Hi all,

I just want to share with you my happiness with the progress I'm making these last days. After reading some FAQs at HB I changed a little things I was doing. As you can see by the photos, it really made a big difference.

First photos are from yesterday shot. It's not much different of other shots I got in the last days. Typically under 20 secs and with tan color crema. A little too bitter for my taste. I was suspecting of some channeling, but I don't have a naked PF to investigate it.





Here's a video from another shot I got yesterday, even worse than the first one. A 12 second shot with almost white crema.





Now the photos of recent shot, after some changes:







Well, what happened? Today I changed basically 3 things:

1. Overdosed a little bit the single basket I use. For this I just knocked PF a couple times in the counter and completed the level before tamping. I also started to level coffee in the basket with the back of a knife instead my finger, as it allows me to have better control of leveling.

2. I stopped tapping the PF with the tamper between the two tampering procedures, because I read it can break the coffee block inside basket.

3. Changed tamping procedure itself. Now I tamp, rotate 180 degree the PF and tamp again, to ensure I'm not tamping a side more than other. It may sound weird, but I think is easier this way than get a 100% perfectly vertical tamping. It's not for me...

Well, for my surprise I put the glass under the PF and got a beautiful shot of 29 secs with no visible channeling. Color was much better (darker) and crema layer was bigger. It also tasted very well, with a little less of bitter. Other thing I noticed (at least for me is a good signal) is that sugar took 2 or 3 seconds over the crema before falling down.

I hope I can maintain this consistency from now on. Tomorrow I'll tell you, because today I reached the limit of caffeine my head can handle...

Hi Leo. Looks like you have improved your technique but there's always room to improve more... for anyone! I haven't heard of your espresso machine before so I can't comment on that. A grinder is one of the most important parts of good espresso and Breville isn't known for it's outstanding grinders so you may want to consider an upgrade at some point. Start with you can do now. Beans. What beans are you using and when were they roasted?

That white edge on the crema is sure interesting. I haven't seen that before.

Hi Nixter,

I'm using Sweet Collection, from Fazenda Daterra (Brazil - Minas Gerais). At the date of these shots, beans were 15 days from roasting, but I normally get beans after 2 or 3 days after roasting and I freeze them, unfreezing only a small quantity at a time.

My machine is an Electrolux Chef Crema. I think it has the same quality as Delonghi machines, in other words, not much.

Greetings...

Good work... Just some info i read earlier this week... FYI

"How should my coffee be stored?

Try NOT to store your coffee in a cold environment. If coffee is stored in the freezer or the refrigerator, moisture will condense on the beans every time they are brought out of that cold environment and into room temperature which will quickly degrade the complexity of their flavor.

Stored properly in whole bean form, your coffee should retain much of its flavor for seven days after it was roasted. The flavor will slowly taper off soon after that and will be noticed in the high notes or acidity being dulled. The coffee will certainly be consumable but will not have the shimmering brilliance it once had."

Yes, it would be nice to have always coffee ultra fresh, but unfortunately in my city is difficult to get fresh coffee locally, so I use to buy from Internet. This procedure forces me to buy a bigger quantity because of s&h taxes.

Anyway, I think I'll try to keep some beans in the freezer and the other part out of it, so I can establish a comparison.

Leonardo

elchochito, look at some of the posts on freezing coffee in this forum. Many of the very experienced and professional members on HB freeze their coffee. While discussion still continues, the general consensus as of now is that freezing coffee has little (if any) ill effect.

leopm wrote:... I normally get beans after 2 or 3 days after roasting and I freeze them, unfreezing only a small quantity at a time.

I often buy 3 to 5 kilos at a time in 1kg bags. If the bags are mylar or heavy duty plastic, simply tape over the 1-way valve and freeze.

1 bag goes into 125g jars. Remove a jar or two every couple of days, depending on usage. When the jars need refilling, simply defrost 1 bag over night, fill the jars and refreeze.

Frozen Coffee Storage Calculator can help determine the 'age' of frozen coffee. As with all things espresso, there is some contention on how coffee 'ages' in the freezer, but the Calculator works well for the coffee we drink and our Frost Free.

Yes, good results on freezing roasted coffee! I vacuum seal the coffee in small portions and freeze them.

Leo, if you are using some non-pressurized filter on this machine, even the modded Breville will give you a hard time. As this machine has no OPV, you'll have around 12 bar to get the 2 ml/s flow rate. So it makes sense to me that you get the better results with the overdosing and tamping. Maybe we can mod it and add an OPV if you like...

I did some testing with my modded Breville at work using the Bacchi, and I had to put 21 g of coffee (finest setting of the Breville after modding) to get a ristretto.

Once I had the Ariete Cafe Roma Deluxe with a non-pressurized filter and got nice (visual) shots with a much finer grind. But the taste was always bitter.

Márcio.

Márcio,

What do you mean with OPV? is it something like an over pressure valve?

I don't if the machine has one, but I can tell you that my baskets aren't pressurized because I took off the double wall in the bottom of them.

Besides that, I'm getting good results with the Breville and this machine without having to overdose too much.

Yes, over pressure valve. I doubt the machine has one, as usual with this pressurized filter/portafilter machines. But as always, I could be wrong!

Márcio.