Hi everyone! This channel is all about making the best coffee at home. I make videos about: - Espresso - Latte Art - Coffee brewing and roasting - Coffee Culture and much more!
Take a look at my videos and feel free to ask me anything in comments. I'm pretty active here and always ready to help fans get the best out of their coffee gear.
Thanks so much! Charlie
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I feel like I drink less coffee with espresso machine because of the process involved. drip ima make 14 cup cuisinart pot and will drink it almost all by myself by end of day just because it is there and available
Hello coffee friends, Can someone help me please? Right now i have an espresso appliance and im stuck with a pressurised portafilter 51x20. Does anyone know where i can get a single walled basket for sure? I have checked more than a few sites yet no one seems to have a basket this shallow. Please help. 😊 thank you in advance.
I've spent a lot of money on tools, but I've really only stuck with a portafilter funnel, the WDT tool from Swornsdesign, my Pullman tamper and a mesh puck screen.
Great review. Based on your report and the poor service support I eliminated it. Looking for a replacement to a 10 yr old Gene that keeeps working, but wary of just how long.
Yeah I can't recommend this machine even though the hardware is very nice, the software just makes it too restrictive considering the price. There are a lot of better roasters out there to replace your Gene Cafe that will also get you much much better coffee if you just watch my video about the basics of roasting and apply that.
Yes, you can use the one hole steam tip from the single boiler Rancilio Silvia (I think V4 and above). They cost about £8 or something from any local espresso machine parts site.
@@desun75 I had to sell it when I left Japan. It was a 100v machine (UK is 230v) and shipping was looking more expensive than a whole new machine. Still, the Pro X was one of the best machines I've owned
That Pegasus looks amazing Charlie. I wanted to tune in and watch the live but I only managed to watch it for a few minutes. Thanks for the upload. If you don’t mind me asking, what sort of equipment would you go for if you had a budget of £2500-£3000 and you were mainly into espresso & cortados? I am considering the Rancilio Silvia Pro X and Niche Zero, but there might be better options for that budget. A second hand LM Linea Mini perhaps? Thank you.
Thanks for watching! I lean away from the Niche zero now. A lot has changed since their dominance in the home market and I think something like the Turin grinders (64v or 83v) or the Mazzer Philos I have on my bench would be good. Review coming soon, just testing exhaustively to see if there are any issues the longer I use it. For the machine the Pro X is a good workhorse. I haven't tested enough machines in this bracket to recommend much else. Hopefully soon I'll have more machines to test.
@@homecafecharlie thank you for the recommendations, I will check them out! I have had my Smeg ECF01 (Delonghi dedica basically) with a few mods and a Sage grinder for the last 6 years. Made probably over a thousand coffees on them! Definitely time for an upgrade 😎
@@chrisclikks thank you Chris for the info! I actually have the pro 700 on my wish list. It is a bit of a stretch in terms of budget, but wow that thing is beautiful. I had a chat with a local roaster a few months ago and he told me that from his experience, ECM make the best home machines in terms of performance, reliability and customer support. I believe that Profitec and ECM are sister companies so I suppose their machines will be similar in terms of build quality and features. So many options isn’t it? Thanks again for taking the time to answer my comment 👍🏻
Great video! I have a question about soft infusion, can you start the shot with 6 second soft infusion and then hit brew switch to stop it before pump turns on? I was wondering if turning it off would allow it to bloom more and then you could restart shot with pressure?
Big fan of DiFluid. Have the scale, R2 and Omni; all of which I use very often. The Omni to analyze my roast. I use a Link to roast so this is overkill for me as there is no beginning temperature management. However this looks amazing for a small or professional roaster without spending $5-10k on equipment to measure.
@@homecafecharlie cool man. Was it your video that stated an open bag caused beans to have less than 9% moisture and that can cause tipping and other roast defects? That had me twisted because I was thinking the beans I have may not be fully dry as they were sun-dried. I roasted my last batch few hours ago. I can't wait to watch the full video tomorrow morning with coffee. It's bedtime here.
