What do I need to buy to make a flat white coffee?

She likes a latte and it does a pretty nice hands off froth job
Beg your pardon?

This made me laugh out very loud.

I can firmly recommend a fat white, which is a double double espresso with about 200ml milk in a cappuccino cup. That’s my weekend coffee of choice.

Also not really getting the time challenges in proper coffee making? Grind for 5s, tamp, start shot, fill milk jug while it’s extracting, Stop shot. Steam milk, pour, knock grounds and rinse portafilter. About a minute?

Some of the comments remind me of the time we did a ride to Blackpool for fish & chips, and I tried to order a flat white.

To be fair that happened to me in Richmond in 2007.

I didn’t really drink coffee when I lived in the UK, it was only when I went back visiting I realised why!

I went to a cafe in the highlands, menu offered latte so I asked for one, and watched her make me an instant coffee with elmlea!

I went to a cafe in the highlands, menu offered latte so I asked for one, and watched her make me an instant coffee with elmlea!

It’s like that sinking feeling you get, when you go into what appears to be a decent eatery, ask for scrambled egg on toast and you can hear the steam wand on the coffee machine 😮

There’s a lot to be said for developing a taste for black coffee.

Aeropress, job done. The best tasting coffee is also the easiest to make.

I still go for milky options sometimes when out.

thecaptain
There’s a lot to be said for developing a taste for black coffee.

Aeropress, job done. The best tasting coffee is also the easiest to make.

Yep. Love my Aeropress. £20, a Coretto 1 Mesh Pro filter  (plus one new rubber plunger tip – probably not really needed) in 9 years.
makes a nice coffee for sure.
SO many U Tube videos from Aeropress Baristas to inspire.
I do have the Dualit heater/frother for the Mrs. And my late night cocoa.

I went to a cafe in the highlands, menu offered latte so I asked for one, and watched her make me an instant coffee with elmlea!

But did you drink it?

There’s a lot to be said for developing a taste for black coffee.

Can’t afford steak? Why not develop a taste for gruel instead?

Classic STW advice. Sorry OP, your taste is wrong.

(I never take my coffee with milk BTW)

Can’t afford steak? Why not develop a taste for gruel instead?

It’s really hard to find gruel these days, none of the major supermarkets seem to stock it, so it’s very much down to small Dickensian-themed poverty tourism bistros, if you can find one.

Anyway, the simple answer is all you need is some Nescafe Gold Blend instant coffee granules, a pint of UHT milk and a microwave. Anything else is just snobbery. Doubtless the effete coffee enthusiasts on here will disagree, but some of the best coffee I have ever drunk has been made this way. I challenge anyone to tell the difference between this and so-called ‘real’ coffee.

3.5 is not enough to make espresso. Get the 15.

Don’t. Gaggia machines come set to 15 bar because bagged compressed coffee pucks are popular that you put in your espresso machine, and these need a higher pressure. Some Gaggia machines are adjustable and others need modding to change the pressure.

With mine set to 15 bar it was nearly impossible to get the grind right to allow the coffee to flow at the right speed. It was either too fast and the espresso was weak, or it wouldn’t come out at all. As above, 9 bar is the standard pressure and everything is much easier now I am using that. Some people are experimenting with 6 bar.

Anyway, the simple answer is all you need is some Nescafe Gold Blend instant coffee granules, a pint of UHT milk and a microwave. Anything else is just snobbery.

😆 Prefer steak to tinned Spam? Snobbery.  Prefer a nice Chinese meal to a pot noodle? Effete.  If your poor taste buds think Nescafe is the peak of coffee perfection then presumably you think tinned spaghetti hoops, instant mash and Dairylea on toast are like angels dancing on your tongue? The height of culinary excellence?

I challenge anyone to tell the difference between this and so-called ‘real’ coffee.

Although I suspect your post is a piss take (bring back the emojis), I am willing to take you up on that challenge.  With a very substantial wager on the side.

I have an AeroPress and followed the instructions in that Hoff video to the letter and made a pretty decent flat white. I happen to have that Dualit frother but I could not get the milk to pour like he did, despite scooping most of the foam off it and decanting into a jar with a pouring spout. Too much faff that bit of it anyway.

