Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!
This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.
It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:
- Something interesting that happened to you
- Something humourous that happened to you
- Something frustrating that happened to you
- A quick question
- A request for recommendations
- Pictures of your pet
- A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant
- Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)
So how’s it going?
How did you prepare yours? I tried an espresso today when the beans arrived and the flavour wasn’t very strong. Definitely smooth, but not the strong flavour I was expecting in NZ’s strongest coffee!
That’s interesting. I burr grind my own beans seconds before making the espresso’s. I had already adjusted my grind to espresso, and timed it to fill the portafilter, takes about 25 seconds and uses 20-22 gms ground coffee.
Once the grinder has filled the portafilter, I tamp it down with quite a significant press on the tamper. We don’t mess with the milk foamer, simply splash in a very small amount of cold Boring Barista oat milk to each cup. Then for me, a small sprinkle of chilli chocolate powder on top of the crema.
For our blend I simply mixed the beans 50/50 in tne grinder.
I ground it then immedietly used it, though I just have a cheap grinder.
Are you doing 60ml of espresso and a splash of milk? I had about 80ml of water in first to make a long black, the same amount I would normally use, and it was weaker in flavour than my other coffee.
I can try tamping it down more or grinding it more, but then I end up with less than 60ml of espresso with the preset double espresso setting. I figure if I am getting 60ml out (which I practiced by measuring it into a little measuring cup thingy) then I must have the grinding/tamping around what the manufacturers expect. I’ve definitely had issues getting the water through if I grind it too much!
We make ours using a 60ml double shot simultaneously into 2 cups, so 30ml coffee extracted onto 30ml of hot water already in each cup. Then a small, and I do mean small, splash of oat milk.
The tamping is very important, the coffee grinds in the portafilter should be very dense after tamping. My machine user guide suggests tamping at 25Kg. If you’re not getting a full 60ml shot, with your current grind, try extending the extraction time. Maybe don’t run it on auto, but manually start/stop.
My setup, not a high end machine, can’t cope with extra fine grinds. My extraction time for a double shot is around 30 secs.
What you describe sounds like under extraction, the coffee is thin and lacking in flavour. Can I suggest you experiment and not rely on the user guide suggestions?
I definitely think my method needs improvement. My machine extracts over about 15-20 seconds, any more and it’s over extracted. I’m guessing this means I need to either grind a bit more or tamp a bit more. I struggle to tamp it any more with the plastic tamper that came with the machine, maybe I need to get a better one.
I’d like a better grinder as well, but a decent grinder costs more than my espresso machine 😆
What you could try is half filling the portafilter, then tamping, top it up and tamp again.
I tamp my portafilter by filling it to the rim with ground coffee, resting the portafilter head on the kitchen worktop, then really leaning into the tamping process, only a single tamp press for me. It should drop the coffee level 1-2mm.
I’ve ground it a bit longer and tried what you suggested tamping it twice, which sort of helped.
It definitely has more flavour, and I had extract for closer to 30s.
However, with the grounds so dense, when I take the portafilter off it has a pool of water on the top.
Mine does too, so after use, I remove it and leave the portafilter resting on the machine base. After a while, so typically before the next brew, it has dried enough to make the old coffee removal from the portafilter easier.
Glad to see your extract is better timed. It’s all very tricky on timing to suit the machines, certainly not a plug and play!!!
My machine instructions says water pooling on the portafilter is a sign you’re doing something wrong 😆
I had no idea how much this was going to be true! It looks so easy in the cafes 😆