r/JamesHoffmann

Take this for what it's worth of course, but I did receive the above statement AND the pic (filename 意式机询问 0826.png – translates to "Inquiry regarding espresso machines") in a CS email from Timemore yesterday. They sent the pic to confirm that this machine is the one I was inquiring about. I had a minor issue with their Dot scale app, and while having a pleasant exchange I thought I'd ask. I've been eagerly anticipating more info myself, so I thought I would share.

Ever since seeing the linked Hedrick video of a prototype at HostMilano 2025, my interest has been piqued. A thread appears here periodically asking for info. Most are aware that Timemore collaborated on the Meraki, making the grinder. It's sort of ironic that the new Timemore machine won't have one (then again, they do sell them separately), but that is preferred by many, including myself.

The new Timemore machine will have an all metal exterior, with functionality apparently being very close, if not identical, to the Meraki in all other respects (It's rather apparent that Meraki and Timemore are "practically related"). That being dual boiler, rotary pump, hard wired scale, etc.

If they do Kickstarter like the rep in the video suggests they will, I might even be able to afford it.

The plastic Fellow ES1, it could have been a contender...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQLhJJ3M2Og&t=7001s

I just did the cupping with the live stream recording and it was great. As expected, the differences were subtle but they were there.

My wife was even better in detecting the differences than I was. Maybe that's because she has more blind tasting experience, because 99% of the time I prepare our morning coffee and choose one of the 3-5 bags we usually have open. She then has to figure out which one I brewed. :D

I'll definitely repeat it and grind a little bit finer next time. And I could also need larger cupping bowls. The ones I got are only about 85ml, so for 1:16.67 that's only 5g of coffee. This means accidentally pouring a little too much water already changes the ratio by a good bit. And the lower thermal mass makes them cool down a lot faster, so the coffee will be brewing cooler on average and I miss more of the temperature spectrum before starting the cupping.

Regarding the coffees I liked the saccharomyces the most. It had a nice texture and felt the roundest overall. The wild fermentation was similar but had a bit more other aromas going on, which I probably have to taste again to describe them. The mechanical also wasn't bad, I think somehow had a bit more clarity regarding it's aroma. Maybe the part that was missing gave the things that were there a bigger stage if that makes sense. For the lactobacillus my wife said it had definitely more acidity than the others which I for some reason couldn't pick out that much.

I'll definitely do another cupping and also a few pourovers with the samples since my roaster luckily sold them as 100g bags each and I just used 5g each for the first cupping, haha.

Hi everyone!

Hope you had fun doing the fermentation project!

Has someone here tried the beans from Südseite germany? 

The beans they sent to be honest, all 4 tasted very bland and almost vegetal which I understand could be from an underdeveloped roast. 

I could be completely wrong here and this is not meant at all to be criticism of the roasters**,**

but I really wanted to understand if its really the problem with my palate or if someone had a similar experience with the same kit.

Roast date : 09.08.2026

Coffee was rested until yesterday.

I used Volvic water.

Thanks for your answers!