I might have overdone it this morning pulling my first shots on the Argos. This is what can happen if you wait 11 months for a machine and then try to perfect your pulls all at once! Seriously had to cancel a meeting and meditate and go for a cold swim to not fully crawl out of my skin.
by mjd402
15 Comments
i think the barista express is a tad jealous
Is this a spring lever machine or manual lever?
It’s not to late in your espresso journey to get a knock box.
I imagine going from a Brevel to a leaver machine is going to take some time to learn and adjust.
Weakling. This is just first breakfast for me.
Hows the steam wand on that?
I’m not sure how much I like the machine if I’m being honest. The output is too low and shots almost always require a felini pull. That being said I’ve pulled about 20shots total so I’m sure I could perfect things if I tried harder. I bought the gauge and feel like I’d like it much more if I switched it to the direct lever configuration.
I’m also dialing in my argos. I’m facing one issue. When the water is heating up, the pressure goes up to around 2.5-3 but when the water reaches the correct temperature, the pressure is around 1-1.5
When I pull the shots, I find that it takes a while to product the first drip. I’m confused on what to do. My solution so far is to grind finer but that is leading to a watery result. What is your process?
Second image: forbidden ice cream
Is it good for pulling back to back shots?
It’s hard to tell from pictures but your pucks look a tad thick. It took me a long time to discover I had been over dosing my basket, I dropped down to 16ish grams and things got better. I get 40ish grams out without Fellini and that’s been working very well for me.
You got puck luck sandwich there.
I love how it looks so minimalistic, yet modern. Kinda makes me consider picking one up to replace my Robot. I can’t find a standalone steam wand I like anywhere. And making one just isn’t happening. This might just be the ticket… but I love my Robot so much!
I def found there to be a learning curve with the Argos too, but you’ll get there! As others have mentioned, dropping your input dose so that 40g out works for your desired ratio will help a lot. Also, I found pre-infusion helped a lot too (when the water tank is near-full, and the boiler pressure high enough to be coming through). I often would allow ~5g to collect during pre-infusion, then pull the shot, and that helped things a lot.
BTW – pro’s and con’s of course, but I found that using the 8-bar spring was the best for me versus the 6-bar and the purely manual. I like a higher peak pressure (for more cream/mouthfeel) and also the declining pressure profile that the spring gives you – harder to do consistently when fully manual.
Another interesting angle – I found that my shots improved quite a bit when I used a Niche Zero (conical burrs) versus my 80mm flat burr grinder, which is likely because it’s more forgiving to work with (wider particle distribution). So from that I infer that it’s just harder to perfect shots on this machine, which isn’t a bad thing if the highs are higher.
Of course you could have just been a coffee Sommelier, sipped and spit out……. Yeh, maybe not.
Hope it’s all you hoped for.
What, the brownies? They look delicious!