pulling ‘spro

Here’s a time-lapse of a sweet 30 second espresso shot pulled on my Bunn ES-1A.  3 days post roasting – Burundi coffee. Delightful!

an amusing take on home espresso machines

This article was found on “The Guardian” web site – a British news source:

In pursuit of the ‘God shot’
by Tim Hayward

La Pavoni Lever Machine

Determined to make perfect espressos at home, Tim Hayward squandered absurd amounts of time and money on gadgetry most of us have never heard of, only to produce cup after cup of average coffee I bought my first espresso machine in the 1990s. It was a La Pavoni Europiccola, a small, retro-looking chrome job with a big lever you yanked down to express the coffee. It looked great on the counter but made vile coffee, was a bugger to clean and constantly threatened to explode in a shower of steam and shrapnel. When, one glorious day, it blew a gasket, I seized the opportunity to upgrade, but I needed advice.

A reasonable person might assume that coffee obsessives would gather in coffee shops, but these days they lurk in the labyrinthine OCD souks of internet chatrooms. In pursuit of the perfect home espresso – what they call “the God shot” – I gleefully joined their ranks, kicking off the most expensive and pointless addiction of my life.

The ideal espresso (according to the Instituto Nazionale Espresso Italiano) is a 25ml beverage extracted from around 7g of finely ground coffee, using water at a temperature of 88C, passing through the grains at a pressure of 9 bar. See, dead easy. It should be thick-textured, having emulsified many of the oils, retain most of the volatile aromas and flavours of the bean and be capped with a thick colloidal foam layer – “crema” – reddish, creamy and flecked. Each one of those factors is minutely variable, potentially causing thinness, bitterness, under- or overextraction or – the ultimate humiliation – a thin or patchy crema.

My first mistake, according to my online coffee-nerd chums, had been to buy a manual machine – they are spectacularly inconsistent. So I invested in the legendary Rancilio Miss Silvia (£310), the cheapest acceptable electrical-pump machine and, for a few blissful weeks, I chucked in a couple of scoops of ground Illy every morning and got out a nice little espresso. Then, one day, the crema failed to appear.

Rancilio Silvia

I returned despairingly to the chatrooms, where it was suggested that my problem was with the grind of my beans. Who knew? After much debate and guidance, I purchased a Rancilio Rocky (£180), one of the cheapest grinders operating with “burrs” rather than blades, which give a consistent grind without compromising the volatile oils. It was still expensive and took up as much counter space as a small shed. The fresh-ground beans definitely improved the flavour, but now the texture of my “shot” was inconsistent.

Millions of people probably get great coffee every morning with a standard home machine and ground coffee from a supermarket. I was starting to worry that, with a process that has as many variables as pulling an espresso, once you’re daft enough to go off piste, things get monumentally messy in a way only explicable with chaos theory. Emails flew, recommendations were exchanged and argued. I could, they suggested, work on my “tamp pressure” – that bit where the barista scrunches down the grounds into the “basket” on the machine is crucial to the brew. I was, they said, going to need a tamper, custom-made for my machine and tamping hand by Reg Barber in Vancouver. After shelling out £75, and hours of practice with my new tamper on the bathroom scales, I got the hang of applying consistent pressure when packing the grounds, but still the perfect crema eluded me. “Temperature,”, suggested the Nerds. “The mechanical thermostats on the boiler of your machine can be inaccurate to at least 10 degrees either side – you need to “Pid” your machine,” wrote one.

A Pid is a small computer used in labs and industrial-process control to manage temperature. To fit it, you need to find secret instructions written by obsessed academics, hidden deep in websites. You need to ignore all the disclaimers about blowing up yourself and your coffee machine, you need to persuade obscure component suppliers that you are not a bomb-maker, and then you have to take your machine apart and rewire it, thus invalidating any manufacturer’s warranty. “It’s like a Jedi building his own light sabre,” the Nerds said. Which, in truth, is how it felt, until I switched the damn thing on and watched the entire PID unit quietly melt. Obviously Darth Vader never confused the blue and the brown wires.

