It’s Christmas day !! The children (me) are waiting for Santa (the DHL guy) who brings the presents (the mod kit I ordered). It’s already late friday afternoon when he finally arrives. I rush to the door and suppress the sudden urge to hug him. I wipe away one tear of joy as I sign the reception sheet.
The Gaggiuino mod comes in several flavors. Number one is the type of electronic control device inside the machine. You can either opt for a full custom build (LEGO-build) or order a ready-made PCB board that has the same components soldered onto it (SMD). I opted for number 2, seemed simpler.
Do you remember when I said I won’t do any experiments until after I’ve modded my machine? Yeah me neither. So here we go again. I’ve a good one today. Regular readers know my hero origin story. It all started with a cup of coffee in Vienna. I found the exact same bean. I ordered it. And it arrived today!
I pull a shot. Yes it flows too fast. Of course it does, I didn’t change the grind setting yet. Yes it’s been roasted 4 and a half months ago. According to the pros this coffee has already gone bad. But we’ll talk about them in a minute. So what can I expect? Nothing!
I feel like I’m hitting a glass ceiling. The coffee is good but not great. I’m trying to fine-tune. But the whole system is unstable. The flow rate is rather solid, but the taste changes with each shot. Time to take a step back and think.
I’ve already made several upgrades to my setup / process. Each upgrade improves the final result and/or its consistency. Upgrades also cost money and I hate to admit that my budget is not unlimited. Let’s be smart and perform the upgrades that give me the most bang for the buck.
I’ve ordered the very coffee that sent me on this endless quest. I need this coffee to fulfill the mission and I need it now. For those who don’t know, “now” in French can be translated loosely by “whenever the fuck it arranges me”, at least the website where I ordered interprets it this way. So here I am, out of substance to feed to my ever-hungry machine.
I walk into the speciality coffee shop like a kid into a toy store. A gigantic coffee roasting machine dominates the room. It’s beautiful. A wonderful scent of chocolate and coffee is in the air. Jackpot.
I’m still frustrated with the overall taste of my creations. I’ve made a lungo coffee just to see what it gives and my girlfriend liked it more than the espressos. In fact so much, that she asked me for another one in the afternoon. A declaration of war if you ask me.
Fortunately nobody asks me, so we can still pretend to live in peace. I profit from the calm before the storm to ask her a favor: I need a little water spray bottle of which she has plenty. I’ve heard that spraying your beans before grinding them can improve your coffee. I’m desperate and got nothing to lose.