Can an espresso filter change a brew?

I recently saw an advert for a machined espresso filter. I have always wondered how you can tweak and espresso machine, and seeing this is quite interesting. Can the size of the holes make that big a difference?

Well read what coffee geek had to say: (original link Can These Filters Change the World of Espresso?) Here is a summary.

Driven by an idea in a lecture VST redesigned the fitler basket to produce their own one, producing three different basket sizes. But it's not just the physical size of these baskets that are different: the holes, their size and placement are given extreme attention for each individual basket size. The four sizes are: :

• 7 gram basket (still in development, not yet available);
• the 14 gram basket (VST will call this a 15g basket, as it can hold 14-16g);
• the 17 gram basket (VST ref 18g - can hold 17-19g);
• and the 21 gram basket (VST ref 22g, holding 21-23g).

1. One of the things learned was the value of around 1-2mm separation (depending on the type of coffee used, but leaning towards 2mm) from the top of the bed of coffee and the bottom of a dispersion screen. For many testers, this was deemed the optimum clearance to allow for full and complete saturation of the bed of coffee. The vertical depth of each basket is designed with this 2g max swing in weight while still hitting desired target extractions as shown with an ExtractMojo refractometer test and Mojo's Brewing Control Chart.
2. Water flow through the bed of coffee was also exhaustively examined. Existing baskets, with a much smaller exit surface area vs a larger entry area on top for liquid often result in uneven, sometimes unpredictable extractions. The answer would be to maximize the bottom flat portion of the basket, with as many holes as possible to the edges. This is one thing the VST baskets do.
3. Other baskets have inconsistent holes sizes, and this produces grinds in the espresso and blockages, so the VST baskets solve this through a patent-pending (and protected) manufacturing and testing process. Where most baskets have a wide spread of sizes for holes (sometimes as many as 200 different hole sizes in one filter), the VST baskets, by contrast, 3 to 5 hole size spread for almost every exit hole in the filter. They are just that uniform, and that leads to better, more even extraction possibilities.

The baskets do make a difference, but the also expose bad tamping techniques


Update:
Okay so they are not VST porta filter baskets but while in Seattle I picked up the Strada ones, one getting home, and making sure my tamp was correct, I was really surprised how a small difference can change so much, the espresso was much better extracted, crema at least 50% better, and the espresso tasted good.

So if you cannot lay your hands on the VST porta filter baskets, then try a La Marzocco agent and ask for their baskets. They really do improve the expresso you can pull.

Why do some people drink milk and sugar in coffee?

Many things have come from war, not all of them bad. Funny place to start when talking about why we have a tradition of some cultures adding milk and sugar to their coffee.

Well the person who is often recognized as the person, who was coffee’s chief promoter of coffee in Europe Yuriy Kulchitsky, was originally a Cossack from Ukraine. Fought against the Turks and was captured. While he was captured he was introduced to coffee (the wine of the Turks/Arabs), and he also taught himself Turkish.

In the mid to late 1600’s he worked as an interpreter in Vienna. In 1683 Vienna was besieged by the Turks. Kulchitsky dressed in traditional Turkish apparel and was sent to request reinforcements from Emperor Leopold. These reinforcements assisted in the emancipation of Vienna, and Yuriy was hailed as a hero.

When the Turks retreated they left 300 sacks of coffee and these where given to the only person
interested in them Yuriy.

He started handing out coffee so that people could taste it, and driven by his passion decided to add milk and sugar to the coffee, so that more people would enjoy the coffee. This resulted in the opening of the first coffee shop in Vienna (one of the first in Europe, the Venetians lay claim to be the first).

If you visit Vienna there is a monument to Yuriy Kulchitsky and there is a street that bears his name. A rare honour for a lover of coffee, to have achieve such fame.

To this day coffee is still enjoyed in a Viennese style (with milk and sugar), although some traditionalist consider this sacrilege.

Coffee the biggest gainer in the Standard and Poors

Coffee was actually the biggest gainer in the Stan...: Last month Arabica futures rallied 20 percent on the news that frost in the Brazilian growing areas would negatively affect next year’s crop. Coffee was actually the biggest gainer in the Standard and Poors GSCI Index, and the GSCI was down 1.7 percent! Arabica Coffee had more than doubled in price since June of 2010. Rain had cut the output from Colombia, the second largest producer. And according to the U.S.D.A; Coffee stockpiles in Brazil were at their third lowest level in fifty years.

But if you look past this news, and read the additional information in the above linked article, you see that a momentary scare is all it is. The future looks like the coffee prices will decrease over the next 12 months with production in the major South American countries on the increase due to both weather and financial drivers.

