Is THIS "tiger striping"?

#1: Post by **TheCappuccinoKid** » May 21st, 2017, 4:34 pm

I don't think my gear etc. is actually good enough for the elusive "tiger striping" I'm reading about... but then I'm not really sure how to spot it. And this cup I produced does look like "tiger stripes" to me. I don't usually get the crema to look this way, and not on most machines. So does this crema signify something?

#2: Post by **TomC** » May 21st, 2017, 8:47 pm

Historically, it meant the stripes as the espresso fell from the bottomless basket. Short of diagnostics for even extraction, the presence or absence of it bears little consequence in the cup. Some coffees and/or blends do it more than others.

#3: Post by **stefano** » May 23rd, 2017, 3:51 pm

Too hard to tell from the cup. My gut reaction says that a smaooth cream is made from traditional "tiger striped" pull form a bottomless protafilter. Of course the coffee type and amount of cream may skew this.

#4: Post by **EDChris** » May 23rd, 2017, 4:17 pm

Yeah, the striping is an artifact of the pull, not the in cup result. Apparently what you see in the cup is called "tiger flecking", which looks kind of like the video inverse of that cup (creme where it's dark, dark where there's crema).

#5: Post by **Stanic** » May 23rd, 2017, 4:49 pm

the other name is mottling..some examples of mine:

#6: Post by **shawndo** » May 23rd, 2017, 4:51 pm

"Mottled" crema is another keyword for that

*stanic replied first

#7: Post by **samuellaw178** » May 23rd, 2017, 4:55 pm

It may be your lighting, but if there's one takeaway from the crema picture, I would think your machine was pulling on the colder side (evident by the pale crema & dark mottles). But if you like the taste then it's all good.

May 24th, 2017, 11:35 am

Thanks for the responses, I understand the whole "tiger strping" concept better now... it's a reference to the pull with a bottomless, more than the look in the cup. I do not use a bottomless, so I will in the future call what I have shown in the picture "mottling". Now speaking of dark crema, I've always wondered exactly what the crema should look like... sometimes my crema is dark, sometimes it's a lighter brown. Is darker crema generally better?

#9: Post by **RockyIII** » May 24th, 2017, 6:00 pm

TheCappuccinoKid wrote:Now speaking of dark crema, I've always wondered exactly what the crema should look like... sometimes my crema is dark, sometimes it's a lighter brown. Is darker crema generally better?

I think you will find the following thread on the subject of crema color worth reading:

Ideal crema is dark, light, or golden?

Rocky

#10: Post by **Stanic** » June 5th, 2017, 4:42 am

another good example I've managed to create today with the Portaspresso