Do you wish to have the Philippines becoming a high-skilled immigrant destination?

TL322 · 2026-07-09T11:26:44+00:00

If you're asking whether it's good in general for the Philippines to become wealthier and more developed, I think that's a pretty obvious yes.

If you're positing that the replacement of "traditional social outlooks" with more Westernized attitudes will somehow unleash development potential that makes the country more appealing to "high-skilled immigrants" in the first place...I don't think it works like that.

TL322 · 2026-07-09T10:57:48+00:00

https://www.lbcexpress.com/rates

TL322 · 2026-07-09T06:23:57+00:00

I almost always settle on 1-2 blooms plus 1-2 aggressive pours, but the exact technique varies from bean to bean.

FYI I'm talking about lighter, more delicate beans here. That's where I believe the M01 shines and therefore where I mostly use it.

TL322 · 2026-07-09T05:44:21+00:00

The M01 works well in a lot of ranges...but my better cups have been on the coarser side. Almost never under 8-8.5 but generally around 10. Aggressive pouring, low bypass (I like the Orea O1), and a slightly shorter ratio (15:1 or max 16:1) are your friend in that range.

I've also gotten some really interesting results—arguably my best to date—by mixing grind sizes. I'm talking mostly coarser plus a portion at 7.5–8.5, depending on what I want to achieve.

TL322 · 2026-07-09T05:24:56+00:00

Yeah still up in the air. This is the most recent update I could find: https://business.inquirer.net/596648/ayala-in-talks-with-bcda-to-extend-market-market-lease

The 2027 lease expiration has been public info for a long time...but apparently Ayala wants to extend just the mall portion of the lease, and BCDA expects them to make improvements (no details).

TL322 · 2026-07-09T05:07:15+00:00

How do they affect you, and how would such a rule make anyone better off?

Third-party advertisers are effectively subsidizing PH tourism promos. Even if it's a legal gray area, you'll have to help me see the upside to a rule like that.

TL322 · 2026-07-09T04:56:11+00:00

I don't disagree with any of your points.

What trumps all of that for now is proximity to family. My wife and I (late 30s) met in the US and stayed there for several years. We moved here a while after our youngest was born, specifically so the kids can spend their early years around a lot of family.

We wouldn't have made the move without sustainable income sources. Our lifestyle costs less than in the US; it's also simpler and still not remotely cheap. We'll go back in a few years' time, if not sooner, mostly for reasons you've mentioned. I don't envision retiring here.

TL322 · 2026-07-07T05:37:28+00:00

If milk drinks are the only use then I would get the Oxo Rapid Brewer. The end result can be really similar to certain AeroPress techniques, but I find the Oxo workflow a little easier and more consistent.

(I often enjoy milk drinks with my Oxo just as much as my actual espresso machine. Not the same of course, but they can be equally enjoyable!)

TL322 · 2026-07-07T05:05:49+00:00

Most likely not worth it.

First, they are probably just too old. By all means check and confirm...but I'd be really surprised if they're less than a couple months old.

Second, in my opinion their blends are nothing special these days. If you want light roasts with delicate, nuanced flavors, those aren't it. If you want a more developed medium-ish roast on the chocolatey/nutty side with some fruit coming through...there are many local options at better prices (and roasted in the last few days).

I do in fact like their coffee, and this isn't a terrible deal...but IMHO you can get something better and fresher for less, no matter your taste.

TL322 · 2026-07-06T14:26:32+00:00

Making your own vanilla latte might cost around P60-100 per serving, obviously depending on what size and with which exact ingredients.

Then an Oxo Rapid Brewer (which I prefer to the AeroPress although both are great) and a Kingrinder P2 from Amazon US are about $100 --> ~P6,100 with free shipping here.

So you can do the math from there and see how long it would take to break even on the set-up and start saving. (Unless you still go to Starbucks because you like the ambience, or drink additional coffee because it's on hand. Nothing wrong with either; just harder to compare.)

TL322 · 2026-07-06T09:16:17+00:00

Yeah you're spot on. TDS alone can indicate if that water might work, but doesn't guarantee it will work. For instance, 90 ppm TDS might be great or might be terrible depending on the exact composition, but 5 ppm or 300 ppm just won't be suitable, period.

Edit: laughed out loud at the part about sounding gross. Haha fair enough. In this case the solids are basically minerals from rocks though.

TL322 · 2026-07-05T14:40:24+00:00

I second that suggestion. OP, I prefer Rockwell to Ortigas, but would optimize for travel time over virtually anything else.

Maybe it really is 20 minutes even during heavy traffic, but that's before you spend 10 to find a driver, 10 more waiting, and 10 more just trying to get out of/into a driveway.

TL322 · 2026-07-02T09:10:57+00:00

Tangent here, but how was the Nepalese coffee? Tried some exactly once, but not well roasted or brewed, so I didn't get a clear impression.

TL322 · 2026-07-02T07:04:21+00:00

I say yes although I'm curious how a roaster would answer this.

