"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

One of the curious things about coffee making is that, historically, there has been no formal training structure. Most parallel pursuits (cooking, wine making etc) have formalised apprenticeships and education systems. Coffee making is often learnt from more experienced coffee makers or coffee roasting companies. This can lead to the perpetuation of some practices that are a total waste of time — and sometimes even counterproductive to making great coffee. The latter are often ingrained and hard habits to break, even though they have no reasonable basis.

Here we’ve waded through some of the more commonly encountered beliefs about coffee to bring you the hard facts and dispel some of the myths that are floating around. Whether you’re an experienced home barista or working behind an espresso bar, here is the Five Senses’ definitive guide…

Myth 1: A 30ml ‘single’ shot in 30 seconds is the only way to have espresso

For many people in the coffee industry, espresso means 30ml of water pushed though a designated amount of coffee in 30 seconds. This is probably one of the most common myths associated with making espresso coffee. Beans come from different countries and are grown under very different circumstances — varying amounts of rainfall, sunlight and altitude, to name just a few. This means that each coffee bean has unique characteristics. Therefore, different beans will always result in differing volumes of espresso.

Your best guide to making espresso is to observe the colour changes of the pour. If you look at the colour of an espresso, it undergoes three general shade changes as the water pours through. The initial dark red-brown colour is the ristretto part of the pour, which contributes sweetness and body. The second caramel colour contributes balance and is the espresso part of the pour. When the caramel ends, so does the shot, so when the pour changes to yellow or ‘blonde’, only bitter water is being extracted, and you don’t want that in a shot of coffee! This blonding can happen anywhere between 15ml and 35ml, depending on the variety of coffee used, so every type of coffee will pour at very different lengths of time — 30mls in 30 seconds is just a rough guide.

Myth: Busted

Myth 2: ‘Bleeding’ the shot gives better coffee

Coffee makers often allow the first few mls of the shot to run into the drip tray before positioning the cup to capture the remainder. This practice is probably a remnant from the days when early model espresso machines struggled to deliver the correct water temperature and pressure. With modern machines, this is not required. The first few mls of the shot is, in fact, the best part of the shot. Repositioning the cup mid-stream also means the cup often ends up with messy streaks down the side.

Myth: Busted

Myth 3: Espresso machines do not need to be emptied of steam at the end of shift

Many venues bleed all the steam out of the espresso machine in the belief that this will somehow prolong the life of the boiler and seals. In practice, boilers are designed to handle pressure many times higher than the 1.5 bar or so that most boilers run at, and are in no way affected by being left ‘full’. There is no effect on valves.

Myth: Confirmed

Myth 4: Once the grind is set, you shouldn’t touch it

This is a very common idea that is often thrown around the coffee industry; in fact, it is one of the easiest myths to test! When we talk about grind, we talk about the ability to adjust the collar of the grinder to give a coarser or finer grind. When the grind is set too coarse, the water flows faster, resulting in a thin and watery tasting coffee. When the grind is set too fine, the water drips slowly out of the machine and, because the hot water is in contact with the coffee for a longer time, the coffee burns and tastes bitter and ashy.

The grind is a constant variable in a café, and therefore if you don’t adjust the grinder throughout the day, then the water will occasionally choke up and run through slowly or speed up and gush out – even if you are doing everything else exactly the same!

This is pretty much all due to the changing air pressure and the residual heat in the grinder burrs. For example, if the day starts out cool and dry, but ends up hot and humid, the grind will very gradually change from being a good pour to a bad pour. So a good barista will always be in contact with the most important piece of equipment, the grinder, adjusting the pour whenever it looks wrong!

Myth: Busted

Myth 5: Low fat milk creates the best texture

Another common myth is that low fat milk will create the best texture. Skim milk was often the milk of choice for making cappuccino during the years of the Himalayan peaks (those crazy 80’s/early 90’s). This is because skim milk has a tendency to separate a little more than full cream, making it easier to foam —although not necessarily giving a better quality drink.

