Why is drinking Espresso in the afternoon fine, while milk coffee is not? I have often heard and seen, especially in Italy, recommendations to avoid coffee with milk like Latte or Cappuccino in the afternoon, while Espresso is widely consumed during this time of day.

What is the reason for this? Why would one avoid milk-based coffee drinks during the afternoon?

It is a cultural issue, not a health one.

Traditionally, rich, big coffee drinks like a cappuccino are drunk in the morning in Italy with breakfast whereas espresso is what is drunk in the afternoon. The reasoning for this is that you can take your time and savor a cappuccino in the morning because presumably you are not at work yet, but in the afternoon you are just in and out for a quick energy infusion on a 15 minute break and you don't have the time to drink anything but a shot or two of espresso.

In America people tend to do just the opposite or just drink what they want, when they want which can lead to some judgement when visiting Italy.


Are there any tools to help filling the moka pot with coffee and prevent wasting coffee? While preparing coffee in my 2-cup moka pot, I usually try to carefully sprinkle ground coffee from my grinder into the funnel of my pot. When I reach approximately the amount of coffee needed to fill it, I use a knife with a straight spine to level and tip off any excess coffee, which usually wastes some of the coffee, as it tends to fall everywhere around the funnel.
Are there any tools that can make this process cleaner?

Short answer is no, though you can use a common kitchen scale to minimize (but not eliminate) waste. Measure in grams if you're not already and if your scale supports it for greater precision.
The basket on your pot has a fixed volume. Coffee within a particular roast batch will also have fairly consistent density. This means that you should be able to use very nearly the same "weight" of coffee per brew. Measure your coffee with a kitchen scale to get an idea of how much it takes to fill the basket, then in the future grind or scoop that amount in weight including the excess you will later level off.
Leveling off is important. If you don't level off your basket with a moka pot, you'll significantly increase the volume of steam required to produce enough pressure to push the coffee up the tube. That's bad because it'll add some variables into your brew routine that are impossible to control. Use more heat or brew longer to get more steam and you could burn your coffee, but because you wouldn't get the same surface distribution with each brew, the amount of steam you need would change per brew.
So look at it like this: dumping 1ish gram of coffee grounds per brew is not nearly as bad as dumping an entire dose because you ruined your brew.
If you're really worried about dumping that bit, get yourself an airtight food canister and use it to store leftover grounds for your next brew. That coffee will go stale right quick, but since it's such a small amount, it won't dramatically affect the next brew regardless. Waste nothing if you save what you level off!


Is it possible to make latte-art with a coffee machine that has a cappucinatore? My coffee machine has a cappucinatore and makes the coffee; milk first and then the coffee.

Is it possible to do latte-art in this way? I've always seen the coffee being first and then the milk second so I'm not sure if it's possible.

I would like to be able to make latte-art while it's normally operating, so no storing the coffee/milk in other containers and then building it later. Would it be possible?

Latte art typically requires you to pour one thing into the other (the frothed milk into the espresso). You could of course try to move the cup with the milk already in it while brewing the espresso in such a way that the coffee leaves a pattern in the milk. But that will be very difficult and will also look very different from normal latte art.

So no, that will not really be possible. You should steam your milk in a pitcher and pour it from there into the cup with the espresso.


How can I solve the filling problems of my Keurig? My Keurig works perfectly when I don't have a K Cup in it (just plain water).  As soon as I put one in, it runs slow and does not fill any of the cup sizes.

I have descaled and cleaned out all the needles, how can I solve the filling problems?

You need to descale the entire path of the water takes.

Our office Keurig suffers the same symptoms occasionally.  When they occur, we use the Keurig descaling solution and the instructions located on the Keurig Website.

You may be able to use vinegar and water if the instruction for your model state that it's OK.


If a recipe calls for instant coffee, can just regular ground coffee be substituted? When instant coffee is called for in a baking recipe, can regular ground roasted coffee be used? Will the same amount work?

Unlikely that you will run into any problems, although chemically they won't behave the same way. Instant coffee completely dissolves while the ground coffee will be in there as solid pieces that soak up some water and add taste. I assume the total amount of coffee used is just too little to affect the composition of the dough very much.

You could however also substitute some of the liquid in the recipe with brewed coffee. I think that's the way I would go with. That way you just have the desired taste without changing the composition and ratios of the recipe.


