Thinking of getting a fully automatic espresso maker. Seems like machines with 2 hoppers are double the price.
I’m just curious what are some solutions people came up with for switching between decaf and regular beans for a family that regularly brews both kinds?
Is it an option to use the manual chute for decaf? This was my solution when I wanted my own coffee when visiting a friend with an auto machine. I had to grind it myself, but it worked fine.
If you’re doing decaf rarely that’s probably the best solution. Emptying the hopper between brews is not feasible at least on the one I used.
We’re probably 60/40 so this wouldn’t work very well even if machine allows it.
Just measure how many beans the machine uses per serving, and have a small kitchen scale ready to weigh exactly the required amount before throwing it in. Let it run dry for a sec afterwards and stop if you want to make absolutely sure there’s nothing stuck in the chute.
Comes with the added bonus of being able to store the beans in the fridge instead of leaving them in the hopper for days at a time.
Sounds like a reasonable idea other than having to weigh beans adding extra time. Is this what you’re actually doing or just a theoretical suggestion?
It’s what I’m actually doing. Not for switching between regular and decaf but between different beans, but it’s the same process really.
Then pre-weigh them and put them into small containers so you can throw the portion directly into the machine
I used to have a bean to cup machine and this is basically the only way I could do it with a single hopper. I didn’t weigh it. I just used a scoop and got it down so I could eyeball the amount of beans per serving. It’s not too onerous. The thing to keep in mind is that most of these machines use a timer to dose the beans, so it’s not by weight. It also varies by beans, roast etc. Some beans will take longer to grinder than others. Finally I’d always aim to put slightly less beans in the hopper than the machines timer called for, to make sure there wouldn’t be any left for the next cup.
I have a separate grinder and just grind each serving.
