I ducked out to Cosmorex Coffee on the weekend as Alan Frew is away at present and I am totally out of beans!
I bought ½ a kilo each of Sumatran and Columbian as these are my general staples and it gave me a chance to compare the beans with those from Coffee for Connoiseurs.
Overall the beans are somewhat inferior being irregular in size and slightly uneven in the roasting. Some of the roasting artefacts is no doubt a result of the variation in bean size.
I’ve found I can’t get quite the same kind of grind from them resulting in too rapid extraction with shot times for doubles being no more than 20 seconds.
The Sumatran had a slightly bitter edge no doubt due to the scorched beans in the mix. With a bit of adjustment I am now producing coffee which is in line with what I get at some of the best coffee shops in Canberra.
So far these beans fall behind Alan’s in terms of superior flavour which is much better than any coffee shop I’ve visited. The cost was comparable without the shipping I pay Alan to get his beans here from Melbourne.
I plan to buy beans from Cosmorex again once I get a handle on their roasting cycles as it will be great to get beans that have been roasted that day.
I had a long chat with the owner regarding a reconditioned Faema E61 two group machine. At $7700 AUD I won’t be rushing to buy it as I’m not convinced about buying an old manual machine for more than a top of the line semi automatic such as a La Marzocco regardless of the sentimental aspects of the Faema.
It was very nice looking and it did prompt me to have a look at the 40th anniversary Faema Legend on the Faema web site. I guess I’d be more inclined to plonk my money down on a new replica machine with new boiler smarts rather than an old machine with a number of genuine replacement parts that are not quite the same as the original parts.
As it is I am still perfectly content with my Giotto and have no plans for further upgrades at this point!