Sensual coffee roasting

When you are serious about extracting the best for a high quality coffee, you need to roast considering many things. The two  most important senses are sight and smell. Yes there are electronic devices and timers and temperature gauges but the best roasters use those the most, and sound is an element too, since with sound you identify first crack (pop) and second crack (snap). Those are great guides to the point at which the coffee is roasted.

Imagine losing one of those sensors and still roasting? Well read this and it may open your eyes.

Coffee Quality what what you buy

Interesting article: Coffee just isn't what it used to be.

Essentially, the article summarizes what is happening in the coffee market. When brand is more important than quality is the brand worth anything?

Coffee roasters have for years considered profit above all. When they could not procure product at prices that would mean they make super profits they are used too.

A quality brand puts quality coffee as the only driver to their coffees, is a rare find.

By blending coffee with lower quality blends lowers the quality of the blend, so to call a blend 100% coffee is another way of saying we cannot guarantee the quality. Remember that there are over 100 varieties of Arabica alone, never mind the Robusta varieties. Also remember that coffee is a crop and you get different quality crops.

Take all that and you realize that pricing and quality are linked. That said on the high end, sometimes there is good value. A good example is Yirgacheffe versus Los Naranjos. The one came 3rd in 2009 in the world wide ratings (Yirgacheffe) and the other 1st, but the one is half the price of the other.

How to tell if a green bean is quality --- the roast

Coffee as we know it goes through a few processes before it is even roasted. It is fermented (either using a dry or wet process) and then de-pulped and then it is a state know as green bean. Many years ago this is where the process stopped, it was mixed with fat and chewed. If you have ever tasted a green bean you will understand why this did not become a world-wide hit, as its roasted cousin eventually did.

When coffee is roasted, a number of things happen inside the bean that essentially is summarized as water being forced out of the bean, and the bean then goes from a light green to an amber and then light brown then darker brown. When the internal temperature of the bean reaches about 200 °C it goes through a process that is called the first pop. This sounds like pop corn popping, as the water and other molecules are forced out. At this point it starts it a process that exposes first floral, then fruit then herbal (see wheel). The finest coffees can be roasted into the nut and chocolate areas by a skilled roaster, the lower quality bean need to go through that process dry distillation areas for flavours to be exposed.

What is often forgotten is the reason why some of these darker roasts are now called their well know names. Namely:

• Italian
• Austrian
• French
• Portuguese

So what was the reason. Well look back at the history of roasting and blending. Blending became an art when the coffee lovers of the above countries could not get access to the finer coffees, because of crop failures and war. Three things resulted:

1. Roasts where extended to find flavour in lower quality product
2. Other products where found and roasted with the coffee - the most popular was and still is the Robusta bean
3. A combination of the 1 & 2, and the blend and blend master was born.

The blend master strived to get the same nuances that a single origin high quality coffee would produce on its own.

Now of course these blends rule the roast or is that roost. Since they became well know. A coffee company today has its hand forced to produce a blend. Like wines and whiskeys the most famous wines and whiskeys are blends. But the real lover of coffee is slowly re-discovering the beauty of a coffee that is a from a single grower or area that produces a great coffee. Some years it is excellent, some years okay.

If you love coffee start looking for these coffees...

Tasting of coffee or cupping with your machine

Coffee Tasting Wheel

The traditional way to do cupping of coffee, is relatively complicated (you can read about the process here: Coffee Cupping guide).

Recently I have been tasting by using a few of my machines, so that I get a more accurate taste to what I can expect when I drink the coffee.

The process of checking the coffee beans, is still the same, purer Arabicas have a more oval shape then the cross pollinated and grafted varieties (that where normally mixed with Robusta influenced plants). So you still inspect the bean as per normal, I like inspecting after the coffee has been roasted since you get a good idea of how the green been roasts as a group of beans. The more uniform the shape and colour the better.

The I brew a cup using either my dosing grinder and semi-commercial coffee machine or my Jura bean-to-cup machine, and look at the crema, after 10 seconds. if it is still quite deep and reforms easily then the coffee still is fresh, and the oils are good.

The using my nose only I smell the coffee, and try and see what smell I can identify, once I have a distinct smell that I can almost name, or name I take a look at the outer part of the Tasting Wheel and then work in. Some time I get a combination of smells from different part of the wheel, I try and see which one is stronger, and note both.

I then taste the coffee, letting it roll around my mouth to detect bitter, sour, sweet and the feel (in the middle of the tongue). I note those down. A coffee that feels heavy in the mouth is more bodied.

Try this with your machine and tell me how it goes.