(transfer) the production of espresso (espresso)

Recently, through communication with many friends who like coffee, I found that many friends have problems in making espresso. Even though many friends have purchased relatively professional machines and equipment, they are still unable to make a relatively satisfactory espresso. Perhaps not many people really like to drink espresso alone, but a cup of bitter taste is balanced and sweet, with a hint of cocoa and caramel. Thick and thick espresso is the basis for making cappuccino, latte and other fancy coffee. Many people think that milk flavor can cover the shortcomings of espresso. In fact, on the contrary, any shortcomings of espresso will be exposed in fancy coffee. Only a cup of caramel and sweet espresso can be perfectly integrated with the sweetness of milk to form a delicious coffee latte or cappuccino. Therefore, it is very important to make a satisfactory espresso.

To make a satisfactory espresso, you should pay attention to the following points:

1. Fresh Italian coffee beans

I will tell all the coffee drinkers that the beans themselves will be the most important key point to determine the taste of the coffee in your cup, and the equipment and technology can make up for it, but the beans themselves cannot be remedied or remedied. If you use poor quality, failed baking, aged beans for a long time, no matter how good your equipment or no matter how advanced your technology is, you can't change the stale and bitter taste of this cup of coffee.

Beans for making espresso are usually made of several kinds of beans in proportion, but no matter what kind of beans are mixed, they are all aimed at achieving two goals: one is to reduce costs, the other is to balance taste and outstanding characteristics, no matter how good our matching is, you should know that there is only one ultimate goal of blending, that is, to reduce costs, and several kinds of beans are put together. In order to achieve beyond the quality of any single kind of beans, so as to achieve the effect of 1: 1 > 2.

Italian coffee beans (100% Arabica coffee beans)

Most Italian beans are roasted from medium to deep, but no matter how deep they are, when you open the bag and see the beans, it should be the aroma of coffee, not a strong smoky smell. Visually, the beans should not be pure black, or deep brown, although they are medium to deep roasted, the beans should not be shiny. If your beans are shiny, there must be only two reasons. They may be kept for a long time, at least for more than 3 weeks, or they may be too deep. Either of these two reasons will cause the coffee in your cup to have a halala taste, or unbearably bitter.

According to the baking degree of beans, the best drinking time for Italian beans is between 1 week and 1.5 months. at this stage, the coffee has obvious sweetness, long-lasting taste, balanced overall taste, amber or dark brown red color and sticky taste.

2. Manufacturing equipment

With the right beans, the production of espresso is also strictly required for the equipment, because the extraction of espresso is different from the use of siphon, hand brewing and other production methods, and there are quantitative standard requirements for the equipment, the water temperature should be between 90-92 degrees, the pressure is about 8 Pa, and the pressure is relatively stable, 14-18 grams of uniform coffee powder, extraction time of about 25 seconds, extraction volume of 20-25 milliliters. Only when it is made under such conditions is it possible to get satisfactory coffee.

It is quite common in China to be able to meet the above conditions, but there is not much household equipment purchased:

Optional coffee maker:

Oscar Ocscar Nuova Simonelli is about 5000 yuan.

Silver Rancilio, commonly known as "Miss S", costs about 4000 yuan.

Expobar Office leva twin boiler version is about 11000 yuan.

Expobar Office Leva single boiler version is about 8000 yuan

GLY Shuttle is about 6000-8000 yuan.

Rocket Giotto is about 18000 yuan.

Optional coffee mill:

Huijia ZD-15 is about 700 yuan

Rancilio Rocky is about 3000 yuan.

Taiwan 900N is about 2500 yuan

Mazzer mini is about 4000 yuan.

Mazzer super jolly is about 4700 yuan.

The above machines are produced by regular manufacturers, the quality is guaranteed, most of them have accepted the baptism of time, durable, and have a certain reputation between players and small businesses. In addition to the above equipment, there are many fake miscellaneous brand equipment on the market. If there is no limit on your funds, I think you should not try to buy those equipment. You may be able to use them normally for the time being, but no one can guarantee how long they will last. If your funds are really limited, I personally think that it is better to spend your limited funds on tasting beans and only buy some simple and easy-to-use coffee making utensils, such as hand brewing equipment, siphon and so on.

3. Production technology

With beans and suitable equipment, finally, there are human factors that we can control. Because the extraction conditions of Italian coffee are very extreme, there are slight changes in the production process. Finally, in the coffee cup, it will be several cups, dozens of times or even hundreds of times magnification, reflected in the feeling after the entrance is very strong and unbearable. Therefore, in the process of production, we should pay attention to every small detail. Next, I will explain the production process of espresso in order. I am not an expert or master, and the following is only personal experience and experience, which I would like to share with you:

(1) Coffee bean grinding

Grinding coffee beans can be said to be very important for a cup of coffee. Only a well-ground coffee powder with the right thickness can extract delicious coffee and get rid of the taste you don't want in the coffee powder. So it's very important to find the right gear, and you may have to adjust it several times to find the right position.

The coffee powder ground by hand or siphon is relatively thick, and the coffee particles can be clearly seen.

The ground espresso is very fine and is often bundled because of static electricity or coffee oil.

It is very important to adjust the grinding fineness of the coffee mill. the following picture shows the mazzer mini bean grinder, which is adjusted without poles. The grinding scale marked on the coffee mill can only be used as a reference value and should be adjusted according to your own needs and the state of extraction.

The direction of Fine is fine, and the direction of Coarse is coarse.

