Preparation Tips

Latte Art Tutorial

The coffee:

The blend should stored in a cool dark place and be used within ten days of the roasting date printed on our bag. As always freshness dominates the final cup.

Espresso machine setup:

Set brewing water temperature at 203 degrees measured on the coffee bed. Many new PID controlled machines make this quite easy.

Set pump pressure to 9bar while brewing a shot. (Ask your machine representative how to adjust your equipment.)

Remember to clean the machine daily in a commercial bar, or every few days for home espresso.
Espresso Talk: A Clean Machine
Machine Cleanliness: Next to Godliness

Grinder:

Change burrs every 500 pounds of coffee ground.

Water:

Filter the water coming into your espresso machine to remove excess chlorine or sediment.   Ideally you want about 150ppm of TDS (total dissolved solids) of mineral content in the water.  Less than 50ppm or greater than 175ppm will be problematic.

Packing and Dosing Techniques:

Coffee should be ground fresh for each shot, distributed and dosed, and packed with 30 to 40 pounds of pressure on the packer.
Espresso Packing and Dosing

Shot volume and timing:

Grinder must be adjusted to achieve just under one ounce of crema in 25 seconds.
Grinder Adjustments: Tuning Your Espresso

In all cases I have more detail in my archives. Poke around for related articles on each factor we have covered here. Or buy the book “Espresso Coffee:2013”.

Rinsing the group head:

Immediately after brewing , remove the porta-filter and rinse the spent grounds out of the machine.

French Press Tips:

  1. Grind coffee very coarse just before water boils (finer than kitty litter, more coarse than sand. approx. 1.5mm cubes). About 1/2 cup beans per serving is my preference but I like strong coffee. Final cup should be no more than 8 oz. liquid. Grinder should be a fixed burr model like the Baratza Virtuoso.
  2. Place in press
  3. Bring water just to a boil and pour over leaving room for foaming.
  4. Put water back on the heat
  5. Stir down foam vigorously
  6. Pour just boiling water up to the desired level
    Steep four minutes and press

If coffee tastes bitter the grind is too fine, weak means that the grind is too coarse