As a newbie to home espresso, I would humbly like to get your thoughts on the differences in the quality of the buzz you get from one espresso to the next. For me, this is one of the most important aspects of espresso: in the dark NorthWest winters, espresso is one of the few reliable methods of dispelling the mid-winter gloom that gathers in my brain. In fact, when I finally purchased the Rocket Cellini about a month ago, I thought I should be able to claim it as a mental-health expense on my insurance. <grin>

I first discovered the positive metal effect at my local Starbucks, and was a loyal patron for years. Now, after 3 weeks or so with the Rocket Cellini (and Eric's temperature adapter) , I've made it to the point where I can make a double short soy latte that tastes better and has a better drinking experience than the product I used to buy at Starbucks. (of course, I still have a long way to go). However, to my dismay, the quality of the buzz I get from my home-brew is nowhere as satisfactory as what I got at Starbucks. The Starbucks product consistently produced a robust yet mellow sense of well-being, creative thinking, and inspirational attitude (at least until it wore off later in the day). With the beans I've been trying from Lavazza Super Crema and Moka Joe's Si Se Puede, my home-brew has been producing a sensation of muscle tension around my eyes and lower forehead, and a sense of urgency and perhaps anxiety around whatever I am doing - a wiry buzz and not mellow at all like the Starbucks buzz.

Lately, with a 16-gram dose, I have been stopping my shots early, at 15 to 20 seconds and 1 to 1.3 ozs of espresso, hoping to smooth out the buzz a bit. Now, I'm even mixing in 50% decaf beans in hopes of mellowing this out, but it's just not the same.

This is where I want the reality check from you: are you aware of differences in the caffeine-buzz feeling you get when consuming espresso from different sources (beans, process, etc.)? If so, do you know of techniques I might try to "tune" the buzz? For instance, do you detect a different experience from a dark roast vs a light roast, and is it more that just the *amount* of caffeine? What about a short shot compared to a full-length shot? Does brew temperature have an effect? Or is this something to do with Arabica vs. Robusta in the blend?

I really want to figure this out - I've come too far to turn back to the Starbucks drive-through now, but the quality of the buzz is a very high priority for me!

Thanks,
Dale

Dale_A wrote:This is where I want the reality check from you: are you aware of differences in the caffeine-buzz feeling you get when consuming espresso from different sources (beans, process, etc.)?

I've never noticed any. All else being equal, it usually feels like lighter roasts have more of a stimulative effect than darker ones, but I've never detected a more "mellow" versus a more "wiry" buzz. For me, that aspect of it is so close that I just choose based on flavors that I prefer without a second thought. It's entirely possible that I'm just not that sensitive to caffeine, though.

As an aside; why would you use dodgy stale beans on such a nice machine?

Starbucks use low dose espresso, so you're probably using much more coffee than they do for a given drink.

I think I know what you mean, I'm not really a fan of the caffinated effect, but sometimes a coffee will affect me more than others.
I know lighter roasts are usually higher in caffiene content than darker roasts so that might have an effect, although you did say you tried reducing it by using 50 percent decaf.

You might be on to something, maybe different coffee's from different areas have slightly different types of caffiene, if they have different flavour profiles, colours, and other characteristics, it seems possible.

Apparently the caffeine content change due to roast level is minimal. Better off looking elsewhere for differences.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_roasting#cite_ref-7

Is there a difference in arabica/robusta ratio?

Caffeine is caffeine.

I thought one of the main objectives with espresso was to try and avoid extracting the caffeine as much of coffee's bitterness comes from this?

I think it was in David Schomer's book that I read that but as I do not have it to hand I cannot double check.

It would explain why with Starbucks which is overextracted that you were getting a bigger caffeine hit than you are experiencing at home. If it's caffeine you are after there is always French Press

If you want to reduce your caffiene intake the simplest way is to use less coffee...switch to the single basket and use 7-8g instead of 16g.

Sir Anselm wrote:Is there a difference in arabica/robusta ratio?

Good question, yeah from what I've heard/read Robusta has about 2x the caffeine!