"Bottomless" Shot

Another hundred quid and a fortnight later, my machine was Pidded, accurate to within a hundredth of a degree and still turning out crap coffee, which was when they recommended I take an angle grinder to it. This is a fashionable new modification where you chop off the bottom of the portafilter (the bit you put the coffee in that attaches to the machine) so there is nothing between the bottom of the basket and the top of the cup. This allows you to examine obsessively the flow for the characteristic “tiger stripes” of the perfect shot, but shoots half the coffee up the front of your shirt when you hit the “brew” button. Things were getting out of hand. In the following months, though I tried 18 different types of coffee, rebuilt the brew head and fitted an electronic timer to allow the machine to get up to temperature before I woke up, the God shot eluded me.

Today, my kitchen bench looks like a Bond villain’s lair. I have invested hundreds of pounds and countless hours only to produce average coffee inconsistently. And what do the Nerds have to say? Apparently, the real pros are drifting away from espressos to experiment with syphon pots, those things resembling two spherical glass vases stuck together that put so many 1950s hostesses into the burns unit.

I’ve learned a painful lesson. When Giovanni Gaggia filed a patent for an espresso machine in Milan in 1947, it was designed to make coffee in industrial quantities at serious speed. Professional baristas get results because they use huge machines that deliver a thousand shots a day. The hand processes like tamping become consistent after the first hundred. To become barely competent could take me years. The boys in the chatrooms will denounce me as a heretic, but I now know that, for me, the best espresso will always come from an Italian standing coolly behind a big machine, not an obsessive Englishman throwing money at a small one.

autism meets coffee in korean article

Important elements of my world came together in this great article I found in a Korean newspaper web site.

Disabled baristas brew self-esteem

It could have been any typical Seoul coffee shop scene last Tuesday afternoon, as Lee Eun-jin, 31, brought a hot cafe latte to a customer seated at a table.

“Enjoy your coffee, ma’am,” Lee said smiling.

However, this cafe was actually just a mock-up in a small studio apartment in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul, and the customer was actually her teacher. Lee was participating in a simulation as part of a barista training program for women with developmental disabilities.

The Ministry of Gender Equality began the free 10-week program in October in a bid to help the disabled become more independent. Ten women with disabilities, including Lee, are currently participating in the program three times a week.

Lee was introduced to the program by the Seoul Community Rehabilitation Center. Since graduating from high school, Lee had spent most of her time cooped up at home, with a radio as her only friend. However after beginning the barista course, she has turned over a new leaf.

As well as learning some practical skills, Lee has thrown off her shyness and become more expressive than ever. As she starts talking about coffee, her eyes begin to twinkle. Lee is now focusing on her new dream – to run a small coffee shop of her own with her mom.

Like any other able-bodied folks, disabled people also harbor simple desires to have a job, stand on their own feet and socialize with others. However, due to strong prejudices and barriers, education and job opportunities remain elusive.

For Moon Ga-eun, an 18-year-old with Down syndrome, the coffee making process – from grinding the coffee beans to brewing the drink to a customer’s taste – proved a big challenge. After repeated trial and error, however, Moon has gradually taken to the process. When making coffee, Moon focuses her all attention on what she’s doing.

“Though they are slow due to their physical handicaps, if enough time and attention is paid, the disabled are also capable of doing a job which they find interesting,” said Hwang Myung-hyun, a director of the Seoul Community Rehabilitation Center who is in charge of the program.

A job also serves as a window through which the disabled can communicate with the world. Bae Ji-eun, a 23-year-old with autism, is clumsy when it comes to communicating with others and keeps silent most of the time. After watching last year’s hit Korean drama “Coffee Prince,” however, her interest grew in the duties of a barista.

Having joined the barista training program, Bae is now able to make 10 different kinds of coffee. She recently passed the Korea Coffee Education Society written exam to become a qualified barista, and is now busy preparing for the upcoming practical test.