Can’t afford steak? Why not develop a taste for gruel instead?

Likening an aeropress coffee to “gruel”, and a home-made approximation to a flat white (made without even an espresso machine) as “steak” is a deeply weird analogy, but each to his own. I happily drink coffee with and without milk but there’s no doubt that the best we regularly have is the home-brew aeropress black with quality beans and grinder (which makes a surprisingly large difference).

Besides, I never said the OP’s taste is wrong.

Aeropress and a judge stove top milk frother https://judge.co.uk/judge-coffee-milk-frother-sauce-pot.html

Mine was £20 so 32 is steep to be honest. My boden glass one broke too easily though.

Takes me about 5 to 10ins but I grind beans too. Loads of youtube guides. Not as good as the very best coffee places but better than alot and I’m quite satisfied with results.

I’m reading this in a coffee shop in Melbourne. You people are funny

I challenge anyone to tell the difference between this and so-called ‘real’ coffee.

Instant is for many people so called real coffee. That’s what you mean isn’t it yeah?

I noted this week that the Aldi middle aisle currently features an electric milk heater/frother. Apologies if it’s already been mentioned here. £20 IIRC.

Although I suspect your post is a piss take (bring back the emojis), I am willing to take you up on that challenge.  With a very substantial wager on the side.

I’ll have you know that I’m renowned on here for my high seriousness. The very idea that one of my posts might be anything less than completely earnest is, well, offensive actually…

Joking aside though, where are people sourcing authentic Dickensian gruel these days? I used to get mine from Mrs Miggins  Gruel Emporium in Shoreditch, but that closed down a while back – consumption I think, or maybe plague – and I’ve not found an alternative since.

ps: are the emojis not back? 🙂

Nescafe Gold Blend

Oooooh, Gold Blend, laa-dee-daa.

a judge stove top milk frother

I’ve got the Bialetti version. Works well, but I normally just have espressos, so it’s there for once in a while use. Only advice I’d give if going this route… get the SMALLEST one you can. The minimum mine can make is enough for about 3 flat whites… where as the diddy ones can make just enough for one or two.

Oh, and mine doesn’t work on an induction hob (I’ve had the frother since before those were a thing)… so it’s microwave milk in another jug, transfer, then froth… too much faff really.

I reckon if you went to one of the coffee producing countries, went to a plantation and had a coffee made there by one of the workers, they’d make it in a stove top pot. Any chit chat about ultimate temperatures, grind size or other coffee related western ideals, they’d look at you as if you were mental.

I bought razor clams direct from the boat that had harvested them.  As I was about to leave he asked what I was going to do with them. “Wrap them in foil and put on BBQ”, I replied, “unless there’s something else you would recommend”.  His response – “oh I’ve no idea, I’ve never eaten then, we just ship them to China”.

I don’t understand why there is such reverse snobbery about coffee.  Do we do that with beer? Burgers? Steak? Wine?   I mean don’t get me wrong I’m sure some of it is nonsensical showmanship just as some special craft beer, or overpriced wine is – but then you all ride (or at least look at!) bicycles that full of marketing hype and pomp.  If someone wants to wait ten minutes for a coffee and pay £4 for the privilege why does that bother other people?

I don’t understand why there is such reverse snobbery about coffee.  Do we do that with beer? Burgers? Steak? Wine?

come on though, we do this about literally everything. Beer and wine and foodstuffs especially!  STW in particular, but society at large.

Pick literally any consumer product available in the UK, and there will be some people who say it’s worth spending extra for the quality stuff, and others who say that anyone who follows this advice is gullible/an idiot/an overpaid showoff/a pompous oaf/etc etc etc. Coffee is no exception. Cars, clothes, watches, headphones, food, hobbyist clobber, you name it…

I hear beef is best experienced by slaughtering wild aurochs during an interglacial using your cunning and ingenuity, butchering it with flint tools, then barbecuing it with some foraged herbs while wearing clothing made from untanned hide. Then you sit around the fire with full bellies reminiscing about less sophisticated times. Life these days just isn’t like it used to be.

You just inform someone of your need and the said hot beverage arrives. Surely.

Beer and wine and foodstuffs especially!

