Hi
I'm Pedro from Coffee Parts
and I'm here with Paul Asquith
to look at five tips to make your espresso better.
Firstly, Paul, thank you for coming in.
No worries,
it's great to be here.
Espresso is your thing.
You've got a big history in espresso
Do you want to tell the audience
a bit of a thirty second blurb of your coffee story?
Yeah, sure.
So I've been in coffee for 21 years this year.
I started as a barista.
And like most people,
you know, pulling shots and learning,
probably back in the heyday of a real manual style of making coffee.
No tools, no tips.
Just, just a real feeling looking
and, and the, the
what they call the art of coffee,
I guess this.
But then I became a trainer,
and for, for the most part
of my professional career, I've been a trainer
for Gloria Jeans,
for grinders coffee, for Ona coffee
for Seven Miles Coffee Roasters.
And then more recently, Josie Coffee.
Yeah.
And you've also competed.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've competed
in barista championships.
I've also judged in, in heaps
of those championships as well.
And still to this day, I'm an active judge
for the Australian Specialty Coffee Association.
That's awesome.
And talking about five tips when you came in
we're trying to work out your list of five tips
and it was actually quite similar
to what I had in mind.
And just to pre-face that
these are simple things that can be done for any machine.
So we've got a Rocket Apartamento here.
It could be a Gaggia Classic or it could be
La Marazocco GS3, whatever it is.
they're five tips that are irrelevant of the machine
that can make a better espresso
at home or in a cafe.
Absolutely.
You know, you could you could be spending
thousands of dollars on a coffee machine
it's not necessarily going to give you
great results.
Very simple tips like this
that we're going through today.
I'm going to give you great results
on a plethora of great coffee machines out there.
The first thing, first
coffee storage.
So we've got a Fellow here.
Could be any brand.
We could be a Planetary
doesn't matter the brand, but is storing the coffee.
So once you buy the coffee, how you store the coffee at home.
Do you want to go into this?
Yeah, absolutely.
So, you know, the big thing we want to
do is keep coffee away from
extreme temperatures.
We also want to keep it away from oxygen.
So obviously, you know, for for the most
for the most part, don't open a coffee bag
until you're absolutely ready
and buy your coffee
in sizes that are manageable that you're going to use them
in a reasonable period of time.
But things like this
can make it a lot easier because what you can do is pump out
the oxygen out of that storage container
and store it in a cool, dark place.
That way the coffee is going to stay fresh.
Keeping the oxygen away from that coffee
is going to extend its life
and make sure that you've got
fresh coffee throughout the whole period.
So a reasonable time generally
for a home is a week or two.
A week or two, yeah.
Something like this will definitely extend
the life of your coffee
beyond a couple of weeks,
but no more than a month
from a bag being open.
But yeah, a week or two is a really safe
period of time to bank.
How much coffee you going to use at home, that way.
That way you're buying it
on a fresher, fresher basis anyway.
And in terms of the grind that normally you want, possibly a little bit
less than this, but enough coffee
that it's pushing down on the chamber.
So don't get popcorning and not too much that you're filling the hope
and taking too long to grind through.
There is an exception, obviously,
for using a single dose grinder.
Then it's different.
But for the most part
you want just enough in the hopper to put some weight down
and not too much that's going to sit there for too many days.
Absolutely.
I generally like to say this
line across here is a really good level
to fill your grinder up to
and keep it around about that level
because as you say, as it gets a little bit low,
it starts to start to have some problems
with grind consistency.
Next thing on the list.
If scales of
now these are Acaia's they're quite expensive,
doesn't have to be an expensive scale, doesn't
more just a scale for consistency.
But once you grinding knowing that
whatever your
your basket size and you're going for
if it's 20 grams, it's 20 grams.
Absolutely, yeah.
As long as the scales
get it down to a 10th of a gram basically
so point one of a gram,
they're going to give you
a reasonable consistency at home.
Most roasters these days,
particularly specialty roasters, are going to have a recipe
Quite often they're written
on the bag or they'll give you a card with it on there.