Really, the fat in full cream milk produces a full and creamy coffee, with an all round sweetness. From a texturing point of view, full cream is much harder to texture and create foam, though it always gives a better quality of drink. The drink will look and taste much thicker and will have an attractive, glossy finish, giving not only a tastier drink, but a much more presentable one!

Advanced baristas also point out that to pour latte art, full cream is the best option, as skim tends to have a matt finish that can be a little clumpy.

Myth: Busted

Myth 6: You should never re-steam milk

When you heat fresh, cold milk in a milk jug, you’ve got a certain amount of time to work with the milk – slowly adding air to create a dense, finely textured micro foam. If you start with milk that’s already warm, or even at room temperature, or if it’s a combination of previously steamed milk and fresh cold milk, you have very little time to do anything before your milk jug is boiling away, with a disgusting scorched milk smell emanating from within. As you heat cold milk, the whey proteins and caseins (the predominant proteins in your milk) begin to denature and lose their ability to be aerated into foam. If you reheat previously steamed milk, you will not be able to create any more foam than is already present and you run the risk of scorching the milk, creating a watery, pungent-tasting final product.

Use fresh, cold milk every time for superior results. If you’re aiming to reduce waste, work on judging the appropriate volume of cold milk per cup.

Myth: Confirmed

Myth 7: Tapping the side of the portafilter with the tamper when dosing helps to remove any loose grinds

One of the most hotly debated topics in the coffee industry! And, unlike most topics in coffee, there’s a clear winner in this debate. Everyone has seen the super cool, rock star barista bash the side of the group handle with a tamp to knock the loose grinds down before they tamp again. This has been the practice for many years, and not many people questioned it until just recently.

To confirm this myth, I need to prove that tapping the side of the portafilter does, in fact, knock the loose grinds down from its side and onto the surface of the coffee puck to be tamped flat … but at what cost?

If we dig a little deeper in true coffee nerd fashion, we can achieve a better understanding of the pros and cons of doing this. It ‘s true that the grinds get knocked down, but using a Naked Portafilter, we see that no matter how gentle the tap, it will always either crack or dislodge the puck, allowing the water to find the path of least resistance through the coffee. So, in effect, while tapping the side does create a nice flat surface, it destroys the coffee flavour by creating channelling.

Myth: Busted

Myth 8: Decaf contains no caffeine

To be certified as decaffeinated coffee, only 97% of the caffeine needs to be removed, so most decafs contain a small amount of caffeine — roughly 2mg /100ml as opposed to 175mg/100ml in regular espresso.

Myth: Busted

Myth 9: A cup of drip filter contains more caffeine than a shot of espresso

Different brewing processes have different steeping times, which has a big impact on the amount of caffeine that’s extracted. Per 100ml, espresso contains the most caffeine, at 175mg, followed by drip filter and then plunger (see www.energyfiend.com). However, if you compare a full sized cup of drip filter to an espresso shot, it’s clear that the cup of drip filter contains more caffeine (around 107.5mg) than the shot of espresso (77mg).

Myth: Plausible

Myth 10: I should not rinse my PF with water before dosing

This myth is easily investigated using the Naked Portafilter, which allows you to see the bottom of the coffee basket, and so to determine where the water flows through the coffee. The aim is to obtain an even press of water through the coffee basket, which will achieve an even extraction.

When the basket already has a coating of water, the water that’s already there tends to attract the other water droplets — not unlike a newly waxed car, where water moves to join up with other water drops. When this occurs when you’re making coffee, the water is encouraged to move around the wet side of the basket rather than obtaining the desired even press. This leads to an over-extracted drink, lacking in the body and sweetness that comes with an even press of water.

If you want to clean old grinds from the portafilter, use a tea towel.

Myth: Confirmed

Myth 11: Allowing any blonding at the end of the shot will result in a bad cup

This question crops up every now and again, with people running more water through the coffee in an attempt to make it stronger. Essentially, only a small amount of coffee will dissolve when you pass water through it. This occurs predominantly at the beginning of the shot, when you experience the intense, sweet flavour of the ristretto. Then, as the amount of soluble reduces, the espresso section starts, which contributes very little sweetness to the pour. This part of the shot is more concerned with creating a balanced drink. At the end of the pour, the shot will ‘blonde,’ ie change to pale yellow.

