Thank you very much! :)

I couldn’t agree more.

Hi, Nathan. I appreciate your comment very much. This being my first video, I wasn't sure what kind of reception it would get, but the response has been so positive, and it's very encouraging. I'd like to take this approach to my videos going forward (I'm planning another one now as I'm about to go pick up a ROK Grinder GC from the post office!), so it's really helpful to know that how I've presented things is effective and appreciated. I'll try to do your comment justice moving forward. :) All the best.

Nathan Greene telling it like it is!!

Don:t expect to high to enjoy rich taste of coffee using rokpresso gc. I just bought it..before I buy, I refer to james hoffmann review. After several times, trying to find best ways to get the good result...the outcome is really disappointed. The main issue, is that, there is no enough pressure created by this device..only about 3 bars..how one can expect good espresso quality even close to it. Of course, the result is vary from one to another. One might say I have no experience in pulling a shot and tons of justifications. One may refer to reviews the real sprometheus 'head to head flair pro vs rok gc', Rok vs flair espresso maker' at tv by tom, rok vs flair battle' kopihaii channel..those three gives reliable and balance information about rok, not to mention flair..as I haven't had it yet. For those who just want to having a cup of coffee below par..just bitter taste..you can choose this device..on the other hand, for those who want to enjoy a rich coffee taste..it had better you look around for awhile...find as many testimonies as you can from honest user. Wrong decision can definitely waste money, waste time to do trials and waste your lovely fresh coffee beans. I do hope this commeny is helpful for those who plan to buy manual brewing coffee.

It is indeed a rabbit hole. Glad you enjoyed the video. :)

Hi Aaron. I'm really glad the video has helped you get some better shots! Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Thank you!

My new ROK arrived today. The 5th shot started to have a nice crema, and the 6th also a balanced taste, with so much more depth than my 5 times more expensive, full-automatic Siemens espresso machine. Still lots to learn about mastering the ROK (and my new Korean grinder), but getting good espresso on 6 shots is very promising. I could not have done this without your tips, DHM. Sharing this video now with ROK Thailand (the ROK is very popular here, and we even have a ROK CG Pro, with pressure gauge...

Welcome to the ROK community, Rob, and thanks for the kind words. I hope you have fun with it and get some great coffee in the process!

Hey, thank you so much! I really appreciate that. Let me know if you get one and if you have any questions.

You're welcome! Good luck and enjoy the espresso!

Thank you very much. Hopefully the mood is not too sedate for the subject matter, but I guess it could be a nice antidote to over-caffeination! :)

Thanks, Victoria! I'm happy you enjoyed the video and found it helpful. All the best.

Thanks, Yeremias! I hope you enjoy it. I'm sure you'll be making good shots soon enough. Enjoy the learning process. 👍🏻✌🏻

Thanks, Viktor. Enjoy the many coffees you will drink! I hope you have fun learning. Comment again sometime as you get used to the machine ; I'd love to hear about your progress. Cheers.

Thank you very much! I'm happy you enjoyed it. :)

Hi, D., and thanks for your comments! I loved the GC upgrade. 100% better, I think. Regarding heat regulation, this is the reason I was excited by the launch of the new Flair 58...the built-in heat regulation. It's one of the challenging things about the ROK, but it becomes second-nature with enough practice, as you probably know. I used to wonder how I could do that with the ROK without using water: could I insert some kind of heating element in the water chamber without hurting the unit? Could I get a heating mat for it with a timer so it was already hot when I woke up? In the end, I just used the water from the kettle and rolled with it. :) I like how your two comments are just slightly different from one another...did you have to re-type, thinking one got deleted? :) Thanks again.

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. :)

Wow, thank you!

Thank you, Kurt! I will keep that in mind. As you can probably tell, I'm not a very prolific KZfaqr ;). However, I appreciate the suggestion and will try to get to it someday.

Thanks very much. That's great! I think quite a few people got one as a gift this year. :)

would you please update the outcome? would love to hear success stories ! cheers!

