Able Disc Filter for Aeropress

For a while now I’ve been using a stainless steel filter disc made by Able (formerly Coava) with my Aeropress. The nice thing about the Able Disc is that it removes the hassle of needing the paper filters, instead you can just get on with brewing and it cleans…

Square Mile: Kilimanjaro Natural review

This coffee roasted by Square Mile and coming from Aida Batlle’s farm in Santa Ana was something super special. Reading the description and seeing the reference to strawberry notes made me think “surely not, strawberry in coffee - I don’t believe it!”. But I could not have been…

Extract Coffee: Strong Man Espresso

Extract’s Strong Man espresso blend is something a little different. Extract’s site lists this as being based on Ethiopian Harar (the other coffee’s that make up this blend are not listed). As an espresso there’s an initial slightly earthy flavour followed by some spicy chocolate notes…

Extract Coffee: Original Espresso

I recently came across Extract Coffee Roasters when looking for new coffees to try out. Their original espresso seemed to be a good starting point for checking out their wares. This is a nice daily brew which is what any standard espresso blend should be. I found this coffee noticeably…

Square Mile: Red Brick Espresso

Initially I found this coffee difficult to brew and I was getting what seemed to be quite delicate results which seemed at odds with the description. However after a little experimentation I upped the brew temp (in my case via the Auber pid) I went up to 108/9°C…

Havana Coffee Works X-Blend Beans Review

From New Zealand we have X-blend beans from Havana Coffee Works. The packaging is fairly minimal with little details on the beans that make up this fine blend. As a result I really had no idea what to expect. Clearly with something from New Zealand the obvious thing to do…

Upgrading Miss Silvia with an Auber PID

I’ve recently started to drink a lot more espresso than milk drinks and this change really made me appreciate better shots over imperfect ones. With milk drinks imperfections are smoothed out to some degree and I started to realise I wanted better control over temperature, as surfing temperatures [1]…

Fixing Wonky Pump Mounts on a Rancilio Silvia

In taking apart my Silvia to fit a new group head and pid-kit. I noticed the pump mounts were looking decidedly wonky: This wasn’t good because it meant that the pump was coming dangerously close to the self-tapping screw that holds the pump mounts to the frame. Fortunately the…