Or you can talk to the barista on how
they prefer to brew that coffee
and you will have a certain amount of coffee
and also a certain amount of coffee out.
So a nice set of scales, like the Acaia's here
allow you to put the group handle on top
and weigh the coffee.
Yeah.
And then if you've got the Acaia's is here, the smaller set
underneath your spouts,
you're able to weigh the coffee out
those two things are going to give you
more of that consistency
than you could ever imagine.
And these two are big,
big game changes in your quality of coffee at home.
Yeah.
So from a home perspective,
weigh ins a little bit easier.
You can probably use a kitchen scale or any kind of scale.
Weighing out does get a little bit harder.
They have to be a bit small and waterproof and stuff like that.
But weighing in,
definitely making sure that you're always
dosing the same
because otherwise you get one shot that's a bit different.
Next shot, you can work it out.
You think it's adjustment.
Exactly, yeah.
So weighing in consistently
and when roasters are giving you,
tend to give you ratios.
So two to one, but some roasters
will say 20 grams in 40 grams out,
but that depends on your basket size
so normally it might be a ratio.
So if it's 16 grams on a two to one, it would to be 32
out or whatever that might be
the next thing we're got to look at is
WDT.
Yeah.
Yeah, so.
So the thing with a lot of grinders is and this,
this goes with even
some of the high end commercial grinders is you will get
static clumping and that is as the coffee comes out
you'll see chunks of coffee
that almost look like big boulders
as they land into the basket.
Now they can cause water to not flow
through your coffee properly no matter what
you do to that coffee
in tamping or distribution.
Those things are not going to stop
that water channeling around those clumps.
So something like the WTD tool here
with sharp little spikes
allows you to stir in the basket
and break up those little clumps.
And that allows for a much safer bed of coffee
so that when the water travels through or travels through really nice
and evenly, there are different ways you can do that.
But if you can manage those clumps
in that basket,
you're going to get much better extraction.
And once again, this is a nice tool,
but even at an elementary level, if you got a teaspoon
and flipped around and use a teaspoon
just to break it down a bit.
Like.
You don't necessarily
have to be buying these tools
just the concept of
breaking it down.
And, generally speaking, the cheaper the grinder, the
the more clumsiness you're going to get.
So having a tool like this or using
anything to break it down does help better grinders
like the XL here, the Eureka XL
are going to do a better job.
But having that tool, just helps
that little bit extra.
Absolutely. Yeah.
Next thing we've got to look at
is distribution.
So in this case we've got the NCD,
but there's a whole bunch of them on the market.
Absolutely.
So following on from breaking clumps
you still do need to make sure that the density
of the coffee around the basket is relatively even.
You can do that by giving
a bit of a tap with your wrists.
You can go as far as to use a tool like this.
It spreads the coffee around
and attempts to kind of
distribute it a little bit
more evenly around the basket
and get a even density around that basket.
So when you do go to tamp the coffee,
you know that the coffee is relatively
similar all through the basket and the water's
not going to favor
one side of the handle or not.
And that comes in to the fifth thing
which is tamping.
Tamping, and not all tempers are created equal.
Having a tamper is a really good start.
And then within tampers
having the appropriate tamper
size wise to the basket.
But also how sharp
they are around the edge means how close they can go to the edge,
the sharper they are, also the easier they damage.
So there is a bit of
a fine line
but the sharper ones in this case of Pullman big step
where you really going all the way to the edge, you're going to get a more
even temp and distribution and that's
obviously someone at home
might only have a plastic tamp
which might be better than not having one.
Yeah.
But going to a stainless tamp and then going to a tamper that's
in a case of four Rocket here, 58.3
Having the proper baskets will make a difference.
Yeah, absolutely.
And as you said, I think you said 58.3, just then.
Every basket is going to be created differently,
but just having a 58 mil
tamp will allow you get to get
to the edge to a certain extent.
That extra .2 or .3
.5
Yeah, absolutely.
Allows you to get right to the edge and collect
all of the coffee that you're tamping down and leaving no
no particular edges around the outside
and it really does, does help.
