The ultimate method of powdering Italian espresso

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Only by doing every detail well can you make a good espresso. From controlling the amount of powder with volume measurement software (or the electronic scale of the coffee machine), to accurately controlling the extraction rate, to adjusting grinding parameters, controlling extraction time, etc., you must devote 100% of your energy to do your best.

But if you have done all the above steps and the quality of the coffee is still not satisfactory, why on earth?

The answer may lie in your powder plucking technique. It is very difficult but important to pick the powder perfectly and distribute the coffee powder evenly in the filter bowl.

Once the handle is loaded into the coffee machine, the water will come into contact with the powder bed driven by pressure. due to the huge pressure and high temperature, the ways and ways in which the water filters the coffee powder are prone to errors. No matter where the coffee is produced and which way it is purchased, roasted and ground, the moment the water comes into contact with the coffee powder directly determines the final quality of the coffee. The average distribution of coffee powder allows water to evenly extract the essence of coffee, thus making the quality controllable. If you can distribute the coffee powder evenly in the filter bowl in the same way every time, the quality of your coffee will be stable.

Therefore, doing a good job of picking powder is the most effective way to evenly extract coffee and avoid diversion. Whether at home or in the coffee shop, we inevitably have to pick the powder every time we make coffee, and how to maintain the repeatability and effectiveness of the powder technology requires us to further study and explore.

Today, let's introduce an effective powder plucking technology.

The powder is divided into two steps. The first step is relatively simple, that is to let the coffee powder from the bean grinder into the filter bowl. At this point, you need to make sure that the coffee powder is concentrated in the center of the filter bowl as much as possible. This is relatively simple for some specific types of bean grinders, but it is not a small challenge for some bean grinders. Some grinding beans will automatically produce powder to the center of the filter bowl, while some baristas will use the cylinder to measure the amount of powder. for the above cases, it is relatively easy to ensure that the coffee powder is concentrated in the center of the filter bowl. You only need to maintain a certain angle of the filter bowl. Let the coffee powder concentrate as much as possible.

If you are using a manual pulverizer, you need to accurately control the strength of pulverization, the speed and position of pulverization. If the distribution of coffee powder in the filter bowl is not ideal, don't pour it out in a hurry. If you use a funnel or weight cup, after the powder is produced, try to shake the handle horizontally in a ring, spread the coffee powder as far as possible with the help of centrifugal force, and distribute it evenly in the filter bowl. Of course, whether the powder is distributed centrally or evenly depends on the different methods of pulverizing.

With the evolution of espresso extraction technology, we have come into contact with and tried many powder extraction techniques. Among them, many are easy to learn, easy to repeat, high efficiency, worthy of reference.

If you have found a good way to pick powder, please keep it. What we introduce to you today is the powder plucking technology we use in the training, which we think is the most efficient and constant method at present.

The name of the method is "tap powder".

The steps are as follows: first, prepare an empty handle and powder it in the way you are most familiar with. After the powder is produced, we have to start "tapping".

Hold the handle with a non-habitual hand and tap the edge of the handle 5-6 times until the coffee powder is evenly distributed and the surface is smooth. Finally, gently tap the table with the handle to break the powder bed to clear the larger pieces of powder and air.

The key to picking powder lies in how hard to tap, how many times, how to hold the handle when tapping, and how to tap the bar.

First of all, the tap should be strong enough to allow the coffee powder to move fully in the filter bowl. If the pat is too light, the coffee powder will only move vertically down, not horizontally, and most of the coffee powder will remain intact; if the pat is too heavy, the coffee powder will fly out directly!

At the same time, be sure to control the number of taps. When tapping, the coffee powder moves up and down. After experiments, we found that the position of coffee powder was deeper when we tapped 15 times than 10 times. The purpose of tapping is to ensure constant quality. After repeated attempts, we found that the most stable way is to tap 5-6 times.

In addition, the handle must be moved when tapping. If the hand holding the handle is motionless, the coffee powder will only move in one direction, which will only make the result worse. To solve this problem, when tapping, the hand holding the handle should maintain a certain angle, and the side that always keeps the pat when moving the handle is the higher-angled side. The purpose of this is to make the coffee powder move from high to low when tapping.

Once the coffee powder is evenly distributed, the next step is to tap the table vertically down. At this point, make sure that the filter bowl is horizontal and the handle moves vertically downward. In many handles, the angle of the filter bowl is different from that of the handle, so when you think the handle is horizontal, the filter bowl is still angled. If you tap on the table at this time, you will not be able to form a perfect vertical downward force. Be sure to keep the filter bowl horizontal when you tap lightly. Don't knock too hard, just break the powder bed.

Once the powder is finished, you can start pressing the powder. Pressing powder should also keep the powder bed flat. Try to keep the powder hammer into the filter bowl vertically. Once the angle appears, all previous efforts will be wasted.

A lot of people want to know how hard it takes to press powder. In the past, baristas attached great importance to the power of powder pressing, and some people even exercised their muscles for it. Some baristas will tell you that 15kg stress is the most appropriate, some think it is 25kg, and others think it is 10kg. In fact, the power of powder pressing is not that important. You just need to make sure that pressed powder is tight, and you don't have to work hard at all. When pressing powder, just feel that the powder bed is exerting a reaction force on you.

When the powder pressing is finished, you can test whether the above steps have really improved the quality of the coffee. Be sure to remember to taste your hard-made coffee! If you can make sure that other variables remain the same and only change the method of picking powder, I believe our method will make your coffee more delicious.