Make a big batch of pour over and just freeze the extra in an ice tray. Use that to ice hot coffee and you don’t have to change your recipe at all (though you can still use a slightly tighter ratio since cold things taste less, which is why I’ve cream needs such saturated flavoring and so much sugar).
“Sounds like a skill issue”
The small holes are probably more forgiving of grinding than pouring, so if you’re getting good results, I’d feel confident in your pouring with a different cone. People make a big deal about pouring technique, but as long as you’re relatively consistent and not entirely careless, a v60 is not the finicky monster it’s made out to be haha.
Hope the stir is great for ya, and happy pouring!
Totally fine. The 3 small holes rather than 1 large one (like on a v60) can make them draw down/drain a little slower, but they are still super functional.
Only advice would be that the flat sides can make it harder to swirl your slurry during the bloom, which a lot of recipes call for. So I’d just look for recipes that use pouring alone (or maybe a little stir) to agitate the grounds, like Matt Winton’s 5-pour recipe/video.
I think jumping coarser and then “fine” tuning (pun half-intended) works well IF you start super fine.
If you’re starting in the middle of the spectrum from fine to coarse, and you only ever try going coarser first, you never get to try what might be the best cup, which may be on the finer side of your starting point.
Winning cups in pour over competitions are often ground shockingly fine, like only 30%-50% coarser than espresso fine. You may be using dark roast or Ethiopian beans (known to produce tons of fines and need coarser settings), but if not, I’d really suggest going finer just to see how it goes. You’ll find a lot of experts suggest the same.
Ah that’s so great to hear! It was an epiphany for me when I got a better cup this way, so I’m just so glad I got to share it with at least one person!
Thank you for the update, and happy pouring!
Niche is definitely good enough to get a quality cup, and sounds like you’ve got a great setup for what you’re brewing. If you do ever try a cone, you can still get some great results with a $9 V60 and a classic kettie spout, too, especially if you pulse your pours.
And yeah, like you say, a Brazil is almost always going to be chocolate forward, so that makes sense. They are also often roasted medium to city/dark, so I wouldn’t typically recommend easing off the water temp, but a few degrees can make a bigger difference with darker roasts, in case it is one. But it does sound like you’ll find what you’re looking for more with a higher elevation and lighter roast. I’m personally a huge fan of Dune coffees.
Hope grinding finer is great! And if not, you’re one step further along in the process of elimination haha.
Of course. Honestly wish these were out when I got my espresso grinder, as a 1Z and a drill is probably better than anything under $1k when it comes to grind quality alone (perhaps not user experience, but the drill helps)
Nice, sounds like you’re definitely a candidate for manual espresso grinding, in which case that’s what I’d go for. You’ll definitely have a hard/impossible time finding anything anything as precise and consistent as 1ZPresso’s esspresso-focused grinders at that price or looking at electric grinders.
Any drill/screwdriver with a 6.35mm socket (the widely standard size) can be attached to the same spot that the standard handle slides onto. That piece on the grinder is actually shaped like a standard hex bit, so it should fit just like any of the screwdriving heads would.
If it’s light, but not sour, acidic, overly watery, or astringent, I might stick with what you have, and it tasting light may just be a function of coming from daily espresso (which I did, too).
That said, something I love about pour over is how easy it is to experiment. If you’re using relatively light roast beans, you’ll struggle to over-extract, so I’d definitely try going finer just to see what it does. It may end up producing less of the flavors that were giving a seemingly over-extracted taste, or at least balancing them with the natural sweetness and body of the coffee.
If it’s a light roast, I might also (separately, so you can identify the effects of each change) try increasing the water temp. I do espresso at 89-90⁰C, but I’ll crank my pour over heat to 98.9, even with a fine grind–though again, only with a light roast. It’s MUCH easier to under-extract that in is to over with a light roast, and the effects of under-extraction can taste oddly similar to over-extraction with some beans.
If they aren’t light roasted beans, grinding finer or going hotter can increase bitterness, so you’ve just got a much slimmer target for a perfect cup, and you may have to accept some bitterness or some lightness to get everything else in line with what you’re looking for. What type of beans are you using, and at what temp? (Also, assuming you have a solid grinder?)
