Sage Appliances BES100 Espresso Knock Box, The Knock Box Mini

Product Information

If you have the Barista Touch, you do need to tamp manually, and that comes with a tamper that fits in the magnetic tamper slot. There's nothing stopping you from buying an aftermarket tamper though, there are loads of tampers available these days that are compatible with the Sage 54mm group machines, including hand tampers, and calibrated tampers, but you don't “need” one, as it comes with one. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that changing to an IMS or VST competition basket, for example, isn't necessarily going to give you better tasting espresso, just different, and they usually allow you to grind finer, so it's something you may want to try, but it's not crucial. Upgraded Shower Screen I like using levelling tools, and WDT tools, I just find them kind of therapeutic, like using fidget spinners, but then again I'm sure if I'd have grown up in an age where it's the done thing to get a diagnosis for stuff like this (In the 80s and 90s when I was at school, I was just called “hyperactive”) I'd probably be diagnosed with ADHD so that probably explains it ;-). Dosing Ring Some would say that if you're going to fit a pid you may as well buy an espresso machine that doesn't need modding to include a PID, and while that does make sense for the Rancilio Silvia given that you're actually quite close to the price of the Profitec Go or ECM Casa V by the time you've pidded it, it's not quite true of the Classic. I'm starting off with the most obvious tools and accessories for home barista espresso, so if you're already familiar with most of these, and/or you already have most of them, then just scroll down a bit to the likes of the WDT, RDT, Shower Screens, Mods and so on, that may be what you came here to find. Coffee Grinder

An SPN tool is a revolutionary tool invented by ancient Egyptians (probably) that can also be used for stirring, and spooning. If you're using a WDT tool, using a leveller after WDT is a good way to make sure that you have a level surface prior to tamping. As with WDT, it's overkill really for the likes of the Oracle or Oracle Touch, but if you are using the WDT method then I think some people may find that also using a leveler after may help with consistency, in a very small way at least. Bottomless PortafilterI've done bottomless portafilter shots, too, trying to see the difference that WDT makes to the shot as it's often easier to see the more subtle channeling (very small spurters) in the shot than it is to taste the difference and to be honest the tests are inconclusive, but as I say, I suspect it does slightly improve consistency, and I certainly have never seen any evidence of WDT having a negative impact. Leveller You don't need a tamping mat for the likes of the Oracle or Oracle Touch unless you're planning on manually distributing and tamping. The same is true with the Barista Express Impress, but you will need a tamping mat for the Barista Touch. So I'm breaking this post into two main sections, the two groups of coffee machine users who I think actually need coffee machine accessories, and that are hands-off speciality coffee drinkers and home baristas. It's as if the marketing department of some of these brands have been given one brief, and the manufacturing team has been given another, leading to other machines being sold as if to provide the same kind of cup quality and experience of the immensely popular Sage coffee machines, but they just don't come anywhere close.

When you don't get it right, it's not so mesmerizing to watch when you end up with an espresso spurter to the eyeball, so you may want to invest in a shot mirror! ;-).It's not as if adding WDT to your workflow is going to take your espresso from zero to hero, in fact, I regularly do tasting with and without WDT, and most of the time I can't actually detect the difference, that's not to say there isn't one, but I think it's often very small. If you roll your eyes at the thought of faffing around with scales & gadgets, doing this thing called “dialing in”, and “spending half an hour just making a sodding coffee”, but you have a keen palate and you want “proper” espresso and espresso-based drinks at home, then you're what I'm referring to as the more hands off espresso drinker, but a fully automatic coffee machine, known as a bean to cup coffee machine, probably won't cut it for you. I do it, because I quite like doing it, I find it quite therapeutic, and if I've had to go particularly fine with the beans I'm using I think it probably has more of a benefit, as there tends to be more clumps to break up when you grind finer.

If you're somewhere in between the home barista and the automatic machine user, but you want mega cup quality, then the Sage Barista Touch , the Barista Express Impress, or the all new Sage Barista Touch Impress may be perfect for you. As you would expect, we’re looking at a quality stainless steel unit here, which just glistens and oozes with class. It’s a lovely thing to have in your kitchen, and wouldn’t look out of place in the trendiest of coffee shops. The Weiss Distribution Technique (WDT) reduces the chance of channeling by breaking up coffee clumps and evenly distributing the coffee in the basket. It's particularly useful if your grinder produces clumps, however, it's really not as big a deal as most people make out. In my opinion, from testing, the actual difference in cup quality with or without WDT is really splitting hairs.Again, if you like you can swap out the shower screen, the metal mesh part where the water drips from, with a compatible shower screen, and as with the baskets, you can do that if you like, but it's unlikely to make a big difference, and whether any difference means an improvement, is down to personal taste. Freshly Roasted Coffee Beans Bottomless or “naked” portafilters, as they're sometimes referred to, are great tools for home baristas, as they allow you to see issues with the shot that you might not be able to taste, but I think most people using a hands-off automated portafilter machine will probably find them an annoyance, and if you can't taste the issue, does it really matter? I'd strongly advise against spraying your beans in the bag, or your hopper, or wherever you store your beans, because wetting your beans and leaving them wet, will in (theoretically at least) increase the aging process. If you do store your beans in the hopper, by the way, I'd advise against that too, hoppers aren't intended for storage. See: It basically can do everything that you could possibly want it to do. It’s made of ‘ABS material’ which is claimed to be “environmentally friendly, non-toxic, durable”. It’s dishwasher safe, so you don’t need to spend time cleaning it. The non-slip rubber bottom is a handy addition as it means you can have full confidence that it’s not going to move when you’re hammering the portafilter against it. These two categories of people are folk who both enjoy speciality espresso, we could call them speciality espresso drinkers, third-wave coffee drinkers, or espresso connoisseurs (I really don't like that word, though, mainly because I struggle to spell it).