Keep practicing those chords, and you'll be an espresso rockstar in no time! :D And yeah, James has helped me realise the importance of a couple of things as well. I'm still experimenting with the best way to make coffee in my moka pot, but if it weren't for James, I'd never have known you're supposed to start with water that's already as close to boiling as possible in order not to cook your grounds while they're waiting for the water to arrive.

@@EvenTheDogAgrees Where does he bring up preboiling water for moka? (I'm interested) But through my research and experimenting, it has much more to do with initial water volume in the chamber, but definitely not boiling. If you're still playing around, feel free to write back what type of moka pot you have and I can try to give some good starting parameters.

@@zacharywinter1273 He mentions it in his video on "the ultimate moka pot technique" or something like that. If you search his name + moka pot, you'll find it. The reason is so that your ground coffee is not exposed to the heat for as long. Mine's a Bialetti Venus, which is stainless steel.

@@EvenTheDogAgrees I missed that video because it's not on his channel. Thanks. There's a few physics papers out on this, and I've also worked out the calculations, and it seems boiling water only ends up boiling the beans. The initial water temp is important, but more important is the initial water volume. Filling the reservoir full is a big reason it takes so long as there's not enough over pressure buildup. Maybe I'll write him about this sometime. If you want something fun to try, for a 4 cup bialetti, start off with 120 ml of room temp water and turn your heat to full.

It's like chefs. Chefs that are truly great can do very good dishes, great dishes with "low quality" or not so tender meat etc. Of course it will be much easier with top of the line tools and products, but thinking outside the box and being a master at what you do is what really makes you stand out.

For real. I use this grinder and a French press every morning. I figured out the sieve trick on my own, but it really is the super fine grinds that makes making a GREAT cup pretty unattainable. Will definitely try the paper towel trick.

Well said!

Holy cow that’s the pro strat

Yeah this is a pretty intuitive way of getting workable results without asking somebody to buy a $100+ piece of equipment.

That's what I appreciate about this channel. It's far too easy to be a snob about a subject, especially when you're a pro in the biz and have access to all the best tools. We see that all the time. What I love about James's approach is that he strives to make good quality coffee more accessible to the rest of us, and tries to find ways to make great coffee with the tools most of us have at home already. Those of us who have the desire and the means to upgrade to more pro-level equipment can do so at our own leisure, while those of us who aren't as fanatic can still elevate our coffee experience without much in terms of investment.

Pre ground are not as bad as you think

Seven months late, but hey. The tips I give to curious friends that want a cheap-ish way to get better coffee at home is to start with the Wilfa-grinder. Can be found, occasionally, for $50 or less (Swedish prices). Then it depends on what you have. Got a French press? Great, now it's only technique. Want better filter coffee at home? Take a look at Cleverdrip, super easy and costs $25 or less (again, Swedish prices). Want portable-ish? Check out aeropress. Around $50 here. Bit more fiddly though. Personally, I have gathered V60:s, Kalita Waves, Cleverdrip, Percolator, Minipresso, Aeropress, French Press, pots for Kokkaffe, a mokapot and an automatic filter Brewer over the years. Would I be asked to only keep one, it'd be the Cleverdrip, probably the cheapest of the gadgets I have. I do use them all, for different types of coffee, but I can still make any coffee taste good in the Cleverdrip. It even makes the bottom shelf stuff taste better IMO, although I wouldn't skip the grinder. So, what's that... $75 for grinder and Brewer? Regarding the coffee, I keep one "luxury" and a semi-cheap bag at home at all times. The semi-cheap is the everyday coffee. The luxury one might be a seasonal for the more enjoyable moments. No need to use the more expensive stuff on the barely-awake cup. That's my pennies on the subject.

