My Sage (Breville) Barista Pro grinder has stopped working properly. The motor runs normally and doesn't jam or struggle, but no coffee grounds come out of the chute at all.
What I've already done:
Used light roast beans once, then switched back to dark roast.
Fully disassembled and cleaned the burrs and grinding mechanism 3 times.
Checked the chute, and as far as I can tell it isn't blocked.
The grinder is clean and the motor sounds normal.
Could the burrs be misaligned after reassembly, or the grind setting be wrong? Or could something be wrong with how beans feed from the hopper into the burrs?
Has anyone run into this before? Any ideas on what to check next before I contact support?
Thanks!

I feel guilty buying a flair classic and an expensive grinder but I’m trying to be positive and tell myself it’s an investment. So how much money do you save making your own coffee at home?

After realising my caffeine consumption might start to get problematic I gave the Lavazza decaf Classico beans a shot.

Turned out really nicely, and tastes great (the beans were a bit oily though, and i got a lot of static when grinding). Pretty full body, not that much difference from regular. Anyone have any tips on other great decaf beans, or general decaf experience?

I was shaving this morning, after a couple double espressos (got up around 5am) and was using my straight edge razor and thought---do Espresso types have a few "old world" interests more than other people. I have held, since I've been 12 the following things in my life:

Straight Edge and Double Edge Safety Razor shaving---sharpening stones, strop, shaving brush, a puck of soap.

Swiss Army Knife--Every day carry, had the simple Victorinox Tinker for decades (no scissors model)

Leatherman ARC--amazing all in my pocket tool kit, add a sucrets tin full of additional bits, small ratchet add on--good to go.

Vintage Motorcycles--always had something, currently have a 2001 Bonneville.

Leather Jackets.

Leather boots

few great hats, Fedoras , Berets,

Wool Sweaters.

Had a few shade tree vintage cars over the years--done with that but still appreciate.

Dremel and wood working.

Pinball machines.

What do fellow Espresso folks chase or have chased over the years?

Spiced apple cider cappuccino. The spices just feel right for a cold, rainy day and fall colors outside. Only thing that could make it better would be a toasty fireplace.

• Coffee: Orlando Coffee Roasters - Dos Torres dark roast, 20g dose
• Machine: Cafelat Robot
• Syrup: Morgan Eckroth's spiced apple cider syrup, 20ml
• Milk: Planet Oat Barista Lover's
• Topped with a dusting of cinnamon and grated nutmeg toasted with a pen torch

Some people wanted to see the machine itself versus a screen close-up. So, here you go, I've since adjusted the way it displays to take advantage of the circular screen. Oh.. and I've majorly updated the espresso user interface...

I got my Ele on 5th of this month. My parents brought it to me in Medellin, Colombia on their trip to visit my wife, daughter and myself.

My parents and I drink a lot of coffee and always have. Each morning I made 12 espressos. 3 cappuccinos each for my parents and I. Vanilla latte for my wife, snickers latte for my daughter and a Carmel latte for my mother in law.

I paired mine with the Turin CF64V variable speed. I have a scaling dosing cup as well as an RDT and I use an Insmart Coffee scale for final weight and RDT right before grinding. I set up my shots three at a time.

In puck prep I use a WDT, a distributor and a 30# spring loaded knodos V2 tamper and the Gemilai bottomless portafilter.

For brewing I have change the original automatic button to use it as a manual be adjusting the brew time to 1 minute. I have pre soak set to 1 second and pre infusion at 2 seconds.

Cups are placed on a DiFluid Microbalance Ti to measure flow rate, time, and extracted weight. I play with the opv based on the beans a bit higher (10-11) at the beginning and then lowering until 8 bars in the last 7-8 seconds. The DiFluid scale gives me a nice brew curve diagram and with tying into the coffeeOS I can note how each adjustment affects the flavor profile.

I use a medium dark roast bean from my two favorite roasters in medellin; Café Típica or Pergamino’s Alonso.

My Numbers are 18g exactly in and 18g out of the grinder using the included Turin dose cup to put the ground coffee into the portafilter. I tried grinding directly to my portafilter but the coffee at setting 21 is so fine it stacks and overflows at anything over 800rpm. I run the grinder at 1300rpm. My grinders scale zero is true burr zero.

Brew numbers are 30 second 36 to 36.2g out. It took me about 6 shots to get to a 1:2 extraction ratio and now I am playing with grind, pre soak, pre infusion and OPV adjusting each to keep my 1:2 ratio while improving flavor.

The steam wand has a an automatic setting that shuts off at the set temperature. I have found I prefer to not use this feature as my mother prefers a “dry foam” cappuccino, which requires a bit more manipulation.

To say the coffee is spectacular is an understatement. Fine tuning the machine has been half the fun. The compliments from my family on the flavor is the other half. My father says my espresso is every bit as good as the Florian in Italy or any other espresso he had in Italy or Northern Croatia.

The weight of the machine and the lack of needing to hold it while placing the portafilter in the group head is extremely nice. The group head being the same as prosumer machines is nice so I know I can use any tools that I purchase on the next machine when I upgrade. Granted the need to upgrade is way in the future as this machine is allowing me to learn and grow. I feel that changing out of this machine won’t be from outgrowing it will be from a desire to try more or change aesthetic.