The other thing,
a tamp won't do for you,
it's something you really need to concentrate on
is keeping it level.
You know, so often you see people
not concentrating on the tamp
and they've got a bit of a level
and you just got to remember water is lazy,
water is going to find the path of least resistance.
So if there's a hill, if there's a change in density,
if there's holes through because we haven't broken up
those clumps, water
is going to travel through those areas first.
So having these these three things
he going to really hold that consistency
and make sure your espresso is always good.
Should we do one quick espresso.
Absolutely.
Using their source.
Yeah, absolutely. Let's do it.
First things first.
Let's just
bring that to zero
and grind out hopefully 20 grams
actually spot on, 20.
All right, so
obviously you're going to get your coffee
in the top of the basket.
The WTD tool actually does
take a little bit of getting used to,
but you kind of want to swirl it
around here without losing too much of your coffee.
You can get little rings that go around the outside
to just stop the coffee from going over the edges as well.
But you basically just working it,
breaking up all of the clumps in there.
Then you want to distribute.
As I said, you can use your hand
to kind of distribute it around the basket.
We do have a distribution tool here
that you can just turn create
that even density in your
in your basket there.
And then we're ready to go with the tamp.
So tamp from the top
now I always say to people in training,
if you're new to tamping,
lift it up and have a little bit of a look
at eye level.
And actually even see here
I'm normal, normally used to tamping from
well over above the basket.
There's a little bit of a slight rise here.
So I do need to adjust that
just a little bit to bring it nice and flat.
So then we've got this nice flat
prepared biscuit here
that there's no clumps, no chance
for channeling nice and even obvious that the right amount of coffee.
So the last thing we need to do
is make sure we extract
the right amount of coffee
coming out of the coffee machine.
Yeah, I'm just going to give a quick little purge
just because I've
been sitting there just to neutralize that temperature.
So bonus quick tip is when you're not
using the coffee machine to always keep the portafilter on the machine.
So it's the same temperature
and the cups are you going to use keep on top
just for the same temperature,
not getting some temperature loss across
both on the portafilter and the cup because it really brings down
the temperature to quite low
and that's a different result, than you want.
Absolutely could almost
be tip number six, but make sure you turn
the coffee machine on well in advance.
Of when you actually want to have an espresso
because these elements do take
a little bit of time to warm up.
Okay, so we will look it in,
bring up our scales,
get our cups
Okay, tear them off
and away we go.
And then our target is 40 grams out
because we have the 20 grams in
so just keep an eye on the scales.
Now generally it takes a little bit of time
to practice getting the right target out.
You do need to turn it off
just a little bit before the target.
I find about 36
is a good number and drift out
to around about 40
and you can actually see
through that flow of the extraction to that.
That we did a pretty good job of distributing
that coffee really well.
You will see incorrect flow
when you don't do some of these things you'll see
a little bit of clean water first before you see that
nice rich color of the espresso
you'll see lots of wavy espresso.
There will be certain signs
that you haven't distributed.
They haven't gotten rid
of all of the clumps in that coffee.
Yeah. And you start kicking in very early.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
Pop that out.
So if we're looking at
espresso, we can see just nice,
even color of that crema,
you know, not too much modeling or anything like that.
Nice, homogenous color.
And we can say that it's obviously pretty pretty well extracted, too,
because there's no holes in the crema. Yep.
It looks like a really nice coffee.
Let's try
it is.
It is.
Tools made a difference.
Yeah, absolutely.
Now, lastly, you can actually have a look at the cake here
and if you see massive holes in there.
Yeah.
That is a sign of channeling.
And little mark here
is just from the shower screen.
That's not one to worry about.
But if there's big pits, big holes
around the outside the edges,
then you know that you haven't distributed
the coffee, haven't tamped it those sort of things.
And that's where that water has traveled through the coffee.
So you can actually see here that we've done a really good job
of distributing
that coffee, making sure it's clump free.
And if you want to see more tips,
Paul is going to be doing more videos with us.
So leave it in the comments below
what you would like to see.
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