Start roasting greens; it’s cheap to start and the coffee is better than anything but the absolute premium retail that costs you lots more than standard supermarket beans plus you can roast just what you need for each week. Yes it does take a little practice to nail your preferred roast but even you don’t get it perfect it’s good! Look up heat gun dog bowl (I use a stainless steel cooking pan)

Like any hobby, you get diminishing returns the more money you spend. You can make a damn good cup of coffee with whole beans from Costco ($9), a blade grinder ($15) and a Bodum French press ($20). Don't let the gatekeepers scare you away from a decent cup o' joe

Timothy Engelstad Good point.

Smart idea! No waste!

Only just barely more than I’m doing already (with unsatisfactory results). Adding the sieve and paper towel trick… should be a happy sipper today! Thanks for sharing this. Burr grinder is on hold (for now) 😊

I know right… I don’t wanna spend $80-$100 on a burr grinder. I barely wanted to spend the $18 on my Krups grinder. I bought a coffee sieve for $13 as well...with what’s showed here and the coffee sieve instead of the paper towel it comes out great.

@@TJDawgs72 burger grinder. 😂😂😂

Same, my blade grinder was a birthday gift. I've been shaking and that on its own can get a more uniform grind than some of the preground out there. Got to try the sieve

A Shamal f*cking auto correct...

I apologize to the coffee gourmets out there; but when I visit relatives I take along my own K-cups and a manual gizmo that allows me to heat the water in the microwave and get a cup of my own joe quickly.

🤣👍

That's a good one 📝

Don't quite understand what you mean. Could you go into a bit more detail please?

I hold it at 35-40 degree angle and rotate 360 degrees while the blades are spinning, without stopping (with a hand meat grinder). This way I create a pretty even espresso grind and use it for all my drinks

@@MrOfigenko Quite agree. I do the same, while blades spinning in my ancient ancient Braun, tilt over and rotate to and fro - coffee can clearly be seen inside grinder rotating to and fro as well, above and below the spinning blades. 10 secs for filter coffee, 15 secs for espresso, result: excellent coffee

​@@williamhamilton9168 Yeah I'm always surprised at how the taste is so clean compared to all 'dedicated' grinders I've tried below 200-300 USD

I love you

Its not about grind styles, but uniform result. Average person (e.g me) just grinds the coffee with blades once, no sieve and paper towel technique. Clearly the coffee that comes from my french press is worse in quality and taste, than if I'd use burr grounded coffee. Of course I probably can attain the similar result by using different size sieves and doing it multiple times, although while using more beans.

Can you link the article/video?

Just watched that video and it misses an important point. The grind doesn't matter as much when simply adding water to the bean grounds, which is what ATK did. It makes more of difference for espresso, which didn't seem to feature in their test.

@@alxbly I’ve learned so much about coffee in the year since I posted this comment. I gotta agree with you here that grind is super important outside of just basic cupping

their reaction? XD

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." ~President Teddy Roosevelt This quote came to mind when I watched this video. For once a "hack video" that wasn't useless clickbait.

lol

They are probably wondering what the hell was that noise at 4 am. And, oh my God he's going into withdrawal. He's not going to snort that is he? ~ the things that parent's friends think but do not say.

What manual grindr are you using? I bought one of the cheapest ones and its horrific.

Yeah, I have a cheap hand grinder with a ceramic burr that's way off center. Produces both tons of fines and some boulders. When grinding to filter consistency or finer you can hear he burrs touching on every rotation on one side...

I also take my libido with me anywhere I go, luv it

@@TeeBee997 cool

Goddamn 😅

you probably can make some turkish tasting coffee out of it??? :-P

@@stradglider Moroccan coffee!

Just toast uncooked rice in a pan, and grind them. This will neutralize the taste left behind by cumin, caraway, etc., in your blade grinder.

@@DovidM I actually do that quite regularly. Toasted rice powder, aka khao kua, is a common ingredient in northern Thailand and Laos. Larb just doesn't taste right without it.

