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Date: 07 Jan 2007 05:44:01
From: chardinej
Subject: hitting the "sweet spot"
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Once you have tried very fresh-roasted coffee it is easy to see and
taste the difference in the quality of the shot compared to older
coffee. This is pretty obvious. What was not so obvious to me until
today was how "forgiving" fresh-roasted coffee is. This morning I tried
for the first time pulling a shot using a famous Italian espresso bean,
noted for its ability to stay fresh in the cans for a fair length of
time. I dosed and tamped as usual and choked the machine twice, on the
third try I got a 15 s gusher and on the forth try it was reasonable
but still not what I usually get. Between shots I was adjusting the
Mazzer one "notch" at a time and can usually dial-in to a new bean in
one shot with fresh coffee.
So what I conclude from this is that on my set-up at least (NS Oscar,
Mazzer mini) fresh-roasted coffee has a much wider "sweet spot" within
which the shots are technically good (time, volume etc) and look and
taste excellent too. On older coffee, today anyway, I couldn't really
find this sweet spot on four tries.
Anyone else noticed this?
John
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Date: 08 Feb 2007 13:16:04
From:
Subject: Re: hitting the "sweet spot"
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On Jan 7, 8:44 am, "chardinej" <chard...@nbnet.nb.ca > wrote:
... On older coffee, today anyway, I couldn't really
> find this sweet spot on four tries.
>
> Anyone else noticed this?
>
> John
Ja. For some reason I decided to try a brick of espresso-grind
Bustelo and make myself a cafe Cubano or cafe-au-lait just like the
guys in Tampa.
The coffee was vac-packed but a trife, shall we say, dry? Couldn't
get a shot outta the stuff that was anywhere near drinkable. I may
have been a year or five old, but I really thought the vac-pack would
handle it. Nope.
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Date: 07 Jan 2007 22:12:47
From: razmoo
Subject: Re: hitting the "sweet spot"
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I had to try mass superket style beans the other day as I ran out of
fresh.. the first shot was fast, thin, yuk but then i adjusted it a
couple notches finer, tamped harder and it actually tasted quite good..
a bit mellow but good.
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Date: 07 Jan 2007 11:13:04
From: Jack Denver
Subject: Re: hitting the "sweet spot"
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Oh yeah, big time. I can't make espresso with older store bought coffee
worth a damn - no matter how I grind it never seems to turn out. Whereas
with home roast I rarely need to adjust my grinder to get a shot in the
drinkable range. Even if my home roast is not as good as some pro roasts, I
couldn't give it up for that reason alone.
"chardinej" <chardine@nbnet.nb.ca > wrote in message
news:1168177441.761522.18320@38g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Once you have tried very fresh-roasted coffee it is easy to see and
> taste the difference in the quality of the shot compared to older
> coffee. This is pretty obvious. What was not so obvious to me until
> today was how "forgiving" fresh-roasted coffee is. This morning I tried
> for the first time pulling a shot using a famous Italian espresso bean,
> noted for its ability to stay fresh in the cans for a fair length of
> time. I dosed and tamped as usual and choked the machine twice, on the
> third try I got a 15 s gusher and on the forth try it was reasonable
> but still not what I usually get. Between shots I was adjusting the
> Mazzer one "notch" at a time and can usually dial-in to a new bean in
> one shot with fresh coffee.
>
> So what I conclude from this is that on my set-up at least (NS Oscar,
> Mazzer mini) fresh-roasted coffee has a much wider "sweet spot" within
> which the shots are technically good (time, volume etc) and look and
> taste excellent too. On older coffee, today anyway, I couldn't really
> find this sweet spot on four tries.
>
> Anyone else noticed this?
>
> John
>
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