espresso - unbelievable quality

[stealthbalance]

THIS IS A MAJOR MAJOR GEAR ALERT !!!!!
i have just bought the best espresso machine ive ever used in my life - a truly authentic professional machine for the home. its made by nuova simonelli ( italy ) i can now truely have my latte tasting exactly the way i might get it in say ....lake como. this machine rocks - i never turn it off , it has separate boilers for steam and espresso taps ( so no more waiting for a machine to reach frothing temperature - it has a safety shut off if out of water or pump is on for 2 min - i can now froth my milk in less than 30 secs , it will do shot after shot consistantly all day long - and it also is truely capable of acheiving what i call God shots , with the richest crema ive ever had. sick sick sick .....but what is sickest is how cheap it is...u.s. its $699.00 !!!!!! WOW WOW WOW
its not the prettiest machine in the world , its plastic , and its a bit noisy , and i say f that because this machine is off the map.

also check out the newest bean im using , amazing !!

enjoy
s

http://www.nuovasimonelli.com/espres...on=link&Id=753

http://www.segafredo.it/eng/prod-e_cas_pag.htm

[Jules]

OK now I want that for my studio!

Have you tried Illy coffee yet?

[Jules]

Perhaps this need to be posted in Low End Theory

http://engadget.com/entry/1234000730027817/

[Jules]

Actually I got my espresso machine for £5 second hand, but I DO one day want one of the pricey models...

Too much pressure!

[Ruudman]

Total GAS

Simonella is the Emperor of Espresso


ruudman

[Riccardo]

Originally Posted by Jules

OK now I want that for my studio!

Have you tried Illy coffee yet?

Jules.

Illy is known as one of the best - and the most expensive - coffees.
It is indeed very good, much better than Segafredo.

Less known but absolute high end of italian coffees is www.saquella.it

I think the english web page is still under construction.

[stampen]

Oooohhh that is a nice machine...

Let me add two other brands for you all to try besides Illy which I like a lot.

Kimbo and Ink.

Kimbo coffee

Ink coffee

They are both great.

/A

[dynamo]

I like the KIMBO too. The Espresso Napoletano one...
Stealthbalance sorry but the ultimate espresso machine is....
http://ww1.williams-sonoma.com/cat/p...0714&cmsrc=sch
I'm in love....
Check also the Gaggia and the Bugatti in next pages of the W&S catalog...
more Pavoni gear:
http://www.pavoniespresso.com/

[Riccardo]

Originally Posted by stealthbalance

great - just what i need - compressor and mic pre newbies were already enough here - now i get to deal with espresso newbies here too.

newbies saying that their bean is better than mine , or their machine
blows away the machine im recommending .

can we just have a newbie wing here at gearslutz already. or better yet , a wing for gearslutz that is for the seasoned creative respectful slutz like me ?????????

thank you very much.

oh ya , i love behringer compressors , ive never heard one before , but they are way better than anything else.

s

upset uh!? Too much coffee maybe?
Jokes apart...if you have a chance and if you can find it give Saquella a try.
Much better than the off the shelf stuff mentioned above if you understand coffee.
(it is no Behringer more Cranesong or Fearn if you wish.....)

[artapril]

You have to try www.kaffee-braun.de , it is our small local coffee roaster.
You can order online, internationals need to contact first due to customs reason.
But it is worth it. Try the espresso napoli.

btw if someone is Still at Musikmesse, it is about 25min from Frankfurt.

Website in german only.

Baristatique greetings

[dynamo]

Stealthbalance,

my apologies. I see my comment being inappropriate while you are celebrating your new machine. Maybe i should use those smiling faces more often...

About calling me a newbie, like i don't know what i'm talking about...i'm Italian, i'm born with espresso. My grandmother was from a small city close to Naples, with Rome it is considered the BEST place in Italy for espresso. They really brought it to an art. She was after every detail, starting from the manual grinder. I can get pretty romantic just remembering the smell of her coffee running through the old house.

I'm used to the best and really appreciate a good espresso. It's not uncommon in Italy to do a few extra miles just to go to the "right" bar. I've also worked on professional espresso machines like: Gaggia, Cimbali and yes...La Pavoni and i'm aware of the difference in quality between manufactures. Enuff blah, blah...

I'm sure you made and educated choice while i based my suggestion just on the reputation of La Pavoni, the way that machine is built and....the way it looks, i've actually seen one at the store and got a little carried away. It seems like a very nice piece to me with all the right specs but again my post was definitely out of place.

Enjoy your Nuova Simonelli and if you ever come to NY drop by for a cup of coffee...