Can I use cocoa-dusted coffee in my moka pot? I have a 3-cup Bialetti Moka Express pot and some coffee beans dusted with cocoa powder that I bought from a chocolate shop. My French press is stuck at work due to the quarantine, so I can't use them up the way I have been. I also have a Chemex carafe and set of filters, but I fear that the Chemex filters will take out all of the cocoa powder, defeating the purpose of the beans.

I have tried using these beans in my moka pot twice at this point. Both times resulted in the pot sputtering a lot and brewing very slowly, rather than filling the reservoir in a quick burst like it does with regular coffee. My first attempt it was extremely slow, but I chalked that up to a too-fine grind playing badly with the extra difficulty of cocoa powder. My second attempt used a coarser grind, and it seemed to brew more quickly, but the top of the moka pot was not at the usual level it is when I use plain coffee.

Will using cocoa-powdered coffee in my moka pot cause any permanent damage to the internal workings, or do I just need to make sure I wash all the cocoa powder out between uses?

If the cocoa powder is ground up cocoa bean withou added sugar/milk etc. I can't see any issue.

If it contains sugar, it will leave some residue in the machine wich I imagine might get hard to get out if it builds up.


Dialling in with a Barista express I recently got hold of a Sage (=Breville) Barista express, which has a built in grinder.

I haven’t been getting great results with it so far. Also, there seems to be a kind of mismatch between the settings on the machine itself and what I am reading online.

The double basket takes 15 - 18g of coffee, but the double shot button pushes through 60ml of water for a ratio of 1:4 or just under. You can control extraction manually but that seems weird.

From what I’ve read I want 1:2 or just under if I’m making a flat white, so I have been going for 35g of espresso out of 17.5g of coffee in around 26s, not counting pre-infusion.

To get somewhere around those numbers, I have to be on the second finest setting (this is with beans that were roasted in the last 3 weeks) and the needle on the pressure gauge goes beyond the “espresso range” marked.

This all seems pretty bizarre – the shot is nothing out of the ordinary but the settings are at the extremes.

The shots I am getting still taste under-extracted to me. If I go a step finer my extraction time goes way way up, so I also have to reduce the amount of coffee.
Is that the way to go, or should I keep the grind the same and run more water through?

I’m thinking the fact that everything is at the extreme (portafilter packed as full as it will go, grind setting more or less as fine as it will go, pressure out of range) should tell me something, but what? Just that they built the machine around a ratio of around 1:4? I don't understand why they would do that.

I have tried changing the beans btw – it didn’t really make any difference.

I have a Sage with a built-in grinder as well. The grinder isn't great, it has some inconsistency that may clog part of your filter basket just enough to reduce the flow a bit more than you'll like.

I've solved this by adding a wet paper filter before adding the coffee. For this I use paper filters meant for AeroPress, which are only slightly too big for my portafilter (like 2 millimeters too large in diameter). My technique is as follows:

Push some water through the filter basket to warm it up a bit, then dry with a paper towel.
Add a pre-wetted paperfilter to the bottom of the portafilter, press it down with your fingers. It's okay if the sides of the paper filter go up a little bit against the wall of the portafilter.
Add your ground coffee as you normally do and tamp. Then pull the shot.

For me, this allows me to push a bit more water through compared to keeping everything the same without the paper filter. My theory is that it keeps the holes in the filter basket nice and clear so the water gets pushed through more easily.

Seeing that this is a pretty cheap option, I'd give it a shot.


Why is it not recommended to drink coffee immediately after it's roasted? The rule of thumb is that you first drink coffee approximately 3 days after it is roasted, but what is the exact reason for this?

Fresh off the roast, coffee has high levels of carbon dioxide and nitrogen (based?) gasses. These gasses will greatly contribute to retro-nasal activity as well as initial flavors (think carbonated water). The most apparent flavor one gets from this is metallic. At my work, 4 days is considered minimum for serving and tasting, although there's always exceptions.


Single shot extraction time in Breville Barista Express I have got a Breville Barista Express just before a couple of days and I am trying to make the best single espresso shot I can make with this machine at home.

For the last two days I was playing and changing with the settings of the machine to reach to the signs of the good single espresso shot as described on the internet... they are saying that the pressure gauge needle has to point to 12 o'clock.... I don't know if that is correct ... anyways I have reached to that.

