Being new here, each term and acronym becomes a speed bump in my journey to knowledge.
The FAQs don't define them. Is there a list somewhere here, or perhaps on some other website?

Before last Tuesday, Coffee to me came in black, w/cream, decaf. That's 3 descriptions. What was I thinking?

Thanks

From the Home Barista Resources:
- An Espresso Glossary, on CoffeeGeek
- Coffee Glossary, on CoffeeReview

bravozulu wrote:Being new here, each term and acronym becomes a speed bump in my journey to knowledge.

BZ -- you want to be specific? What terms and/or acronyms elude you?

I'll start making a list. The acronym for Heat Exchanger was just explained.

i agree, especially the more local jargonish acronyms can be daunting, and I know of no resource to find them. For example HB, CG, OE, SCG, WLL, HX, DB, PF, SO, WP, DP, LP, PV, etc.

Usually you can use the HB site's Search function and see the acronym in enough contexts to get a clue. In a few cases this won't work - (SO, which stands for single origin, is ignored by the search engine, probably because 'so' is a common conjunction.)

SBDU = Single Boiler Dual Use. An espresso machine design which is past it's prime.

PID = Proportional Integral Derivative Controller. Without getting into the specifics of engineering a PID, in the coffee world the term is often used for any of several fairly sophisticated, electronic temperature and/or pressure controls. With PID temp control, even fairly inexpensive espresso machines can deliver water of appropriate temperature with a lot of fuss from the operator.

DBPID = Double Boiler espresso machine, with PID control over the brew and steam boilers. Double boiler machines have two boilers, one for brewing water and the other for hot water and steam. This allows machines with fairly small boiler to supply adequate amounts of water for each purpose without "temperature surfing" the brew water. The Breville 1200 brings DBPID technology to the masses in a "consumer" as opposed to "prosumer" package, but at a consumer price.

HX = Heat Exchanger. You know what a heat exchanger is, and have some idea of the limitations and scope of an HX machine already. Besides, HX machines are very well covered in the FAQs here.

Thermoblock. Okay, not an acronym or abbreviation. A method of heating water for brew, hot water or steam which involves routing water through a channel in a block of heated metal. Compared to storing water or steam in an adequately sized boiler heated with an adequately powered coil, thermoblocks can be slow or use a lot of energy. Sometimes a thermoblock is used to preheat water on its way to a boiler. Sometimes the boiler is used to preheat water on its way to the thermoblock -- often for steaming. As a practical matter, thermoblock remedies (to some extent) a couple of major annoyances associated with SBDUs. Consequently electronically controlled machines with thermoblocks, such as the Izzo Silvano and Crossland CC1 are taking over the price range which was formerly ruled by SBDUs like the Silvia.

BDL

Don't feel lonely as we've all gone through the process of learning what the acronyms for espresso mean. However, like most new thing in life it won't be long before you end up using them, without having to think.

FYI, you'll most likely go through these stages in your exploration of espresso:

Unconscious incompetence
Conscious incompetence
Conscious competence
Unconscious competence

Well put, Keith.