Cleaning regime too extreme?

by **Peppersass** on Sun Nov 20, 2011 3:16 am

HB wrote:For what it's worth, I have noticed that the first shot of the day suffers from a tinge of bitterness if the grouphead screen wasn't cleaned with espresso detergent (Ian raised this point in Sink that First Shot).

Here's my cleaning regimen: After pulling each shot, I remove the PF, knock out the puck and rinse the PF under hot water from the GS/3 wand. Then I run brew water for a couple of seconds to flush loose coffee particles off the screen. Then I scrub the screen and gasket thoroughly with a Pallo brush. Then I rinse the PF under the brew water, scrub the basket out with the brush, lightly lock in the PF and do the "portafilter wiggle." Then I wipe the screen and the inside of the basket with a dry paper towel.

I've been amazed by how much coffee oil and even coffee particles come off the screen onto the paper towel even after vigorous brushing. I've been even more amazed by the amount of stuff that comes out of the basket, even though it looks completely clean after the wiggle.

So, I think the idea of chemically cleaning the screen and baskets every day makes a lot of sense and I think I'll try it. I'd not thought of doing it in the dishwasher, which would certainly save time on days we run it. My thought has been that the espresso-machine detergents are specially formulated to dissolve baked-on coffee oils. Will a dishwasher do as well?

...split from Problem with my new La Marzocco GS/3 by moderator...

by **Javacat** on Sun Nov 20, 2011 7:00 am

Your cleaning regimen is a bit extreme for a single shot. I find that a 1-2 ounce rinse along with a quick wipe of the screen is sufficient enough. I will never leave a spent puck sitting in the group or grinds on the screen for longer than a few seconds after pulling the shot. I think regular rinses between shots is definitely sufficient. I've personally never seen any need to do much more than that unless working in a busy cafe, where a daily detergent cleaning is necessary. And unless you have a bottomless portafilter, I find that a good detergent soaking in very hot water a few times a week definitely helps eliminate the crud that builds up in the spouts. From my experience with various machines, the GS/3 group seems far easier to keep clean. I usually run a wet folded towel around the gasket but other than that I rarely find the need to do much more. Oh yea, and keep your parts out of the dishwasher - most detergents have a shine enhancing agent (rinse agent) and perfumes that can negatively affect the taste.

by **shadowfax** on Sun Nov 20, 2011 11:55 am

Dodger1 wrote:So much for RTFM (Reading The F#%@&*# Manual) and following exactly what it says.

Indeed! "If you believe everything you read, better not read." Glad to hear you've got things sorted, though.

On cleaning, I just wanted to echo my own experience, which is very much that I think a detergent backflush ought to be a daily part of your coffee routine if you like having your first shot of the day being anywhere near 100% as good at the second one. If you have multiple sessions separated by >30 minutes or so in a day, pulling the screen and rinsing/scrubbing it is a great idea as well, and one that I've been doing for at least the last year. And I strongly agree as well that the La Marzocco/Synesso grouphead is the easiest one of any I've used to keep clean. The E61, by contrast, is possibly the worst I've used in that regard.

by **Anvan** on Sun Nov 20, 2011 12:04 pm

I suspect a lot of us go through a routine similar to Dick's after a set of shots, when finished for a few hours or for the day. This keeps any surface grinds, oils or gunk from hardening up and becoming much tougher to clean. I think I have my OCD merit badge somewhere, but even so I'd be reluctant to do more than run a few seconds of water through the screen and dry it between shots when pulling several in sequence.

It's also time-consuming to clean the portafilter and filter basket between shots, but that's easily avoided by using multiple baskets and a spring-less bottomless PF: four shots, four baskets, line 'em up and go. It's very fast, and one of those luxuries for the home barista that's surely impractical for a cafe professional. It's also especially useful when you have company, since your first guest won't be finished when your last one is finally served. It's not quite the massively parallel processing of a four-group Linea, but as close as I'm going to get on 15 inches of counter.

by **Marshall** on Sun Nov 20, 2011 3:01 pm

Money quote from Kalefa Sanneh's great profile of El Salvador grower, Aida Batlle, and the third wave movement in this week's (11/21/11) The New Yorker:

But an accomplished cupper like Batlle need not obsess over brewing methods, because she knows what she's doing, and what she's tasting, regardless of muddiness. An obsession with brewing protocol is generally the mark of an amateur -- that pitiable person who makes a simple thing complicated in the futile hope of feeling kinship with the professionals.

