Ponte Vecchio Lusso - advice please?

Moon

Good news folks .. Moony is on the comeback trail .. yep .. you heard it right. A solid 9.25/10 with the last cup. Pour was a little drippy and slow .. but certainly a good sign .. with a lovely cup of coffee. Grind has bean too fine and easing it off with small increments .. towards that Heavenly 9.3/10 again. Not long now .. so stay tuned folks .. it's coming .. which is good. Let's not get ahead of ourselves .. so best to hold off on the fanfare and celebrations .. not quite there yet. 😃

Brett_H

Nice work here mate!! I'm enjoying a .... Wait for it.... 9.15 myself using some stunning Mexican beans from Beangreen! That's a low score BH... Why so? I'm glad you asked voice in my head... The foam is so strong and resilient it's more of a cappuccino than a mid-morning latte!! We all have our crosses to bear...

Moon

Brett H wrote:

Nice work here mate!! I'm enjoying a .... Wait for it.... 9.15

9.15/10 ... pulled another 9.2 ish latte meself this morning. Funny .. for 2-3 months I've bean having problems getting good microfoam - and thought it was maybe a partially blocked steam wand .. but recently getting a couple of 2ltr milks from 7 Eleven (2 for $5) are having no problem getting good foam with that milk - so I've concluded that it must've bean the Farmhouse Gold milk. I've also bean noticing that the FH Gold milk hasn't bean as smooth and rich over the same time period according to my taste buds - and my coffee ratings had taken a hit as a result.. or is it Moony just losing his mojo due to the warmer weather? Admittedly, it is nice if something else puts its hand up and takes the blame for my sub-standard results in the cup occasionally. Yep .. I'll go with that .. Since using the 7 Eleven brand milk .. the ratings have claimed back up to 9.2 and 9.25/10. Still not up to where I'd ideally like them to be (9.3/+ .. but hey, you'd be a real snob if you turned your nose up at any coffee that rates a 9.2 Not sure who 7 Elevens source is .. I'm guessing Pura, and will ask next time I'm in there .. it isn't as good quality as the Pauls FHG .. but is definitely frothing better. It may be a case of giving the FHG a miss each year over Spring/Summer and returning once the weather has cooled - as it may have something to do with the Cows feed.. or fat content of the milk. After all .. the stuff is produced for their calves .. so its makeup is designed to suit them .. not our milk coffees. I guess I can live with that.. well, not if I'm giving it a miss during those times when it doesn't froth to my personal standard. I've no doubt the Cows can live with that.

Brett_H

I've been using the dreaded 3litres woollies milk.. Thus the uber-froth. I can't get our regularly used Makeny or senic rim milks to froth like that but for flavour they're unbeAtable!

Moon

Brett H wrote:

I've been using the dreaded 3litres woollies milk..

Oh no .. the cheap stuff .. blasphemy in a coffee. (well .. these days anyway) At least Pauls milk up your way doesn't have the bad odour that it has in Melbourne

Brett H wrote:

Thus the uber-froth. I can't get our regularly used Makeny or senic rim milks to froth like that but for flavour they're unbeAtable!

I don't drink a glass of plain milk .. so I'm not in it for the flavour. In fact .. I prefer it didn't have any at all. What I want it to do is add texture to the body and richness .. which probably has something to do with the fat content. Apparently milk with a higher fat content is considered better quality .. which is why Aldi's Farrmdale got the gong for best homebrand milk due to its higher fat content over the Coles and Woolies homebrand milk. When I contacted Parmalat who supply Pauls with their organic brand .. the lady admitted that the milk varies at certain times of the year and mentioned the feed .. so as previously mentioned .. late Spring and Summer appears to be the time that the usual quality of the milk goes off the boil. What would I know .. maybe we should go ask a Cow. Moo .. mooo .. warming up the chops