Thanks so much!😀

Thank you, Kamran!

Hi Ahmet. Sorry for the delay in responding to you! I'm really glad if my video helped you decide what machine to get, and I appreciate the kind words. I also really like the challenge the ROK presents. Before I got my ROK, I saw quite a few reviews about how the Flair is better, and while I haven't tried it yet (I hope to someday), I'm really pleased with what the ROK can do and I think it can produce some excellent shots. I'm really fond of it and I'm glad I gave it a shot. How are you progressing? Thanks again.

Thanks so much, Ray!

You're welcome. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!

Wow, thank you! I really appreciate it.🙂👍🏻

Hey Craig, and thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I tried that a couple of times but never really stuck with it-not sure why, really. I have heard others prefer to do that as well. I would LOVE for ROK to have a pressure gauge upgrade. Maybe in a future update! Thanks once again and glad you enjoyed the video.

@@dhmacdonald8605 I also found just as good results with passive preinfusion. the pressure gauges do exist, I think maybe the first link here is even an official Rok upgrade, hopefully more available soon: www.tokopedia.com/bartman and instagram.com/dr.leva.macchina/ :)

@@adamgrubb5081 Yes, I checked out the link at the FB group and that looks very promising indeed! It's a logical next step for ROK, I think, as would be an option for a precision basket. There's also this manufacturer, who makes a ROK pressure guage in small batches,as well as some other very nice-looking things: instagram.com/somedaysomehow_project?igshid=rs2mwboiv69w

Thanks so much for the kind comment, Tracy. It's definitely worth pursuing. Since I made this video, I've actually also come to own a Rancilio Silvia espresso machine, and I'm being honest when I say that espresso can be a frustrating endeavor even with an electric machine and grinder. I've never tried the ROK grinder; I was *this* close to buying one, but instead opted for the Baratza grinder you see in this video, mainly because I was tired of hand-grinding each shot with my Hario Skerton Pro. :) I wish I had some experience with it so I could offer something more. Have you tried reaching out to ROK to see if they can offer any assistance? In my experience, they are quite helpful, and they may be able to tell you something about the grinder and its settings that could help. Let me know how you're making out! Feel free to get in touch via Instagram, too, if you use it: @dh_macdonald.

Yes, I have this problem too. I have had the ROK grinder for a while and recently bought the espresso GC, and so far 1 click is the best setting I could find. As for the crema, I think the tamping affects this a lot. I have seen my shots improve a lot with good tamping, takes a bit of practice.

I'm smiling because I love this comment, and because you got the vaccination. :) Thanks for watching the whole thing and stay healthy!

Thank you! Any luck since your comment?

I appreciate that. Thank you.🙂

Hmm, that's hard to say for someone else! :) I didn't regret it, that's for sure. If it's kept in good shape, which isn't too hard to do, you can always re-sell if you don't really think you'll use it much or if you want to try a different machine. I got mine second-hand. I found the ROK is a great device for learning about making espresso and figuring out what you like and don't like. If you're eager to learn, you might really like it! Thank you!

Oh, wow! I hope you were able to sleep after that. 😁 I was making something like 5 or 6 a day at the beginning, and I drank all the ones that weren't completely awful. 😂 Enjoy the learning process have fun dialling in... That's part of the fun, and it will get easier, I'm sure! Thanks.

@@dhmacdonald8605 Oh sorry, I meant to say that I only pulled some 20 shots since I got the ROK :D Well after today there will be 2 or so more. Cheers and have a great weekend.

Thank you! The grinder is a Baratza Sette 30, but I replaced the adjustment assembly with the one for the Baratza Sette 270.

Hi! Thanks for your comment and I'm glad I'm not annoying. :) If you tamped as hard as you could, I imagine that you could potentially have trouble getting any water through the puck at all. At best, you would have a very VERY long pre-infusion and a very long pull. It might taste fantastic, it might taste kind of "meh", and it might be downright horrible. If you have some coffee to spare, try tamping harder, but just don't break your machine. :) Also, keep in mind that forcing the arms down if they don't want to move can make hot water spray out and can lead to injury. Be safe!