He did try that as well

Which burr grinder did they use though

You saw this from America's Test Kitchen? :)

I do all these things but I noticed that the coffee tends to stick to the walls of the grinder. That's why I do one more thing: 3) after each burst open the lid and with a spoon stir the ground coffee making sure to remove all residue from the walls of the grinder

YES - this is the easiest safe method. Rotate that blade grinder Contra Style... NES fans know the routine: up-up-down-down ... left-right-left-right ... B.A. Start! You can learn to tell with your ears when those grinds go from French (coarse) to medium to pulverized by listening.

Thank you my coffee is a lot better, but i have to shake with grinding,and shake a bit when stop. I use the cheapest black and dacker but if you want give another option,go for it,thanks and sorry for my english :)

I've been a coffee snob for quite some time. In the early 2000s I worked at a coffee shop and started roasting coffee there, and then at home with a modified bread machine. I always insist on the freshest coffee I can get. I only got my first burr grinder about 4 years ago. I couldn't afford anything worth getting, so I just stuck with my burr grinder. It worked fine for french press and I didn't even bother with the sieve. Was my coffee muddy as hell in the bottom of the cup? Yep, it was. Was it better than anything I'd get with pre-ground coffee that was who knows how old? Absolutely. The steps James showed in this video probably work really well for cold brew since you're likely going to be making larger portions in advance. It would be a pain for a single french press every morning. :) (Well, shaking the grinder isn't. Do that absolutely, any time you use a blade grinder.)

Honestly blade grinders probably get too much of a bad reputation. America's Test Kitchen did a blind taste test comparison between coffee that's been ground with a burr grinder and the same coffee with a blade grinder. There wasn't a significant preference for either of them. Some people preferred the first, some the second one. It's definitely trickier to get really consistent results with a blade grinder but it's not like you can't make really good coffee with it. Especially with little tricks like this.

@@Johnny_Shikari did they test multiple brewing methods with a blade vs burr grinder? Drip is one thing, but getting consistent results with French press in a blade grinder, or getting good espresso shots at all would be nearly impossible.

@@Platypi007 they took the top tested blade grinder and the top tested burr grinder and made several test rounds with their top tested drip coffee machine (I think it's the same one James uses, when he uses a coffee machine). They also ran the same taste comparison with coffee experts and came to the same result. I think French press might actually be better suited for blade grinders since the risk of overgrinding is lower, but for proper espresso made with an espresso machine you will definitely need a good burr grinder. But starting out there's nothing wrong with using a decent blade grinder for French press or pour over coffee until you're ready to invest in a burr grinder. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rblonMqL3s6ydqs.html this is the video btw

@@Johnny_Shikari French press is definitely better with a good burr grinder as you get fewer fines in the mix. More fines mean muddier French press. It's not terrible, but can be off-putting to some folks. If it really bothers someone, however, they could always pass the brew through a paper filter. Like I said originally, though, even the worst brew made with fresh beans ground in a blade grinder is going to be worlds better than pre-ground coffee even if it was only ground a day or two before use.

I found combining the max capacity method with shaking every few seconds gets more consistent results than those two techniques on their own.

Thank you, @TomChips. Your tip may be expanded to choosing a blade grinder model with narrower diameter to confine the beans to a smaller space, hence more uniform resultant grinds.

Okay, but what if you're not going to drink that much coffee?

I know you're joking but this entire process would take perhaps 1.5 minutes to complete. It would still be embarrassing though to have anyone walk in while you're gently spreading coffee around a paper towel

He looks 25, but he is wise as 60.

I think he is 42

(25+60)\2 = 42.5 😀

@@Tungsteno391 shhhh you exposed my secret

Autarky Bear you truncating dog you

he's going to be reviewing different paper towels with that patreon money soon 😂 seriously though, I kind of gasped when I saw that part of the video, that was the missing link! 😁 I think I can hold onto my Mr. coffee blade grinder juuust a little bit longer now....

I'm wondering if it might fix my Melitta Molino's issues with fines.