Moon

Test Hmm .. ok .. this is Moon figuring out how to take a screenshot and posting it in this forum. Rather than starting up a new thread in off-Topic .. I figured I might as well try in here .. Crikey - it worked! Reason is to check out that little 'Weatherzone' window up on the right side. Lacehim knows why.. Oh .. and logging in issues are all sorted ;D ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In other coffee news - lattes have bean rating around the 9.25 lately .. which is good. I must confess .. that I've done a Brett .. and gone out and bought some of that cheap Coles homebrand milk after telling Brettmate that it was blasphemous to use this cheap stuff in our coffees. Gotta love a hypocrite. Seeing the Pauls Farmhouse Gold is off the boil with frothing problems .. I figure why still pay the premium price. I'll go back to it at a later stage. Anyway, cofees have been good .. even though it has bean a bit tricky getting the grind setting right, as I've had to adjust it backwards and forwards a number of times due to being too fast or too slow .. then ended up reducing the dose slightly. I'm also using a partial 2nd lever pull to bump the shot up to 30ml from 25ml previously .. which seems to be going well. The lattes have bean tasting chocolatey as a result. My guess is that the chocolate notes come out more towards the latter part of the extraction .. up to a point. I'm no expert .. so don't take it as the Gospel. I'm getting some pretty tasty coffees using only the single basket. Strong enough for my taste if made well and using nice beans. My Sister was over yesterday and she likes her lattes watery with 70-80% of the volume via the pour. Doing long blacks using a lever means you have to keep pulling the lever. Much easier to hit the long black button (perhaps a couple of times?) on her Sunbeam 6910 machine. It apparently came out pretty strong .. although she finished it. I figure that the pour needs to run more quickly for a long black type coffee .. which means that it probably required a coarser grind. Next time I'll use the Spong No 4 hand grinder and see how that goes.

cosmic_couple22

Hi Moon So the weather app is on the Crema magazine homepage rather than the forum home page (couldn't work out where you were seeing it yesterday but now makes sense), I think you will find very few of us enter the forum from there. The magazine is a different identity and is only the realm of Admin (aka Ashley).

Dry_bean

FWIW Moon, I visited the Crema home page this morning and changed the weather from Sydney to Adelaide without problem, drop down box > select city all good.

Moon

Might explain why I was having login-in issues to the forum .. as there were a few options and I was choosing the wrong one and getting myself confused. I've removed the Crema mag icon in my dock and now have the Coffee forum one. Heaps quicker now Like my coffees .. getting it sorted. Cheers Edit: DB .. Yeah .. it will stay on Melbourne for a couple of days .. then revert back to Sydney .. even though I am supposedly logged in forever .. so I'm baffled as to why it doesn't just stay on Melbourne once I've changed it. Not a huge life problem is it.. lol *I seem to be getting it wrong lately Db .. well, more often than usual .. so if I end up hopping up and down and frothing at the mouth over something .. I should be thinking 'what am I doing wrong?' rather than point the finger elsewhere.

Dry_bean

I use this for local weather Moon http://weather.adelaidenow.com.au/nsw/sydney/sydney have a short cut set up on my home page.

Moon

Thanks Db. I was using BOM .. only I like more detail. I've included your one now. 😃

C-man

" so I'm not in it for the flavour. In fact .. I prefer it didn't have any at all. What I want it to do is add texture to the body and richness .. which probably has something to do with the fat content." quote This is how I see milk too, as a canvas for the coffee If you find a better one than Farmhouse gold let me know<

Lacehim

Chester bought us some $7 local top quality milk when we went for our visit and would you believe C-Man complained! lol. I loved it, I prefer a quality coffee, with quality milk myself. 🙂 You can keep your supermarket brand milk! 😉

Moon

Lacehim wrote:

I prefer a quality coffee, with quality milk myself. 🙂 You can keep your supermarket brand milk! 😉

I believe we are all in agreement with that.

Brett_H

I love Maleny dairy... Not far from you L!!

Lacehim

Brett H wrote:

I love Maleny dairy... Not far from you L!!

Yeah they are great, and it's a great day out for the kids if you visit. You get to see the cows being milked, and take along a picnic it's nice. I mainly buy Cooloola Milk, it's also local and has excellent date life. It's a bit more expensive at $4+ a bottle, but I buy the pasteurised only one and it's lovely to drink on it's own, cook with and drink a coffee with. 🙂 Plus it feels good to support a local business producing a quality product! 🙂 I don't have a fantastic palete like some like some of you guys, so I don't think the milk overpowers the coffee, it just makes it different.

C-man

Cooloola milk is a good one.

Brett_H

C-man wrote:

Cooloola milk is a good one.

Yep... It's lovely but not as easy to find down our way.

Moon

You'd think the best milk available in Victoria would come up from Tasmania. I haven't noticed any. Their dairy should be on par with the high quality stuff that NZ produces.

Moon

Well .. I've reverted back to the double shot basket in a glass mug .... and loving it! The pour is a bit sketchy .. and ends up approx 40ml after a full double lever pull. The microfoam on top has bean a little generous for a latte at 2cm .. only the potency benefits from the slightly less milk volume. Rating - 9.25/10 Very nice .. considering I'm using Coles cheap stuff .... psst .. don't tell Lacehim ;P I reckon it would be close to a 9.3 if I was using the good gear. I'm more than happy with the results tho.. Yep .. Moony is kicking arse ...... and loving it! 😃

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