Kens Espresso Fueled Ramblings

I’m a Single Origin person ever since I started home roasting some years ago.

I started with blends for espresso just because I was learning and didn’t need the extra complexity with all the other variables I was trying to keep in check. Continue reading The case for Single Origin Espresso vs. Blends

From the very start, I have always loved the more pungent, strange and exotic coffee beans.

Brasil based blends? Blehh, boring. Continue reading Like your espresso with punch? Try these coffee beans

I just ordered a new Mazzer Mini E Mod B and the shop was nice enough to tell me that some new models was comming in so I got one. Continue reading New Mazzer Mini E Models

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 wait until the crema settles and have our shot get cold. Problem is that the crema is a variable that is dictated by the age of the coffee and the type of coffe we are using, and as the coffee beans age the amount of crema will go down. This is pretty useless. Another thing is that if we are using volume, then a shot running to 60ml using 16 grams of coffee and a shot using 18 grams of coffee is going to be completely different, so volumetric rules are worthless.

If we instead use weight then we would have a formula that would not change and a formula that can be consistant with different doses. I never got more into it than that, but then I saw a brillian post by AndyS on Home Barista with a formula that worked. Continue reading Brewing ratioes for espresso and dosing by weight

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 distributions with thier hands wrapped around the portafilter. How do they do this without burning the hell out of thier hands?

Hmmmm…

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 a mandheling and a monsooned malabar, the malabar will migrate to the top because it’s lighther. So after a while with no shaking to re-blend we have a blend where the bean percentages are way of and it will taste different.

Lovely eh? MORE variables hehehehe don’t ya love me?

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 bar on most machines. Continue reading The over pressure valve (OPV) and what it does

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 be low in acidity, not too lightly or darkly roasted, heavy bodied, and contain a significant percentage of dry processed beans. But despite everyone’s experience with spectacularly acidic or bitter shots, despite that Pavlovian anticipatory cringe every espresso hound has developed, there is no convincing logical reason for this.

Espresso is more concentrated than regular coffee; so strongly flavored coffees are said to become too strong as espresso shots. But the oils and crema of espresso buffer its extra strength. Moreover, the bad taste of these coffees done as espresso seems less about it being too strong, and more about being unbalanced. The explanation for the unsuitability for espresso of some great brewing coffees may not be in espresso’s strength, its extraction of lipids, or its creation of crema. Rather, it may be that espresso brewing extracts flavors differently, and alters their balance in the little cup. This paper tries to get some answers to what this difference is, how it occurs, and how it can be controlled.

Read the full article here:  SOME ASPECTS OF ESPRESSO EXTRACTION 

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

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. Continue reading When do YOU stop the espresso extraction?