Ten Years of Hidden Gunk, a Dishwashed Grinder, and DAK's Split Verdict

The ten-year-old machine belongs to u/loopteryx, who checked the plastic liner under his portafilter after seeing it discussed in the espresso forums and found years of coffee packed behind it.

"I can only apologise but I needed to share", he wrote.

The insert is there to limit heat loss into the bottom of the portafilter and regulate pressure, and coffee oils collect behind it over time; unscrewing the spout and pushing the liner up through the hole with a chopstick is the standard removal method.

The same model turned up in a second discussion, from an owner a year into dialing in a 2025 Barista Express who could not escape shots that were "sour, acidic with an aftertaste of bitterness" at 19 g in and 38 g out.

The most-liked answer, from u/El_Mojo42, was to try darker roasts because "the grinder is really not that great", and u/emale27 was blunter: the built-in grinders "cant get the same level of grind as purpose built ones".

For a machine that still sells for $699.95, the recommended upgrade is the cheaper half of the setup.

The grinder went in with its burrs still attached, and the owner's question was how much damage one cycle does to a 1Zpresso JX-Pro.

The most-liked answer was a joke — u/Rfreaky told him to get a new one, "I don't mean the grinder" — but the technical reply underneath it was precise: burrs left in place will rust, and dishwasher detergent is designed to strip grease, "which also includes the lubricant of bearings and other parts".

The visible damage points the same way — as one reply explains it, aluminium does not belong in a dishwasher because alkaline detergent oxidises it — which matches the "white marks and scuffs" the owner found on the outside.

Not everyone treated it as fatal: u/Algoth_Niska argued that if the bearing still rolls, keep grinding, and 1Zpresso's cleaning guide takes the patient line too, asking for a monthly disassembly with no tools and no water.

The JX-Pro is built to be opened up that way — 778 g, stainless steel burrs, no tools needed — and the bearings are the part a dishwasher ruins quietly.

The station is a Mazzer Philos on I200D burrs beside a Sage Bambino the owner had originally bought for his parents, after his five-year-old Barista Express packed in.

He added an open-bottom portafilter and an IMS 20 g basket; the first shot sprayed, and the second, a 20 g dose at grind setting 20, "produced a great pull with no noticeable channeling".

The Philos is Mazzer's single-dose grinder: 64 mm vertical flat burrs in either I200D for clarity, fruit and acidity or I189D for body, a 12.5 kg frame, a grind chamber that opens without tools while holding its setting, and a US retail price of $1,595.

The most-liked comment, from u/Street_Respect9469, liked the budget logic — "into the ground before upgrading" — and called it "a breath of fresh air from all the posts with expensive setups" rather than the usual first machine with a Linea Mini.

One reply went further, arguing that even a Zuriga paired with the Philos would taste more or less the same, because "a coffee machine is a very very simple device it just pours hot water".

The same thread carries the caveat: this pairing makes medium and dark roasts easy and leaves light roasts a challenge on the cheaper machine.

Booze Cruise is DAK's newest filter release: Costa Rica, Turrialba, 1,200 masl, grown by Diego Robelo at Aquiares, the Centroamericano hybrid, anaerobic natural, €19.90, with cherry praline, purple grapes and brown sugar on the bag.

DAK publishes an intervention level for each coffee, which makes its own position readable: Booze Cruise sits at Medium, while Cream Donut, a yeast-inoculated natural, and Macaron both sit at High.

The owner's verdict on the box was that it "was underwhelming and expected more", and the sceptical replies were blunt, with u/Mechoulams_Left_Foot writing: "Their more processed stuff tastes incredibly artificial and their less processed stuff is really sub-par considering the price."

Others defend the lineup — u/timour77 called Cream Donut "one of my favourite beans ever and the only one that I liked from them" — and the espresso side of the same argument shows how far buyers land apart: "half my friends hated it and half thought it was the best espresso they'd ever had".

The practical advice in both discussions was to cup the coffee before judging the roaster, rest it for weeks rather than days, and brew this style of processing cooler, around 85-90 °C instead of the usual 93 °C.

The 40th-birthday SR900 arrived with no roasting experience behind it, and the thread turned into the briefing every beginner needs: wait "at least a few days from roast" before brewing the first batch, then keep the next one running so the pipeline does not empty.

A second beginner found the hobby through a search for the Fresh Roast SR800, and the same machine came back as the default answer — u/yeagerbm called it "the most popular home roaster" and added that you can "roast very small batches with a popcorn popper" before buying one.

Both threads land in the same price band — the SR800 at $334 and the computer-controlled SR900, with Bluetooth and roast curves on screen, at $449 — the step every air-roasting guide describes as the upgrade from a popcorn popper.

Two failure modes filled the rest of the week: a batch roasted into second crack that earned "You're now ready to roast for Starbucks!" as its most-liked reply, and a light roast tasting of burnt cigarettes despite normal weight loss.

The over-roast verdict was to taste it before panicking; the ashy-taste diagnosis went after a clogged chaff collector, air flow, a flick in the curve and a probe reading 15 °C off.

In a café on the edge of an old town, the complaint is that a normal or regular coffee can mean americano, espresso or batch brew — and also lungo, iced americano, V60, instant or cappuccino.

The most-liked fix came from ordering at McDonald's: offer one drink instead of an open question, because "the majority of people will say yes, the people who already know what their 'normal coffee' is will tell you".

The thread's second lesson arrived in the replies, where readers kept insisting their own regular was universal, which is the habit the poster was describing.

One analogy stuck: nobody orders "normal pasta" in a restaurant, and in Massachusetts regular is its own dialect for drip coffee with cream and sugar, which is why the guesswork never ends.

The service side of the same day showed up in another report, where a barista posted the order-ticket spike from a Saturday on skeleton staff and a two-hour solo close, and the replies turned to pay, including one no-tipping café owner describing Saturdays staffed by six openers and six closers.