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. (more…)
This is going to be a bit of a mish mash post, a composite of a few different things. Originally I had planned to follow up the previous post on brew temperature and conduct a few experiments but the comments quickly reminded me I need to go and do some serious reading before attempting anything serious.
Instead this post is a collection of a few different thoughts rolling around like tumbleweed in my brain. (more…)
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 – and I am grateful to Vince Fedele for taking the data and cleaning it up and doing some analysis on it.
To start with the easy stuff:
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 in to the point that you are happy. It doesn’t need to be godshot territory, but something you’d serve to a customer or friend who you liked.
Secondly – please weigh things properly. A lot of people speculate the weight of ground coffee they use, and very few people are accurate with it. The more accurate the measurement the better.
Just to emphasize this because it is important – I need the weight of your shot not the volume.
Once you’ve weighed the shot feel free to drink it, to make sure it tasted good.
Here’s the poll:
Probably recorded too late at night to make much sense. Perhaps me just worrying too much about us worrying too much about how things look instead of how things taste and the relationship between the two.
I should make clear now, because I don’t think I do in the video, that I am not saying one opinion is better (or more correct) than the other. I just wanted to talk about the divide in ideas out there when it comes to brewing espresso – I am not trying to upset anyone, though I suspect I might….
Related links:
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
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