less unused from a second-hand shop for peanuts - like this for close to 20 years now. One machine load of dough is enough for two full-size bread tins which I then bake in either the wood-burning oven (in the cold seasons, i.e. autumn-winter-spring) or the electric oven (summer).

Easier in labour cost, though the paddle holes can be frustrating.

No paddle holes when you transfer the dough from the machine into 2 bread tins after the pre-rise, let it rise 'till completion and bake it in a real oven. It is a little bit more work, true, but worth the effort. I do this when the rest of the family has gone to bed, using the waiting periods to hack around a bit. The wood-burning oven heats the house for the night, I put in the bread when it is ready, take it out after ~32 minutes and go to bed. Next morning there are 2 fresh cooled loaves waiting for us in a warm kitchen. I cut them in slices and put them in the freezer. After a day or 3-4 they're finished and I bake again.