If the ‘blonde’ part of the extraction is taken out of the drink and tasted separately (see our previous article for a rundown on how to do this), it is easy to taste the heavy bitterness and harsh, thin body/mouthfeel which it contributes to the drink. By cutting off a shot before the end of the extraction (when the shot becomes blonde), the drink will always have a better taste. If a stronger drink is required, have another separate shot of coffee to keep the quality high!

Myth: Confirmed

Myth 12: When making just one coffee, it’s better to use the single basket

Observing the majority of cafés around town, you will notice that many use a single basket when they make just one cup of coffee. On every machine, there is an option to use a portafilter with a single spout or a portafilter with two spouts, so in theory you can make either one coffee or two coffees at a time. This is an okay concept, provided that you’re using a double basket in your portafilter. A single basket is sometimes used in an attempt to reduce coffee wastage or to make a weaker coffee when it’s requested by a customer, but looking at it from a quality point of view, the single basket never seems to stack up.

The reason for this is quite simple, especially when you examine and compare the shape of the single and double basket. The most important difference between the two is that the double basket is square, while the single basket is shaped like a ‘V’ — a great shape for engines, but not so good for coffee!

Keep in mind that the idea of espresso coffee is to press water evenly through the ‘biscuit’ of coffee in order for the parts to dissolve out evenly. If you look at the shape of the square double basket, it is easy to see that the water will go through the coffee flat.

The single basket has been created in the ‘V’ shape in order to get the same speed of shot through half as much coffee, and therefore it encourages a lot of water though a small amount of coffee, particularly around the edge of the coffee puck, where the coffee is at its thinnest. This leads to a more bitter coffee that has a much thinner taste, with a reduced amount of sweetness.

Myth: Busted

Myth 13: You should never turn your machine off

Well, this obviously depends on whether you’re working your magic behind a busy espresso bar or pulling shots in the comfort of your own kitchen.

Café Machines

In a café setting, there are definite advantages to leaving your coffee machine switched on all the time, and it’s what we recommend. Firstly, when a machine is heating up, its components are under significant mechanical stress (we really mean significant), as the various parts expand at different rates, often resulting in electrical and mechanical breakdown. Leaving your machine on permanently can help you to avoid these costly breakdowns. In addition, the time it takes to fully heat your machine after you first switch it on is usually much longer than the time it takes for the light to appear on your machine indicating that it’s warmed up. This is because it’s not just the water which needs to heat up, but also all of the group head components. If you start using the machine too early eg before all of the metal parts have had time to heat up, the temperature stability of your machine will be less than ideal, and your coffee will suffer.

On the other hand, there’s obviously an energy saving if you switch the machine off when you’re not using it, and the rubber seals in your machine will not go brittle as quickly … but with regular maintenance this won’t be a problem.

Home Machines

Our advice to home users is a little different though. We recommend to switch on the coffee machine about half an hour before you want your first coffee. Your manual probably says that the machine will be ready to go in 6 or 7 minutes, but in reality it takes about half an hour. Like we mentioned for cafe machines above, this is because it’s not just the water that needs to heat up, but also all of the group head components. If you start using the machine before all of the metal parts have had time to heat through properly, the temperature stability of your machine will be less than ideal, and your coffee will suffer.

In the early A.M. hours, many of you may be tempted to skip the half hour warm up and go straight for a shot. Well, we’ve got the perfect solution to that problem. Invest in a timer switch that you can attach to the cord at the power point (although make sure it’s a high grade timer that can handle 10amp power). You can then set the timer to turn on your machine half an hour before you get up, so that you can wake up the way you want — that is, with a coffee in hand.

And while it’s true that the process of heating up puts mechanical stress on the component parts of your machine, a home espresso machine uses considerably less energy than its commercial cousin, making it worth your while to turn the machine off when you’re not using it.

Myth: Confirmed for café machines, Busted for domestic machines

The world of coffee is exciting. It’s constantly growing, learning and expanding its field of reference. That means we’re continually learning how to create a better result in the cup – and we want to pass that knowledge on to you. Enjoy!