Three years ago I owned a Silvia. She was my only friend on the road to espresso nirvana as I didn't own a grinder yet. After being persuaded by remarks like: 'your espresso is as good as your grinder' I decided to get myself one. A good one. A Mazzer mini. Mazzer and Silvia were good friends....... for a while at least. After a happy half year my shots were slowly going downhill. I tried adjusting my technique, surf the temperature, use different beans but all to no avail. In the end I started to suspect that Silvia was having some sort problem. I found it difficult to find out what that problem could be. There's no pressure gauge, temperature indicator or other device that could help me diagnose the issue. In the end I gave up and swapped her for a new Andreja Premium. Problem solved! ........ for a while at least.
Meanwhile, my wife was getting kind of grumpy that I had setup camp in the kitchen during most weekends. During those sessions I was of course not to be talked to. 'Genius at work honey!'. With the arrival of the Andreja things were going to change I said. 'This machine will provide me with consistently good or better shots!' I declared. No more camping in the kitchen. This was true ........ for a while at least.
After a couple of months my shots were getting increasingly sour and bitter. Luckily I had some gauges at my disposal that weren't there with the Silvia so I was confident I could easily get to the bottom of this. Not. I could see there was no problem with the pump or the boiler. I decided there must be a temperature issue caused by to extremely hard water around here. Two HX and boiler descalings later, the problem was still there. Hmmmm. Maybe I had gradually changed my flushing routine over time. Time to follow the routine of fellow Andreja owners. Sadly, no improvements again. Still convinced about the temperature problem, I ordered Eric's E61 group head thermometer. Another device to provide valuable feedback. Surely my shots would improve from this. Well, they did, but not for long ........
Meanwhile, my wife had decided I was an 'obsessed coffee idiot' and started to plan her own things during the weekends. Excellent! More undisturbed testing time! 'Have fun honey, take your time!'
Armed with Eric's device I started testing all kind of flushing routines, starting temperatures and shot profiles. Result: a slightly improved cup but still sour and bitter. What the .......! So, temperature was not the issue. Then there were only two things left: beans and technique. Beans were always around three days after roast date so I crossed them of the list. Only one thing left to try. Hello WDT, NSEW and naked PF.
Just to make sure there wasn't anything rancid influencing the test, I gave my machine a nice chemical backflush and my Mazzer a Grindz experience followed by a manual toothpick cleansing of both burrs. The burrs felt pretty sharp, just like I expected them to after only 1,5 years of household service. Now it was time to start optimizing dosing, distribution and tamping. As you could have guessed, nothing helped. The pours looked good. No channels, nice red brown crema but always this harshness.
Now what? A VBM dual boiler maybe? Surely my equipment just wasn't good enough to provide for good espresso cup after cup. Actually I would settle for one out of ten good cups at this stage........ What misery. In the midst of all of this I didn't notice that my wife hadn't returned from her last weekend trip......
One night, lying in bed, I tried to recall all the espresso experiments I had done over the last year and find that missing clue. I realized it was stupid to blame my Andreja and maybe even my Silvia for the lousy shots. Neither of them had ever proven to be faulty after measuring almost everything there is to measure. Then it hit me. I remembered the initial settings I used on my Mazzer. It used to be within a one notch range from the calibration point. Nowadays I was grinding no less than six notches finer than the calibration point. That cannot be right. Another red line through my experiments was shot length. Every shot seemed to go blond just before the 25 second mark. This was not in line with the video's posted by fellow forum members. No amount of up dosing or tamping could really prevent this. It must be the Mazzer.
The next morning I went straight into the kitchen to take the collar of the Mazzer and examine the burrs. According to reports I should have a mere 25 years of grinding left on this set so it seemed like a long shot to suspect the burrs. Furthermore, I had felt the burrs a couple of days before and they were pretty sharp. After taking out the burrs and cleaning them thoroughly, I took them outside in the sunlight to have a really good look.
I couldn't believe my eyes. Both burrs showed pretty ruffled edges on 25% of the burrs. I guess that it was this partial bluntness that made me overlook it on previous inspections. This must be it!!! I just need new burrs! With adrenaline pumping through my veins I ran to the car ............ which was gone. Could somebody have stolen it or did my wife maybe lend it out?
It was then that I realized I hadn't seen my wife for a week and that she had the car. Awkward on both counts. Still, those burrs were needed so I grabbed a bus. After returning home I quickly installed the new 58mm original Mazzer burrs, adjusted the grind setting to the factory point and said a little prayer. What came out the Mazzer was almost velvety to the touch. So far so good. A quick WDT and single tamp and into the Andreja. Then the waiting began.
After the longest eight seconds of my life I saw the birth of a new espresso dimension. Deep, red brown beads that slowly formed up into a beautifully striped cone. It seemed to last forever. In fact, it did last forever! Well, almost. It just didn't seem to want to go blond so I decided to cut it of at 35 seconds. 35 seconds was more than 10 seconds longer than any pull I've ever made and I could probably have let it run for another five. Amazing. The cup was incredibly rich, not sour or bitter and had a mouth feel that I've never experienced before. Finally my mind came to rest. All this trouble for such a long time while it was probably the grinder all along.
I still wonder how I got the ruffled burrs. It must have been some small stones that came with the beans I guess. Whatever it was, it had cost me hundreds of hours of my life and maybe my marriage. Now there was only one thing left to do: phone my wife and admit that I was an obsessed idiot. My phone however was laying in the car.........
