I saw it too, I thought it was in another thread.

Very strange.

I had to make a note to come back later, because her question is actually not that easy to answer. I was going to ask her more about her espresso needs and wants.

Trailrunner, hope you see this. It was nice to see your name again.

@trailrunner

Hey! I’m here . sorry I wrote and ran. I appreciate y’all posting back.

Our drip pot cheapo died and I wanted something pretty quickly. I found a Delonghi Dedica Maestro on sale. I checked at our very nice local coffee shop that has great espresso and they were nice enough to walk me through the weights and times.

I got it yesterday. I also got a burr grinder OXO. So far so good. I bought the beans from the same place the coffee shop gets them. I haven’t used them yet as I have coffee already ground that we were using for drip.

I have played with it by using my old spice grinder to further grind the ground coffee and then used it . Surprisingly good lol. The frother works great and adding the hot milk and foam and 1/4 tsp sugar to a mug makes a good cup of quasi cappuccino .

I have to have something that tastes wonderful 1x a day for 2 people. Not too much caffein but a nice size large mug like at my coffee shop.

So far the booklet says 18g of coffee ground fine for a double shot at 25-30 seconds extraction. I haven’t timed it since I am not using a perfect grind.

So what do you all think given what I have and what I want out of it ?

I think that sounds good. You can experiment with lighter and darker roast beans and different grinds. In milk drinks the differences in the resulting espresso will not be pronounced, but could still be interesting.

@John Liu success! perfect in everyway this morning. I have two clear glass cups the perfect aize. Ground 18g on 3 in the OXO grinder. ( its the devil getting it out of there with static —— any hints) wrestled it into the pressure filter and tamped. Set the cups side by side so each would get a single shot. perfect 2 streams in 35 seconds! lovely layer of crema on top. Did two separate full milk froths , one for each cup. Absolutely tates exactly like our cafe we love up town that uses these beans.

Any tips about how to get grounds to where i want them and getting the burrs clean would be most welcome. 🙏

@John Liu you are hilarious! I can’t grind into anything but the hopper within the closed system grinder. At least I’m prevented from too obsessive behaviors lol.

I do weigh out 18g for the double shot and grind only that and put the 2 shot pressure filter on the counter and fill/ tamp it from the dumped out grounds and then press the filled filter into the portafilter and load it.

No more weighing other than the original 18 g of beans takes place. I do a full batch of steamed milk for each of our cups that then have a 9 g ( more or less) dose in them we like it that dilute. I did make us a 2nd cup just to see if I could grind another 18 g of beans and duplicate tge whole process and I’m pleased to say it was even better as the machine was hotter. I will run hot water a couple times through from now on.

I am looking forward to different beans . Do you have favorites to suggest? I saw a video with something like Super crema?

Thank you John. Happy Holidays. c

I don’t know anything about this machine, so I watched a random Youtube video about it, which might be interesting as a (mild) example of espresso geekery.

https://youtu.be/qcF7QzIWC1k

I guess there are different models of Maestro, so I’m not sure, but I think you have automatic preinfusion and a pressurized portafilter. That should be pretty forgiving, producing a nice, not too sour, not too bitter, shot without requiring perfectly calibrated grind or dose or puck preparation. I surmise you can try different beans without regretting any choices too much.

(I don’t have any experience with this machine but did restore a little Estro Profi for DD, that had a pressurized portafilter and was quite forgiving.)

So, I’d start out trying small bags of beans that are as different from one another as you can find. The most obvious variable will be roast level, so a medium roast, a medium-dark, and a fully dark (“French” or “Italian”). See what you like better. Maybe try a light roast. Maybe a classic Italian roast like Lavazza. I like Peets’ Major Dickson, but I’m loyal to Peets.

Theoretically, light and medium roasts appeal to people who like fruity ”notes”, darker to likers of “chocolate”, etc. These are all rather hand-wavy terms; much like in wine tasting, ”chocolate” in espresso means a flavor that may hint at something with vague reminders of chocolate, on a good day, if you’re a practiced taster or a practiced talker about taste.

In practice, light often also means more sour and dark often means more bitter, and that has to do with extraction. Light roast beans are harder to extract from and what gets extracted can include more sour flavors, dark roasts are easier to extract from and what gets extracted can include more bitter flavors. You can use three cups to capture the first, second, and last thirds of a shot, which should highlight the early sour the late bitter.

Anyway, you’ll find some beans you like, and then you might start trying to pull better and better shots from those. Because the Dedica is (I think) designed to reduce the effect of the things you will vary, you may then buy a bottomless portafilter and unpressurized basket in search of more control. It’ll be like going from an automatic to a stickshift, more ways to do it better - or worse.

Switching to a bottomless portafilter will put you squarely on the espresso geek path, as does turning the frother from automatic to manual and agonizing over the quality of your microfoam and trying to pour designs, testing your water and searching for the right bottled water or filter, hunting down the Magic Bean grown by the mysterious shaman in the Misty Mountains, roasting those beans yourself with yet another set of equipment and mythology, burning your house down, running into the flames to save your espresso gear.

Espresso becomes a hobby, an obsession. You become an enthusiast, a geek, a borderline weirdo, and frankly kind of a droning pompous bore to normal people. Kind of like this post . . .

Have fun! Don’t get lost there forever. Learn as much as you want to, then come back to normal life. Which I define as quickly and unfussily producing a tasty coffee drink for oneself and others to enjoy without being lectured about how you did it.

Haha.. @John Liu I think I jumped squarely to the last paragraph decription immediately after the success yesterday.

My bread baking and working on perfecting my milling of grains for baguettes and other loaves is enough of an obsession. I just installed new stones in my Mock Mill and my extra refrigerator is full of bags of grains from TX to Montana to CA to France.

I have 2 pressurized and 2 nonpressurized baskets with this set up. I likely won’t do much experimenting now that I can make espresso for 2 every morning .

I always enjoy your fun commentary so it was worth it to query you . I remember the HUGE machine you rescued and rebuilt and installed in your DR . Impressive.

The exact model I got is the Delonghi Dedica Maestro plus. It has 3 x2 settings for milk frothing. Heat x3 and Density x3 I have done manual as well as the preset. Makes me no big difference I don’t have any coffee geek in my future or present lol.

Appreciate your advice. I will likely stick with my local roaster for now , crazy expensive ( my personal judgement) but it is definitely excellent coffee , to my pretty finiky taste buds.

We are cooking Chinese for tomorrow’s meal. My DH rocks his wok over his propane burner outside. 🙏

trailrunner, it is really nice to talk to you again.

You have just the experimental perfectionist personality that makes one vulnerable to the espresso drug, I think, but perhaps other pursuits have blocked off the pathways that the virus would otherwise enter!

I have two more commercial espresso machines to restore this winter for DD’s cafe. I’ll post a few pics of those along the way.

Envy in my heart, for your DH’s wok burner!