Comments on: Seasoning a coffee machine

By: Coffee Appreciation - Page 59 - London Fixed-gear and Single-speed

Coffee Appreciation - Page 59 - London Fixed-gear and Single-speed — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 09:38:05 +0000

[...] Originally Posted by Buffalo Bill The warm up I understand, but season the groups with coffee? What's that about? Get some coffee oils on the kit. Remove any Pulycaff cleaner, etc http://www.jimseven.com/2009/09/26/s…offee-machine/ [...]

By: Ground Coffee House

Ground Coffee House — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:59:00 +0000

The taste of metal may be a product of overzealous scrubbing with something abrasive. However, ample flushing would seem to resolve the issue. Personally, I think that too many baristas over think the coffee making process without tasting the coffee. The only thing that really matters is how the coffee comes across in terms of taste, texture, finish, etc.. Thanks, though, it’s good to bring these things up, burst some bubbles.

By: clayton

clayton — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 06:50:49 +0000

mmm…you raised the issue of seasoning a coffee machine so as to not taste metallic…..however then you talked about how the espresso tastes after back flushing. In the beginning of the article you mentioned chemical cleaning after pulling shots in the process of seasoning a machine…why?? Aren’t we trying to remove the metallic taste by pulling shots until achieved? isn’t tasting shots after back-flushing different and a separate issue to seasoning??

By: Oliver

Oliver — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:59:43 +0000

hmm… interesting thread again James! I’m gonna try my first shot tomorrow morning, i would never think of this. What I usually do to season the machine is i put old coffee from yesterday’s grinder cleaning. When my grinder is clean I store all that coffee from inside grinder in a jar, so basically I’m using coffee that would go to waste…

By: Albert

Albert — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:38:15 +0000

Very interesting challenge. My flow rate is actually better and faster after a good clean. I usually find myself having to adjust to a finer grind setting.

By: glenns

glenns — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:31:53 +0000

Not sure about your fancy commercial machines…but on a home machine, I always thought that brass was a horrible smelling/tasting metal especially when you scrubbed down a portafilter free of its chrome plating. Spritz in a little hydrogen peroxide to enhance the flavour molecules, Yuck!
Brass! -horrible stuff!
Best to build up a patina with a few shots or so…
On a home machine..coffee residues build up and get baked on as black tarry substances. They need to scrubbed out on a regular basis. Cleaning improves tastes greatly – just be careful of espresso touching bare brass.

By: Will Corby

Will Corby — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:11:30 +0000

I was at the London School of coffee on Friday when the subject of Seasoning came up. Morten described how the same charge that aided the extraction of the organic molecules from coffee could also lead to them being attracted to metals of the portafilter etc. As I say I only learned the basics of this on friday but it sounded very feasable and the diagrams were great! Maybe Morten could shed some more light?

By: Troy O'Rourke

Troy O'Rourke — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:50:11 +0000

I rocked up to work the other morning and instead of the usual dumping of the first shot, I had a wee taste.
The shot was reasonably palatable, and I must admit that this practice for us is often just to clear the grinder of beans that have sat in the grinder throat overnight. I still think I prefer the taste after a few shots, as the “clean” portafilters do lend a slight metallic taste, being well used exposed brass.
A little of subject, but I’m wondering if your ebay Linea makeover from a while back was documented in a little more detail anywhere. I’ve just got an older 2 group AV and am having a few little issues, I would love to know what things you tweaked to get back in shape. Did your machine have any flow restrictors installed?, pretty sure this machine has nothing.
Cheers Troy.

By: mat

mat — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:59:07 +0000

looking back, i guess i assessed why i season and moved on without ever appreciating why, bad science!
For me, it was always a way to ensure that the last of the cleaner has been removed from the group handle and head, making it more about poor cleaning technique (and training) than shot quality.

certainly leaves a lot to ponder though.

By: Brian Thayer

Brian Thayer — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:05:58 +0000

James,
I really appreciated the critical critique of conventional ‘knowledge’ there. I hadn’t thought about my cleaning process critically like that before. I have wondered though, does the time of day we clean our machines matter much? It seems conventional to purge the machine, etc. at the end of the day and run our first ‘useless’ shots of the day before opening. What if we cleaned the machine during the reasonably slower hours of the day around 3-4pm? Would this somehow change anything? You’ve created a monster of questions.