Showing posts with label delonghi ec155 espresso maker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label delonghi ec155 espresso maker. Show all posts

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Kaffeologie S Filter - an Ultra Fine Stainless Steel Coffee Filter for AeroPress Coffee Makers

Kaffeologie S Filter - an Ultra Fine Stainless Steel Coffee Filter for AeroPress Coffee MakersI have been loving my Aeropress for over a year now and have one for work and one for home. Compared to the French press, the Aeropress definitely improves the quality and efficiency of the brewing experience. However, even so, the paper filters are the weakness in my opinion. I've seen the other steel filter out for awhile for the Aeropress but didn't try it because reviews I had read stated it was too porous and let too much grit thru. However, when I saw this on Kickstarter and read the pre-review from Marco Arment (), it sounded like this problem had been solved because the mesh was fine enough to keep most of the grit out. I've had my S Filter for a week now and have pressed at least 20 times thru it. I think Nate & John have nailed it. The back pressure is about right when pressing and I feel that I can taste a difference with my routine press recipe (below). I feel like there is definitely more flavor in the cup and while a super fine residue remains if you leave your cup dry after finishing it, I don't feel it or taste it in the last sip. It cleans up well and makes one less piece to have to stock up on over time. I just ordered my second filter for work so I don't have to transport it back and forth. Thanks guys!

My favorite recipe lately is a slightly heaping scoop (15-17 g) of Starbuck's Dark Sumatra roast purchased in beans and ground finely (espresso). I do an inverted press with the plunger on the 4 and then fill with water to about the 1. I let it steep for maybe a minute after stirring. Then I press all the way thru, including the air. I really think that the oils are in the last foamy part of the press. Then I dilute that to bring the amount pressed into the mug to about 1.5 cm from the top.

I ordered one of these filters in November, and within a couple weeks of daily use and careful hand-washing it started to come apart.

Needless to say I was pretty disappointed. However, the filter was still functional, as it's more or less held together when the aeropress parts are assembled. So, honestly, at that point it was primarily a cosmetic irritation. I was annoyed, but I still wasn't sure that I was free of blame. Had I misused it? Had I thrown it in the dishwasher? Would the dishwasher be enough to ruin the filter? I didn't know, so I wasn't quick to write the seller and complain.

Eventually I did send them a note, and they were absolutely great to deal with. They replaced my filter hassle-free.

By this time I'd figured out what the issue was; the mesh of the filter is adhered to a metal ring. In the amazon picture you can see what I consider to be the bottom of the filter. You can see it appears to be 'stitched' to a ring. My advice to anyone considering this filter but is put off by breakage -just make sure you use the filter with the ring side up. This way, the twisting motion of assembling the aeropress does not put unnecessary force on the 'stitching'. Combined with gentle hand-rinsing, there's no reason the filter shouldn't last you a good, long time.

Buy Kaffeologie S Filter - an Ultra Fine Stainless Steel Coffee Filter for AeroPress Coffee Makers Now

I've been an AeroPress fan and user for years, but I've always found the paper filters frustrating, they're really not all that reusable, they tend to clog very quickly with the fine grinds I prefer. I just bought an S filter, and after a week, I'm very impressed definitely more convenient and easier to use, and the big benefit I was not expecting was a big improvement in taste (which wasn't at all bad to begin with, AeroPress already made the best coffee I've ever had) I was thinking it was a new bag of mail-order fair trade beans that were just delivered, but I tried an old bag of regular store bought Eight O'Clock beans, to much the same effect. Aeropress already made the best coffee I've ever had, so to get such a dramatic further improvement in flavor is really quite remarkable.

So really, I just wanted to say Thanks! Great product! :-)

In fact, I just ordered another one for the office.

Read Best Reviews of Kaffeologie S Filter - an Ultra Fine Stainless Steel Coffee Filter for AeroPress Coffee Makers Here

I previously gave this a 1. Customer service immediately contacted me, gave me a refund, and offered tips for how to address the problem I was having. After trying several methods, I believe this filter it is best used with the "inverted method" when making the coffee, which is a bit more of a pain (I had to watch 2 videos), but in the end, it worked. I don't notice a difference in the taste, so that's why only a 3. It eliminates the need for paper. Yeah! Of course I still have to worry about the fact I am putting very hot weater in plastic and then drinking it, but that's MY problem, not theirs. I would buy again, but I don't need to! BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER!