by **shadowfax** on Sun Nov 20, 2011 3:19 pm

It's a well-documented fact. Anyone whose cleaning routine is less rigorous than mine is a dirty chimpanzee who serves rancid-oil-infused sludge. And anyone who's more rigorous than me is an over-fastidious nitpicker with a penchant for wasting time and detergent. What other conclusion could I possibly arrive at?

by **tekomino** on Sun Nov 20, 2011 3:20 pm

Did you blind test that? :lol:

by **Peppersass** on Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:59 am

Javacat wrote:Your cleaning regimen is a bit extreme for a single shot. I find that a 1-2 ounce rinse along with a quick wipe of the screen is sufficient enough.

All I'm doing with the screen that's different from what you're doing is giving it a quick scrub with the brush before wiping it with a paper towel. I figure the brush does a better job loosening any coffee oils that have baked on since the last shot. Hardly extreme.

I assume you rinse or wipe the basket after you knock out the grounds, just like I do. I could get away with just wiping it out, I guess, but would end up with a very dirty paper towel that would leave a mess wherever I set it down and can't be reused. The two quick basket rinses I do, plus the quick wipe with the brush, make sure most of the grounds go into the drain box and down the drain (plumbed in.)

OK, the PF wiggle is probably extreme, but I really liked it when I saw Mark Prince do it on his Silvia in a CoffeeGeek video...

Basically, I think shadowfax has it right (as he often does.) To each his own cleaning rituals.

by **shadowfax** on Tue Nov 22, 2011 4:10 am

On a more serious note in response to your point, Marshall:

Marshall wrote:Money quote from Kalefa Sanneh's great profile of El Salvador grower, Aida Batlle, and the third wave movement in this week's (11/21/11) The New Yorker:

Aida Batlle paraphrased in the New Yorker wrote:But an accomplished cupper like Batlle need not obsess over brewing methods, because she knows what she's doing, and what she's tasting, regardless of muddiness. An obsession with brewing protocol is generally the mark of an amateur -- that pitiable person who makes a simple thing complicated in the futile hope of feeling kinship with the professionals.

With great respect to Aida, who's produced some of the finest coffees I've ever tasted, I'm a bit perplexed by the sentiment in this snippet (which, granted, is offered well out of context). But "obsession" is exactly the kind of term that needs a good dose of context. If you own an espresso machine that costs more than $100, there are probably only a few tens of thousands of people on this planet that wouldn't call you obsessed.

I'd be curious to know what context she used it in. Because you could, I think, equally pan people who give nary a care to protocol and cleanliness as marked by amateurishness, over-simplifying a moderately simple thing and futilely fancying that they're akin to coffee professionals. It just depends on what 'sector' of the coffee community is frustrating you at any given moment. In all honesty, in my experience, and I'd bet yours too if you're honest, the problem I described above is a much bigger problem for most people in the coffee industry: a little more "obsession" from most people wouldn't hurt at all.

Regarding the mention about muddiness, above, as far as I know, "clean cup" is a common criterion on cupping forms, and I certainly feel it's a major contributor to what makes a cup of coffee enjoyable or not. A "muddy" cup shrouds and spoils the good things in the coffee no matter if or how well you can still taste them. I don't like dead pixels on my computer screen or smudges on my glasses. Likewise, I wouldn't stir dirt in my coffee and then appreciate it equally because "I know what I'm tasting, regardless." Coffee is complex. Making coffee doesn't have to be, but making coffee taste the best it can certainly can be. True coffee professionals—the ones who consistently make great coffee—don't obsess about protocol because they already did (or the person who trained them did) and they've absorbed it to the point where it comes easily to them and/or they know what they want—not because it's unimportant.

Espresso brewed on a group that's sat hot and dirty for many hours tastes inferior to espresso brewed from a clean group. It's a lot more subtle than, say, Coke vs. Pepsi or a washed South American bourbon vs. an aged Sumatra, but it's not that subtle. If you notice it, clean your group more often. If not, more power to you.

by **samster** on Tue Nov 22, 2011 9:54 am

what feels like mind-numbingly intricate process to the beginner may well be basic procedural instinct to the highly experienced.

moreover, experience helps you select and keep the parts of protocol that you feel may matter the most. maybe that's what ultimately comprises individual "style", which is often a distillation/hybrid of numerous protocols.

obsessiveness (or obsession) is relative.

facility does not indicate lack of obsession -- in fact, often the contrary.


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