I spend £5 a loaf on bakery sourdough. Worth it.

I always chuckle at folk who don’t like/approve of ‘fancy’ coffee, being drawn to a thread about fancy coffee like moths to a flame.

See thread for people who like a thing, feel the need to to open it and announce to everyone that you don’t like the the thing. Why?  Weird.

I went to a cafe in the highlands, menu offered latte so I asked for one, and watched her make me an instant coffee with elmlea!

Many years ago, a mate and I finished a MTB ride in Ambleside, way later than expected. Dreary, damp weather and it was near dark by then as well. There was one cafe still open so we went in, the menu showed a range of coffees so I ordered a cappuccino.

The waitress pulled out one of those Nescafe “cappuccino” sachets, poured the powder into a mug and added boiling water.

🙁

Many years ago, a mate and I finished a MTB ride in Ambleside, way later than expected. Dreary, damp weather and it was near dark by then as well. There was one cafe still open so we went in, the menu showed a range of coffees so I ordered a cappuccino.

The waitress pulled out one of those Nescafe “cappuccino” sachets, poured the powder into a mug and added boiling water.

Serves you right for breaking the rules about cappuccino drinking times 😉

I don’t understand why there is such reverse snobbery about coffee.

Well hype irritates people, so when they consider something as being hyped they react against it. See also gravel bikes. That’s where we get reverse snobbery from.

come on though, we do this about literally everything. Beer and wine and foodstuffs especially!  STW in particular, but society at large.

Pick literally any consumer product available in the UK, and there will be some people who say it’s worth spending extra for the quality stuff, and others who say that anyone who follows this advice is gullible/an idiot/an overpaid showoff/a pompous oaf/etc etc etc. Coffee is no exception. Cars, clothes, watches, headphones, food, hobbyist clobber, you name it…

maybe reverse snobbery is the wrong phrase, but I can’t think of people going to a wine bar or real ale pub and then moaning that they just want a glass of blossom hill or pint of tennants, and even less likely to come on a craft beer / wine thread and say that.  But they will go into a coffee shop and make exactly that sort of moan, about a shop that’s named after the one thing you don’t care about.

While we have the collective STW baristas assembled, does anyone have any real world experience of the recent Gaggia Espresso range?

Daughter would like a coffee machine “like yours Dad” for Christmas but budget doesn’t stretch to a Classic. Some reviews say the Gaggia Espressos are excellent for novices and great VFM and a friend of mine imports Gaggia to the UK so at first read they look to be a good choice for the sub 200 budget.

I’ll ask my importer friend for his opinion in good time, but for the time being I don’t want to start a transactional conversant with him until I’m more or less ready to buy.

I have a budget Gaggia machine from about 15 years ago. I can still get every single part for it and it is fully repairable so for that reason alone I would recommend Gaggia. I did need to mod it to reduce the pressure to 9 bar though – this required popping open the over-pressure valve and changing a spring; I got a kit and springs from someone on the internet. This is a one-time thing though and I think it makes the machine great value for money.

The coffee grind is important for making espresso this way. I found that my cheap burr grinder was not consistent enough so I now put the coffee through twice and it works brilliantly and consistently.

If all the above puts your daughter off then I wouldn’t recommend going down that route. But if not – crack on, you can get great results for a small amount of faff and not that much money compared to others.

But they will go into a coffee shop and make exactly that sort of moan, about a shop that’s named after the one thing you don’t care about.

Will they though? Really?

If so, it may be that they simply don’t understand what all the different drink names mean?

Thanks @molgrips   All the reviews read that the new Gaggia Espresso Evo is a great starter machine and the guys at Gaggia UK will no doubt do me a great deal.

My Classic was secondhand a decade ago and I’ve swapped out the boiler and an inline valve so far. I might treat myself to a pressure reduction mod, they’re so easy to work on.

Some older Gaggias have an adjustable over-pressure valve with a screw.

My 2002 Gaggia classic went in for a service as well as the 9bar spring swap out and runs better than ever.

I love the faff of the bean selection (Happy Donkey for the last 15 or so years), the grind with a very nice Iberital MC2 Grinder, the puck prep and watching the extraction through the bottomless filter.

Drinking it is almost an anticlimax 🙂