Very informative! Question about the wattage, any issues or adjustments required to safely use it with the voltage in England? I am currently in the States, but there's a good chance my husband might get stationed in England in a year. We are very interested in this roaster but want to make the smartest decision for our current lifestyle.
I would recommend getting the correct roaster for the voltage. Voltage transformers are very big and expensive (they are basically a big roll of copper). Definitely worth buying the correct one for your voltage
@@homecafecharlie Charlie does your grinder make an odd whinning sound with the power on but not in use - coming from the LCD display area of the variable RPM. Its some sort of transistor noise maybe but its awful
Hey man, thanks so much for this video! I've really struggled with the 3-hole tip my Pro X has, but this helped! Question: where did you buy these nozzles? I'd love to try out the 1 and 4 hole tips but can't find the right ones anywhere.
I don't remember where I bought them, I think I just looked up "Rancilio Silvia steam tip". The 1 hole one from the Silvia V4 (I think) and above fits. Not the hexagon shaped one, it's the same steam wand so try that for the 1 hole tip.
Pesado US has $20 shipping for under $100... And nothing else i want to buy to make up the difference. $78 shipped is rough. No apparent US distributer too. I'm not sure why pesaso USA is charging $20 for shipping a single basket other than upsell or margin padding.
Nice review, what I find very frustrating was how quickly you brushed over the chart which was much too fast for me to absorb any useful information from it I was still trying to work out what the information meant when you took it off the screen again and even watching it a second time I still didn't understand... It would be better to use the mouse and show what you are talking about when you're referring to an increase or decrease of this and that... Otherwise great review
Have you run a few more roasts with the X3? If so, do you still rate it as highly as your initial review? And, have you consider more long-term maintenance of the machine? I was looking at a video of the Hottop KN-8828B-2K+ maintenance and it looks pretty straight forward and parts (filters, etc) are readily available.
It decreases towards the end as the puck erodes, which emulates a traditional spring lever. Tapering off the pressure is actually good as it reduces bitterness 😉
Been playing with this for a while and I get similar results but it varies per roast as what tastes better. My current batch I had to go to 16:32 as 18:36 and 20:40 were way bitter and over extracted. It makes sense though - if you are passing more water through more coffee in the same time window, then it's going to have more solids. My take away is that there is a perfect grind size that optimizes time and extraction for every bean. For example on the 20:40 to lower the extraction, I would have to go too coarse and did not taste as well as the 16:36. My lighter roast batch is a world better at 20:40 as it needs to extract more from the bean and I can get to that finer grind. Fascinating stuff. Just saw your post on the FB group on the Pesado but the Big Bang is so dialed in right now that Im afraid to change and start dialing in again as my issue is always over extraction, rarely do I pull a weak shot. Great stuff my friend!!
If it works for you, that's great! And your right every bean and every roast has is own optimum grind size, but lots of room at the margins to play with it and get interesting results
Check local distributors. I got my Pesado HE in the UK from Functional Accessories and the shipping wasn't much. Not sure who the distributors in the US are, but worth checking cos it'll be cheaper for shipping
Great video, @homecafecharlie ! I'm sure not all stock baskets are created equal. Was this test with the Nuova Simonelli stock? I know you have an Silvia Pro X and I thought that came with IMS made stock baskets.
I don't have the pro X anymore unfortunately, I had to sell it when I left Japan (wrong voltage for UK and shipping would have been expensive). But yes not all stock baskets are made equal - it's about the number and pattern of holes, but most stock baskets are similar and can't hold a candle to most precision baskets
normcorewares has a new pvd coated HE basket. Worth a try, for me it was a middle ground between a VST and a Pesado w/o the clogging holes of the pesado :)
Nice video. So crazy how many basket designs have flooded the market. When is "very soon" regarding the Philos? That's very, very intersting to hear your take on.
Just gotta switch the burrs and test the other set for a few weeks before I render my final verdict. So far it's great, but certainly not perfect (nothing is)
