Synesso Cyncra Single Group - A Home Barista's Perspective - Page 2

Behind the scenes of the site's projects and equipment reviews.
papalatte
Posts: 29
Joined: 19 years ago

#11: Post by papalatte »

Abe!!!
How about some pictures of your "chicken legs" (Brewtus' not yours)
Skip

Abe Carmeli (original poster)
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Joined: 19 years ago

#12: Post by Abe Carmeli (original poster) »

lino wrote:Hey Abe,

That looks like a Rancilio PF in a few of the pictures there (for some reason, those are easy for me to identify). Interesting how that fits the machine-- won't fit in an LM. Have you tried a real LM PF in it, or any other brands? I'm curious how "universal" that grouphead is.
Lino,

That P/F has seen the inside of your workshop. It came with a chipped handle though :x . I checked with Doug Shannon who has a Cyncra at home and he says that the L/M P/F fits nicely. I don't have one to try.
Abe Carmeli

lennoncs
Posts: 234
Joined: 19 years ago

#13: Post by lennoncs »

Very nice work on the PF Lino.

Abe has another Bottomless PF and the difference between the two is startling...his other unit looks like a 5Yr old with a chainsaw did the work.

Sean

Dogshot
Posts: 481
Joined: 19 years ago

#14: Post by Dogshot »

Wow...nice photo! nice Machine!! Nice Pour!!! NICE CUP!!!!

That shot gets my vote for the cover of the first annual EspressoPorn Illustrated. Brings the whole gestalt of espressoporn together in a single image. Very exciting review as well. I can't wait for more.

Abe Carmeli (original poster)
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#15: Post by Abe Carmeli (original poster) »

Day 3

Boy what a day. You're dealing with an overcaffeinated dude right now, so if I skip words, sentences, or sound a little erratic, it is not the handy work of my new stash.

I went through 3 lbs of coffee today. It started innocent enough with a morning shot after breakfast, but quickly got out of hand. I wanted to hit all the wonderful coffees sent to me by various roasters at their prime, hence my frenzy day.

Before we plunge into espresso performance, a little intro is in order. Due to scheduling constraints, Sean and I had already completed collecting all the temp performance measurements before I started the official espresso performance evaluation. That insight gave me an advantage in understanding better what the machine is doing during the espresso evaluation. One thing we found is that the offset temperature was too low to correspond with temperature readout by the Scace devise. It was 1-1.5f lower. I adjusted it accordingly, and continued with the tests. Sean's results will be published later in the week.

I do not want to give away any more data at this stage, other than to say that it saved me a lot of time in calibrating my shots. So what's on the menu today?

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Caffe Vivace Dolce - coffee on natural birch with green papyrus and a red tail possum

I let the machine warm up for 30 minutes and I'm ready to pull my first shot. I started with the toughest coffee to work with from today's batch. In a way, the Synesso line was developed with that coffee in mind so this machine should deliver an outstanding Dolce. I started low on temperature, keeping dosage at 16 grams with an L/M ridged basket. 201 degrees. Yikes. watery, off taste, earthy. The aroma was not bad though, some floral notes. Go up to 202. I'm getting more chocolate, though still no body, and some cardboard flavor. Take it to 203, and I'm still not there. It is close though. Body starts emerging. Shall we dare 203.5? Can this machine really hit 0.5 in temperature granulation? Took it up .5 degree, wait 2 minutes and pull the shot. There is no difference. Let's go to 204f. The shot looks good as it pours, nice and even distribution on the bottomless. I take a whiff, flowers & dry fruit. A sip - sweet heavy body, creamy, a little nutty, a dash of spice, chocolate, and something I just can't identify. Wow. What a great cup. Let's kick it up to 205? pulled a shot, less body, a little ashy, I passed the prime zone.

This was a fantastic cup of Dolce.

Now, I let the machine idle for 20 minutes while I pulled some shots on the Brewtus. When I returned to the Synesso, I was ready to pull the Dolce shot at the prime temperature I established 204f. Yikes. This shot tastes like the shot I pulled at 202f. Well, it tasted as a 202f shot because it was. The Synesso, after 20 minutes of idle time cools down and requires flushing to be brought back up to temperature. How much flushing? A few shots worth of it. This was an in-the-cup validation of the thermal performance Sean & I collected three days ago.