Bae’s once-expressionless face now wears a big smile.

Lee Eun-jin, left, and Moon Ga-eun, showcase their coffee-making skills in a barista training program for disabled people.By Park Jong-keu

By Kim Eun-ha JoongAng Ilbo

this is coffee – 1961 style!

Check out this movie made in 1961 by the “Coffee Brewing Institute”.  We’ve come a long way in our understanding of what it takes to brew coffee optimally.   Enjoy.

bean to cup

Here’s a video I put together showing both my coffee roasting equipment & my espresso machine in action.

PID my HX – WTF?

For many years, espresso machines operated on the same electro/mechanical principals. The boiler temperature is controlled by a mechanical pressurestat. When the pressure rises too high, electrical current is shut off to the heating element. When the pressure falls far enough, electrical contact is mechanically reestablished. This is old-school thinking. It works about as well as it did 50 years ago; Lots of temperature fluctuation.

21st century electronic devices are ideally temperature controlled by computer. A PID Controller (proportional–integral–derivative controller) takes temperature readings constantly & commands exacting adjustments in order to maintain precise and constant temperature control.

Bunn ES-1A with PID Controller

My Bunn ES-1A Espresso machine is a small professional model. It is a heat exchanger machine which was built in 1993. This past week, I converted it from “old school” to “new school” by disengaging the analog pressurestat and adding a PID controller in its place. By virtue of rock-solid temperature control, my espresso making should become more consistent, and hopefully better. Additionally, the pressurestat is a noisy device, clicking & clacking throughout the day as it makes & breaks electrical contact. The PID is virtually silent. A nice benefit for a home setting.

coffee fest 2008 – washington dc

I attended my first Specialty Coffee trade show yesterday. Washington hosted a Coffee Fest trade show for coffee industry folks, and I was able to make my way in and mingle with some pretty important folks in the worldwide coffee scene. In addition to chatting with equipment suppliers & manufacturers, I was able to watch world-class baristas do their thing in both latte art competitions and while making drinks for the attendees.

I tasted coffees roasted by the top names in the country, and made on the most elaborate & best espresso machines on the planet. I was extremely pleased to find out that the coffee I roast & brew at home (whether on my Bunn ES-1A espresso machine, Cory vacuum pot, French Press, or whatever) is right on the mark with the best of the best (in my humble opinion!) I had espresso shots from Counter Culture Coffee, Intelligencia and the like. The only shot of espresso that stopped me dead in my tracks was from Zoka of Seattle – their coffee was ‘best in show’ in my book. It was a real standout, and I know where the bar is set now.

I finally got to meet someone I have known for almost 2 years through online forums & correspondences. Reinaldo Miguel (aka Michael or Kuban111) is a home coffee roaster & in-house barista like me, and we finally got to shake hands in person & spend the afternoon checking out the show’s exhibits together. Michael, his lovely wife Ale, their acquaintance Andrey and I walked & talked (and drank, of course) coffees & espresso shots from around the world together.

I can’t wait for Coffee Fest 2009!

roasting goldfish

With unseasonably high temperatures in the 70s yesterday, I roasted a pound of coffee yesterday out on my deck. I was accompanied by my usual assistant-roastmaster Peter. His list of expected duties is small;

1. don’t touch anything… it’s all very hot
2. enjoy your Pepperidge Farm Goldfish

Really, there is never any need to lecture about rule #1. If there are Goldfish in hand, there will be nothing else touched. PERIOD.

carrot – egg – coffee / a life lesson from the kitchen

A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee…You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me what you see.”

“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma The daughter then asked, “What does it mean, mother?”

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water , they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” she asked her daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can’t go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.

Live your life so at the end, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

*anonymous author

getting up first

I set an alarm every day. If I can be out of bed and down to our main level before anyone else, I can maybe get to enjoy one of these:

If I don’t win the race, I will start my day with one of these:

Alarm set!