[BorrelNote]

Originally Posted by stealthbalance

THIS IS A MAJOR MAJOR GEAR ALERT !!!!!
i have just bought the best espresso machine ive ever used in my life - a truly authentic professional machine for the home. its made by nuova simonelli ( italy ) i can now truely have my latte tasting exactly the way i might get it in say ....lake como. this machine rocks - i never turn it off , it has separate boilers for steam and espresso taps ( so no more waiting for a machine to reach frothing temperature - it has a safety shut off if out of water or pump is on for 2 min - i can now froth my milk in less than 30 secs , it will do shot after shot consistantly all day long - and it also is truely capable of acheiving what i call God shots , with the richest crema ive ever had. sick sick sick .....but what is sickest is how cheap it is...u.s. its $699.00 !!!!!! WOW WOW WOW
its not the prettiest machine in the world , its plastic , and its a bit noisy , and i say f that because this machine is off the map.

also check out the newest bean im using , amazing !!

enjoy
s

http://www.nuovasimonelli.com/espres...on=link&Id=753

http://www.segafredo.it/eng/prod-e_cas_pag.htm

Hee....what model did you buy ? And does it come with presets ?

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally Posted by Jules

Perhaps this need to be posted in Low End Theory ...

Naaahhh strictly high end. Film guys are into this, seriously into this...

[Bob Olhsson]

So what kind of coffee are people into?

I burned myself out on cheap coffee at Motown but got seduced by the good stuff while I was working for Graham Nash in the early '70s.

In my San Francisco studio I had an espresso machine, a French press and a generic filter drip machine for when I was too busy to deal with the others. We've been into Hawaiian coffee for around five years. Before that it was dark Italian roast mixed with Celebes or Jamaican Blue Mountain before the price went through the roof.

[Conner]

I'm more into the indonesian beans...I like the darkness, and lower acidity of the beans that come from that region. (Depending of course on the roast of such beans)
Also...(flame shields up) at Starbucks about 6 years ago they offered for a short time before the hostile actions became a factor, they offered the bean collected from the Harrar region of Ethiopa. What made this bean spectacular was that the coffee farm was planted on and next to blueberry fields. This gave the slightest, sweet, blueberry hints to an otherwise med. dark/dark coffee. Trust me I don't like my coffee sweet but the hint and aftertaste was to die for.
They recently offered this coffee again but my sources tell me it was from a knock off farm not at all related to the last batch.

Also, a country that was hit big by the Tsunami produces fantastic beans, Sulawesi's beans tend to have more girth in flavor, with extremely low acidity, and leave almost a buttery/smooth finish. It's very hard to roast too long unless you are an idiot. The darker the better without that burnt taste we know so much about Starbucks.
French Press/percolators are the only way to go. I prefer the press. I'm definitely going to try some of these that have been mentioned. Anyone willing to send samples to South Florida? Not many places to get specialties around here unless you're looking for whipped cream and fruit flavored!

[Ruphus]

Thought some might have not heard yet about the most expensive coffee in the world and its strange background.

Kopi Luwak does exist, is very expensive, and is made from coffee beans passed through the digestive system of an Indonesian animal, but it's more of a cat than a monkey. According to a feature article by the Manila Coffee House, which sells the stuff, the people who harvest the digested beans don't really have to pick through cat litter to get it. The animal processes the beans and excretes them whole, unscratched, and without dung.

The animal is a palm civet, a dark brown tree-dwelling cat found throughout Southeast Asia. The scientific name is paradoxunis hermaphroditus.

According to the Manila Coffee House, the palm civet just happens to like to ingest the ripest and reddest coffee beans, which also happen to be the ones best for brewing. The cat eats the outer covering of the beans in the same way that is accomplished by de-pulping machines. Something happens to the beans in the journey through the cat's intestines that gives it a flavor that is celebrated by coffee drinkers.

At this point, most of the beans are purchased by Japanese buyers.

The price is $300 per pound. Luxury chit.



Ruphus

[Ruphus]

Coffee grows in dozens of countries around the world. Some varieties have earned a special reputation, often based on a combination of rarity, unusual circumstances and particularly good flavor. These coffees, from Jamaican Blue Mountain to Kona to Tanzanian Peaberry, command a premium price. But perhaps no coffee in the world is in such short supply, has such unique flavors and an, um, interesting background as Kopi Luwak. And no coffee even comes close in price: Kopi Luwak sells for $75 per quarter pound. Granted, that's substantially less than marijuana, but it's still unimaginably high for coffee.

Kopi (the Indonesian word for coffee) Luwak comes from the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi (formerly Celebes), which are part of the Indonesian Archepelago's 13,677 islands (only 6,000 of which are inhabited). But it's not strictly the exotic location that makes these beans worth their weight in silver. It's how they're "processed."

On these Indonesian islands, there's a small marsupial called the paradoxurus, a tree-dwelling animal that is part of the sibet family. Long regarded by the natives as pests, they climb among the coffee trees eating only the ripest, reddest coffee cherries. Who knows who first thought of it, or how or why, but what these animals eat they must also digest and eventually excrete. Some brazen or desparate -- or simply lazy -- local gathered the beans, which come through the digestion process fairly intact, still wrapped in layers of the cherries' mucilage. The enzymes in the animals' stomachs, though, appear to add something unique to the coffee's flavor through fermentation.

Curiously, Kopi Luwak isn't the only "specialty" food that begins this way. Argan is an acacia-like tree that grows in Morocco and Mexico which, through its olive-like fruit, yields argan oil. In Morocco, the Berbers encourage goats to climb the trees to eat the fruit. They later gather the goats' excrement and remove the pits, which they grind for oil to be used in massage, in cooking and as an aphrodisiac.

