pstam Senior Member Joined: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 2,180 Location: Beijing Expertise: Professional
Espresso: ECM, SAN MARCO, EURO 2000 Grinder: MAZZER Vac Pot: YES Drip: YES Roaster: YES, HOME STYLE
Posted Sat Nov 22, 2008, 9:41am Subject: Re: Can I make a good Espresso with ...
Leave the taste aside, the one year old beans can make espresso which looks rather same as any fresh ones, if only properly brewed. It had been confirmed by someone here, too. So, that guy's problem has nothing to do with the freshness of the beans. Do you agree?
Peter in Beijing ------------------- http://www.kaffa.cn/ ------------------- I am looking for the way and the place to extend our trainning courses.
Posted Tue Nov 25, 2008, 7:04pm Subject: Re: Can I make a good Espresso with ...
I finally took my bathroom scale and my new tamper and discovere that I applied way toooooo much pressure to tamper. So with only 30 lb pressure I was able to get some decent crema.
Like someone wrote, Espresso can befrustrating But Ibelieve it also can be rewarding - when it works well.
Posted Thu Nov 27, 2008, 7:12pm Subject: Re: Can I make a good Espresso with ...
Woooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooooo
Just roasted some more Espresso beans. This time I stopped the roast about 30 seconds or so after 1st crack, so the roast is still pretty light. Ground some right away for some shots.
Crema galore. As the Shot came out I saw only crema in the glass shot. 20 or 30 seconds after finishing the crema was about 1/2 - 3/4 cm thick.
The shot came a little fast so I may could have tampered it a little stronger.
Sometimes experimenting with Espresso can be fun :-)
From ally experiences, all my reading, and all my research, the information I have learned would indicate that if you are creating as much crema which lasts as long with one-year-old beans as you do with fresh, then you are either not brewing the fresh coffee correctly, or it is not as fresh as you have been led to believe. I believe that there are enough experts here that can lead us into scientific discussion about the breakdown of the colloids, the proteins, and the loss of gasses and oils that create and hold the crema.
frcn Senior Member Joined: 23 Dec 2001 Posts: 973 Location: Yankee Hill Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Vibiemme Domobar Super Grinder: Mazzer Kony, 2Baratzas Vac Pot: Hario, 2 Cory pots, 1 Cory... Drip: Bunn A10 mod for temperature... Roaster: 4Hottops, 1HWP, 1 Gourmet
Posted Fri Nov 28, 2008, 3:50pm Subject: Re: Can I make a good Espresso with ...
DieterZ Said:
I finally took my bathroom scale and my new tamper and discovere that I applied way toooooo much pressure to tamper. So with only 30 lb pressure I was able to get some decent crema.
When the other parameters are correct, a tamp of about 15 pounds to about 55 pounds should yield ab out the same results. The grind, the dose, the distribution, a proper fitting tamper, and a level tamp are all more important than the force of the tamp.
An example would be if you were grinding too fine and tamping at 55 pounds and the machine is choked. You tamp at five pounds and get a better result. You could conclude that the tamp was the problem, but it was actually too-fine of a grind.
There are some grinders not well suited for espresso, or have adjustments steps too coarse, so in that case you may need to use a very firm tamp or a very light tamp to compensate for the grinder's design flaws. The problem lies with the grinder and not the tamping force.
This can easily decay into a discussion of semantics, but you can do an experiment with your scale. While tamping, apply the force slowly and watch the depth of the tamper. One you hit the 30 to 35 pound range you will feel the compression pretty much stop. There will be little or no change in the compression of the coffee all the way to and beyond 50 pounds.
The bottom line is, that in my experience, too much emphasis is placed on the tamping force.
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