But on the internet, they also say that the extraction time for a single shot should be 20 seconds ... in my case it is 15 sec. .... what is wrong?!

Please know that I am using the single shot single wall basket, and a Starbucks medium roast coffee beans that was produced before 5 months.

The problem seems like either in the dosage or in the tamping force or in the grind size.

First, I advise you to use freshly roasted beans.

I don't know what is the pressure value at 12 o'clock position, but I assume it is correct. Now, let's check what could have been happened.

Either

you have less coffee grounds so the water travels a short distance in the coffee

or

you tamp lightly so water channels through the coffee instead of extracting flavors from the grounds by pressure

or

your grind is too coarse, so that water could travel faster through large boulders instead of finer sandy grounds with less extraction surface

Therefore, I could suggest that you can first check your ground size, then check your tamping force (15 kg-f is more or less correct) and then the amount of ground you fill in the basket.

Then, please see these relevant discussions:

What are the standard espresso parameters (dose, mass/volume, time, etc.)?
How to keep the time before coffee get out of the machine?
How should I manage settings for single shot / double shot

I have edited an enhanced answer based on @avacado1's comments. Thanks.


Is this coffee Kombucha? About three weeks ago, I brewed iced coffee in a clean jar; I didn't drink all of it and left it in the refrigerator.

About 1/2 the jar was filled, I then traveled and when I came back, I found in the bottom of the jar something sticky like rubber.

Is this Kombucha ?

I didn't use any kind of "scoby" aka starter, it's just ground coffee with cold water and sugar. This isn't the first time this happened. It smells just as coffee would, nothing bad.

In order to be Kombucha, you would need to have a starter, unless (somehow) enough bacteria was present in the coffee / sugar / cup (highly unlikely). It would also be extremely unlikely that even if a culture was unwittingly introduced, that it would bloom in cold water. It's not Kombucha unless it's actually fermented, and for that, you need a live, active thriving culture (you must have a starter).

What you've probably got at the bottom of the cup is a combination of settled sugars and residual grounds. While I doubt that tasting it would be harmful, I wouldn't quite recommend it :)


Which Starbucks coffee have the least amount of caffeine? I like coffee, my mom likes coffee, my dad likes coffee, and we all love Starbucks. My question is, which coffe has the least ammount of caffeine?

I want to try to get one for my little sister :) (she's 10)

So what coffee at Starbucks has the least amount of caffeine?

Very probably any single-shot espresso beverage (tall Americano or latte?) prepared with decaffeinated beans or the regular decaffeinated filtered coffee is a good choice of you are looking for the coffee flavor but not very fond of caffeine.


Whats the purpose of preheating a coffee roaster? I own a Gene Cafe and was wondering why many across the internet recommend that the roaster is preheated before the roasting takes place, in comparison to the manufacture which claims that one should just add the beans and start the roasting straight away while everything is cold.

Preheating your Gene Cafe lets you choose between life cycle of the roaster and roasting consistency.  By preheating your roaster, you should be able to get more consistent roast times.  In my case my garage is sometimes 50F and sometimes 80F, so a preheat cycle would certainly probably help.  I don't do it though.  Any machine has a finite number of cycles, and you are shorting that window by preheating your machine.

I roast one and a half pounds a week (a half pound for work, and one pound for home).  The half pound is always done by itself from a cold start.  When I do the pound for home, I do two half pound batches, the first is from a cold start and the second is done immediately following on a "preheated" machine.  I try to aim for the same roast level on each of the batches and the second one consistently needs less time to reach the same level.  I generally set a timer and come back 14 minutes after the start.  This allows me to fine tune the last portion of the batch, on cold batches I generally add a bit of time, and on the preheated ones I end up subtracting a bit (to get the same roast).  I am fine with this as it saves me a cycle and will prolong the life of my roaster.  However, I can see that some folks would want the roast length of two such batches to be much closer to the same at the cost of that extra cycle.  For them it may make sense.


Why do I feel nauseous from coffee? I really love coffee but for last 6 months I've felt nauseous almost every time I drink it. If I drink an espresso in the morning I will most likely vomit. If I drink it after lunch or a few hours after I wake up (4-5 hours) then I will feel nausea but I probably won't throw up. I don't feel any of those effects from any amount of Red Bull or similar energy drinks therefore I don't think it's about the caffeine. For the record I hate energy drinks and don't won't to drink them in the morning or ever, but I had to sometimes, and I drank like a lot and never felt any nausea.