Want Kaffeologie S Filter - an Ultra Fine Stainless Steel Coffee Filter for AeroPress Coffee Makers Discount?

When looking at steel filters for the Aeropress, primary factors for me are letting coffee oils through, and yet still providing a minimal of coffee fines through. Aeropress' S filter fulfills those requirements and does so with a sturdy build.

In addition they even provide instructions which makes a better press then the original instructions.

Update: I've been using this filter for some time now and after about a month of use, I noticed (as some others have) that the stitch welds were coming off. I contacted Kaffeologie and they offered to replace it immediately, and also suggested that I was screwing the filter on too tight. Well, I opted not to return the filter, but since I've stopped over-tightening the filter, I have seen no further deterioration of the filter, nor has the filter performed at any less quality.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Espresso Maker 2 Cup

Espresso Maker 2 CupThis espresso maker is very small, don't expect to make a log of espresso with it. I was surprised at the size when I got it but it does make 2 espresso cups, not regular size cups. I only gave it 4 stars because if you wanted a second helping, to unscrew the bottom you have to wait for it to cool. It is a little hard to unscrew the bottom and there are a few different pieces, I had to read through the instructions to figure it out. It works well for me because I use it once every couple months however if you are a fan of espresso, this is difficult to clean and use and might be worth buying something else.

I didn't know how well this would be or what the espresso would taste like but it is awesome!!! It shipped quick and it is better then my mr coffee machine. My mr coffee machine I used about 7 times and they didn't stand behind it.

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Sunday, May 11, 2014

Cuisinart DGB-900BC Grind & Brew Thermal 12-Cup Automatic Coffeemaker, Brushed Stainless/Black

Cuisinart DGB-900BC Grind & Brew Thermal 12-Cup Automatic Coffeemaker, Brushed Stainless/BlackI bought this coffeemaker after returning my Krups KM7000. Overall, I have been pleased with this model, save for a few quirks. The bottom line is that it makes OUTSTANDING, HOT coffee with great convenience in a design that appears very durable. I have NOT had any problems with getting the pieces together and I do not find it complicated on a day-to-day basis whatsoever.

PROS:

-Coffee is full-bodied and flavorful. I use the 4-cup setting with about 3 cups of water and the strength set to strong. This uses the aroma feature, and the coffee is perfect.

-Temperature is perfect, the hottest I've tasted from a model like this. The base WARMS THE THERMAL CARAFE when the machine goes on, then goes off when the brew is complete. This may theoretically be eliminating the effect of the cooling of hot coffee by a stone-cold carafe. On the other hand, the carafe is highly insulated and it may be doing nothing. The bottom line is that the temperature is perfect, the coffee is still hot even after adding cold milk. The coffee remains hot for quite a while in the thermal carafe.

-Design is quite niceit is self contained as opposed to other mill & brew models that have parts that swing around. The design feels very robust, there are no wimpy plastic bits. There is a piece that fits over the grind basket that has a gear which appears to rotate, likely to keep steam out of the grinder.

-It could not be easier to use on a daily basis all I do is put in THE RIGHT amount of water, put the cover on top of the brew basket, and press program (I have it programmed for the same time every day). After it brews and I pour the coffee, I swing out the basket, pour out the grinds & rinse the basket, rinse the carafe, and I'm ready to go.

-cleaning is simple; I notice others complain but I haven't had any problems. See above for my daily routine; I've been using the brush weekly on the grind spout, it takes two minutes and is not messy.

-The brushed chrome looks great on the counter.

-3 year warranty is reassuring

CONS:

-The grind appears to be too coarse. Other models have a grind control to change the coarseness of the coffee, this one does not. This has improved a little after a few weeks of use, but not completely. Also, I've noticed that (through laws of physics) the coarsest part of the grind stays on top, then the finer grounds work their way to the bottom. This is probably wasting a bit of coffee, but once I worked out how much water to use it doesn't affect the strength. Overall I have not noticed that I am going through coffee faster than before, so I think some of the "coffee wasting" reviews may be somewhat overstated. On first glance it does appear to use a lot of coffee when you are pouring out the grounds, but looking at how many bags I'm going through it doesn't appear much different.

-The mechanism to pour coffee from the carafe is not perfect; it works ok when pouring out from a mostly full carafe, but to get the last cup or two from the bottom I have to take the top off. If I don't it drips all over the counter. Taking the top off I can pour it without any mess.

