Kens Espresso Fueled Ramblings

Something I’ve been thinking about for a while is that when we are using volume to tell us when a shot is done, then we are working with a variable that can and will change wildly. We count the crema in the 30/60ML singe or double, we have to or else we would need to [...]

The portafilter should be seated in the grouphead when the machine is heating so it’s nice and toasty when you pull your shots. If it’s cold it will suck the heat from the grouphead and cause a sour shot with thin crema. I see so many vidoes of baristas doing stockfleths moves and whatever crazy [...]

A thing that just hit me when thinking about blending is that we should remember to shake up the containers with blends, why? Ever seen goldiggers from old movies? They shake the pan and heavier particles stay while lighter particles float away. This is happening with blended beans to, so a blend conprised of say [...]

On most high end espresso machines you have something called an over pressure valve. The function of the over pressure valve is to release water back into the water tank when the pressure in the system rises above a set point. When you brew a shot, watch the pressure gauge, it should hoover around 9.5 [...]

This is an article from Jim Schulman about espresso extraction, lengthy but great read. Excerpt from the Intruduction: Some aromas that promise joy from a brewed cup of coffee elicit dread when smelled in a shot of espresso. Why do so many great brewed coffees taste awful as espresso? The espresso community has long established rules about this. Roughly stated, coffee for espresso has to [...]

Here’s a short tutorial on how to adjust your espresso machine to a new coffee.

I use a naked portafilter and I only use the “golden rule” (25.5 sec. / 30 or 60 ml) when dialing in a new bean to quickly get me in the ballpark without wasting to much coffee.

After a heat exchanger machine, or HX machine as it’s commonly called has been sitting for a while the group is filled with superheated water. If you brew an espresso right now it will be overextracted and bitter and that’s where the cooling flush comes in, a technique used on almost all HX machines.

I was reading the “videos of espresso extractions” on home-barista, and it was suggested that by the time you see the first drops out of the machine, the pump should have “settled down”, ei. when the noise from the vibe pump stop being loud at the start of the pour. If not, it could suggest that your grind could be a tad finer. I’ll have to play around with [...]

I started my joyney into Espresso a long time ago with a La Pavoni Europiccola. Some would say starting with a manual lever machine is insane and a recipe for disaster.