Category Archives: Espresso

How much coffee do you drink?

As I mentioned in a previous post – I get asked this question quite a lot.  So for the month of January I logged every cup of coffee I drank, using a splendid website called Daytum.
So – how many coffees? In January I drank 126 cups, so on average a daily consumption of 4.1
Below is [...]

Also posted in Opinion, coffee brewing | Tagged , , , , | 17 Comments

Mypressi Twist

At the London Gastronomy Seminars I was given a Mypressi Twist to play with by the UK distributor.  I had been toying with buying one having seen the hype online, so this was a rather pleasant surprise.
I didn’t really get a chance to play with it til yesterday afternoon.  I’ve played with it some more [...]

Also posted in Coffee, Opinion, Video, coffee brewing | 31 Comments

Talking About Pressure Profiling


Is it me or is everyone else a little surprised at the lack of discussion of pressure profiling?
Most of the interesting discussion, if not just about all of it, has been over at home barista where various people are building pressure profiling units for their one group machines.  Still much of that discussion remains more [...]

Also posted in Opinion | Tagged , , , , , , | 30 Comments

Recommended Coffee Reading List – Part 1

Back in 2006 I published a recommended reading list. Since that time my collection of books has (worryingly) increased so I thought I should probably update it. I could easily write a list of coffee books that one should avoid (having learned the hard way) but I suspect that would get me into [...]

Also posted in Green Coffee, Latte Art, Opinion, coffee brewing | Tagged , , , , , , | 15 Comments

7 tips for dialling in an espresso blend

These tips probably apply more to a commercial environment than a domestic one, but hopefully there are some useful reminders for anyone in here.
We’ve all ended up chasing an espresso, somehow a delicious espresso remaining elusive.  These may seem obvious but all get overlooked from time to time.

Also posted in Opinion, coffee brewing, how to | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments

Espresso Poll: Results and Analysis

First off a big thank you to everyone who contributed to the espresso poll.  It closed out at just under 100 people giving their data.  Out of this some data had to be ignored as it was clearly entered in error, leaving just over 90 espressos worth of information.
I am not a massive statistics expert [...]

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Seasoning a coffee machine

By seasoning a coffee machine – I am talking about pulling a few shots per group having done a chemical clean. Conventional wisdom says that if this is not done then the coffee will have an unpleasant metallic tang to it, because the machine is “too clean”.
Something about this just doesn’t sit right for [...]

Also posted in Coffee, Opinion, coffee brewing | 20 Comments

A quick espresso survey

POLL NOW CLOSED
Brew recipes have been on my mind again recently, so I thought I’d post up this quick poll.  I’d love if it people could give me some data on this.  If enough people respond then I will post up the results, and any trends that occur.
A few quick things.  Please dial your espresso [...]

Also posted in Food Chemistry, Opinion | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Using a lever machine

These last few days have been a pleasant, but steep learning curve.  I know I’ve muttered about pressure profiling from time to time, but I hadn’t really played with a lever machine properly until Gwilym’s WBC prize arrived. 1

Footnotes:Yes, we kindly offered to ‘look after’ it for him for now… [↩]

Posted in Espresso | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

A grand unified theory of espresso

Not too long ago I posted on Home Barista about trying to find a good way to measure the density of coffee beans. 1
As always the paricipants there were way smarter than me and offered several interesting options. I dropped into the thread that this was part of my idea of a grand unified theory [...]

Also posted in Coffee, Food Chemistry, Green Coffee, Opinion, Roasting | Tagged , , , , , , , | 29 Comments