[Closed] Illy beans

I've bought illy in emergencies before and it's not worth it. A 350g bag of Red Brick costs me an eye watering 10eur, but I'll get about 18 shots of elixir, working out about 60c each - half the price of the café downstairs serving burnt, bitter black liquid. A good espresso costs north of 2 eur around here.

good flat white equal to costas

Set the bar low 😉

Might head to my local roaster in Castle st Dundee for some from a paper bag for xmas and cheaper than illy

Braithwaites do excellent coffee.

Do it. Great teas too.

When coffee beans were hard(er) to come by, Illy was probably one of the better commercially available coffees. However, these days, it's crazily over-priced. You can (probably) get nicer beans off the same supermarket shelf for around half the price.

There is a costa that can make a reasonable flat white but some not so good, Braithwaites just couldn't remember the name great place just not as the trendy new bike hanging from the ceiling ,aeropress wanting bought and machined Italian tamper beardy coffee grindy shops springing up like gin distillers everywhere

I love it in thrre always go in when i'm home ie

This weekend.

How does one make a flat white then? If I ever have coffee out it's always a costa flat white so would be great to make my own.

I have beans...

2 shots from silvia my machine, froth up full fat to 65-70° then pour it in and a level teaspoon of brown sugar for me
Even if you just ask for a latte from me you only get the above
My coffee machine my rules

A good espresso

How does one make a flat white then? If I ever have coffee out it's always a costa flat white so would be great to make my own.

Although the video below is american, it's a good illustration of how to make a flat white. My recollection of the Costa flat white was that it was better than their drinks with more milk (e.g. cappucino), but it still contained too much milk (as is obvious from the much larger cups they use for a flat white than a good independent coffee shop). Less milk means a stronger drink and also makes it harder to get away with using a bad espresso shot and poor quality or over roasted beans.

You should not find it difficult to produce a better flat white (or espresso or cappucino) than Costa's, but that's a relatively low bar. I would suggest you try the flat whites and espresso in one or two good local independents to give yourself a better idea of the benchmark to aim for when making your own at home.

Costa flat white is ****ing ridiculous. It just isn't. Comes in a cup about 3x too large, so it's basically just a shit cappuccino. Flat white should be double shot of espresso topped up to about 150ml with microfoamed milk.

If its too weak just ask for an extra shot

https://hormozi.co.uk/

best beans supplier I've found to date

Internet beans or 5 minutes in this place...

[img]www.conventiondundeeandangus.co.uk/images/establishments/medium/1378731101Braithwaites2.jpg[/img]

1868 it opened

Not sure a cappuccino has more milk than a flat white. Isn't a flat white an espresso with hot milk, a latte an espresso with hot milk and frothy top and a cappuccino an espresso with frothy milk? If so then a cup full of frothy milk has less milk than a cup full of non-frothed milk. A cup of flat white weighs more than a cappuccino at the coffee place where I work.

Illy beans are nice, just pricy. I've moved onto Aldi beans. A lot cheaper and just as nice...about as good as any supermarket/non-specialist shop bought beans you can buy to my pallet.

I've bought beans from all over the place. At the moment I can't really complain about Taylors of Harrogates Italian beans for 3 quid a pop in Morrisons.

I used to love Illy but haven't bought for while because of the price. Had a tin last week on offer and just found out bland. Is like drinking Stella, discovering good craft lager, then going back to Stella still thinking it's nice.

If Costa flat white has too much milk, have a cortado.

Flat white afaik is meant to be less milk than a cappuccino and also whole so it's hardly frothy but a bit creamy.

Expresso

That might work in France

I've bought beans from all over the place. At the moment I can't really complain about Taylors of Harrogates Italian beans for 3 quid a pop in Morrisons.

You seriously buy your beans from a supermarket? You probably got a 'mountain bike' from Argos.... And next you'll be making 'flat whites' in a microwave using UHT milk and a double shot of Nescafe.

This is all unacceptable.

We're fortunate in living next door to an artisan roastery, so we can be assured of adequate beanage at all times. He'll even roast a small batch to our preference if we ask in advance.

Isn't a flat white an espresso with hot milk

Microfoam darling, mike-roh-foam! With the frothy stuff skimmed off the top as it's poured. So hard to hire a knowledgeable domestic barista these days.

