Coffee Beans

I just bought the other half a coffee machine for a combined birthday/fathers' day present.

What coffee beans do you recommend?

I'm sure there must be some coffee addicts here that can suggest their favourite bean.

I'm a tea drinker who doesn't mind the odd coffee, so I'm not much help!
 
MinxdaManx

It aint gonna help you much, but heck I've gotta put in a plug for them. I have a local coffee shop in Cronulla called Grind..... they do the most wonderful coffee. The shop owner has his own blend of beans that is ground to make little drops of pure heaven.......

But Im not biased...

You could always go down to your local Gloria Jeans and get their coffee. Before finding Grind, I would buy the Gloria Jeans organic coffee, ground on 3 for my espresso machine (little sunbeam job, wouldnt be without it) and loved it. Good place to start for $8.

Luvvit.
 
how does someone who appreciates grind mention GJs in the next sentence? :D

he/she is in perth... five senses would be the go... there are some other roasteries, but i can't remember off the top of my head.

tiger tiger, epic espresso and velvet in perth cbd should do decent coffee and sell fresh quality beans.

ps. the best machine and beans in the world mean nothing without a good quality grinder. i have a $4.5k espresso machine, but i also spent $700 on getting a commercial quality grinder as well.
 
ps. the best machine and beans in the world mean nothing without a good quality grinder. i have a $4.5k espresso machine, but i also spent $700 on getting a commercial quality grinder as well.

I second this. Buy a good quality grinder and it makes the world of difference. The built in grinders do the job but def a big difference if you were to buy a stand alone grinder.
 
I second this. Buy a good quality grinder and it makes the world of difference. The built in grinders do the job but def a big difference if you were to buy a stand alone grinder.
Agree, but you don't need to go completely over the top in this regard. So long as it is a conical bur grinder then you should get good consistency of grind. The cheap choppers are rubbish. My conical bur grinder is a Sunbeam and cost about $100 from memory and does a very good consistent job.

The reason others are suggesting a grinder is due to freshness. To get a good coffee it is ideal to grind immediately prior to drawing. Ground beans go stale very quickly. So go to the local bean expert and get a nice recently roasted bean to your tastes then source a conical bur grinder and grind as you use it. The beans unground should last a week or two before going stale.

Having said all that, any espresso machine is a BIG step forward. Even if you buy pre-ground coffee it will make a big difference over a filter system or, dare I even suggest it, instant mud.

Well done! Hubby will love you for it!!

Cheers,
Michael
 
Thank you everyone.

Interesting about the grinder. I bought this one ...
http://www.breville.com.au/products_detail.asp?prod=498
which grinds the coffee, but I'll certainly keep that in mind.

I bought two packs of 'five senses' beans last night, but being that both of us have the worst colds at the moment, everything tastes like dishwater!

I'll keep an eye out for your recommendations when we both have a sense of taste again.
 
Bon you are my hero!!

a fellow addict in every sense of the word.

I personally enjoy Di Bella's Arnica blend - not cheap but soooo worth it.

Zentvelds are also very good.


gloria jeans indeed - go wash your mouth out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
We bought a Saeco with built in grinder from Hardly Normal, and it came with 2kg of Lazumba beans: 1kg of Latino and 1 of Rumba. We assumed they were imported but cheapo, but we tried some other brands and they did stand out as excellent. Later we went to a specialist coffee shop and that was the imported bean they recommended.
My local Favorite is Skybury coffee from Mareeba, Far North Queensland.
 
Mahalia coffee. Their roastery is in Robe South Australia. Yummy. mail order

If I run out and need to buy from a supermarket, Foodland, (do you have them?) sell Monjava, which is unbelievably good for inexpensive coffee. $24ish a kilo! Even cheaper on special.
 
Hubby just bought that exact machine.

We had one previously but it died. I haven't worked out how to use this one yet.;)

I've been spoiled the last 3 weeks. Hubby has been off work so he hits the button as he hears the garage door open when I get home.:D
 
Getting there with this thing.

Having milk frothing issues at the moment, but I think there is a 'knack' that (hopefully) will come with practice!

I'm drinking far too much coffee though - I'm usually a tea drinker!

Thanks for all your coffee tips.

I'm told that Kakulis Sister in Fremantle has nice coffee - so will give that a go after I've gone through the Five Senses stuff we have at the moment.
 
forum on coffee snobs

Quite staggering....


Bought a big 3kg tin of Nescafe Blend 43 for about $ 5.99

It made about 700 cups of delicious piping hot coffee. Bewdiful.

That's about 3K in the cafe.

Works out at about 0.8c per cup.

Just as good as that Arabic coffee I was offered in the Yemeni deserts by tribal bedouins near Mocha. They had been refining that process there for a few thousand years. Had it down pat.


A trifling 20 years of experience Westerner coffee snobs - what's next - I suppose they'll start drawing little pretty pictures in the froth and calling it high art.

How come no-one has mentioned that cat **** that they squeeze out (Kopi Luau <sp>) and charge $ 100 per teaspoon of it's poop ?? What a farce !!!
 
Have to agree with this Michael - I have the same one and it seems to do a great job !
Yep, works well for me. I've got mine set to 9 which is a nice fine grind but not too fine that the pump can't push the water through and so forces an exploding pellet. I know its the tamp pressure that's the primary contributor, but I can't get the tamp pressure right with a finer grind.

I finally got to use my machine again this weekend. I've moved from Sydney and my coffee beans got packed somewhere and never materialised. Every day Kay would say, "they'll no doubt turn up tomorrow" and every day they didn't. So I just bit the bullet and bought some new beans. Who cares, its only $15 odd for a 250g bag. The beans I bought were from a chain cafe I haven't heard of before called Zarraffa's Coffee. I must admit that their beans were pretty good and the espressos I made at home were just divine. I actually think I make a better espresso than most baristas in these sorts of shops, but that's probably just my personal bias. I make sure I don't over-draw the coffee and also don't burn the milk or dilute the espresso with too much milk. An espresso shot with about the same amount of warmed milk. I can produce a pretty good crema now and love my Saturday morning coffees at home...

Oh the bliss of having my machine available and working again! :D

Cheers,
Michael
 
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