Swap your coffee flavoured milkshake habit (lattes, cappuccinos, flat whites, etc) for a calorie free espresso.
Get yours here, it is second in the list. Essential for lubricating the seals on your espresso machine. Food safe.
You'll love the Pharos manual grinder.
While it is difficult to define an exact set of instructions that will ensure the optimum performance from any combination of espresso machine, grinder, beans, and individual skill, not to mention personal preferences in taste, there are definitely some principles which if followed will eliminate 80% of the frustration as you get started with espresso.
I will make a start on this now and complete as time permits. If you need more answers before i finish it do get in touch.
1. Water: use Volvic. it is readily available in Europe at least and has a good composition for espresso. equally important it won't leave your expensive espresso machine looking like the inside of a cement mixer that has never been washed out after 12 months of use. yes it costs a little bit, but it is very inexpensive insurance if you live in an area that has limescale in the town water supply. yes you can descale your machine, but if you believe nothing else on this blog please believe that a de-scaled machine is never as good as a machine that has not allowed to become scaled in the first place. Use Volvic from the very first shot today, and every day. Do not think for a moment that other waters, e.g. Evian must be 'about the same' as Volvic in composition. They are not and will scale you machine faster than even London tap water. Oh, and one final point, using the standard Brita carbon filter jug does not have any significant softening effect and will not protect your machine from limescale. The Brita Maxtra filters do soften your water, but if you live in an area with hard water like London the softening resin will quickly be exhausted - budget on changing these filters at least monthly - our water hardness test kit is the only sure way to know when a filter needs to be changed
2. Digital scales that measure to 0.1g accuracy or better: these are inexpensive and essential in equal measure.
3. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you can be a top of the line espresso machine and use pre-ground coffee with it and expect a satisfying espresso. Coffee that has been freshly ground in a high quality grinder is more important than the espresso machine itself. Pre-ground coffee will disappoint regardless of how good your espresso machine is.
4. Following on from (3) above ensure you get freshly roasted whole coffee beans that specifically state that they have been roasted for espresso. Using coffee beans not roasted for espresso will generally disappoint.
5. Fill your espresso machine reservoir with water and heat it up in accordance with the instruction manual that came with your machine. If it is a new machine fill and empty the machine once or twice to ensure all the debris from the manufacturing process has been pumped through.
6. When your machine is up to temperature grind yourself 8g of coffee is using the single basket or 16g if using a double basket. If you can fit these amounts in you are likely to be grinding too coarse. For entry level machines you may want to drop down to the traditional measures of 7g for a single basket and 14g for double basket if you are having trouble fitting 8/16g in the basket.
7. There is more than one way to do most things in life. For us careful distribution of the grinds in the portafilter is much more important than the tamping step that follows. Clumping doesn't bother us nearly as much as it does others. If you study what happens when water comes into contact with the puck you will understand why - the water is absorbed into the clumps and the expansion of the grounds that follows blows the 'clump' apart. The much feared 'channelling' isn't the result of clumping in our experience.
Poor distribution of the grounds and a high degree of variance between the shape and size of the coffee grounds will cause channelling however, and an expensive grinder addresses the second cause of channelling but not the first. Rather than smashing the coffee bean in a vast array of sizes and shapes with relatively blunt burrs and high spindle speeds as occurs in an entry level coffee grinder, the burrs are sharp, the spindle turns much more slowly to reduce the likely hood of smashing the bean, trying to achieve a milling action instead where grounds of roughly equal size and shape are taken from the bean with contact with a multiple number of burrs.
Anyway, tamping. In terms of a tamper all you need is a tamper that is between 0.5 and 1.0mm smaller in diameter than the nominal diameter of the portafilter of espresso machine. So, for a machine like the Olympia Cremina with a nominal portafilter size of 50mm you want a tamper with a diameter of between 49.0 and 49.5mm. We dislike tampers with shallow verticals. Deep verticals assist in keeping the tamper vertical in the port filter basket, like a piston running in a cylinder; you want all the help you can get in this area. Secondly we have no time for the almost limitless variations of face profiles of tampers. Que outrage from baristas the world over each with their own preference.
A plain flat face with no grooves or any other design on the face works just fine. Keep in mind that a vast array of variants help the sales of what is a fairly simple device when all is said and done. The pressure you exert on the tamper doesn't matter very much. Tamping won't fix poor distribution and you can expect channelling if your distribution of the grinds has been poor. A key step is to make sure you are holding your portafilter level; this can take a bit of practice if you have a single spout on the portafilter and it is free to rock around in all directions. Then taking care to keep the tamper vertical, again that takes practice, press down and twist 45 degrees clockwise then 45 degrees counter-clockwise twice, in one continuous movement. Done.
8. For an electric pump machine with a heat exchanger design you will need to execute what is known as a 'cooling flush'. As a very rough rule of thumb the water that initially comes from the group will be steaming, indicating it is too hot for espresso. After a few seconds the water coming out of the group no longer be steaming, indicating that the water is now cool enough for espresso. Attach the portafilter and get that pump running. Count off 25 seconds with the second hand of your watch from the moment the espresso first leave the bottom lip of the portafilter spout. As you stop the pump at 25 seconds remove the cup at the same time so the nasty foamy dribbly stuff that leaves the machine when you turn the pump off doesn't enter your cup.
9. Reading the crema. Once you are familiar with the coffee you are using you should be able to accurately tell whether it is any good without tasting it just from the appearance of the espresso. tbc. that's enough for xmas day.
Please get in touch so we can investigate. It is difficult to provide accurate delivery charges for all order combinations for every destination in the world, especially if you are ordering numerous items that are small in size and weight.
