I've really only been into coffee since February 2005. I'm 16 now and I have been completely consumed from head to toe by the coffee bug and baby am I lovin' it or what?! I started out finding recipes for Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino, and soon, thanks to espornographers, I had a Gaggia Espresso in the house. Later, I bought a Super Jolly and have been doing some minor tinkering ever since. I now work at the Elysian Room in Vancouver. I hope you all enjoy reading my blog and leave some comments!

Monday, January 02, 2006

Happy New Years!

Well, it is my feeling that we are about to kick off a great year in coffee. First, we've got a bunch of regionals coming up. Seconds, Clovers (the "original espresso" oriented single cup brewing system) will be showing up at various cafés [hopefully] near you and very near me. I'm building a machine, grinder, and roaster (if time permits) and the GS3 is scheduled to enter production AFAIK. Yes, things are looking up for us coffee geeks and espresso nuts. By the way, my short write-up on the Synesso Cyncra will be back up soon, pending some corrections from Alistair. In case any of you have as much time on your hands as I do, let's look at what's on my mind, and others', so far this year.

First of all, there is a heated (okay, that's an exaggeration) debate about straight-walled vs. tapered portafilter baskets at a super-duper classified uber secret forum which I frequent. Need some drama? The person who most fiercely insists that straight-walled is better is yours truly, JakeTheCoffeeLover. The person who most fiercely insists that tapered is better is my boss, Alistair. Oh well, I'll fight this one out to the bitter end. He can't lose me, this face brings in business and pimps it, too.

On a serious note, my argument is that if you get more tamping pressure and therefore greater compression of coffee at the bottom of the basket, you are getting the same flow through less coffee. Therefore, you might get the equivalent of a ristretto from 7g of coffee at the bottom and the equivalent of a caffe crema from 11g of coffee at the top in terms of flow vs. dose. Now, that doesn't sound so bad, does it? It might be good. Now think of it this way: you tamp unevenly (not you, dumbshit) and get an uneven pour. You get 0.5oz of flow through the left half of the basket and 0.75oz through the right. Same thing... how appealing does that latrine of a demitasse cup sound to you? Although this prevents jet channels, I think that they must still be forming at the top of the puck and dissipating at the bottom since nothing has changed at the top portion of the puck. The only difference I found was that the jet channels are all ending up in the cup. If you don't want channels, you gotta use a smaller diameter grouphead/basket or tamper harder. I insist that somebody try to prove that wrong. Anyways, let's move on to the arguments of others.

Others seem to think that when you tamp, the top of the basket gets compacted less than the bottom. I decided to introduce them to inertia and force and how they would affect this. I'm not even going to begin to estimate how small of an amount of time you'd have to have tamper to coffee for to create a difference that is not just completely negligible. Anyways, they are under the impression that if you have a tapered basket, you put more force on less coffee and therefore have a heavier tamp on the bottom. WHOA WHOA WHOA... wasn't the point to have it even throughout the basket? Some think that this will "even it out" since the bottom gets less of a force than the top. I refer them to the 3rd sentence of this paragraph.

To another discussion, I think it's about time I talk about my espresso machine that I am designing. I'll list some features:

-5.5 litre steam boiler w/ 2700W element
-Fuji PXR3 or Watlow PID controller for steam boiler
-3 thin diameter stainless steel heat exchangers that join into one
-DC helical gear pump for flutterless pressure and pressure adjustments during the shot, for ramping pressure
-pre-infusion created by steam boiler being opened up to heat exchanger at grouphead, controlled by a stainless steel ball valve
-boiler and all parts that touch brew water are stainless steel
-ambidirectional swivel for steam wand
-all stainless steel grouphead, will be fabbed from standard parts and will work with 58mm portafilter
-above grouphead will be a 3oz chamber with brew water, which is where pre-infusion from the steam boiler, cold mixing and PID control for cold mixing, and a digital temperature display will read out. this chamber will be insulated with cermaic fibre insulation and, outside of that, will be a chrome-plated brass casing... for looks and room for thermometer if necessary
-grouphead design will be as you see in the photo from my last post (except for "fucking screw")

-screwless showerscreen, as said above
-final temperature will be controlled by a Fuji PXR3 or Watlow PID controller with thermocouple as close to the brewing area as possible hooked up a solenoid which allows cold mixing bypass from the pump feed directly to the grouphead, with the possibility of programming a ramp (descending or ascending brew temperature profile)
-will operate on a 30A breaker on 110V

That's all I can think of for now. I'll leave you all with a blend that I will try once all my coffee arrives. It's a spinoff of my last espresso blend.

25% Java Private Estate: Type - "Prince" - Full City+
12.5% Ethiopia Oromia Sidamo Natural Process - Full City+
12.5% Yemen Mokha - Bani Matar - Full City+
16% Brazil Fazenda Ipanema "Dulce" - Full City
10% Uganda Bugisu AA - Full City
12% Indian Monsooned Malabar "Elephant" - Full City
12% Ethiopia Yirgacheffe (MAO) - Full City

I'm hoping for some comments on my portafilter basket thingamajig. Wish for a great 2006!

6 Comments:

Blogger The Uglies said...

word. i also think you misunderstand the argument. it's about the finished product.

9:44 AM

 
Blogger The Artist Formerly Known As JakeTheCoffeeLover said...

Seems like I do... I don't so much agree with Alistair, but I do take his word for everything above. I guess I got all mixed up since people seemed to be "on the same side" as you in terms of choosing a tapered basket. It was my understanding that you said that tapered baskets are better because you get even compression. If the shots are better with that basket, everything is good and I have no reason to incessantly complain. Now I just need to find something else to incessantly complain about...

6:01 PM

 
Blogger blanco said...

check the link to open coffee. it doesn't go through (at least on my computer).

11:53 AM

 
Blogger The Artist Formerly Known As JakeTheCoffeeLover said...

I guarantee you that I put a hyphen in there. I'll go fix it. Thanks for the heads up!

3:05 PM

 
Blogger The Uglies said...

jake, i have to say, whether or not we see eye to eye on various PF issues. i am tickled pink to come across someone so young with so much interest and passion for coffee. rock on.

3:43 PM

 
Blogger The Artist Formerly Known As JakeTheCoffeeLover said...

Sweeeeeet... (grinning dude with sunglasses emoticon goes here) Thanks!

We'll find out who's wrong and who's Jake (no, I never stop) soon enough once somebody goes ahead and does Nick Cho's ingenius idea of cutting a basket in half and analyzing. I'll try to find somthing to replicate it with as I don't feel like cutting stainless steel right now... with no tools for the job either.

Since I don't have much of a post idea ready yet, I'd like to mention that I will work on finding a way to get clear baskets made for my espresso machine. I'll see how this'll work. I'm not sure quite who to talk to, though!

5:19 PM

 

Post a Comment

<< Home