Now, I've switched to the "Creator Mode" software on the DE1+.
As you can see it looks quite different, but the same concept is there:
instead of big, fat buttons, we've got tabs on top for steam, espresso, hot water.
And this is our pre-infusion and espresso step diagram. Just like on the Barista Plus interface,
you've got this chart here that allows you to set your shot however you want, and the shot will happen.
So, really the only difference here - you gonna see it in a second -
is that you get far more information about your shot.
And then second part is that if you want much more fancy shots,
so shots, for example, that have flow profiling.
Now, flow profiling is a shot, where you say "I want this level of espresso flow during this time",
and the espresso machine automatically sets the pressure for you.
An example of this would be pre-infusion, rise to 9 bar
and then decline the pressure, so that the flow goes from 1.2ml per second to 0.5ml per second over 30s.
So that's what you would say,
and then the machine would automatically change the pressure to give you that decreasing flow rate,
or a stable flow rate, or whatever you really want.
You can also affect the amount of water, the speed in the pre-infusion.
So right now, we're set at 2ml per second. You can do a faster pre-infusion or a really slow one,
that gives you different flavors as well.
So what we're going to do now is load up the portafilter and do a shot.
So, here I am
doing a grind.
I'm doing a 16g dose.
What I do is back up right before it
and then give it a pulse, and there I am at exactly 16g.
That's what it looks like ground.
I give it a little wiggle like that,
and now a few taps.
This is our tamping cradle, which is usually where I tamp.
It's a safe place to tamp, and it's also nice and level.
This is our tamper.
Lock it, use the second handle to squeeze it tight, like so.
Put a cup in, and hit "start".
Now, the big difference with the Creator Mode software is you got charts for pressure, flow and temperature.
And the temperature is not the boiler temperature; it's the temperature that the infusion is happening,
sometimes I call it the brew temperature or the basket temperature - it's all the same thing:
it's a temperature probe that's right above the coffee grinds.
So now, we just heard the click, which means pre-infusion is starting.
And we can see, for example, the water flow line is at 2ml per second, because that's the infusion we're doing.
Our temperature by the basket. Now, it's seen the cooling effects.
So, here you can see that the temperature sensor has noticed that the grounds have cooled the water,
it's putting hot water in, and currently, our basket temperature is 89.9°C. So there's our dotted line.
And the espresso machine has automatically varied the water temperature
to get the infusion during most of the shot bang-on.
And you can see that even at the lowest, the basket temperature was at 88.2°C or so,
and that was as far off as we were. That was the worst part, where the grounds had really cooled the coffee.
And here is our infusion happening.
Now, here you can see our flow rate, and we've got a slow decline that is happening.
We're looking at a flow rate of 0.7ml per second, and I am about to stop the shot.
I didn't have to. The time-out settings automatically stopped it where I wanted it.
So, that is our espresso.
And you have really a lot of power to do whatever you want.
At this point, you can see what the shot looked like.
So you can see here, this was our pre-infusion stage, water poured in 2ml per second,
the end of pre-infusion was automatically detected - that's what that vertical line is.
Then, we ramped up pressure automatically - there we are ramping it up,
holding it. And then we automatically, after the hold, had a slow decline,
there until the shot ended.
In terms of temperature, this is the infusion temperature:
the basket temperature, the brew temperature, all the same thing.
It means the temperature that the water on the basket actually is.
And you can see the cooling effect of the grinds right here.
We added hot water to bring it up. And then, as more of the puck got saturated during pre-infusion,
the temperature got dragged down by about 1.5°C.
Again, the machine is compensating by putting hotter water in, bringing it up and doing most of our infusion
within about 1°C of the temperature you wanted.
So, that's what a shot looks like on the Creator Mode,
and you can play with all these different settings to try and achieve the taste profile that you're looking for,
and really get transparency by looking at these charts - something that, to my knowledge,
no espresso machine has ever shown us this level of detail as to what's happening inside your espresso.