What started as, presumably, a way for the natives to get coffee without climbing the trees has since evolved into the world's priciest specialty coffee. Japan buys the bulk of Kopi Luwak, but M.P. Mountanos (800-229-1611), the first in the United States to bring in this exotic bean, recently imported 110 pounds after a seven year search for a reliable and stable supplier. "It's the rarest beverage in the world," Mark Mountanos says, estimating a total annual crop of less than 500 pounds.

Richard Karno, former owner of The Novel Cafe in Santa Monica, California, got a flyer from Mountanos about Kopi Luwak and "thought it was a joke." But Karno was intrigued, found it it was for real, and ordered a pound for a tasting. Karno sent out releases to the local press inviting them to a cupping. When no one responded, he roasted it and held a cupping for himself and his employees. Karno is very enthusiastic, a convert to Kopi Luwak. "It's the best coffee I've ever tasted. It's really good, heavy with a caramel taste, heavy body. It smells musty and jungle-like green, but it roasts up real nice. The LA Times didn't come to our cupping, but ran a bit in their food section, which hit the AP Wire service." And Karno and the folks at M.P. Mountanos have been inundated with calls ever since.

Mountanos says, "It's the most complex coffee I've ever tasted," attributing the unusual flavors to the natural fermentation the coffee beans undergo in the paradoxurus' digestive system. The stomach acids and enzymes are very different from fermenting beans in water. Mountanos says, "It has a little of everything pleasurable in all coffees: earthy, musty tone, the heaviest bodied I've ever tasted. It's almost syrupy, and the aroma is very unique." While it won't be turning up in every neighborhood cafe any day soon, Mountanos reports that Starbucks bought it for cuppings within the company.

In fact, most of Mountanos' customers have bought it for special cuppings. The Coffee Critic in San Mateo, California, though, occasionally sells Kopi Luwak to the public for $5 a cup. Owner Linda Nederman says she keeps the price low to allow people to experience the coffee. Nederman says that most of her people who try it are longtime customers, and they're "game to try something different and unusual. I've never had anybody complain, they all seem to feel it's worth the price." Nederman drinks it herself every time they brew it. "I've never tasted anything like it. It's an unbelieveable taste in your mouth: richness, body, earthiness, smooth." She also carries Jamaica Blue Mountain, Burundi Superior AA and Brazil FZA "Natural Dry," so her customers are used to fine and exotic coffees. Still, she reports, many are afraid to try Kopi Luwak.

Michael Beech, founding partner in Raven's Brew Coffee (no web site yet, but email them at ravencup@ptialaska.net), a roaster, wholesaler and mail order (800-91-RAVEN) merchant in Ketchikan, Alaska, sells roasted-to-order Kopi Luwak by the quarter pound ($75, including a free t-shirt depicting the coffee-making process). "It's excellent coffee. But I always caution customers that you can't get $75 worth of quality in any coffee, there's no such thing. You're paying for the experience of quaffing the world's rarest and most expensive coffee. The palate would recognize it as Sumatran or Indonesian right away. It has earthy tones of natural processed Sumatra Mandheling. It has low acidity with a syrupy body. There's something else there, a nuance in the flavor profile that I can't describe, and when I've challanged others, no one else can either. It's almost alien, a tiny little flavor note, highly exotic." The last bag he sold was to John Cleese of Monty Python and Fierce Creatures fame.

But not everyone is seduced by this exotic coffee's charms. "Kopi Luwak is, in my opinion, indistinguishable from many an average robusta, especially if you cup them next to each other," says Tim Castle, coffee expert and author of The Perfect Cup, referring to the lower grade of commercially available coffees. "Kopi Luwak's processing is unusual and attracts attention. In that sense, it is an interesting coffee."

Intrigued by the hype, I drove out to the Los Angeles warehouse of M.P. Mountanos to cup some Kopi with Andrew Vournas. The green beans, which range from tiny to elephant, have a faint smell that hints of a zoo or stables -- a little funky, not your average coffee aroma. He lightly roasts about 21 grams, enough beans for three cups, in a Jabez Burns two barrel sample roaster, a rare and beautiful machine dating from the '30s. Vournas gives the beans a light roast -- just after the second popping -- to accentuate the specific flavors of this rare coffee; a darker roast would obliterate the subtler flavors and replace them with a more generic taste. Vournas points out that this coffee, like most Indonesian-grown, has lots of moisture and roasts nicely.

Vournas gives the beans a course grind and mixes seven grams of coffee with four ounces of water in each of three cups. The aroma is rich and strong, and the coffee is incredibly full bodied, almost syrupy. It's thick with a hint of chocolate, and lingers on the tongue with a long, clean aftertaste. It's definitely one of the most interesting and unusual cups I've ever had.

Is it worth the money? Five dollars for a single cup? Sure, why not? You'll pay more than that in any Paris cafe for a bad au lait. Might as well spend it on something rare and exotic.

Ruphus

[toolskid]

Illy rules... I been loving some cuban beans called 'Cubita' .. cant get them in UK tho, my mate brought them back from cuba under his toupe....