Pour-over or filter coffee makers have never been that popular here in the UK, which is a real same as they make great coffee that tastes quite different to coffee brewed in a cafetiere (which is the coffee maker of choice in most households).
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Archive for the ‘New Products’ Category
Clever Coffee Dripper and Filtropa Filter Papers
Thursday, November 24th, 2011Gaggia Espresso Machines and Coffee Grinders
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
We are now stocking Gaggia espresso machines and coffee grinders. The prices are as follows:
Espresso Machines:
- Gaggia Baby £209.95
- Gaggia Classic £289.95
- Gaggia Baby Class £295.95
- Gaggia Baby Twin £369.95
Coffee Grinders:
- Gaggia MM £74.95
- Gaggia MDF £189.95
Tescoma Paloma Stove-top Espresso Maker
Thursday, August 18th, 2011
We’ve taken stock this week of some new stove-top espresso makers from a company called Tescoma. Their Paloma coffee maker looks set to compete head to head with Bialetti’s stalwart the Moka Express. They both look pretty similar; they’re both made from aluminium; but the Paloma is cheaper in price and comes with an amazing 3 year warranty (as apposed to 1 year on most Bialetti models).
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Aerobie Aeropress
Monday, August 15th, 2011We are now stocking the Aerobie AeroPress in our webshop. The coffee maker is £21.95 and the Micro-filters are £3.95 for a pack of 350.
What is the AeroPress
For me, the AeroPress has to be one of biggest breakthroughs in coffee making history since Achille Gaggia gave birth to the modern day espresso machine. I’m not the only one to think these coffee makers are great, a group of coffee professionals where so inspired that they started the World AeroPress Championship (WAC).
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Sagaform Travel Mugs
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
Following on from the popularity of the Sagaform Takeaway travel mug, we’ve now decided to stock this mug in two additional designs: Pix and Flower. Some of you may remember me writing about these travel mugs back in March last year. I still stand by what a said back then. These mugs are great because as they’re made from porcelain there’s no metallic taste. One drawback though – if you don’t count only keeping drinks hot for around 45 minutes – when I make my partner a tea in mine, she says she can still taste coffee (she’s not a coffee fan – well not yet anyway). I’m not sure why, I think maybe the silicone lid absorbs some of the aromas.
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What’s the use of a Thermal Cafetiere?
Friday, May 21st, 2010We’ve just started stocking a range of thermal cafetieres and it got me wondering what’s the actual point of them? Yes, I know they keep your coffee hot for longer. This new cafetiere claims to keep it hot for 3 times as long. But if you leave your coffee in the cafetiere doesn’t it keep extracting?
This is something I’ve read and heard many times but never got around to testing for myself. Does coffee really keep extracting even when the plunger is down? So I conducted a test using a TDS meter, measuring some coffee immediately after I’d finished brewing and then again 5 minutes later. The results showed that the coffee which had been left in the cafetiere was indeed stronger, by 6%.
This might not seem a lot, but the aim of brewing is to extract all the desirable flavours from the coffee whilst leaving the undesirable ones behind. So if all the desirable flavours have already been extracted by the time the brew has finished, than this extra 6% of strength will be from the undesirable flavours.
Therefore, keeping your coffee hot for longer isn’t a good selling point for a cafetiere. If you leave your coffee inside it, it’s going to keep on brewing, and when you come back to it, it will taste darker, bitterer and will contain more caffeine.
Ascaso Update
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010Yes I know that Ascaso upgraded the spec on its espresso machines back in September 2009; so this isn’t exactly new news. But still I though it was something worth talking about. So I decided to compare the equivalent pre-upgrade machine against a brand new Pablo (before the Update this used to be called the Basic).
So what’s changed?
As standard, Ascaso now fits all of its espresso machines with a solenoid valve. But also: the UK distributor for Ascaso, Fairfax Coffee, has chosen to switch from importing machines fitted with the ‘versatile’ system (which can use both ground coffee and ESE pods) to the ground coffee only system.
Now the versatile system uses ‘supercream’ pressurised portafilters. Which Ascaso boost: guarantees a creamy coffee (no matter how badly you prepare it! – okay I added the last bit myself). The coffee only machines, like their commercial counterparts, don’t have this cheat.
Old versatile grouphead on left. Uses rubber o-ring to help pressurise portafilter. New grouphead on right. Notice the shower screen is much finer for a more even wetting.
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Rattling Cup Holder
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Recently I decided to take advantage of the Government Scrappage Scheme and swap my old beast for something a bit more refined. Everything is great with the new car, except for one thing, it makes a slightly annoying rattle when I used the cup holder.
Now I used to use a stainless steel Planetary Design travel mug; which is brilliant at keeping my coffee hot (possibly too good). I’d make it half an hour before leaving home, for it to be at a drinkable temperature 20 minutes into my journey! After an hour and a half, it would still be reasonably hot.
As this travel mug is made from metal, I thought this might be part of the problem. Stainless steel is fairly resonating. So I decided to try using a different travel mug. As we had just taken delivery of some new porcelain travel mugs, by Sagaform, I chose to use one of these.
Unfortunately, this didn’t solve the problem. I still have a rattling cup holder. But rather than a high pitched ‘ting ting’ my new porcelain mug makes a low grumble.
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Handpresso Intense Portafilter – Part II
Sunday, February 14th, 2010
In the previous post, I was testing the new Intense portafilter on the ESE version of Handpresso’s portable espresso machine. Now it’s the turn of the Domepod (ground coffee) version.
As I said previously:
I’m not quite sure of the advantage yet (of the Intense portafilter), as flow rate can already be controlled by altering the grind size of the coffee.
I did come up with a theory however – that using the Intense portafilter may slow the loss of pressure when compared to simply grinding finer. For some reason the Intense portafilter would be better at stopping the pressurised air from escaping and consequently the coffee cake would be under higher pressure for longer. So to put this to the test I made several ristrettos (yes you can make these with the Domepod), some using a coarser grind and the Intense portafilter and some using a finer grind with the standard portafilter. But I couldn’t detect any difference between the two; so that was my theory out the window!
Back to the drawing board; my big assumption was that everyone has an espresso grinder, with access to 24/7. But that’s not the case. Once I realised this (stupid me) I came up with a list of scenarios where the Intense portafilter is beneficial:
- If you do have a grinder but it doesn’t grind fine enough for espresso.
- Or if you buy pre-ground coffee and again the grind size isn’t fine enough.
- If you’re going out for the day, and want to drink both espressos and ristrettos, but don’t want the hassle of making up and labelling which pods have which grind size in it.
I’m sure there are other scenarios. Please feel free to suggest any.
Handpresso Intense Portafilter
Monday, February 8th, 2010
We’ve recently started to stock an alternative portafilter to the standard one shipped with Handpresso espresso machines. So I thought it would be a good idea to put the new Intense portafilter through its paces.
Intense portafilter - fewer holes
I can immediately see the point of this portafilter for the ESE version of the Handpresso. The biggest problem with ESE pods is that they brew too quickly, resulting in an under-extracted brew. So something that slows the process is going to be beneficial. However with the Domepod (ground coffee) version, I’m not quite sure of the advantage yet, as flow rate can already be controlled by altering the grind size of the coffee.
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