New toys

Just got my Vac Pot in the mail yesterday and am going to find some time to play with it soon. It looks something like the one in the video. I'm using the video as reference for how best to use my Vac Pot/Coffee Syphon.



Another new toy is my Compak K10 WBC that I just received from Talkcoffee. Got to find some space on my bench to test it out as well.

Mazzer Mini Mod - Part 1

Finally I get a chance to post about the mods I've done to my Mazzer Mini. I think that everyone agrees about how messy the Mazzers can be. I mean, as good as they are, they have their flaws and one of them is that the doser chamber doesn't sweep very clean. And for home users, it can be a real pain because you obviously don't want to waste any of that $20 - $40 a kg coffee that you bought. Thus the term Black Gold.

Anyway, the first thing is to take the doser apart. That involves using a flat head screw driver and unscrewing the middle screw. Then you unscrew the entire doser star anti-clockwise until it comes off. Underneath the doser star, you'll see 2 smaller flathead screws that you can remove to take apart the doser star as well.

This is what you should see at the end of it.


I then applied the cloth tape to the doser according to the http://www.thebeaningoflife.com/mazzer-mini-coffee-grinder/mazzer-fins-2.01b.html but I made mine a little longer which in retrospect may not be such a great idea.


I also applied tape to the doser star "top part" so that it sweeps clean over the drop chute cover. The pictures probably tell a better story.

As with the problem of the grind getting spat over over the middle of the doser, I applied a flap over the chute so that the grind drop directly down into the chambers and not all over the doser. And with the flap, I can still lift it up to sweep all the remaining grind out of the chute.


I haven't made any modifications to the drop chute yet and it's still dropping left a lot, but I've learnt not to clack it too quickly and that helps.

Will continue to look at how to improve the doser's messiness as I ran out of beans the last few days and haven't had much time to test. Stay tuned.

Mazzer Mini Mod

I'm currently planning my Mazzer Mini Sweep Mod. Or MMSM for short. Just kidding...er...on the acronym part at least. Here are the a few threads that I've been reading and I think I may try a combination of both.

http://temesblog.blogspot.com/2005/07/mazzer-mod-no3-sweep.html

http://www.home-barista.com/forums/improving-mazzer-doser-efficiency-t7074.html

http://www.thebeaningoflife.com/mazzer-mini-coffee-grinder/mazzer-fins-2.01b.html

Having pretty much done my research tonight, I'll continue tomorrow and take some photos at the same time. But for now....bed time, though I just had a Nespresso (sorry...) at a friend's place.

Queenscliff Holiday

Just came back from 2 nights in Queenscliff, west past Geelong and it was great. Well, the weather was abysmal as it pretty much rained the 2 days that we were there. So much that we didn't even get to go down to the pier, well, we pretty much didn't make use of the fact that we were in a sea side town.

Lots of cafes in this little town. Lots of different coffee suppliers there, Gigante, Grinders, Di Manfredi, Piazza D'oro just to name a few. And of course, none to rave about. Did see a place that claim to have the 'best coffee in town', but didn't dare venture into unknown territory. Though I must say that the Gigante that we tried in Athelstane House was pretty decent, not burnt I mean.

On the way back we made a trip to a winery for lunch called Pettavel and the food and service there was awesome. Coffee was average, but I guess it is a winery not a cafe so that's forgivable. I had the Venison served pink and the texture of the meat was smooth and though the portions were "fine dining" size, there was such a flavourful little piece of meat.

Plus they gave us a more than required discount when we used our Entertainment Book Gold Card. Thumbs up to them! I mean, for a restaurant in the middle of nowhere 5kms out from Geelong it was quite crowded for a weekday lunch.

Compak K10 WBC vs Mazzer Robur

Man, this is a hard one. We are currently trying to decide which grinder we should get for the cafe and it has brought me to choose between the obvious 2 heavy weight contenders, The Compak K10 WBC vs the Mazzer Robur.

I believe that the Robus has a strong following in cafes all around Melbourne, it has proven itself in battle over and over again and has come out tops each time. But in the recent years, Compak grinders have been gaining popularity as well. Especially with the introduction of the K10 and Compak's strong marketing in the World Barista Championship has seen it slowly becoming the grinder of choice.

