News articles tagged with 'equipment'
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A Clover in our midst
The first Clover to ever grace Western Australian soil is sitting pretty on Richard Muhl’s workbench. Although it’s only paying a flying visit, I thought this was a great opportunity to take a closer look at this infamous machine.
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Pimping the grinder
The guys in our tech department are so busy out on the road that it’s hard to figure out how they have time to indulge their passion; tinkering around with machines and grinders, working R&D magic. However they manage to find the time, it’s good news for you guys out there in the cafés, who reap the rewards from their technical inventions and modifications. Their latest project is a pimped up version of the Mazzer Robur. Rich and the guys have been hard at work, altering it from a traditional doser-type grinder to a grind on demand doser, complete with variable timer.
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Electronic grinders: the first 20kg
Doserless, electronically timed grinders, such as the Mazzer Robur E, have gained popularity recently because they reduce wastage and improve dosing consistency. However, some baristi have noticed at least two strange behaviours during their initial period of use. The first, that the grinders appear to speed up and the second, that the adjustment of grind size and dose is both erratic and required frequently. Anecdotal evidence suggests that new burrs require around 20–30 kg to ‘wear in’.
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Say hello to the Clever Coffee Dripper
Say hello to our newest addition. I first came across these little drippers at the 2008 Seattle Coffee Fest, but it wasn’t until I saw them in action at Café Myriad in Montreal that I had the chance to appreciate how good they actually are. It’s such a simple idea that you can’t help but kick yourself for not coming up with it. They tick a lot of the boxes that need to be ticked when you’re thinking individual brewers. They’re simple, cheap, virtually unbreakable, and commercially viable, because you don’t need to sit and nurse them through a brew. Lastly, the concept actually works.
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Bigger, better steam wands
Our tech guys have been hard at work figuring out how they can improve the milk steaming capability of Isomac machines. After plenty of research and extensive testing in the workshop, it all came down to the steam wand tip.
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Popcorn Schmopcorn!
It is a commonly held belief within the coffee community that grinder hoppers should be kept full of beans to reduce the ‘popcorn effect’. The popcorn effect refers to coffee beans bouncing around in the grinder hopper before they are engaged by the grinder burrs. Apparently, if the beans are allowed to jump for joy before being ground to pulp the espresso extraction will be different when compared to an extraction from beans weighed down in the hopper.
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Coffee Context
Let’s face it, the trend in Perth is that cafes are investing more seriously in something consumers (yes, that’s you) have been demanding for years: better quality. Every time a coffee is returned because it’s “just not right”, a bad review is posted on-line or a full cup is left on the table, consumers unwittingly form part of the masses demanding a higher standard.
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