-The water indicator level is on the right side near the back. If you are putting it against a wall on the left it will be fine, but on my counter it needs to be against a wall on the right, so if I need to look at the water level I need to pull the coffeemaker away from the wall. To get around this I have figured exactly how much water to put in from a measuring cup.

THE BOTTOM LINE (again):

The coffee is excellent, and HOT. The design is marvelous. On a day-to-day basis it is extremely easy to use and convenient. The grind is a bit too coarse, but I don't seem to be going through coffee much faster than before, so this may be a little bit of an illusion. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO ADJUST THE STRENGTH OF YOUR COFFEE USING THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF WATER. I can strongly recommend this coffeemaker if you want hot, convenient, fresh-ground coffee every day. Enjoy!

I chose this grind and brew after reading all of the reviews for this and similar machines. Frankly, I am surprised by the negative comments. This is an easy to use machine once it is set up properly (the bean hopper takes a little of effort to snap in). The coffee tastes great and the parts are very easy to clean quickly. While the instruction book is not clear, Cuisinart was very helpful on the phone. The machine does not know how much water you put in, so if you set it to grind coffee for 6 cups and you have 8 cups of water in it, it will process all 8 cups of water. Other than this small quirk, the machine is a small wonder and I do not feel compelled to go out for coffee in the morning. The thermos carafe will keep the coffee quite warm for a few hours, even when the carafe is not warmed up with hot water. Wondering why it took me so long to go ahead and buy this machine. This is the best model; my neighbor has the first generation/second generation machine which is hard to clean and has a large footprint. Save your money and buy this model!

Now that I have had the machine for a month and a half: It requires some cleaning to get the fine grounds that compress and stop the grinder and ground coffee to get into the filter for brewing. I use a bamboo chopstick and a skewer to break up the compressed fine grounds that impede the machine from working properly. (Unplug the machine and put it over the sink area). I also use compressed air to blow out the fine ground particles. Still, this is a small maintenance to allow for great coffee in the AM.

Buy Cuisinart DGB-900BC Grind & Brew Thermal 12-Cup Automatic Coffeemaker, Brushed Stainless/Black Now

This unit wastes beans.

According to the user manual, if you fill the coffee bean hopper with 1/2 lb of coffee, you can expect "at least" two 12 cup brews. I thought this was a bit conservative but it was confirmed when I made the first pot of coffee. I set the machine for 12 cups and watched as almost half of the beans disappeared on the first pot.

I figure it uses almost 1/4 lb of beans to brew a full pot (12 cups of 5 oz coffee). This is about double what would be used if you followed the directions when using a manual grinder (one scoop of beans per cup using the scoop that comes with this coffee maker).

I think Cusinart kept the grind at very coarse level to ensure proper grind flow in the machine. To compensate, they increased the amount of coffee ground. Thus it uses about 4 oz of beans versus 2.5 oz of beans per 10-12 cup pot. It doesn't sound like much but works out to 60% extra per pot.

I've owned the Cuisinart DGB-600BC Grind and Brew Coffeemaker and Melitta Mill & Brew Coffee Maker so this is my third unit brew and grind unit. The two previous units has manual bean fill and comparatively good control on the grind. This unit always grinds very very coarse.

Pro: Large Bean Hopper

Easy to clean

Fill level on side (DGB-600BC did not)

Gold filter basket included

3 Year Warranty

Simple operation (for a grind & brew machine)

Seems well constructed

Cons: Grind is always very course

Uses twice as much beans

Carafe pours slow and tends to drip

The coffee tastes OK its not as good as what you can get with a manual grind/brew but consistent with the other Mill & Brew machines I've had. It is well built and I think the 3 year warranty is key because our other Cuisinart grinder motor lasted about 18 months, but its going back because I make about 2 pots/day and this translates into a couple hundred dollars year. Going to try the Capresso 455 or 454.

Update

I've got the Capresso 454 and love it. It can grind from super fine up to coarse and makes a great cup of coffee.