(2) filling and pressing coffee powder

Fill the ground coffee powder into the powder bowl with just the right amount, neither too much nor too little. My general habit is about 17 grams. After the coffee powder is put into the powder bowl, wrap the coffee powder with tools or hands, and distribute the coffee powder evenly throughout the powder bowl, so as to make the extraction uniform and avoid the channel effect (the so-called channel effect, it is due to packing and other reasons that the coffee pressed powder is loose in some places and compact in some places, so that during extraction, a large amount of hot water flows through the loose place, resulting in over-extraction). I am used to wrapping powder, leaving a small drum bag in the middle of the powder bowl, and then filling it. Under pressure, the small drum bag will spread flat.

In the initial unskilled and uncertain practice stage, we can use electronic weighing to assist the practice.

A filled bowl of coffee powder

A drum bag formed after powder coating.

The filling and pressing of coffee powder is also a fine job, which seems simple, but it needs to be practiced repeatedly, first of all, it should be balanced, and secondly, the strength is appropriate. My favorite is usually to fill twice, the first time do not use too much strength, but rely on the weight of the hammer to flatten the powder, a little power, to level the coffee powder; under the premise that the coffee powder is basically flat, fill it for the second time to squeeze the coffee.

Fill and press evenly.

After filling and pressing, the coffee powder generally does not exceed the groove line in the powder bowl, that is, the position of the red in the following picture.

Fill it with a flat coffee pressed powder

(3) to cool down the coffee machine and get the appropriate extraction water temperature.

As we said earlier, the water used to extract coffee is not boiling water, but hot water at about 90 degrees Celsius, while most coffee machines are in the state of turning on, and the water temperature will be too high after being idle for a period of time. If you directly use this part of water for extraction, it will certainly cause excessive extraction or coffee powder scald, forming a scorched taste, so we have to release this part of the water, but how long will it take to get the right water temperature? It depends on your knowledge and mastery of your own coffee maker.

Usually, if your machine is idle for a period of time, when the water button is turned on, hot water and gushing steam will flow out from the head of the coffee machine at the same time, and you can also hear the sound of steam. The water temperature must be too high. For most household machines, the volume of the boiler is between 1.5 and 3 liters, so after you release some of the water, the pump will replenish the water, the boiler will start heating again, and the heating lamp will turn on, and then you can stop releasing water and wait for the boiler heating lamp to go out. At this time, the water temperature is about 90 degrees.

As the water is released, you can see the steam gushing out of the cooking head at the same time.

(4) extracted coffee

After releasing the water, you can put the coffee handle on the brewing head and begin to extract the coffee. What you need to remind you here is that you should press the extraction button from the handle to the cooking head, instead of putting the handle on the cooking head and getting the cup. Because the brewing heads of most coffee machines are made of copper and are very hot under the action of hot water, if you put the handle on the brewing head, all parts of the handle will soon be scalded under the action of heat transfer, scalding the coffee powder. to get a cup of espresso with a scorched flavor.

You may ask me, when I load it with immediate extraction, I don't even have time to get the cup. Very simply, you may not have noticed that after you started the extraction, the coffee did not flow out immediately. In the normal extraction state, the coffee began to flow 7-9 seconds after you pressed the extraction button. 7 seconds is enough time for you to put the coffee cup under the handle. If you press the button, the coffee will flow out. This cup of coffee is either too light or too sour. It is definitely not a satisfactory cup of coffee. If you haven't set the cup yet, don't set it up, so you don't have to wash the cup.

As we said earlier, the extraction time of espresso should be about 20 seconds. This more than 20 seconds does not start from the moment you press the extraction button, but from the moment you press the extraction button. During these 20 seconds, the amount of coffee flowing out should be about 20 milliliters.

The coffee should be thin, like a mouse's tail.

The coffee should be sticky and delicate, like citrus with hot honey.

The extracted cup of espresso espresso tastes balanced and sticky.

Espresso extracted from a large cup and used as a base for fancy coffee

A latte made from espresso.

(5) knock out coffee pressed powder

In fact, this step is not to make coffee directly, but to see whether your extraction is successful or not through pressed powder. After successful extraction, the coffee pressed powder should be able to take shape, can be knocked out as a whole, there is no obvious perforation on the coffee pressed powder, after breaking the coffee cake, the interior is dry and evenly distributed.

The front of the coffee pressed powder

The back of pressed powder

The interior of pressed powder

Finally, I would like to emphasize the following points:

First of all, although espresso has its own quantitative definition, but on the premise of meeting the basic conditions, I think it is necessary to decide when to stop the extraction according to the taste of the coffee in the cup, rather than rigidly copying a few values.

Secondly, in addition to some of the equipment I mentioned above, there are also some entry-level or coffee-like equipment on the market, which are also produced by regular manufacturers, and the quality of their products can be guaranteed, but it is still difficult to get satisfactory espresso, such as Cankun's 1817 coffee machine and Delong EC-155. Some of these coffee machines are small stainless steel boilers and some are heating block technology. But most of them use pressurized double-layer filters, and the extracted coffee can only be said to be similar to Italian coffee in appearance, but it is acceptable to play with it when your money is limited. My first decent coffee machine was also 1817, which was eliminated after less than half a year of service. If you want to make a decent espresso at home, I recommend that you do not have such a "transition" product.

In addition, although it is your Italian coffee machine that directly makes coffee, the importance of coffee mill is far more important than coffee machine to some extent, so you must not ignore coffee mill. When you consider your budget, you must consider coffee mill. No matter how good the coffee machine is, it is impossible to make good coffee without a suitable mill.

These are some of my experiences in making espresso. Hope that the majority of coffee lovers after reading this article, can provide some reference for further practice, less detours, less beans.