Ok, here's the dilemma, do I want a trusted workhorse which I've used before or a hot shot newbie that is all the rage at the moment. And if I do decide to join the Barista Comps next year or the year after, it'll be good to train myself on the compulsory grinder (K10 WBC).

Well, that's it. I've read reviews after reviews and I think I've decided to go with the Compack K10 WBC. After all it's cheaper than the Robur, and from what I read http://www.home-barista.com/forums/titan-grinder-project-can-it-beat-mazzer-robur-t4499.html I think I've made a good choice.

Tell me I've made the right choice?

San Marino Compact CKX

A friend of mine won a San Marino CKX off Ebay a few days ago and I drove her to go pick it up today. Very nice shiny machine, single group semi-auto espresso machine. Some information about it here http://corpcoffee.com.au/?q=machines/semi-commercial/clone-compact%2C-semi-automatic.-(ckx)

It was in a pretty good nick, but unfortunately it hasn't been used in a while so when we took the shower screen off, it was fully clogged up. Oh well, nothing some scrubbing and Cafetto won't fix. Turned it on and it seems like everything's working well. Gonna wait for my friend to give it a good clean and run some shots of it.

That's my friend Evie with her new purchase

Anyway we made a trip to Liar Liar (The Age review) after for a cuppa and as usual, Nolan and his team serve up an awesome latte and the Ethopian 'Harrar' short black that we had after was sublime as well. Also realised that Liar Liar appear in this winter edition of Crema Magazine as one of Melbourne's top 5 cafes. Also mentioned were Brother Baba Budan (St Ali's), First Pour (Veneziano), 7 Grams (Veneziano) and Maling Room (Atomica), also gave a special mention to A Minor Place in Brunswick.

Oh btw, have you heard? St Ali's been sold to Paul Mathis. This spells the end of Mark Dundan's season in St Ali's. Read here for what he had to say about it. So it looks like Paul's heading into the coffee scene by pretty buying into it. I mean, if you're going to buy a cafe and can afford it, St Ali's about as good as it gets if you want to get a foot into the specialty coffee industry in Melbourne. Well, at least Toshi is staying...

Ok, so where should I start? How should this first post on my "coffee" blog look like...er...or read like. It's not like I'm even much of a writer, but I guess this is the reason why I'm endeavouring to do this blog. To not only chart my progress/journey with my passion for coffee, but to also chart some kind of progress with my literary ability.

Language has never been my strong suit. I mean, I've done well in English through my school days but I've never really taken to writing or reading (mum's fault if you ask me...hehehe). So at 30 years old, is it too late to start?

Hmm...coffee. Love it.

My journey with it started when I came to Melbourne 7 years ago. Had my first latte (at Fruits of Passion, Kensington), and slowly progressed from 2 sugars to 1 sugar, to none. To tell you the truth, when my dad made his first trip to Europe with his friends when I was a wee lad, he came back with this espresso craze. He then started buying an assortment of different machinery (which I now recognise as stovepots) which I believe are still in our kitchen in Singapore somewhere. It was then that I tried specialty coffee and...er...went *yucks*...to paraphrase.

Now, I can't go through a day without it. Yes some might say that it's an addiction and yes if I don't have a cup I do get a mild headache, but I love it. I look forward to waking up, turning on my Sunbeam EM6910, loading my Mazzer Mini with beans (Guatamalan RFA), filling my little Incasa jug with Pura full cream milk, and making my coffee. And then...drinking it...what a celebration of the efforts taken by my Guatamalan friends to grow this specially for me. Ok...it does sound a little crazy. Or even to make my journey to a fave cafe, giving a thumbs up to the barista and sit there with a good friend to savour the latte, and make space to connect over it.

It's suffice to say that it's not only the taste of coffee that I love, but the place that it's served in to the way that's it's made. The space that it creates for conversation and connections for me, goes beyond what is served in the cup. What I guess I'm trying to say is that, the quality of the coffee in that little 7 1/2 oz glass; for me; makes or breaks the space that I've given to it, and the quality if the conversations spent over it, rides on that.

So who's going to read all this? Who cares you say? I guess even if no one does, I'll email my mum the blog address and she will...she's mum after all. Happy Birthday Mum!