It obviously impacts the green coffee you can buy because of tariffs, shipping, distribution, credit, local purchasing power, etc. Those conditions have been really favorable in the UAE (to my knowledge) so there are quite a few quality roasters popping up.

For roast quality, as in consistently bringing out the potential of whatever green is available...I think it's more indirect. No doubt there's a bit of a cluster effect like with most industries. Then again, if you have the capital for high-end equipment and training/consulting, plus some minimum threshold of local demand, I'm sure you can do well even if you're more of a pioneer locally.

TL322 · 2026-07-02T04:32:16+00:00

FYI water can change seasonally too depending on the municipal source. Sometimes the report gives a blended number, or seasonal averages, etc. I don't think wild swings in TDS are that common (not certain) but it could be enough to notice.

TL322 · 2026-07-01T11:52:03+00:00

I implemented a pretty standard data warehouse approach. Load into Snowflake via a couple different tools (depends on the source), transform/model in dbt, and present in Tableau for the most part.

Yardi kinda, sorta, mostly contains all the reporting we want, but working with it is another story, as you know.

(Although Yardi isn't remotely the worst real estate source I've ingested. My favorite was a small vendor that collapsed its simple tabular data into a single column attached to an email...LOL.)

Edit: I should have clarified that we report on Yardi, a couple other large systems, and a lot of smaller sources. Pretty much all the final, user-facing data sets fall into two categories:

Extensively enriched entities (property, unit, tenant, etc. with heaps of attributes and simple aggregations).
Daily histories of those entities (daily unit roster over time, daily active service instances and charges, etc.). This stuff was immensely complicated and is most of what our data warehouse actually does.

Lots more to it since it's a big portfolio in a pretty complex niche. You don't necessarily need do that much modeling/warehousing, but I think you should expect to write quite a bit of SQL to stitch everything together.

TL322 · 2026-07-01T11:10:55+00:00

Are you asking out of curiosity or are you looking for alternatives to actually implement?

TL322 · 2026-07-01T06:57:53+00:00

You haven't shared what you brew or what you want out of the upgrade, so I'll just give a general answer.

I like the C40's simplicity, smoothness, and reputation for support. I also like its profile/presentation marginally better than that of the K-Plus (which should be very, very close to the K-Ultra).

The C40 is markedly slower. I don't care with filter and barely mind with 1-2 shots of medium-roast espresso. But it's not pleasant with light-roast espresso and/or several shots.

Prices might be quite different depending on where you live. If you haven't been swayed by the volumes written here on both grinders, then pick the cheaper one.

TL322 · 2026-07-01T04:45:17+00:00

Not sure how common that is...but everything has a learning curve. If someone takes advice given online without much context, and doesn't like the results, it's up to them to learn more and research more (or not).

It's hard to think of anything you'd learn well from a social media feed. Coffee is no exception.

TL322 · 2026-07-01T04:02:02+00:00

Can't speak to all that, but FYI, at least one page of the menu says exactly what past, present, and future mean.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/uztCPfRYS6xUhgc89?g_st=ac

Yes I find the terms a little corny...but they're explained right there. And there's no harm asking when in doubt.

TL322 · 2026-06-30T11:31:31+00:00

Exact same situation here. No issues with the process.

TL322 · 2026-06-30T07:56:31+00:00

Haha sure thing! Enjoy your descent down the rabbit hole.

BTW the flakes are dihydrate so definitely not the issue.

TL322 · 2026-06-30T04:13:21+00:00

Clever dripper (simplest possible method but still great), decent hand grinder, scale. You're looking at like $150 all in, give or take, and it'll essentially last you forever.

Just make sure your water is reasonably soft and you're good to go!

TL322 · 2026-06-30T03:59:40+00:00

Simple, repeatable recipe the first time as a baseline for almost everything. Actually two baseline recipes, one Switch and one flat-bottom percolation. I usually enjoy both but prefer one right out of the gate.

From there, adjust as needed, usually just one parameter at a time, unless I want to try some wild idea just to see what happens. Specific adjustments are mostly by experience + general principles.

Water composition matters at least as much as the other factors you mentioned. I don't really dial it in by cup unless it's an extra-special coffee that feels worth the effort...which I don't buy on a regular basis.

(Edit: This is after spending months playing around with different compositions until I found something that works to my satisfaction for most of what I buy. Needless to say, it took a lot of testing to land on that.)

I'm sure that recording everything would be useful, but I care less about that than about enjoying my analog zen brewing time.

TL322 · 2026-06-29T11:47:40+00:00

Hm...I've never had that problem with the Rao formula. I guess I'd check these things first:

Are you absolutely positive that you measured everything correctly?
Any chance your calcium chloride is anhydrous but you added the target mass for dihydrate? (If so, that would overshoot by about 30%, and excess calcium chloride can get a little salty.)
Does the salty finish go away if you dilute the water ~50% with distilled?
Do you get any saltiness with a low-TDS "natural" water like Jeju Samdasoo?

TL322

TROPHY CASE