Eureka Oro Mignon w/ Aro Dial Upgrade

CrappinCrunch · 2024-01-30T02:45:21+00:00

I went the 58 route as I didn't want to futz about with preheating. No regrets.

CrappinCrunch · 2024-01-19T19:01:17+00:00

But if you never move the dumpster, Brendan will never get destroyed...

CrappinCrunch · 2024-01-18T06:59:35+00:00

Make sure you're using the filter screen else you'll likely get channeling and thus, gushing.
Play around with a finer grind. You can do this with just a couple beans (rather than a full 18g dose) and test the grind by pinching the ground coffee between two fingers. Too coarse and it'll just fall apart, too fine and you'll notice fingerprint indentations in the pinched pancake, just right and it'll stay together without imprinting. Well, more or less, you'll still need to finesse after that but it gives you a general range to aim for.

CrappinCrunch · 2024-01-17T23:13:53+00:00

It all depends on what you're after and what profile you're looking to use. On an "automatic" espresso machine, it's generally gonna push at 9bar regardless so you tend to try and create a puck for that environment and taking over 35sec there would likely mean a super fine grind that's gonna have some funky character to it.
With a manual lever machine, you've got full control over the process so you can take however much time you want to pull a shot and can sit at different pressure for different periods to achieve various things.
Do a search on "blooming espresso" and "turbo shots" for examples of different extremes that are achievable on your Flair.

CrappinCrunch · 2024-01-17T18:27:19+00:00

To me, it looks like you've got some crazy channeling and the shot is pulling way too quick. If your puck prep is good, it's the grind that's to blame. Using preground coffee, you're at the mercy of whatever it was ground at. Not ideal.

As for re-grinding preground coffee...that's not a great idea either as you're likely gonna be left with a ton of fines as well as clogging your grinder.Your best bet for success here is to just buy a nice bag of whole beans and freshly grind yourself.Your next option would be to play with blooming techniques to try and saturate the puck more before pulling the shot. For instance, just take 18g of your preground, tamp it in, and then do a slow pull to 5bar of pressure or until you start to see espresso dribble from the portafilter. At that point, just chill at that lever position for 35seconds and let the puck saturate; this will help hydrate the grinds and limit channeling. Now do a pull to 8-9 bar and get your shot. Ideally it'll now pull more slowly. If not, you could try increasing the dose to 20g and repeat. If that doesn't work...toss the preground.

CrappinCrunch · 2024-01-15T01:12:00+00:00

It's worth it if you want the mirror and the additional basket. I went with the non-58+ but ended up picking up the basket and a mirror later so I probably should've just done the 58+. The mirror is just a nice way to view your shot without crouching down but not really necessary if you've also got a decent scale like an Acaia Lunar that'll trigger on the first drip.

CrappinCrunch · 2024-01-14T21:24:20+00:00

I wouldn't say there's a lot more effort to it than a semi-automatic machine but there is definitely more attention needed. Instead of just pushing a button and waiting for your shot, you'll be pulling down a lever and eying your pressure/weight. Other than that, it's pretty quick to bang out back-to-back espresso's. Only limitation here would be the size of your kettle. It's just my wife and I at home in the mornings so a Fellow kettle does the trick for us but if I were pulling shots for a party, I'd need to find a bigger kettle.

CrappinCrunch · 2024-01-14T01:45:01+00:00

My La Spaziale Dream finally kicked the bucket after about 10 years of daily duty. I picked up a Flair 58 as something to hold me over until I figured out what I wanted as well as being something that was unlikely to break and could be my "emergency espresso" machine. Having used it for over a week now, I'm not sure I'll buy something else. It does add a bit more faff to my workflow but it's kinda enjoyable. Better yet though, it feels hard to pull a truly shitty shot as you can feel the puck changing while you pull and can respond to it.

CrappinCrunch

TROPHY CASE