@@dhmacdonald8605 injury and water splash never comes into my mind, make sense, will stay away from that. Thank you Sir and have a good day!

Hello, and I'm very sorry for the late reply. When pressing, I look for a fair bit of resistance: enough that you have to exert effort to press, but not enough that you are straining. If you press and nothing is coming out, it's advisable to not force it, and you should try a coarser grind. There should be a slow and steady downward movement in the ROK's arms, maybe about 1-2 centimetres per second, and you're looking for the press to take roughly between 25 and 30 seconds, give or take a few seconds, from when you start the press to when you reach your target weight in the glass. I wish I could say "exert X force on the arms," but I'm afraid practice (and your tastebuds) will be the best guide. You will eventually get a feel for what is right. I've gotten to the point where I know if I have close to the right grind from how the press feels in the first few seconds...you will, too. :) Good luck

Thank you so much! I just checked using my ROK GC and the absolute most I could fit in the chamber was just under 106 grams (so, 106ml). To make a single shot, you could use the double spout splitter and just have one of the resulting two cups (maybe you could give the second half away to a friend ;)). You could also try using a smaller dose of coffee at a finer grind, aiming for the same target time of 25-30 seconds, then just stop pressing when you've reached the amount of liquid you want and the flavour is right for you. I've honestly never made a single shot with mine, otherwise I might have something more helpful to add! Maybe this is something to try in the future.

I think the ROK can make a a great shot; however I will fully admit that it can take time to get used to and to produce those. Unfortunately, I've never had the chance to try the Flair Pro 2, so I can't really give my opinion on it. I think any espresso setup can be challenging in its own way, and it takes work to understand the process. I've certainly heard great things about the Flair Pro 2, and with the pressure gauge, you might find it allows you to more easily replicate your shots from one to the next since you can use the pressure as a guide--this may or may not be important to you, but it would be a major consideration for me if I were purchasing another manual espresso maker. A pressure gauge is on my wish list for future ROK versions! Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment!

Naked Portafilter allows you to see the whole exposed underside of the portafilter, which means you can watch to see if the coffee is coming out evenly; if it isn't then it's likely an issue with tamping unevenly, or perhaps the grind size. Naked portafilter allows you to diagnose these issues.

@@matth6160 You beat me to it, Matt! Thank you.

Has the upgrade to GC been worth the expense. I recently upgraded to 1zpresso hand grinder and went from inconsistent somewhat okay shots to some really great tasting shots. I sometimes get leakage around the seal of the portafilter when pulling shots so I’m not sure more pressure would improve things. If I grind less fine o don’t like the shots as much.

If it's old, you might first want to consider whether a new burr would help. They do wear out with age. It could be that it's not an espresso-geared grinder, in which case, yes, something designed with espresso in mind might be a good way to go. The one I use in the video (the Baratza Sette 30 with the added-on adjustment assembly from the Sette 270) is a great entry-level espresso grinder , but there are others that may compare in the same prince range. You could also consider the Comandante C40 with the "red clix" add on, which gives you a greater number of grind sizes that go into the espresso range. However, although it's a great grinder, it's a manual grinder, and that's a lot of grinding by hand. Something to keep in mind.

Thanks so much for your kind words. They're much appreciated! I hope you enjoy the ROK and the grinder. Comment back once you get going and let me know how it's working out for you. I note that ROK is making a "Pro" version for Eastern markets, which presumably will make its way elsewhere eventually. Fingers crossed!

Thank you!

Thanks for watching! My tamper is also 49.7mm, but I got it from an Etsy seller in the USA called Creativewerk... I love this tamper, and the shop's owner makes them with other types of wood, too. The link to the shop is in the description!

@@dhmacdonald8605 ah nice, thank you!