As I was using my Turkey Baster to bleed my steam wand and knock the puck out of the basket, I began to wonder if any of you had "unusual" addendums to the usual coffee paraphenalia.

I, for one, couldn't exist with out pulling out my 2"x3" inspection mirror in order to watch my shot at the underside of the basket and to clean my diffusion screens and gasket.

Bob

I use a spray bottle to spray water into the grouphead in order to clean the shower screen gasket, and the groove around it.

Abe Carmeli wrote:I use a spray bottle to spray water into the grouphead in order to clean the shower screen gasket, and the groove around it.

It is probably faster and easier than "wiggle rinsing". I'm going to give it a try.

Bob

bobroseman wrote:It is probably faster and easier than "wiggle rinsing". I'm going to give it a try.

Bob

I do both. I use the wiggle first, which also cleans the shower screen, then I spray to finish it off.

A shop Vac to keep the area clean, and to gather up all the chaff emitted by our FreshRoast roaster.

A very old wood and metal handled screwdriver as our Portafilter basket 'tapper.'

An old artist's detail brush to sweep away the loose grounds that just seem to escape from our Rossi RR45 grinder, along with a stupidly large 'cappachino' cup over which we pre-tamp and brush off our shots.

All of these 'unwanted' grounds go into a glass Mason jar, and several times a week during the summer, we whip out the trusty heatgun and give them a good charring (we roast fairly light, to perhaps Full City for espresso) until they're fairly dark and they go into the French Drip holder and make a very drinkable Vietnamese Iced Coffee with sweetened, condensed milk.

I think you're supposed to use a french-roasted Robusta blend for this drink - but I'm so cheap that I evolved the process to use odd-lot grounds without waste and satisfy my odd lust for this drink - sign of a mis-spent youth I guess.

Cheers

Jim

Abe Carmeli wrote:I do both. I use the wiggle first, which also cleans the shower screen, then I spray to finish it off.

My inspection mirror allows me to be fairly thorough with my little round shower screen brush, spraying would take care of the residue, I think, at least on my machine. Of course periodic back flushing is still required. Wiggle rinsing is "painful" on my machine due to the tendancy of the water to flow along the handle to my hand.

Dr Jim wrote:A shop Vac to keep the area clean, and to gather up all the chaff emitted by our FreshRoast roaster.

A very old wood and metal handled screwdriver as our Portafilter basket 'tapper.'


Cheers

Jim

Do you mean 'tapper' as in 'tapping' the side of the portafiler between tamps?

A shop vac might also be useful in order to convince one's mate that the coffee grinder isn't all that loud.


Bob