This is due to products being held in our system with gross weights (i.e. including the weight of the packaging). Unfortunately it is a system limitation that we have to live with for the foreseeable future. For larger items it is sometimes cheaper to place it all in one box, other times it is cheaper to break it up into a number of smaller boxes.
We also use 8 couriers, so there are a lot of combinations to investigate.
So, please bring your concerns to our attention and we will try to promptly resolve by adding a more specific rate to address your order.
By popular demand we are now offering the new Bacchi piston design as an assembly for those of you haven't the time or inclination to fit the valves into the piston. We will also fit the piston with seals, and the insulator to the piston crown. We will then fit the piston into our demonstration Bacchi espresso machine to test that the assembly is functioning correctly.
You can find the assembly at the bottom of the parts list here
We would in a heart beat if we could find one that delivers real espresso.
We can't understand why in 2011 it is not possible to buy such a machine that has a sufficiently high quality grinder, temperature control, and pump pressure to deliver real espresso. Perhaps we haven't looked hard enough, but at the time of writing we are not aware of any such machine.
While it is certainly technically possible to build such a machine we think these convenience type products are built to a price as far as their technical capabilities are concerned, with the bulk of the unit cost assigned to extensive marketing campaigns. The promise of being able pour beans in the top and milk in one side and water in the other is very attractive. Unfortunately the marketeer's promise doesn't quite materialise.
As a result these convenience products are having their market position eroded by the rise of a more convenient product; the Nespresso pod machines. A race to bottom in terms of espresso quality, if you like. Why? The output from a pod machine isn't much worse, the machines are sexy in their design, and the capital outlay is nominal to the point where some would view them as semi-disposible as consumer opt to change for the latest design each year.
For this reason we see the convenience domestic espresso market becoming 'more convenient', i.e the continued rise of Nespresso, the machines that have previously dominated the entry and middle domestic espresso machine market being decimated (by Nespresso), and significant growth in high end espresso equipment as home users come to appreciate the key components that are required to make real expresso.
This much! This image shows the maximum amount of 'spill' (flame extending beyond the edge of the base plate) that you want, and if you needed a number to work with I would estimate it to be 7mm of spill all round. If you allow the spill further up the walls of the Bacchi you can expect to warp the Bacchi sooner or later.
Unfortunately the town gas supply, in London (UK) at least, doesn't burn anywhere near as hot as the propane/butane mix that portable camping gas bottles provide. So if you are using the Bacchi on your town gas supply you will find you need to push the spill to the upper limit, as shown below. This amount of flame spill gives a ready to pour time of about 6'10".
When you use your Bacchi on the much hotter mix that camping gas brings you will find the opposite is true, and you will have to turn the flame right down (well inside the perimeter of the base plate) otherwise the Bacchi will whistle well before the 6' mark and the water in the top chamber will be too cold for correct extraction.
One final point, which should be obvious, it is strongly advised that you use the Bacchi out of the wind. If outdoors a windshield around your gas burner makes life a lot easier.
It looks like the Cup of Excellence program agree with out taste in espresso too.
Get yours here
In the interests of not being accused of misleading and deceptive conduct we must point out that our Brazilian Yellow Bourbon from the Rainha Estate is not a lot we purchased from the Cup of Excellence program. Whilst we have not tasted the Cup of Excellence 2011 lot, and we would expect it to be superior to our offering, we think you will find our offering exceptional. Just as it always has been since we first offered it way back in 2008. But then a lot of you know that already.
A bit insipid in milk in our view, and definitely not a filter coffee. But as an espresso? Exceptional.
The Loxeal 55-03 thread sealant arrived yesterday, which was quickly deployed to affect an upgrade of our long serving Bacchi to the new piston design. The new piston design no longer has a hole in the crown to secure part number 14 with a through screw and securing nut on the inside of the piston crown. This through hole does is not tapped with a thread, therefore it was always vulnerable to allowing pressure escape from inside the piston. Secondly, if curiosity ever led you to start unscrewing the screw that secures part number 14 you would have quickly discovered that the securing nut inside the head of the piston starts turning too, preventing you from removing the screw. The only way to rectify the situation has been to remove all three valves inside the piston, retighten the offending nut, then return all the valves to their rightful positions. What a price to pay for a moment's inquisitiveness. Thankfully the new piston design eliminates these frustrations!
Old piston design (part 15):
New piston design (part 15):
You will require an 11mm (top & bottom valve) and 12mm (middle valve) fixed wrenches to fit the valves. Do not use a crescent. The top valve is a curse of a thing to fit without cross-threading. As you can appreciate, each valve becomes progressively easier to fit. When fitting the valves take extreme care not to over tighten. The threads on the valves are very short and the piston is only made from aluminium, making it very easy to tear out the thread, condemning your shiny new piston to a life as a paperweight. Three new valves fitted into the new piston with the bright blue Loxeal 55-03 visible where the two components meet:
A bit embarrassing to have to show you the spill-over onto the face of the valves. Whilst unsightly, you can get away with this degree of poor workmanship, but you certainly don't want the thread sealant to contaminate the valves.
That's the difficult bit done! Part 14 (black nylon washer - the insulator) ready to attach. Note that the new piston design requires a shorter stainless steel screw (which we have in stock). Thread sealant is optional as the thread is not required to seal. We elected to put some on. If you over-tighten the screw you are likely to cause part 14 to dish, curling up at the edges, so just screw down until a snug fit is achieved.
Almost done. All you need to do now is smear a very thin film of Dow Corning's 111 seal lubricant on the top and bottom seal. Job done. Take care to ensure that the top seal is facing upwards, and bottom seal is facing down, as shown in the image below:
