50% robusto is huge. I think most blends that use it are more in the 20-30% ballpark. I find more than about 10% to be disagreeable to my taste. I have no robusto for my home roasting and when I hit a commercial blend that uses it I almost instantly notice it. Cut back on robusto in the blend.

greg.guy wrote:I've been having the same problem with my very thick crema. I use a custom blend of 50 arabica and 50 robusta that gets me a very nice and thick crema which gets too stiff for the foam to flow freely. There are good days and there are bad. I've tried swirling the espresso, swirling with a little milk, thin foam and thicker foam and sometimes it just doesn't work. . .

The only time my art comes our perfect is when I mix chocolate syrup in with the espresso to make my mocha which I assume semi dilutes the crema.

Is it the chocolate syrup that reduces the crema or the physical stirring? You could try either sinking the crema by stirring with a spoon or just skimming off the crema and dumping it (or drinking it yourself!).

+1

Peppersass wrote:Try holding the pitcher higher above the surface of the crema when you first begin to pour. The extra height will add velocity to the milk, allowing it to more easily pierce the crema and dive under it. Slowly bring the pitcher closer to the crema, and when you see the milk rising to the surface, start your latte art. The closer you are to the crema, the more likely the milk will float.

half the replies to the thread lol, seems noone really read it properly.

Yea i've noticed my machine has just started doing this, i've ensured everything is cleaned out, first shot of the day it turns out nice and silky smooth crema with the same bean, same grinder, same setting, same technique, then second shot it's foamy thick crema, cleaned the group head and portafilter instantly and tried again, no luck.

i'm leaning toward possible calcium build up inside the machine, as that's something i haven't checked yet.

It could even just be bubbles forming in the group head while it's extracting or unfiltered water, low quality water like mains water or tap water, maybe heat has something to do with it, or pump pressure indicating a faulty pump or could be not getting stable enough power.

It could be just not having enough coffee in the portafilter allowing water to slosh around and form foam instead, tamped too lightly or too heavily, too lightly would definitely make thick crema and so would not having enough coffee in the portafilter, having pockets of air from not spreading the coffee out evenly in the group head could also cause it, so i'm leaning toward those last ones, for my issue, and from the sounds of it, it's the same issue everyone has been having,

though i just got my new packets of coffee today, same as usual, they taste different but that doesn't make sense why first shot came out perfect, it's for sure dosage and tamping that's causing an issue like that.

One thing i've learnt about coffee and that's if it's not working out the way you wanted it, adjust dosage, make sure you're tamping right, make sure everything is clean, make sure cups are clean, very rarely is it the case that the beans are causing the crema issues, i've been using non robust beans and get thick crema, if you really want to find out if it's a dosage problem, fill your portafilter only half way put it in and see what comes out, if it's light coloured and thick crema then it's dosage, if you wanna find out if it's too lightly tamped, just push it down very lightly and find out.