How much of a problem is it? In a busy coffee house, this is not a problem at all, the machine is pulling consecutive shots. In the home, it is a different story. Most of us pull maybe 2-3 shots a day on average. So flushing will be required, or perhaps, set the temperature higher than you need it to be and work without a flush?

Armed with that confirmation, I now made sure the machine is up to temperature before I proceed, and I moved to my next coffee.

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Ecco Caffe - Ecco Daterra Reserve Espresso

I have used Daterra Reserve before from Caffe Fresco, and I roasted it myself a few times. I know that blend very well. It is a forgiving blend on both dosage and temperature, and has a medium body. I dialed it low 197f intentionally. Came out too light on body, a little undefined, and sour. Dosage was 16 grams. Let it go up to 199f, it is coming together. Fruit, marzipan, and those wonderful floral aromas. At 200-201f I got the best result. Medium body, chocolate, incredible aromatics, fruity, balanced, rounded. A big wow. A fantastic straight shot, I dare say, the best Daterra shot I've had.

Before I move on to the next coffee, let me pause here for a moment to take a look at the tools of the trade. Cupping so much coffee in one day requires some meticulous record keeping and a lot of palate cleanser and refreshers.

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The Pellegrino and crackers are used as palate refresher while the Vodka is a palate cleanser. It is also what kept me from hovering about the house.

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Shot parameters log is extremely important. One can get easily lost without it when trying to find the optimum brew parameters for a blend.

Next on our menu:

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Caffe D'arte - Firenze

D'arte's coffees are roasted in the old Italian traditions. Very slow roast that lasts a long time. Their coffees have a very strong signature through their entire line. It is one of my favorite coffees, and I have brewed it in a variety of parameters. What changes is the intensity and delicacy of flavors, but it will tolerate anywhere from 196f to 202f. What is often lost however is body, and at some temperatures there is more of it. I started with 197, 16 grams 1.5 oz pulls in 26 second. Nice body, light anise in the aroma. I move it up to 198, stronger anise, dry fruit, spice. As we go up to 200 the anise and spice intensifies, and the body slightly decreases. 201, it is an anise and chocolate bomb. I settled on 199 1.5 oz in 27 second 16.5 grams in an L/M ridged basket. Oh my oh my. Sean Lennon is an Americano head. You will not catch him dead drinking a straight shot. As we did some D'arte shots together, it was the first time I've ever heard a wow coming from his direction. I added a little sugar to the cup and it does intensify the flavors.

Generally speaking, the Synesso delivered excellent cups today. I like the mouth feel and the density of those shots, and some were quite intense. I will run those shots on the Brewtus for comparison, but regardless of the Brewtus performance, these were very good results.

Wow, that was a busy day. It was so busy that I forgot to take any pictures of the shots. I will add some on my next post. In my next installment, I will discuss milk drinks and steaming performance.
Abe Carmeli

Abe Carmeli (original poster)
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#16: Post by Abe Carmeli (original poster) »

skiplord wrote:Abe!!!
How about some pictures of your "chicken legs" (Brewtus' not yours)
Skip
Skip,

So you don't care about my legs ha? I'm sorely disappointed. Here you go:

Image
The Brewtus chicken legs. Improvised art piece using nuts and bolts.

And now compare it to this:

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The Cyncra adjustable feet
Abe Carmeli

lennoncs
Posts: 234
Joined: 19 years ago

#17: Post by lennoncs »

Oh Man, those are some ugly chicken legs!

I'm denying I ever did such a thing.

Sean

Abe Carmeli (original poster)
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#18: Post by Abe Carmeli (original poster) replying to lennoncs »

Sean, I love them nevertheless! hell they are 10 times prettier than those stilts-for-legs I had before :).
Abe Carmeli

cinergi
Posts: 88
Joined: 19 years ago

#19: Post by cinergi »

Abe,

It's odd that all your off idle shots are ~ 2F too cold. Over the last 2 days I have pulled 10 off idle shots using the Scace device with a minimum of 30 min. intervals. None were cold. All produced average brew temps within .5F of my set point, usually on the high side. The offset on my machine is -8.5F. It's also a 220v so maybe that makes a difference.

Doug

Abe Carmeli (original poster)
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#20: Post by Abe Carmeli (original poster) replying to cinergi »

I'm happy to hear that. I doubt it has to do with the 110/220 issue. It is premature to get to the details of the machine's temperature profile right now, I'm waiting for Sean's data to be published. There is enough data there for us to draw a clear picture of its thermal performance.
Abe Carmeli