We’ve run our first test roast of this new delivery and have made an espresso immediately afterward with the Mypressi this time (so no time to de-gass, we know, but it allows us to check that the coffee is up to scratch)
We pleased to say it is a good consignment, and it has a lovely taste of almonds, even with the Mypressi.
We understand that Columbian supremo is readily available on every corner, but you owe it to yourself to see what happens when we roast it. Nothing has changed our view that this is one of the best coffees we sell for espresso use. If you’re an espresso drinker you are seriously missing out if you don’t try this roast. It does become a little bland if too much milk arrives in the cup, but for an espresso it is very difficult to beat.
Week commencing 25 Jan we will take delivery of;
2 lots of costa rican, one from a new source to try out
Columbian Supremo, yes we know it’s ‘common’ but through our process it makes a divine espresso, probably our favourite in fact. Not great for cappuccino or latte as it doesn’t have enough bite to cut through the milk fat, so it tends to taste a bit flat, a bit dead
Our first ever coffee from Panama and also the Dominican Republic
it might take us a while to work out how to roast the 2 new coffees, but the costa and the columbian will be available shortly after their arrival.
Enjoy the weekend!
ps – we also took delivery of a couple of bags of Rwandan, so plenty of interesting coffees are continuing to arrive
Reacquainting ourselves with how the Sigri Estate coffee from Papua New Guinea performs through the fabulous cona coffee maker. Does the roast profile need a small tweak? We like to try our coffee on a revolving basis as they do taste different on different days, and even at different times on the same day. The roast profile also needs adjustment as the green bean ages; the acidity flattens, and so the roast can be eased off in response.
You can buy the Mypressi twist in the UK from these guys;
At GBP119.99 incl VAT we think it is ridiculously good value, given how good an espresso it knocks out. The order page says they have 125 units in stock as I write this
The real trick the Mypressi twist pulls off though is being able to knock out multiple espressos in quick succession
In fact, given that in winter you have to heat the Mypressi for a minute or so in a saucepan of hot water for the first shot only, the more shots you need to make the faster it becomes on a per cup basis as you get to spread this initial downtime over a larger number of shots. The incredible thing is it doesnt over heat as it is powered by compressed nitrous oxide, not hot water or an electric pump
We are going to try & assemble a primitive video tomorrow to show you how easy it is to use
In case you are wondering we bought our own Mypressi Twist, and we are not receiving any form of remuneration or benefit in kind for reviewing this product. We are simply unaware of any other focused product in the market place that meets the needs of espresso drinkers
We have also received an email from the CEO of Mypressi correcting our unduly pessimistic expectation that using the Mypressi without the lower orb will invalidate the warranty. He informs us that it will not. As a result we would strongly recommend that you discard it; espresso running over plastic does nothing for the taste and it rests nicely on the bench with the flat base of the portafilter exposed.
A marvelous coffee but we’ll have to dig around to find the documents that tell us what estate it is from as it is not stamped on the bag, and rather embarrassingly we’ve forgotten! Too many coffees to track. The first test roast was very close, we’ve run a slightly tweaked second test roast today, and we’ll give that a couple of days to roast and then we’ll see how close we are. Hope to release this coffee for sale next week. This acidity in this coffee expresses itself in a very pleasant manner, and the coffee is special because it has a lot of complexity in the taste.
Wow! We are very impressed. Yes, if you live in the UK and its the middle of winter you need to sit the Mypressi in a saucepan of water to warm it up before use, but you dont need to for the second, third & fourth cups, so it is an incredibly quick way to make multiple espressos if you have friends around. Because the Mypressi (daft name, great product!) is powered by nitrus oxide (N2O) canisters it doesn’t over-heat either, in the way that any other entry level espresso machine will when asked to deliver multiple espressos in quick succession.
Sure, the milkies will criticise the product for not having milk steaming capabilities, but this actually inspired us to go out and buy a Mypressi to test as we felt that if it doesnt ‘do’ milk steaming then we’re guessing it probably makes a very good espresso otherwise it is going to fail in the market. As it turns out it does make a very good espresso; it is a product that is very welcome as it focuses on the needs of the home espresso drinker. This makes it something of a world first to the best of our knowledge. As a result the device is also highly portable, for example you can quite feasibly take it camping or on holiday (or to work!), pairing it with a high quality hand grinder, or if you were willing to comprise on quality, pre-ground coffee or even pods (dare we say it! swear-word!)
Yes, the small o-ring falls out for some reason, but we understand that Mypressi already deploying a solution to this issue. We’d also suggest you take the bottom orb off & forget about it as it is plastic and will only serve to taint the coffee, is an extra piece to clean, will cool the coffee further, and generally rattles around and lowers the overall ‘quality feel’ of the product. Removing the lower orb also allows you to see when the shot is nearing the end and allows you to pull the Mypressi away so the foamy unpleasant tail doesnt end up in your cup.
We’re sure that any such modifications to the use of the product invalidate the manufacturer’s warranty for the safety of the product, so you do so at your own risk, but that was how we used the product
This morning we also discovered that if the gas cartridge runs out mid shot and you have another cartridge close to hand you can swap to the new cartridge and the shot is still good enough to drink if you do so fairly quickly
We will post a video to show exactly how we use the product and how we obtained such good results, but this might take us a few days to put together at video production isn’t something that floats our boat. Note that we used freshly ground coffee.
If you are looking for a way to make a very good espresso at home then we suggest you give the Mypressi serious consideration. At the time of writing we are not aware of any other device that does a better job for anything near this price point in the market. The fact that the Mypressi can deliver multiple espressos quickly without over heating is significant.
We dont believe they are generally available for sale in the UK just yet, but we understand they will be soon.
First test roast seems to be very close to target. We’ll try it over the next few days and make up our minds what tweaks are required. Makes a very nice espresso & cappuccino.
Well today we finally took delivery of a Mypressi, a handheld espresso maker
As you would expect, you can find them online here; mypressi
Have only opened the box and the most striking thing is the size and weight
It is a much more substantial device than the pictures on the mypressi website suggest
As time permits we will take some pictures of our own, and publish our own conclusions on how easy we think the average person will find the mypressi can deliver a very good (not necessarily great) espresso
If it passes we think this product would represent something of a world first in terms of reducing the level of investment required in order to enjoy real espresso in your own home
The big difference with the mypressi over other devices on the market is the means by which the espresso is created
Rather than using boiler pressure or an electric pump to drive the water through the coffee, the mypressi uses CO2 canisters
As a result we would expect the device to be a lot quicker to use than one which requires a boiler to be heated
Whether that is in fact the case is what we seek to discover over the next few weeks of testing anger
We really arent interested in products that are overly fiddly to use; we are looking for a product that someone who is relatively new to gourmet coffee can master after a few educated attempts
Will the mypressi be that product?
In our enthusiasm we’ve roasted this a little too light. We’ve eliminated the sooty notes, but replaced them with some grassy notes, which you dont need reminding are equally undesirable. The next sample roast we’ll set somewhere between the two, which should bring us into the zone we want to be, from where we can start fine-tuning. This coffee exhibits an unmistakable aroma of hazelnuts, which if we get the roast right, we’d like to think we can capture this taste in the cup too. All in all, pleasing progress for the last day of 2009. Happy New Year!