Read Best Reviews of Cuisinart DGB-900BC Grind & Brew Thermal 12-Cup Automatic Coffeemaker, Brushed Stainless/Black Here

This is a GREAT coffee maker. The primary objections in other reviews I saw were 1) Weak coffee I do not understand this as you can adjust both the strength of the brew as well as the quantity of beans ground (e.g. grind enough beans for 10 cups but only put in 8 cups of water). We have actually had to reduce the strength settings as the strong setting was too rich for my wife ; 2) hard to pour this is somewhat true as the opening on the carafe is very small (to preserve heat), but twisting the top open just slightly solves that problem; 3) coffee not hot enough it is not as hot as what you would get at a specialty coffee shop but it is still hot enough to make very good coffee. We always rinse the carafe and our cups with hot water before we start and that seems to help a lot; We do find that we need to microwave the coffee in the cup if it has been in the carafe for about an hour or more 4) difficult to program or set up it does require being put together properly and it is somewhat more complex than the traditional drip coffee maker, but the setup requires about 20 seconds to master. We leave the settings alone and just pour in water and add beans daily so once it is set up, it is a "no brainer". We have never had problems with grinds being spilled and I suspect that whoever did either had a defective unit, or did not put the basket into the unit properly. My wife forgot to put the filter basket into the unit one time -and it would not grind the beans until she did -great feature.

The combination of a burr grinder, 12-cup capacity, insulated pot (no hot plate to burn the coffee), adjustable coffee strength, and large bean reservoir with ability to specify the number of cups being brewed (no need to measure beans every time you brew) make this a really great coffeemaker.

If your expectations are for a super-hot cup of coffee then you will be disappointed. If you just want an easy-to-use coffee maker that allows you to adjust the coffee strength to your preference (including very strong), then this is a great unit.

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We are very happy with this coffee maker. The things that are not good are that the thermal carafe pours out a very weird thin stream of coffee which takes to long to fill a cup and it is awkward to comepletly emtpy it. It does leave some grindings on the lid but that is not a total problem. The coffee is not as hot because it goes into the cool carafe and that cools it down.

So the point of a thermal carafe is now a drawback. I like my coffee hot so its a draw back for me. Other than that it all works well, stays clean, you do not have to clean the grinder compartment eveyr time you use it. The compartment does not get any steam it in it like the previous one did. We bought ours from Williams Sononma and are trying it out. I think we will keep it but we are still not 100% sure. It makes a good cup of coffee and the grinder works great and the extra beans it holds is a big plus.

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Friday, April 18, 2014

Charcoal Water Filter- Fits all Cuisinart water filter holders

Charcoal Water Filter- Fits all Cuisinart water filter holdersWhy pay out the wazoo for something when you can get the exact same thing soooooo much cheaper!! It fit perfectly, looks exactly like what came out of coffee pot...I went to Cuisinart website and they wanted some exhorbatant amount for them!! Great to know I can get them here!! Only thing that could possibly be better is cheaper shipping, the shipping was more tham the actual tem!!

Exactly as the filter that came with my coffee maker but half the price of ordering from Cuisinart. Will buy again.

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I absolutely love my Cuisinart coffee maker and it has alot to do with their charcoal filtration system. The coal filter makes your coffee taste so much better. I can't really explain it but my coffee tastes more pure, if that makes sense. The coffee makers are reasonably priced and the charcoal replacements last 30 days each and cost three dollars or less. You definitely get your moneys worth. For a happy purse and taste buds, give this a try!

Read Best Reviews of Charcoal Water Filter- Fits all Cuisinart water filter holders Here

When the old used filter was removed and to see what it blocked, convinced me these are worthwhile. Small price to pay for that good cup of coffee

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Works great in my cuisnart! With hard water I am trying to keep my machine working longer. So far this is working.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Bialetti Dama Gran Gala 3-Cup Stovetop Espresso Maker

Bialetti Dama Gran Gala 3-Cup Stovetop Espresso MakerI was first introduced to the Bialetti Stovetop Espresso Maker at a weekend reunion. A friend who shares an appreciation for a quality cup of coffee brought one with him knowing that we wouldn't have an espresso machine nearby. We fired it up on the stove, poured it off,and enjoyed an excellent cup of coffee. After I got back home, I purchased one for myself. The first brew on the new Bialetti was while camping on the coast. It worked great on the Coleman stove. I love my home espresso machine but the Bialetti is hard to beat, at home or away, when it comes to convenience and a quality cup of coffee. Great for brewing at work as well.

Deren Ross

Auburn,Ca

Just this morning, my husband admitted that he wasn't too sure about me buying this item, but now is grateful, as it makes the espresso quickly and we have not gounds in the bottom of the cup!

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