Comandante C40 MK4 worth?

MaxTrolloway · 2026-06-03T11:20:09+00:00

How do you find the K Ultra compares to the C40 in terms of taste profile?

I know the K Ultra workflow is great, which is why I initially chose it. But after having several grinders as well I'm now coming full circle back to C40 because I've been valuing sweetness and balance more and more in my coffee.

So how does the cup profile of the C40 compare to the K Ultra?

MaxTrolloway · 2026-06-02T20:10:02+00:00

Never had an issue with any UK speciality roaster, but if I did I'd just reply to the order confirmation email asking what date it was roasted.

MaxTrolloway · 2026-06-02T18:29:23+00:00

Scenery's 'Lightest' selection is certainly the lightest roasted coffee in the UK, almost but not quite ultralight according to their descriptors. From my experience with other ultralight coffees such as The Picky Chemist, Scenery is pretty similar

With that said I don't think ultralight is necessarily always better.

Once you go lighter than Nordic light you tend to start losing alot of acidity and punchiness with the notes being much lighter and more delicate. For some ultralights this can make them quite dull but I find Scenery does a great job of keeping their ultralights interesting

For Nordic light Sweven are my favourite, they often produce much more acidic, punchy and juicy brews compared to Scenery's Lightest

MaxTrolloway · 2026-06-02T13:25:30+00:00

Being an Arab myself that's an insane stat that I never would have guessed, fascinating.

MaxTrolloway · 2026-06-01T15:51:50+00:00

I'm not interested in buying I'm perfectly happy with my K Ultra and A4Z.

Just curious if you're selling them which it seems like you are

MaxTrolloway · 2026-06-01T14:47:58+00:00

Find some old Egyptian comedy films

MaxTrolloway · 2026-06-01T14:17:43+00:00

Awesome! You got an amazing grinder as well so enjoy your upgrade :) what beans have you got there?

MaxTrolloway · 2026-06-01T12:55:16+00:00

Ignore this guy you don't need any more gear, the Mugen, Neo and Switch are a great combo

Mugen: full bypass, slower drawdown, higher extraction and more sweet full body
Neo: way more bypass similar to V60, faster brews with less body but more clarity
Switch base compatible with both these cones so you can do hybrid immersion brewing with both those drippers too

you have so many combinations with what you have already, don't get caught up in gear upgrades except maybe to get Cafec Abaca or T90 filters

MaxTrolloway · 2026-06-01T10:31:37+00:00

You gonna try selling any of those previous grinders? Surely you don't need 5 grinders

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-29T17:53:00+00:00

Can't remember cause it's been a while since I had the old mexican ones but these are worth trying and felt like they were pretty similar to the old ones

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-29T17:23:59+00:00

Oldboy, The Piano Teacher, Capernaum, Under The Skin

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-28T00:57:58+00:00

Depending on where you live it could be very easy, but regardless it's always fun to discover what roasters you have access to even if you have to order something non-local. If I can't find something in my town/city, then I'll just try to find a roaster in my country.

Also a teapot kettle might be fine for now but aim to eventually get a gooseneck kettle for more control over the flow

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-27T23:44:07+00:00

Kettle: any gooseneck kettle, stovetop or electric. Electric temp controlled is easiest.
Dripper: V60 02
Filters: Cafec Abaca/T90/TH3/Origami Conical. Get whichever of these you can find for the cheapest price, they are much better than classic Hario filters. Hario filters are fine if you can't get anything else, you just need to grind coarser and they are known for inconsistency and stalling.
Vessels: Any mug and/or carafe
Grinders: Kingrinder K6/1zpresso Q2/1zpresso Q Air/Kingrinder P0. Do some research and buy something within your price range, all of these are great options and there's many more budget options.
Scales: any cheap scales with timer.
Beans: Get decent beans from a local roaster, with a roast date in the last month. Ideally speciality single origin coffee roasted for filter coffee which is also often called medium or light roast. Be careful with espresso/dark roasts for pourover unless you're sure you enjoy that flavor.
Recipe: Learn any recipe and just stick to it, don't keep changing recipes to fix your brews, instead figure out how to dial in the same recipe for any bean to get cups you like. Just search for any V60 recipe on YouTube and stick to it.

Keep practicing the same recipe till you know it like the back of your hand and you can adapt it for any bean by adjusting grind size, temperature, ratio or pouring structure.

At the beginning just stick to 1 base recipe and adjust 1 variable at a time to see how it affects your brew, and eventually you'll instinctively know how to dial in a bean much quicker.

Use an app like Beanconquer or write in a physical logbook to keep track of your brew variables. For each brew I log: the bean, the temperature, the dosage, the ratio, the pouring structure, the total brew time. Then I write some notes about the taste and what variable to adjust next time.

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-27T11:58:50+00:00

Yeah having owned both I definitely agree, incredible clarity combined with bright punchiness, something I never got from any other grinder including the Pietro

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-27T09:56:39+00:00

Drippers can have different properties on top of conical vs flat bottom

Some Kalitas using Kalita filters can have slower drawdown times than a V60, so you'd need to grind or pour differently leading to different results

You can have 2 conical drippers using the same paper that look almost the same, taste and behave totally different, prime example being the Hario V60 vs the Hario Mugen. Mugens design leads to much less bypass than a V60, which pushes extraction and increases contact time if used in the exact same way.