I have now in just a short 15 days put almost 3.5 kilos through it. I must say it isn’t a lot but is more than enough to say that I am impressed and completely satisfied with my purchase. I would recommend it as a perfect beginners machine with a lot of room for growth and learning espresso.

My mother after watching me with my ele is now motivated to “up” her espresso game. She has a breville and is now going to figure out her machine and then plans to upgrade. My parents this morning flew out, taking 18 pounds of freshly roasted coffee all roasted within the last 4 days with them.

I watched many videos and looked at many forums and groups for what to do when I got the machine. I did find a pre use machine prep process. I heated the machine, then ran multiple automatic brew without and with the portafilter into a pot placed under the group head. I then placed a 600ml frothing cup with an inch of water under the steam head and let it run for 2 minutes as suggested in a forum as part of the new machine prep.

​

I happen to be clearing out some old useless wine glasses and stumbled upon these Bodum double walled glasses I’d forgotten about for years and lucky me. They work beautifully for flare whites.. Unexpected treasure find.

I’ve been a Nespresso fan for the last ten years, and I never imagined I could recreate a proper café espresso at home – until I picked up a De’Longhi La Specialista. I know there are fancier machines out there, but even this one gives brilliant results. My Nespresso now tastes a bit burnt and dry by comparison! I’ve got 400 capsules left that I can’t use anymore, and I feel like I’ve missed out on a decade of lovely coffee at home – but I’m delighted with the change!

The traditional Italian Espresso has been a dying breed in the USA. That's not to say there aren't hundreds of local roasters serving up varied blends of delicious light, medium, dark roasts but that cup from 15-50 years ago (and it didn't taste burnt) in Little Italy, North End, Providence, New Haven---it's rare to find.

Off "our sub" , off "reddit", there are many coffee forums posting the same sentiment over the past 5-10 years. This link , of all of them, was quite interesting and whether one concurs with these pretty well regarded European tasters or not, I would say they are doing a good job of describing the "zone". Of particular note, at the end of the rankings of coffees are their observations (mostly for European coffees ) of the lack of any consistent standard for Traditional Italian Roast--which might be a good thing---

Check this out---

https://kaffeemacher.de/blogs/kaffeewissen/bester-italienischer-espresso

Opened my Gaggia Classic Evo Pro to descale after a year and found out what boiler gate looked like up close.

from Gaggia Support

"If your serial number starts with TU9023 and is under TU902348, then your machine should not have a lined boiler. The serial number is located on the bottom of the machine.

If you do find that your machine is within the range to have a lined boiler, then you can complete the following form to allow the appropriate team to resolve this for you.

Submit Your Information Here"

Just a friendly reminder to check your boiler if you have a gaggia. I was very surprised to see this in a relatively new machine.

I was one of the lucky few to get a Zuriga T2 b4 it was released and was allowed to test it - not sure if I’ll ever get another Zuriga after they see my video.
I spend quite a lot of time testing the machine and, as I always do, I used coffees I enjoy (dark to very dark roasts from small Italian roasters). Wanted to share the video and I hope you guys enjoy it (it got abit long and yes it’s in German but as I handwrote the subtitles the translation should be fairly okay).
If you have any questions or things you wanna know about the machine just ask 😅

I got my first espresso setup after 2 years of drinking moka pot and using kingrinder k6.

I have a delonghi dedica and kept my kingrinder k6 ec885 and the espresso is great. However, manual grinding for espresso feels tedious and annoying and I wish to switch to electric grinding. My budget is very limited and I live in a very expensive country where. everything costs x2 as the USA.

After much research my choices are either to buy a used grinder or buy a new baratza encore ESP.

I saw a post on fb marketplace for a used 8 year old modded Rancilio Rocky with a timer and single dose hopper for 150$ after negotiation. is it worth it? I inted to sell my k6.

Sorry, hard to film and play the game with just a scroll wheel and the top buttons simultaneously. Scroll = rotate. Brew = run. Steam = shoot. You die, forces you back into the regular firmware.

Hey everyone!

I’m running into some issues while trying to dial in my espresso machine. So far my main issue is that the shot runs ‘spatty’ and a tad to slow. I keep grinding finer and finer but something in me tells me that this introduces a new issue, the puck stays wet/goey after extraction

What I’ve tried/done so far:

• Grind finer: currently on 2
• change inner burrs: currently on 4

Some more information:

I am trying to pull a single shot, single wall. My beans are from a supermarket but, the processing date was on the bag. Ive tried tamping with all the power that I have in me. And used around 9-11grams per shot, differing on which grind size I was using. The ratio I tried to achieve was 1:2 so I got around 20 grams of coffee!

Yet still, my extraction does not ‘run like honey’ and is spatty. The best I’ve done is around 25 seconds and in my opinion the shot tasted a little sour. I‘ve already watched countless videos which preach to grind finer but I’m starting to doubt this. Does anyone here perhaps have some advice which I could take? Thank you so much in advanc!

