Many people can't stand espresso when drank alone. The high concentration of burnt bitterness is described by many as like Chinese medicine. After being mixed with milk or diluted with water, many people can easily accept it. But reality is often cruel. You will inevitably taste coffee that is difficult to swallow even after adding milk. In this case, there is often a problem with the extraction of the coffee.Many of the customers on the front street have espresso machines at home, and they usually play with them when they are interested. The frequency of operation is much lower than that in cafes. In this case, it will be much more difficult to extract a cup of delicious espresso, so a simpler extraction method is needed to assist in the production of delicious coffee.The Dilemma of Extracting EspressoEven in coffee shops, it is not uncommon for the oil to be thin or too bitter or sour when extracting concentrate. Therefore, in coffee shops, espresso is usually adjusted until it meets the production requirements. So what indicators can be used as a reference? Of course it’s time and powder-to-liquid ratio. At the beginning, the espresso standard guided by the Italian Coffee Association was to extract 30ml of espresso within 20-30 seconds. Now it is a 1:2 powder-to-liquid ratio that is commonly used in coffee shops. Then time is used as a variable and changes are based on actual tasting of flavor.This change is mainly due to the emergence of SOE and variable pressure extraction machines, which makes extraction no longer the same, but a targeted extraction plan.For example, when extracting traditional Italian blend coffee beans and SOE Yirgacheffe coffee beans, the parameters such as grinding degree, powder volume, time, and powder-to-liquid ratio are different.Although the current pressure-variable extraction and immersion extraction seem very complicated, in fact, as long as you understand the most critical factors of espresso and control these parameters, it is basically not difficult to extract a cup of unpleasant espresso.For home coffee machines, the choice of the machine determines the difficulty of making coffee. Of course, it is not very realistic to have a double-head commercial coffee machine at home, but if it is just a small and powerful home coffee machine (also known as a "toy machine"), then it is basically a hellish start. Front Street believes that coffee machines priced at 310 and above in Huijia can be considered a beginner's start.And coffee beans will become the next problem. How to choose coffee beans has become a big question. Online, prices range from 30 yuan to 300 yuan, but Front Street would like to remind everyone that don’t be greedy for small gains and buy some low-priced practice beans first to practice how to extract coffee. It's okay to practice those repetitive movements, but it's basically impossible to go further. Judging from previous experience, coffee made from bad beans is prone to problems such as burnt, bitter, sour, and insufficient oil. If the problem is really caused by coffee beans, no matter how much you practice, it will not help, because you have not tried a good one, and you don’t know what a good one should be. This is a matter of cognitive level. Of course, when you really know what good coffee should be like, you can also buy some practice beans to solidify your movements.Regarding the freshness of the beans, basically if you want a good extraction effect, Italian beans need to be grown for about 7-10 days.(calculated from baking date). The oil produced by beans that are too fresh will be rough and may lack flavor. If coffee beans are left for too long, the fat will become thinner and the flavor will be bitter and easily over-extracted.Master a few basic points and get espresso at your fingertips The difficulties in extracting espresso coffee generally lie in the control of extraction time, the creation of "channels" and how to observe whether the concentration is normal. Front Street summarized several points for novices.1. In terms of time control, for novices, first fix the amount of powder(See powder bowl capacity), Powder to liquid ratio 1:2. Control the extraction time within 25-33 seconds by changing the grind size, just one variable.When the extraction time is long, adjust the coarse coffee powder; when the extraction time is short, adjust the fine coffee powder.2. But novices will add variables to themselves, that is, the problem of cloth powder and pressing powder, which is also the reason for the "channel". The suggestion given by Front Street is to use a powder dispenser to spread the powder. Just keep the powder flat and use a little more force. Don’t worry about pressing the powder too tightly with too much force. Because if your coffee machine can continuously extract at 9 bar pressure, the pressure from your hand is insignificant, so you don’t have to worry about pressing too hard.
3. When extracting, you need to observe the extraction status of the coffee and observe whether the flow rate is uniform and whether there is any spurting. If coffee gushes out 2-3 seconds after pressing the extraction button, it can be judged that the grinding is not fine enough or "channeled"; if no liquid comes out after more than 10 seconds after pressing the extraction button, you can stop the extraction first and adjust the coarse grinding. In addition to the unstable flow rate, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, this situation is mostly caused by "channels" or uneven pressed powder. 4. If you follow the extraction requirements and extract coffee at a ratio of 1:2 within 25-33 seconds, and there is no "channel" phenomenon and the coffee's oil is thin, then it is likely to be a problem with the coffee beans (not fresh, lightly roasted), or the water temperature of the coffee machine is not enough, the pressure is insufficient, etc.Extraction recommendations for pre-ground coffee Front Street also comes into contact with many customers who need pre-ground espresso coffee powder. In this regard, Front Street needs to emphasize that the coffee powder ground in the coffee shop may not exactly match the coffee machine you use. On the contrary, even if the equipment used in the coffee shop is the same, the store may need to fine-tune the parameters including the grinding scale every day to ensure the quality of the coffee.Therefore, pre-ground coffee powder can only determine a rough thickness for us, but cannot accurately measure it. For the actual extraction of espresso, under the premise that the grinding thickness has been fixed, if we want the coffee to taste better, we can only control the time by increasing or decreasing the amount of coffee powder.For example, if you use 18g of powder to extract 36g of coffee liquid with a target ratio of 1:2, but the flow rate is extremely slow and even fails to flow out of the handle, you can first try to reduce the coffee powder by 1g, and then extract with the same target of 1:2.
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