I find there is a great deal of variation in flat whites. Even so called ‘artisan’ coffee shops get it wrong. Of the bigger chains, the best for me is Boston Tea Party. 8oz cup, thick velvety milk & a fairly strong coffee hit.

With the frothy stuff skimmed off the top as it's poured.

Oh dear, and you were doing so well up to that point ( 😉 ). There should be no 'skimming off of the frothy stuff', especially not for microfoam. The main reason I chose the particular video in my post above was because it shows fairly well what microfoam looks like and how it is produced. It takes a little bit of skill to make, and the steam wands (or the steam wand tip) on some (i.e. domestic) espresso machines may not be suited to making microfoam (or may make it much more difficult to achieve).

When you see a 'barista' in a coffee shop, typically one of the big chains, using a spoon to hold back or spoon out the froth, that is likely to be an indicator that they are not making great coffee (because they lack the skills and probably also the right equipment [as well as using probably poor or mediocre quality beans], e.g. steaming jugs for bucket sized drinks instead of the small jugs like those in the video).

Oh dear, and you were doing so well up to that point ( ).

My domestic steam wand isn't up to the job. Them's the breaks unfortunately. The alternative is accidental cappuccino, which is never a good thing... My jugs however are spot on.

My domestic steam wand isn't up to the job. Them's the breaks unfortunately.

Have you investigated whether you can change the steam wand (or the tip)? I think a lot of domestic machines are supplied with a tip which is really designed for commercial machines which have a lot more steaming power, and so the tip has large(ish) holes. A tip with smaller holes (and possibly only one or two holes instead of the usual four), makes it much easier to steam milk with a lower powered domestic machine, and it also slows the steaming process down, making it easier to control and achieve the results you want, e.g. microfoam.

The likes of [url= https://www.bellabarista.co.uk/barista-tools-accessories/utensils/steam-tips.html ]Bella Barista[/url] sell replacement wands and tips, and it might be worth doing some googling of coffee forums to see if anyone who has the same machine as you has found that replacing the steam tip or wand has improved the steaming performance. (You may not be limited to using only tips made/supplied by your machine manufacturer, since the threads are often the same for the different brands.)

In any case, we tend to learn and adapt to whatever kit we have, so I would expect that you are getting the best results for your particular machine. I think if my own machine could not produce microfoam, I would probably make much better cappucino drinks than I currently do.

The expresso is the train from viana to Luanda 😉

Meanwhile tried illy red tin once and no matter what I did it left a really burnt aftertaste in my mouth - much like Starbucks coffee.

Maybe that's what people like.

I like fruitier tasting beans bench mark bean is Taylor's brasilla if i CBA popping to macbeans in little belmont

When you see a 'barista' in a coffee shop, typically one of the big chains, using a spoon to hold back or spoon out the froth, that is likely to be an indicator that they are

...making a cappuccino?

When you see a 'barista' in a coffee shop, typically one of the big chains, using a spoon to hold back or spoon out the froth, that is likely to be an indicator that they are

...making a cappuccino?

I don't make cappuccinos nowadays myself, but my understanding is that using a spoon to drag out or hold back foam is indicative of poor steaming technique and/or equipment (using excessively large jugs for bucket sized drinks). Even when I used to make a cappuccino using the steam arm of a Magimix Nespresso machine, I never found it necessary to spoon the foam.

At the end of the day, these things are more indicators rather than decisive factors in whether the drink will be good, in the same way that a bottomless portafilter can visually expose poor barista technique (and for that reason is also a good barista training tool).

Ultimately taste is the only criterion, but I think the big chains and mediocre independents rely on milk to cover up the sometimes very poor quality of their espresso.

Below is an example of a bad espresso pour with a bottomless portafilter - it [i]will[/i] taste absolutely disgusting. However, there would not be the same visual indicators if a traditional spouted portafilter were used, and drowning the resulting espresso in milk will dilute and to some extent mask the horrible taste. I think a lot of coffee shops get away with making and selling such poor quality milk based coffee drinks because a large percentage of customers have never had really good espresso - or very good espresso based milk drinks - to use as a reference.