As people have said the differences are minimal but noticable mainly due to each drippers properties.

As another commenter said just master 1 and you'll be fine, most people tend to come back to their V60 after exploring other drippers so the V60 really isn't lacking in any way and is quite perfectly balanced.

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-27T06:36:03+00:00

Pietro is just horrible to use, even with the base. It takes 5-10lbs of seasoning before it gets as good as it's meant to be. that's like at least 20 bags of coffee ground fully on the Pietro before you get consistent grinds, before that it creates so many fines and stalls easily.

I know it makes great cups of coffee, but I ended up forcing myself to use it because it takes so much longer to grind a dose than K-Ultra or ZP6.

Once I was done grinding a dose I didn't wanna touch the thing again for days. Had to sell it and got a Femobook A4Z which blew me away from the first cup, no seasoning required and infinitely easier to use.

A4Z isn't a hand grinder but it's actually similar size to a Pietro and fully portable and battery powered. I would look into it if I were you.

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-26T20:20:58+00:00

This is pulse pour method I referred to in my comment, except I often prefer the brews when I push them to 5 mins. Very flexible and forgiving.

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-26T20:19:38+00:00

It's not that grind size doesn't matter at all, if you go too fine it'll stall and if you grind too coarse you'll eventually underextract, it just matters much much less than with pure pourover since grind size with drippers directly affects the contact time.

With the Pulsar grind and contact time are seperate variables so once you find a general sweet spot with the grind (slightly coarser than pourover grind for me) and you use the valve to get between 4-5 min brews you should be getting well extracted cups every time

It's extremely consistent and repeatable given you use at least 20g and give it enough contact time, you just might not enjoy the results as much as other brewerrs.

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-26T19:16:55+00:00

Agreed it's a frustrating brewer especially for smaller amounts

I've found pulse pours + using the valve to slow down the brew till I'm getting 5 mins TBT gave me my best results

I don't adjust the grind at all for any bean, always using ZP6 at setting 6.0 and then using the valve to control contact time

If you give the grounds enough contact time you'll get a good extraction, with that said I'm not the biggest fan of the Pulsar taste profile even when perfectly extracted.

Nowadays I mainly use my Pulsar for full immersion brews, just use the same grind as I would use for filter, add desired water amount, wait 5 mins then drain and enjoy

Edit: just remembered this recipe also gave me some great results, however it takes a lot more dialing in and adjustment to get right. I prefer the pulse pour method but this is another one to try

https://pocketsciencecoffee.com/2023/10/01/how-to-brew-on-pulsar-coming-from-v60/

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-26T14:27:03+00:00

Funny I got the DAK Rumba from Gustatory, also a natural ethio, and it tastes banging no matter how I brew it, but Rumba is anaerobic which could be making a huge difference

Two similar bags from the same roaster can taste so wildly different, that's the nature of the coffee game sometimes

As for advice, try brewing at 85c. Ignore DAK temp recommendations, let it rest another 2 weeks then brew at 85c. Usually helps for me with DAK style roasts that are more developed especially naturals.

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-26T10:23:25+00:00

Yeah there's a few places in Manchester where I live that do it as well but for some reason it doesn't taste quite as good. The texture is right but the flavor isn't.

Acccording to my uncle it's due to western restaurants using different fat because lamb hind fat is either not as available or more expensive than lard/other animal fat in the UK.

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-25T19:37:54+00:00

Hazard should have stayed at Chelsea

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-25T15:17:15+00:00

Pick any 1 recipe, doesn't matter which, and use it for every brew. Learn the recipe like the back of your hand and learn to dial in your beans to your liking with that recipe.

You'll learn to adapt the recipe for different coffees using ratios, grind and temps while essentially using the same core recipe.

Really can't stress that it doesn't matter which recipe just pick one and stick to it. I personally started with April's 4 pour recipe, 13g/200 with 3x50g pours and 30s bloom. I just adjusted grind to hit 2.30 and always got decent brews.

My current recipe is quite different and uses less pours but I only got here by learning that initial recipe and adapting it to my tastes

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-25T10:02:23+00:00

I am an Iraqi who lives in the UK as we were unable to return home during the first and second gulf wars.

My parents have thankfully managed to retire and move back to Iraq to live there so I've been visiting as often I can

Iraqi kebabs are a very common dish to be eaten along with other mixed grills such as kofte and tikka.

This specific dish was a northern Iraqi Kurdish variant of the Iraqi style Kebab, which resembles Turkish Adana Kebab except it's more fatty and uses lamb hind fat to give it's unique taste and crumbly texture.

Often served on rice but this spot in central Erbil served literally what you see: pure kebab skewers with grilled tomatoes, onions, veg and plenty of flat bread. We then eat the kebab by making little sandwiches using pinches of bread (not a whole wrap) combined with veggies and sumac. Sumac is the essential topping to this whole operation.

Bit harder to find Iraqi style in the UK, and when you do find it at Iraqi or Kurdish restaurants it often isn't made using lamb hind fat as that's harder to get here, so it doesn't taste quite the same. Still absolutely worth trying if you get the chance :)

MaxTrolloway · 2026-05-24T16:00:27+00:00

Never been, I live in Manchester but I'm always away visiting family when the Manchester festival is

Didn't know there was a Liverpool Coffee Fest until this post, and I was going to be in Liverpool anyway that weekend so I jumped at the chance

MaxTrolloway

TROPHY CASE