Hi, I have been making french press coffee for the last 2 years. Recently got my hands on Aero press. Now planning to get Gaggia Classic Pro Evo (metal series).
As of now I have a hand grinder (burr) and have option to procure pre grounded coffee from local roaster.
Just wanted to know your thoughts. Which was your first espresso machine? How was your experience? What’s few things I should look out for as a beginner? What’s your favourite recipe?
What grinder do you have?
I have a hand grinder similar to this one: https://amzn.eu/d/5TL8Yck
Tamper is a piece of plastic. I plan to poke some accupunture needles into a cork to DIY a WDT. And plan to get a generic steel tamper without any fancy spring loaded ones.
For the portafilter , i think it comes with 3 baskets. Pressurised, non-presurrized single dose and non pressurized double dose.
I am not sure if Evo comes at 9 bar pressure spring. I will confirm with the vendor once.
What’s your recipe for espresso?
What grinder do you use?
Do you think Gaggia MD15 is any good ?
If you wanna achieve 9 bars of pressure with a constant coffee beans amount and varying beans type (medium roast, dark roast, different varieties within the same brand, etc) you will need to finetune the grind size setting quite a lot. Even tiny grind size differences have a big influence on your brew.
The thing holding you back, outside of learning and practice, is your grinder. It won’t work for espresso, as there isn’t enough granularity in the settings.
You mentioned pre-ground coffee from a local roaster, but that also won’t really work unless you’re using pressurised baskets.
I would get a new grinder. If you can’t afford something too expensive and want to stick to hand grinding at the moment, have a look at something like the Kingrinder K4 or K6.
Here’s a good guide to get you started: https://espressoaf.com/guides/beginner
As others have said, there’ll be a learning curve and it may take a while until you’re happy with the results. But you’ve picked a great machine to start. Unfortunately it’s only one part of the whole thing haha.