1ZPresso is amazing, just got the K-ultra a few months ago and it is my most consistent grinder, but hand grinding at espresso sizes is HARD. I’d run an experiment with your timemore and set it to near its finest grind and try to crank through 18-20g beans. You’ll be able to do it for sure, but just make sure it’s something you want to do every morning.
(Just for context, I’m a fairly fit guy used to hand grinding, but I have to get into position, hold the grinder against my leg, and lean over it to maximize torque in order to comfortably grind for espresso. I was shocked how different it was from even a fine pour over grind).
That said, if you have an electric screwdriver or a drill that can do super low RPMs, you can attach 1ZPresso grinders to those and basically make them electric/automatic.
You’re not gonna see it on a lot of real enthusiast’s lists, but I think the Breville Smart Grinder Pro at $200 is the best espresso grinder you can get (easily and consistently) below $300. I have a virtuoso+ that I was using for a while, and the cheaper SGP not only has MUCH greater micro-adjustability (it’s essentially stepless since you can set to any point in between clicks, but there are still steps technically), but the grinds are much more consistent at espresso sizes. I’ve established this myself with a precise sifter to remove boulders and fines (virtuoso+ produces many more of both) and seen online analyses that show the same. SGP wins against the more expensive baratza every time on grind quality.
The biggest/most common knock against it is that it isn’t built to be repaired as seriously as most Baratza, and some of the “smart” features aren’t that useful. However, being so much cheaper than anything but the cheapest baratzas, I’d buy two of these over the course of 10+ years for grind quality alone rather than spend just as much replacing burrs on a baratza, but not technically having to buy a new grinder.
And yeah, the ability to grind by “cups” rather than time isn’t helpful, I just do it by time, but it’s not like they made that more difficult by adding a second option. What IS helpful and won’t be found in any other grinder at the price, though, is a great portafilter switch and holder. Improves workflow, minimizes waste, and is just fun to use. I’d use a twist-on dosing funnel though so you don’t have to spill/waste any grounds at all when grinding straight into the portafilter.
In the end, I make decisions like this based almost exclusively on functionality at a given price point, and SGP is a rare case in which a cheaper option actually performs better when you get down to grind quality alone, and the espresso-specific build/attachments are nice.
When did Russell Brand become the newest D-list celeb alt-right convert? I know maintaining relevance is hard but…
As someone who works in content marketing, this is already untrue at the current quality of LLMs. It still requires a LOT of human oversight, which obviously it was not given in this example, but a good writer paired with knowledgeable use of LLMs is already significantly better than a good content writer alone.
Some examples are writing outside of a person’s subject expertise at a relatively basic level. This used to take hours or days of entirely self-directed research on a given topic, even if the ultimate article was going to be written for beginners and therefore in broad strokes. With diligent fact-checking and ChatGPT alone, the whole process, including final copy, takes maybe 4 hours.
It’s also an enormously useful research tool. Rather than poring over research journals, you can ask LLMs with academic plug-ins to give a list of studies that fit very specific criteria and link to full texts. Sometimes it misfires, of course, hence the need for a good writer still, but on average this can cut hours from journalistic and review pieces without harming (often improving) quality.
All the time writers save by having AI do legwork is then time they can instead spend improving the actual prose and content of an article, post, whatever it is. The folks I know who were hired as writers because they love writing and have incredible commitment to quality are actually happier now using AI and being more “productive” because it deals mostly with the shittiest parts of writing to a deadline and leaves the rest to the human.
An important note about this as an average–some hospitals have incredibly low hospital-acquired infection rates, and others are shockingly high. A HUGE factor is just how nice the facilities are and how well-trained the doctors are, which is why there are 3rd parties that evaluate as much for hospitals each year. Do your research and know where to go in your area that has scored highest on quality of care investigations!
Question for clarity, does it’s levation have anything to do with whether or not it’s a superconductor?
What is a single thing about Twitter that has gotten better? Selling my Tesla for an electric Mustang was the best choice I’ve made in a while.
I don’t give really a shit about him, but from the dropoff in Twitter’s usage and value to production and publicity issues at Tesla and cutting off the Ukraine army’s access to Starlink, it seems there’s, well, a lot to hate about him. And like he might not be that good at his job.