Brewing espresso at home: from coffee beans to coffee maker recommendation

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Espresso Espresso originated in Italy, which means "very fast" in Italian. It pulls out the coffee liquid instantly through the pressure of steam. Because this method can last the coffee oil for a long time, the taste is mellow and rich, and the sour taste is balanced with the bitter taste, so it is called the work of art in coffee. In addition, espresso is often used as the basis for other types of coffee, such as latte, cappuccino, macchiato and mocha, all based on espresso.

The selection of coffee beans

Espresso is mixed with a variety of coffee beans, such as Kenya, Mantenin, Mocha, Brazil, Colombia. And so on are often mixed as basic beans. Different varieties of beans from the place of origin, coupled with the acquired baking time, the mixture will naturally have a unique taste and aroma. The selection of coffee beans is mainly based on whether the taste after extraction is in line with personal preference.

1. Kenya

Coffee beans have obvious sour taste and hard texture, in which the coffee beans with blackcurrant flavor are regarded as the best. The quality and production capacity of coffee beans in small farms are much better than those in large farms, while the quality of large farms can only be ranked as medium. Kenya beans are divided into seven grades according to particle size and appearance, the highest is AA or AA+, followed by AB, PB, C, E, TT, T, but good appearance is not necessarily proportional to taste.

two。 Colombia

Is an Arabica variety, coffee thick neutral, with sweet after baking, taste more sour with sweet, slightly bitter, often used to mix in the comprehensive coffee, such as the taste of melon peel is the most advanced variety.

3. Manning

Produced in Sumatra, Indonesia, is a basic bean, roasted with bitter taste, thick and strong taste, is the most common mixed coffee beans.

4. Mocha

For example, mochas from Ethiopia in Africa are all Arabica varieties, with a unique sweet and sour taste, as well as a special flavor of chocolate, with fruit aroma in baking, such as mixing in coffee to increase aroma, mellow taste to increase its uniqueness.

5. Brazil

Belonging to Arabica, its taste is slightly sour, slightly sweet, slightly bitter and slightly fragrant. Coffee beans with a neutral taste do not have a strong special taste, and are very suitable for drinking alone or mixed with other coffee.

The criteria for judging good coffee

A cup of delicious espresso can be seen from the appearance and color of crema. First of all, it is best for crema to have a sense of mirror oil (another saying is tiger spot, but if the amount of coffee powder is too small and excessive extraction will produce white spots), and its thickness should be between 3mm, the extraction amount of a cup of coffee should be set according to the capacity of the cup, with 25--35ml as the best range, and it is best to drink it within two mouthfuls to keep the flavor fresh. Italians usually come into the coffee shop early in the morning to have a cup of espresso and drink it at the scene. You don't even need time to sit down.

Coffee cups are also important.

In addition, many people ignore the importance of coffee cups, but when you cook a perfect espresso, the shape of the coffee cups is also important, which will affect the taste and heat preservation effect.

Italians only use their index finger and thumb to hold the handle of the coffee cup gracefully, making the situation of drinking coffee leisurely. The design of the solid thickness of the coffee cup edge is also very different from that of the general coffee cup, just so that the lips can drink every mouthful of strong coffee, while the opening size of the coffee cup is just enough to cover the nose when drinking coffee. full aroma of coffee between nose and wing.

Fancy coffee such as ▲ cappuccino is derived from espresso. A good espresso can be seen from the color of the crema above and should have a mirror-like oily feel without white spots.

Make a nice espresso 4m

To make a good espresso, Italians sum up four important elements, which are also known by coffee lovers as the four M of espresso:

The coffee bar master, that is, the skill of the modulator, is of course the most important link. The modulator must understand coffee and constantly study it in order to make coffee brewing an art.

When the coffee beans are ground and the coffee powder is too fine, the coffee will become more bitter because the hot water is left in the filter for too long. On the contrary, if the coffee powder is too thick, it will make the hot water flow too fast, and the coffee will taste lighter.

The formula of coffee beans, espresso is made from a mixture of different proportions of coffee beans. Italians think that only in this way can coffee with unique flavor be conditioned. As for the formula and proportion, it depends on the modulator's own ability and hobby.

Espresso machine can be divided into commercial coffee machine and household coffee machine. The main difference is the mechanism of steam pressure and the control design of brewing time, which can be divided into semi-automatic and fully automatic.

The process of using an Italian coffee machine

1. Warm cup

First of all, before all the actions begin, you must first warm the cup in the warm cup area of the coffee machine to avoid the hot drink coming into contact with the cold cup will affect the taste. If the household coffee machine does not have a warm cup area, you can also use hot water to scald the coffee cup instead. Be sure to wipe dry to avoid excess moisture affecting the taste.

two。 Clean the handle

After removing the handle, first wipe off the residual coffee powder after the previous use or the water after cleaning, so as to avoid soaking the coffee powder with the residual moisture on the hand extraction head and affecting the taste, such as the coffee powder at the edge of the handle flows into the cup, it will cause more dregs at the bottom of the coffee.

3. Packed coffee

Coffee powder should be evenly poured and pressed, this step requires uniform density and compactness, otherwise insufficient extraction will be caused when the flow rate of hot water is too slow, which will lead to sour taste of coffee, and excessive extraction will be caused if the flow rate is too fast.

