Necessary Accessories
I apologize ahead of time, I know this is a reoccurring question. I couldn’t quite find my answer in previous posts. I’m quite new to this, with 0 experience and have had my machine for 7 months now that I’ve probably made 200+ cups. My setup is a completely stock Evo, a timemore C3esp pro hand grinder that I still had from my previous French press usage for years, filtered primo water, I temp surf, and I presoak using the steam knob etc. I didn’t want to buy any accessories until I had a better understanding of the machine and a could see a noticeable change as I added each tool to my arsenal. 2 months in I learned how to presoak using the steam knob, started off weighing beans and product but now I just eyeball, and about 1 month ago I locked in the temp surfing. First month or so was pretty shit product, but the last 6 months have been really good for my taste. Sometimes notice taste changes on bean types based on texture/moisture, adjust grind size. Was using the plastic tamper and it worked great, just got a decent spring loaded tamper and I’m pretty happy with it. Outside of that I don’t have a funnel, a WDT, or screens; I use a small mason jar for milk frothing. I’m in the process of building a portafilter/accessory station from wood and it occurred to me what accessories do you guys recommend. What’s an actual necessity. For me it is also a new found hobby so I understand you don’t really “need” anything, but what tools do you guys find quintessential to creating a better experience and tasting cup of espresso. What I’m trying to avoid in plain terms is watching those videos on YouTube where a guy is wearing a head mounted POV camera using 10 different tools that he’s tossing around in the air like a street performer. I get it, it’s fun and catchy but I’m not trying to perform coffee cirque de sole in my kitchen at 5am. I’m eyeballing the funnel and WDT. Concerned about mixed opinions on screens, and also if certain materials of screen could create some type of corrosive reaction overtime with the group head. Currently considering screens, single hole steam valve head, low profile tray, bottomless portafilter, creating more things out of wood and incorporating as much wood as possible ( because surely that’ll make the coffee taste better 😅), and eventually want to bite the bullet no time soon and install gaggiamate after looking into all of the options. Any advice, opinions, personal experiences, and reviews are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.