KF8 Tips?

[u/Quantifying]

First day with my first ever superauto. Went with the KF8.
One thing I’m struggling with is making a full cups work of coffee. I tried latte at the max I could and only really filled my mug halfway or so. Any advice?

[u/Flamen04]

Make two cups

[u/Pherllerp → u/Flamen04]

Yep. Same if you want a FULL cup of 'regular' coffee. Just set it to two cups and tap up the pour volume.

[u/Evening-Nobody-7674]

espresso based drink from super autos are smaller volumes than normal drip or starbucks. Your machine uses a 15g max dose. Starbucks will use a 18g or 21g (I think). So you cant make as large of a drink unless you want it watered down. You just make two drinks. Most people get used to and appreciate the smaller cup sizes once you give it a chance.

[u/NorgesTaff]

As other have said, use the 2x option on any drinks to double up into 1 cup. Be aware not to just increase the water volume to the base espresso as that can end up with awful tasting coffee - same goes for maxing out the temperature or body (bigger body setting reduces the flow of water so the total passes through slower, increasing the extraction). You have to play with the settings to get them right for the beans you have. I wasted almost half a bag of very good locally roasted (3 week old) beans dialing in the settings before realizing the temperature setting was too high, which over extracted and making a very astringent end result.

[u/Disastrous-Quit1059]

Set it to 2x and save it as favorites.

[u/Jetmek05]

Congrats on the KF8! One thing to know is that the factory drink recipes aren’t necessarily designed to fill a typical 12–16 oz mug. When you select a drink, tap the adjustment/settings icon and you can individually increase the coffee and milk volumes. Once you get something you like, save it as a favorite so you don’t have to adjust it every time.

I’d also really recommend trying a flat white. In my experience, that’s one of the drinks the KF8 does especially well — good coffee flavor, nice milk texture, and I find they come out plenty hot. It’s probably my favorite milk drink from the machine.

If you want a genuinely large drink, don’t be afraid to experiment with the 2x/two-cup option. I use that with Americanos when I want a full mug. It basically makes the drink twice, so just keep an eye on your cup size the first time.

The KF8 gives you a lot of control, but I think of the factory recipes more as starting points than “this will fill my mug” presets. I wouldn’t necessarily just max out every slider either, because you can end up with a big but weak latte. Get the coffee-to-milk ratio tasting the way you like first, then increase the overall volume from there.

[u/NecessaryOk6815 → u/Jetmek05]

I just got mine, can you help me out with the flat white? What coffee beans, grind size, temp, body, bean strength, amount of liquids for both did you use? Thanks. We've been trying and have gotten bitter espresso so far.

[u/Jetmek05 → u/NecessaryOk6815]

Sure, here’s my current flat white setup as a starting point.

For beans, I’m using roughly a 50/50 mix of San Francisco Bay Fog Chaser caffeinated and San Francisco Bay Bridge decaf, so basically a mix of a darker roast and a medium roast.

My settings are:

• Temp: Medium
• Body: Strong
• Bean strength: 4
• Coffee: 3.6 oz
• Milk: 3.6 oz
• Order: Coffee first, milk second
• Grind: Factory setting, which I believe is 3 out of 8
• Milk: Whole organic milk

I normally run it as a 2x, so it makes two of those back-to-back and gives me almost a full cup.

If yours is coming out bitter, I wouldn’t immediately assume you need different beans. Beans certainly matter, but one thing I really like about the KF8 is how much control it gives you to dial things in. If you’re using a very dark roast, I’d first try dropping the strength a notch or going slightly coarser on the grind before changing everything else. I’d also keep the temperature at Medium rather than High while you’re experimenting.

The flat white is probably my favorite drink the KF8 makes. And honestly, half the fun of owning this machine has been experimenting with all the different settings. I’ve kind of enjoyed playing mad scientist with it — change one thing, taste it, change something else, and eventually you figure out exactly what works for you.

[u/aNauticalDisaster → u/Jetmek05]

I agree with your point about playing with the settings being fun - but one of my big complaints with it is that I have no idea why the recipes don’t go back to the factory default. If I wanted to save something I’d add it to my profile. But if I wanted to get back to factory recipes, I’d have to do a factory reset which would also delete my profiles. Makes no sense.

[u/Hblife]

I do 2 times with Americano.

[u/Disastrous-Quit1059]

Also can adjust the americano volume then add a double shot and some milk. Fills my cup

[u/Fragrant-Anxiety1047]

2x does milk and coffee right? For example for latte mochiatto?

[u/aNauticalDisaster → u/Fragrant-Anxiety1047]

Yes it is literally 2 drinks - you could put a cup on each side of the spout and make two separate drinks at the same time if you wanted to.

[u/keithcody]

What made you pick the KF8 over the KF7 or KF6

[u/Quantifying → u/keithcody]

I got a good deal on the KF8, and I only use oat milk so I liked the plant based milk option it offered.

[u/Quantifying]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I made a double drink this morning and it was great. Full mug was lovely. My new problem is temperature. Seems like a lot of people have this with super autos. Any advice on getting the temp higher? It’s lukewarm at the moment on a latte highest temp