4. Installation handle

After filling and smoothing the coffee powder, be sure to install the handle and press the button immediately, because the head is generally about a hundred degrees, the heat of contact with the coffee powder on the glove has already begun to change, which will lead to the smell of the coffee.

You can also easily taste elegance and mellow at home.

Although the steam pressure produced by household-grade espresso machines is not comparable to that of hundreds of thousands of commercial-grade machines, it does provide an easy way to solve the problem of blending, and through the formulation of coffee beans and the user's own technology, you can still brew mellow espresso. Some classic models are introduced here.

The classic coffee machine that Hollywood celebrities also like to use.

Most household coffee machines in the community emphasize practicality, but Illy elevates the practical function to the artistic level and makes the enjoyment of coffee a beautiful event to be expected every day. X1, launched by Luca Trazz, a well-known Italian architect, through Illy's FrancisFrancis in 1995, has been impressive in many movies and TV series (such as "Smith Mission" and "Sex and the City").

Unfortunately, the X1 has been discontinued and replaced by the more spring version of the X6. In the past, the X1 machine could use regular coffee powder and E.S.E. Coffee is easy to manage and use, while X6 can only use easy bags. Following the X1 style, the X6 also has an ET-like coffee machine with a sense of the future. the handmade stainless steel metal body, ring watch, oval panel, joystick, light bulb, exposed silk and vinyl knob make it not only a coffee machine, but also the most beautiful furniture no matter where it is placed.

▲ adopts the global E.S.E. (Easy Serving Espresso) standard design, can only use Yi Li bag coffee (called serving or pod or coffee capsule) to brew, using automatic pressure pump system, the maximum air pressure can reach the pressure of 17Bar, can produce the most meticulous milk foam continuously. The water storage capacity can reach 1.5 liters, and the machine can be filled freely when the machine is in operation.

Enjoy the pleasure of manipulating coffee

Designed by the BMW American design team (BMW Group DesignworksUSA) invited by the Italian coffee maker Saeco, the shiny arc metal fuselage resembles a high-end BMW, from the entry-level Odea series, the advanced Talea series to the top-level Primea series, fully demonstrating the "manipulation fun" (BMW 喜悦 of Driving) touted by BMW. All series emphasize that a cup of espresso can be easily brewed with an index finger.

The Talea series is like BMW's 5 series sports car, especially the fine foam that can be made through Milk Island in a few seconds to quickly make delicious cappuccino and latte. Talea Giro is the entry type of the series, the top knob is patented technology: SBS (Saeco Brewing System), as long as a rotation can have a choice of different coffee, turn right to make espresso, turn left is American coffee. In addition, the use of ceramic grinding bean blade, when grinding beans can retain the original taste of coffee, use is also safe and low noise.

▲ water tank is 1.7L, provides 15 atmospheric pressure pump, can brew two cups of coffee at a time, the perfect CREMA can be extracted! The selected milk island is a special design of Saeco. By inserting external steam into the fresh milk for foaming, the dense foamed milk can be obtained accurately and efficiently.

Bring espresso into the era of science and technology

Talea TOUCH, also designed by BMW's American design team, is an advanced model, launched in Taiwan in November last year, and is the latest domestic product in the series. The appearance and function are similar to Talea Giro, but Talea TOUCH is a fully automatic machine, brewing coffee can be controlled by clicking on the touch screen, and SBS function can be used to control the flow rate and maintain the strong flavor of coffee. It can be divided into 6, 7 and 8 grams three stages to adjust the amount of beans to make Italian coffee that meets individual needs.

Other functions include an electronic water tray, which can also adjust height electronically, which can be automatically adjusted according to the height of different sizes such as coffee cups or mugs, and a rotating disk is designed at the bottom, which can directly rotate the whole machine. it is convenient to take out the side water tank, bean dregs box and brewer. At the same time, it also has the function of automatically turning on and cleaning the pipeline, so that each brewed coffee can ensure the original taste, and the cup is good coffee.

▲ adopts the design of son-mother double boiler, which can produce 20 cups of espresso continuously, and adopts the design of water tank / bean trough / waste water / bean dregs separation, and has a detachable patent brewer for easy disassembly and cleaning.

Automatic coffee brewing with single button

The ESAM3500 model, launched by Italian coffee maker Delonghi in 2008, is a fully automatic coffee machine that follows the previous ESAM3200 one-touch model, emphasizing that coffee can be easily brewed at the touch of a button. ESAM 3500 is similar to Saeco's Talea mid-range machine. "IDF Rapid Milk foam making system" is directly attached to the machine, where coffee and milk are mixed by brewing head, saving the manual mixing process, and the traditional tapered steel knife grinding method remains the same.

According to the analysis of distributor Wei Tai Li Yinghao, Starbucks orthodox espresso method the amount of beans per cup is about 13mur15 grams, and the maximum powder amount of ESAM 3500 is between 6murmures and 16grams, which can be freely adjusted according to individual taste. Its "CRF (Compact Reliable Fresh) patented continuous brewing system" advertises that it is now cooked without stale, and uses the automatic cleaning function of switch machine to save cleaning time.

▲ uses a system made of coffee beans and coffee powder, which can be poured into coffee beans or foreign follicular coffee powder. There is a stainless steel double boiler design, respectively, coffee steam boiler and milk foam conditioning boiler, both maintain the water temperature of 91 degrees, water tank and brewer can be removed from the front, saving space. F