I enjoy a decent cup of coffee, I have been tempted for many years to get into making a good cup of coffee and until London water killed it I did have a basic Delonghi espresso machine which mostly staved it off. Recently I have been getting by with using a french press, grinding my own beans using a Cuisinart DBM8U and using the James Hoffmann method.

This has been doing me fine but this week having got tired of forgetting to clean the cafetiere I have finally caved and ordered:

• Aeropress Kit
• 1 Cup Hario V60

After some experimentation with these (and some really nice cups of coffee!) it became apparent that the consistency and delivery of the right amount of fresh grinds from the DBM8U are rather lacking so I have also ordered:

• Rhinowares Rhino Compact Hand Grinder

This is going to seem like quite a bit of hard work after using the electric grinder but I am hoping the results are worth it and if I keep on this trajectory I will likely purchase a better electric grinder when Covid is over and I am back to work!

Espresso again?

One of the things I have been experimenting with is producing something as close as possible to an espresso from the Aeropress, using 18g of the finest grinds the DBM8U can do with a smaller amount of water (another James Hoffmann idea) gives something close but it is just not the same.

It seems that a PID controller converted Gaggia Classic is a relatively affordable way into decent home espresso so I will probably keep a lookout for a used one going for a decent price!