Pressurised filter baskets rather disappointingly appear to be taking over the espresso machine market. Gaggia now ship them as standard; Ascaso put them on their ‘Versatile’ machines; not to mention all the small domestic appliance manufacturers who dabble in a bit of everything, including espresso machines. The worse thing is that often these manufacturers ‘pretend’ that these filters are in someway better than the standard ones. The same standard filters which are used by professionals in every (well I hope every) coffee shop throughout this land.
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Archive for the ‘Brewing Tips’ Category
How Pressurised Filter Baskets Work
Saturday, September 10th, 2011What is Under and Over-Extracted Coffee?
Sunday, August 29th, 2010It’s something the coffee industry is obsessed with (and its something I talk about a lot too). But what is under-extraction and what is over-extraction? To put it simply, it’s a taste perception. We call coffee that tastes: flat, boring or lacks flavour; as under-extracted and coffee that tastes: burnt, bitter or overpowering as over-extracted.
To be more exact, around 30% of the grounds we use to make coffee are soluble in water. But not all of this 30% is desirable. There are flavours we would rather leave behind as they don’t taste so good.
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Aerated Coffee – Sweeter with Greater Clarity of Flavours
Monday, August 16th, 2010Earlier this year, James Hoffmann wrote a post on his blog about his experiments with a wine aerator. He found by pouring brewed coffee through such a device made the coffee taste sweeter and gave the flavours greater clarity.
How does an aerator work?
Water (which makes up a large percentage of both coffee and wine) naturally contains dissolved oxygen molecules. It’s these molecules that support marine life in rivers and seas. (more…)
Finding the Sweet Spot
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010We’ve built a coffee calculator on our main website to work out how much ground coffee you should use when making a brew. You simply enter in how much water you’re using and it calculates the weight of grounds to use.
Now I know what some of you are thinking – being in the coffee industry, we’re just trying to get you to use more coffee to boost our profits. But that’s not the case. The calculator’s about brewing at the correct ratio for an even extraction. If you use too little grounds, then they get over-extracted and you end up with a bitter taste to your coffee.
But don’t just take my word for it, try it for yourself. Brew some coffee the way you normally would and then brew some using the coffee calculator. Compare the two, to see which one tastes sweeter. (If you’re a bit tight with the grounds, use less water when brewing and then simply top up with hot water once you’ve finished.)
It would be great to hear from anyone who tries this.
3 Ways to Improve Your Coffee for Less Than £20
Friday, January 29th, 20101. Grinder
A simple hand grinder can make a big differance
Of course some loss is inevitable; there’s no stopping air. But you can minimize the affect by reducing coffees contact with the air. Whole beans are much better protected than grounds as they have a much smaller surface area. While whole, air only has contact with the outside of the bean. But once its ground into many tiny pieces air can penetrate nearly everywhere.
So if you grind just before you brew, you’re going to capture much more flavour in the cup. Now you don’t have to invest hundreds in a grinder to reap the results. A simple hand grinder (less than £20) is perfectly adequate for most brewing methods – filter, cafetiere, stove-top coffee maker. It’s only when you start brewing under substantial pressure (espresso) that you really need to invest more money.
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Help – My New Stove-top Leaks!
Monday, January 25th, 2010From time to time, we’re contacted by customers thinking that their brand new stove-top coffee maker is faulty. They’ve put it on the hob for the first time and either: water, coffee or steam (or all three) has leaked from the join.
Loose washer - can be freely moved with your thumb
So rather than being a fault, it’s just simply a case of breaking the coffee maker in. Like many things new (shoes, cars, audio equipment etc) they need a gentle warm up before they can perform at their optimum – a few gentle stretches before the sprint.
It’s just a shame that manufacturers, such as Bialetti, often neglect to mention this in their instructions. So if your coffee maker leaks, you naturally think it’s a fault.
To help you break in your new coffee maker, we came up with this handy guide: “Seasoning your Stove-top”.
