It's not until you handle espresso coffee on a daily basis that you appreciate how many reasons there are as to why it might not extract the flavour as well as you might expect. For the purposes of this blog I'm assuming water temperature, the pressure of the machine and the freshness of the coffee are all perfect (big assumption I know!). Here I want to focus on the grind of the coffee.
1. Different origins due to different processing methods will affect the fineness of the grind.
2. Different roast colours will affect the fineness of the grind.
3. The atmospheric conditions on the day you use the coffee will affect the grind.
4. The conditions around the grinder will affect the grind.
5. The sharpness of the grinder blades will affect the grind.
6. The cleanliness of the grinding blades will affect the grind.
So you can see when a coffee brand states on the side of its packet "this coffee is suitable for all coffee makers" what a load of rubbish that is if you have any desire to achieve a decent flavour.
Even the flow of liquid through specialist espresso ground coffee bought off the Supermarket shelf can be problematic for different machines.
The point I make in this Blog is that if you use a local speciality coffee roaster for your coffee supplies, pay attention to the grind setting the use. Every store will have its own setting which works for their machine, however bear in mind it might not necessarily work for you. Don't be frightened to ask your supplier to change the grind for your specific requirements, that's what specialists are for.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
H.R.H. Princess Anne drinking a cup of Cooper's
Couldn't resist showing you this. H.R.H. Princess Anne is a regular visitor to the Island of Jersey. Here she's meeting with people from the Poppy appeal at a place called Sunset Nurseries. She's been captured drinking a cup of Cooper's finest coffee! Well it would make me smile as well!
Monday, November 03, 2008
The consequences of over stretching coffee
Coffee culture like so many things is inate - somehow over the centuries a nation intuitively knows how best to capture the flavour of a particular product that they have consumed for generations.
For instance the British understand tea and can't understand why such an apparanetly simple product can be destroyed by so many of her European neighbours. Our European neighbours would I suggest in turn wonder how the average British person struggles so much to make a decent cup of coffee and 8 times out of 10 resorts to instant coffee.
I put it down to cultural differences, the different routes our histories took. So what am I getting at in the blog?
Well there is a tradition in the British Isles to make Cappuccinos in 12 oz cups, a reflection of the influence of the US. Which in itself isn't a problem, however what isn't understood is that to make large drinks like these, you need to use a decent amount of coffee. So why do so many places try to stretch the ground coffee to try and get an acceptable strength?
7g of coffee is simply not enough coffee, you can run all the water you like through it and you still won't achieve anything that remotely resembles a decent cup of coffee. The interesting thing is that if you go over to continental Europe and ask for a cappuccino you'll struggle to find a cup that's larger than 7 ozs. Why? because they inately know that any more volume of liquid will dillute the fine flavour of the coffee.
So if you are a coffee shop owner or making cappuccinos for fun at home please remember the following rules of thumb.
A 12oz cup needs a double shot of espresso coffee - that is around 14g of ground coffee. You should only run a maximum of 2 flozs (60ml) of water through the coffee. After this the rough proportions of milk are a 1/3rd milk, and 1/3rd foam. Personally I prefer to "free pour" my milk onto the coffee following the steaming/foaming process as I believe that this will give you the most consistent strength.
If you really do want to weaken the drink just add some hot water, or if you really can only cope with one shot of coffee (7g grounds), still only run 1 floz of liquid through the coffee and then add some hot water. But please never run water through your coffee for much longer, you will destroy what may well have once been outstanding coffee.
If you're from continental Europe please ignore this blog as you're probably already doing the above without even thinking about it!
For instance the British understand tea and can't understand why such an apparanetly simple product can be destroyed by so many of her European neighbours. Our European neighbours would I suggest in turn wonder how the average British person struggles so much to make a decent cup of coffee and 8 times out of 10 resorts to instant coffee.
I put it down to cultural differences, the different routes our histories took. So what am I getting at in the blog?
Well there is a tradition in the British Isles to make Cappuccinos in 12 oz cups, a reflection of the influence of the US. Which in itself isn't a problem, however what isn't understood is that to make large drinks like these, you need to use a decent amount of coffee. So why do so many places try to stretch the ground coffee to try and get an acceptable strength?
7g of coffee is simply not enough coffee, you can run all the water you like through it and you still won't achieve anything that remotely resembles a decent cup of coffee. The interesting thing is that if you go over to continental Europe and ask for a cappuccino you'll struggle to find a cup that's larger than 7 ozs. Why? because they inately know that any more volume of liquid will dillute the fine flavour of the coffee.
So if you are a coffee shop owner or making cappuccinos for fun at home please remember the following rules of thumb.
A 12oz cup needs a double shot of espresso coffee - that is around 14g of ground coffee. You should only run a maximum of 2 flozs (60ml) of water through the coffee. After this the rough proportions of milk are a 1/3rd milk, and 1/3rd foam. Personally I prefer to "free pour" my milk onto the coffee following the steaming/foaming process as I believe that this will give you the most consistent strength.
If you really do want to weaken the drink just add some hot water, or if you really can only cope with one shot of coffee (7g grounds), still only run 1 floz of liquid through the coffee and then add some hot water. But please never run water through your coffee for much longer, you will destroy what may well have once been outstanding coffee.
If you're from continental Europe please ignore this blog as you're probably already doing the above without even thinking about it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)