Hi! So I recently ordered a Sage/Breville Bambino and the dose control pro grinder as a starter espresso set up after using the ninja luxe for a few months (it’s being used at work now). However I’ve just received aforementioned order, and opened the box to my dose control pro (correct) and a Barista Touch Impress… which is not a small jump in price. To some people’s horror, I have contacted Sage/Breville to highlight their mistake.

I’m not sure what their resolution will be… perhaps I’ll get to keep it?

In terms of espresso, is this machine (the barista touch impress) better at the core job of making espresso and steaming milk than the bambino is?

TIA for any responses, this is mainly just a talking point but I can always update with the outcome of the emails to Sage/Breville!

Genuinely curious here on how people handle grinder cleaning. Before I start here, I know my pain is self inflicted as I was the decision maker and purchaser of my grinder, but still wanting input.
Questions to receive input on
- how often are you cleaning your grinder?
- are you actually taking it completely apart, removing all retention, wiping oil off burrs? Or just simply running “cleaning beans” (Urnex Grindz for example) through it?
- do you do this between different roasts (could be more than once a week then…) or just once a month?

Really just want to know how much does this impact grind and shot quality.

Also, if you reply and have a Eureka Mignon Oro Single Dose Pro as well, let me know if you’ve tried any other burrs… I always want to try the Eureka Burrs 65 Mm Black Diamond - Espresso Specialty Blind but I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, still have the stock ones installed.

Also mods, if you feel this flair is inappropriate, please adjust accordingly. It was my best guess.
Coffee station pic for attention and… fun 🤷🏼‍♂️

Should I buy a new espresso machine?

I'm not convinced.

Tl;dr

I have a great grinder and a crappy espresso machine - will I get a much BETTER TASTING coffee if I buy a quality espresso machine? [budget $600]

Current equipment

Grinder: Ascaso imini 54mm flat burr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITznLUWlWUU

Espresso machine: Wilfa SE 503 CM5003B-GS / Baumann BM-CM5003BGS / Barsetto CM5003-UL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeCcd5muWPc (auto Eng subs available)

Portafilter/basket: 51mm unpressurized bottomless

Tamper: metal, heavy

Beans: good value, not high end, freshly roasted, usually darker roasted

Water: soft tap unfiltered

Result: 19g in 38g out, around 30 sec pulls.

Coffee equipment stages so far.

1) filter machine, blade grinder - tasted as expected

2) cheap espresso machine, pressurized basket, blade grinder - tasted like bad espresso

3) cheap espresso machine, pressurized basket, delonghi false burr grinder - tasted like bad espresso

4) cheap espresso machine, pressurized basket, ascaso grinder - tasted like average espresso

5) cheap espresso machine, unpressurized basket, ascaso grinder - tasted like good to very good espresso - the unpressurized basket is an absolute game changer, HUGE difference

6) cheap espresso machine, unpressurized basket, ascaso grinder, new metal tamper - tasted like good to very good espresso

7) new espresso machine?

I care about a better taste ONLY. I'm not interested in improving workflow, convenience, whatever.

I make long blacks mostly and rarely steam anything.

I'm happy to spend $600 on a new machine if I'm going to get a BIG improvement in taste. One point I'm interested in is the 15 bar 9 bar situation. The current machine is 15 bar, but the grind/pull/time/ratio is all correct now. If I got 9 bar machine I assume I'd have to have a coarser grind. Is there a taste difference between a 15 bar and a 9 bar machine when the grind/pull/time/ratio is all correct for those pressures, and can anybody comment on their experience?

I particularly want to hear from people who had a great grinder and crappy espresso machine, and then bought a great machine - how was the improvement?

So if I buy a new, quality machine, will I get a BIG improvement in taste? If it's only a marginal improvement I'm not going to drop big money on it, I'll just stay happy.

Thanks all!

Hello Everyone,

Iam waiting for my new machine the Lelit Elizabeth 3 and was asking myself if you know any page or place where I can find different flow profiling recipes.
Feel free to drop everything you know about that topic.

Thank you very much ❤️✌️

Hello, I have a Stilosa espresso machine, but still no grinder. I am really fed up with ground coffee bought from the store. I want to buy a good grinder.. My usage is occasional (~6 times a week).

I've read that most hand grinder are too slow for espresso. I have no idea how annoying that can be on the long term.

But the premium for buying a machine that has worst burrs (and often annoying for other reason) is still a question for me. Looking at Mignon 16CR btw

I found a few symmetrically placed scratch-marks or dents on the bayonet ring of my new Sage Bambino. At least three of these cannot physically be caused by the portafilter because it just cannot reach these areas. Should I ignore them?

Howdy espresso enthusiasts.

Basically, as the title states, someone is selling this DF54 near my area. The item was listed for 265 USD. I offered 170 bucks, and he accepted after some consideration.

The seller says it has roughly 6 months of home use. What do you think? Should I pull the trigger? I am starting to build my station, and this would be my first proper grinder for espresso.

What would be your recommendations for physically inspecting the item when receiving it? I saw some tear-down videos in advance to at least check the burrs (no over-wearing, visible damage, etc.), but is there something else you recommend me to check/ask before handing the cash over?

Thank you in advance for your time and answers :)