Kostverlorenvaart

This afternoon, Roemer Overdiep visited me to see the etzMAX and I was keen to check out a comparison between the huge Compak R120 and the etzMAX, since each is in about the same price category. I showed Roemer how the top of the hopper allows notes to be written upon it so one can have a stack of small hoppers each filled with their own selected single origin or blend of beans. Changing a hopper does not leave much behind to grind away: just about 9 grams. Roemer , a designer himself, gave the hopper another bird on top of it: Next, we did  a series of taste comparisons. We used the Ethiopia Yirgacheffe natural, Gelana abaya by Catalyst Coffee Consulting, roasted by myself on the Coffee-Tech FZ-94. Roemer is a passionate chef  so I appreciate his judgement in taste. We dialled in the grind setting on both machines in order to get 30g of espresso in about 30 seconds from 18g of grinds, after a pre-infusion of 5 seconds at about 3.5 bar. We tasted the shots directly af

An early peek at a sample of the etzMAX Medium which will be finalized and in production summer 2018: Also on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrj33Upcr1g (One fellow barista asked me to measure the height of the above configuration with the small 'single dose device' hopper and that's 39.5cm at the tip of the lid) This black version is very good looking in my view even though I also liked the sand blasted aluminum body as shown on display at WOC2018. The 'skin like' texture of it and the marble like shades of the metal make it look very natural to me and the 'rough tool' look is appealing as well, at least to me: Sand blasted aluminum body next to the black version Aluminum body version with single dosing cup Sand blasted aluminum back. Marble like skin, fascinating Burr replacement is a task requiring utmost accuracy and since it needs to be done only after a couple of years (or longer), very few users become proficient at

Yesterday evening the successful first Artisan Meetup was hosted by Arnoud  AJ Kruiver  and  Roland Buurman  from  www.vintage-espresso-machines.nl  / Hoofdkwartier Roastery. A group of roasting enthusiasts and roasting professionals from all over the world gathered where  Marko Luther  shared the history (and near future) of Artisan, including the upcoming cloud service in Artisan + for professional roasting businesses. In between, many admired the work done by  Roland Buurman  and Arnoud  AJ Kruiver  on the vintage machines. During the discussion, many interesting views and some very specific information was shared. Arnoud explained how best to successfully blend robusta (a simple method, once you know it but I won't give away the secret here  ;-)  )and one roaster explained how he does NOT use any software at all and still everyone recognised how basically his approach was very similar to those who do log / control using Artisan.  Gábor Laczkó  and  Roland Buurman  discussed pla