Comments on: Seasoning a coffee machine

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…

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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By: Graeme

Graeme — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:26:00 +0000

Judging by the article and comments so far, it would appear we are saying the “bad first shot” phenomena has nothing to do with seasoning the basket with coffee? My limited experience indicates a super clean basket causes the shot to run fast and to “edge channel” as opposed to a basket that has only been wiped clean after a shot. Could this be the cause of the sub-optimal flavour of the first shot?

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By: ant

ant — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:56:05 +0000

Played with this idea with a naked portafilter on a little home machine after a chemical clean. I’d rinsed the basket and the showerscreen as much as possible but there was a chemical taint in the middle palate and a sharpness in the aftertaste irregardless. I feel more than a little queasy now.. bleugh x_x

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By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:04:16 +0000

James I agree in that we are trying to clean the banjo tube on saturated groups and the path from dispersion to solenoid on HX machines. I have always been a screen and screw in backflusher as I believe agitation is vital to get things clean. Also I have been doing something similiar to the Urnex instructions (point 3) for a long time. If you think about it, if you just cycle the brew on and off numerous times without umlocking the pf, you are just forcing water up aginst a blind filter full of water. I think it is this unlocking and putting in an empty basket (and running water through) is very important.

Having dissected quite a few groups it is also apparent that no amount of backflushing will ever get the pipe or dispersion block (brass) back to factory clean – unless stainless parts are used. Even if you dunk the entire tube or block in cleaning solution and an ultrasonic bath you still struggle to remove oils on the inside of pipes.

Anyway back to the original topic. I would venture a guess that the seasoning shot was a product liability thing put in place by the cleaning companies for good measure, and also since we are dealing with foodstuff seasoning is a common thing.

The crappy shot syndrome I would agree is to do with temperature of the handles more than anything. Personally I do a seasoning shot only because I want to use up the coffee that has been left up in the grinder chute.

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