I love questions from customers about coffee, and here is one that I would like to share with you from Steve.

Steve asked the question about the impact of a pressurised coffee basket in his new coffee machine, and if he should change it to a after-market non-pressurised basket, improve his coffee.

Here is my reply.

Hi Steve.

Thanks for your email.

You have nailed it - the point that is letting you down is the pressurised basket. Let me first explain why some coffee machine manufacturers use presurised baskets in the first place, and the difference between non-pressurised coffee baskets.

A pressurised basket is different to a non pressurised basket by having only one single hole in the bottom of the basket, vs many holes in a normal basket. The idea is to force the coffee through the one tiny hole, and in the process, creating a fake crema. Thats perfect for the machine manufacturer, becasue even with stale supermarket beans, they can say "look how good the crema is from our machine", but it will lack taste - its just micro-foamed coffee.

Using fresh roasted beans will improve the flavour of your coffee, but the basket being pressurised means that you dont get any good feedback on what is really happening with your coffee extraction.

Breville make non pressurised baskets for their Cafe Roma boiler machine - the machine retails for about $80, but the spare bpart can be ordered seerately for under $10. if it fits your machine, thats what I reccomend as a solution.

When you pay more for a machine, really all you are getting other than facy looks, is a more stable and consistent tempreture and pressure, and better heatup times, which while important, is not absolutely necessary. You will get a much better benefit by changing your basket to a non pressurised basket, and using a coffee tamp. then you can experiment with technique to perfect your coffee.

your aiming for 30ml of coffee in the cup, over 25seconds. If you get more than 30ml, your grind is too coarse, or your tamp too light. I like to try and keep as many things consistent, ie;

30 ml of coffee (per shot)
7grams of coffee (per shot)
25 seconds extraction
15kg of tamp pressure (try using bathroom scales to get an idea of what 15kg of pressure feels like.
I also like to always use a double basket, per coffee extraction, into one cup (so 14g of coffee and 60ml).

Let me know how you get on.

Regards,

James Axisa
Chief Espresso Officer 
www.baybeans.com.au
Mobile: 0428 555 535
Voicemail callback: 02 8208 3477 
[I answer your emails, just hit reply]

A Bay Beans customer wrote to me today asking how to improve thier coffee from their espresso machine. I get a number of requests like this and thought it might be helpful to someone else if I start sharing these here on the Bay Beans Blog.

The question was:

I own a breville cafe roma machine with an extra purchased non pressurised basket. The coffee usually drips out over 30ml in 15 or less seconds. I've never used a tamper, is it important? I use the small flat tool that came with the machine to push the coffee. I don't get much crema in espresso and at times none.

And the reply is;

Hi,

Thats a great decision to use an extra non pressurised basket - now you can see what is really going on.

The lack of crema can be for a number of reasons;

• supermarket beans and other stale coffee beans will lack crema - its difficult to get fresh beans from any shopfront or cafe. 
• you might get more sucess with making your grind finer.
  
• a better tamp is helpful, but so long as you are using one, then thats fine.

the idea is to try and be consistent with the following;

• aim for around 14grams of coffee in the basket. you dont need to measure it, just aim for a heaped hump sitting ontop of the basket. usually any extra will naturally fall off the sides of the basket anyway.
  
• tamp with around 15kg of pressure. if you have bathroom scales at your place, try practicing on top of the scales to get an idea of what 15kg of pressure feels like
• stick with 30 seconds pour.
  

if you do all that, and the only thing you then need to adjust is your grind. if you get too much coffee in the cup over 30 seconds, your grind is too coarse. if you dont get enough coffee, your coffee is too fine. You are then able to repeat knowing that most everything else is consistent.


I hope that helps. let me know how you get on.


James Axisa 
Chief Espresso Officer
BayBeans.com.au   |   Mobile: 0428 555 535   |   Voicemail callback: 02 8208 3477