The problem actually started 3 years ago and it lasted for about a year and a half. Then it stopped and for a year I could drink coffee anytime without any negative side effects, but the problem re-emerged 6 months ago.
I'm desperate because I really love coffee and I'm really used to that extra energy boost coffee gives me in the morning.

I'm male and I'm 23 years old.

I only know of two connections between coffee and nausea. The first is caffein withdrawal, which in your case obviously doesn't apply. Secondly there is some evidence, although it far from being clear, that coffee might be bad for people suffering from reflux disease. See for example here.

According to that source, gastroesophageal reflux might be triggered by coffee (among others). However it is far from clear, that it really does with studies showing that dropping coffee consumption doesn't significantly change the symptoms to the better.

I suggest you talk about this with a doctor or dietary specialist. This is pure speculation, but maybe you are allergic/intolerant to one of the compounds found in coffee or it is some kind of psychosomatic response. The expectation of becoming nauseous after drinking coffee that leads to actual nausea. Maybe there was some unrelated nausea that you connected to your coffee consumption. Or maybe your nausea is entirely unrelated to the coffee and just happens to coincide with it.

If the problem persists and a doctor couldn't help you, maybe try green/black tea. They contain caffein and can have a similar, somewhat more mellow but also more persistent energizing effect.


Adding Cinnamon to Coffee? I have seen a lot of articles saying adding cinnamon to one's coffee makes it taste a little better? I don't see how could adding something make something original taste even better? has someone tried this ? and can you please describe this taste to me? also, can I add cinnamon to black coffee? The articles I read only described adding it to latte and milk based coffees?

I've tried it and liked it, but that's just because I like the taste of cinnamon in general. It doesn't enhance the taste of the coffee itself, per se, but adds its own additional flavor, which does tend to marry nicely with the coffee's. And yes, you can certainly put it in black. Actually, back in my drip coffee days, I'd sometimes put a couple sprinkles in with the grounds before brewing to spice it up. Good stuff!


Vessels for frothing and pouring the milk I recently bought an espresso machine with steamer for the milk. However I noticed that the quality of the foam changes according to the vessel I use to steam and froth it.

Are there a specific type of vessel I should use for steaming, frothing and pouring the milk?

Thanks

I have had a similar experience, and the difference seems to be due to the age of the milk. The fresher the milk, the better micro-foam I can create. Once it gets within of week of expiration, I start getting less foam.

The pitcher also makes a difference. Other people recommended the Espro toroid pitcher to me. I liked it so much, I bought two sizes: http://espro.ca/toroid/


Aeropress: at what stage does most of extraction happen? In Aeropress coffee making, there are a number of stages that happen in sequence. For example,

Initial pour of small quantity of hot water
Stirring for about 10-20 seconds
Pouring of the rest of the hot water (till desired water ratio)
Wait time (usually 1 minute)
Stir again
Invert, and press for ~30 seconds

Question: during which of these stages above do the "extraction" (from coffee to the water) happen for most part?

Generally, the "extraction" happens when the coffee is in contact with the water. So from the initial point of contact in this case the bloom phase pour till all the water (with dissolved solids) is removed from contact with the grounds.
Technically speaking, The initial small quantity pour and stirring in your recipe is the bloom phase and the second pour, stir and press would be the main extraction phase. In the case of your recipe, most of your extraction would happen during the second wait phase "Wait time (usually 1 minute)", followed by the second stir phase.
The first bloom phase is usually to let the coffee expunge as much CO2 as possible that's trapped from the roasting process. The CO2, when dissolved can make the coffee more acidic/bitter, hence the blooming phase in your recipe to mitigate that. There is also some extraction during this phase but is rather dwarfed in comparison to the main extraction phase.


What effect does portafilter diameter have on espresso? It seems like a lot of the higher end espresso machines come with a 58mm portafilter.  Does this larger diameter have some improved effect on the resulting espresso?

MT San talks about portafilters and the resulting differences between these portafilters that are different in size.

I will discuss the differences in espresso extraction as a result of portafilter and subsequent basket size.

Assuming that the only variable here is basket diameter:

Scientifically, pressure applied is normally measured as force per unit surface area. Taking the bed of coffee as a flat surface, and we assume traditional extraction pressure of 8 bar, the net extraction force upon the coffee puck will be greater for larger surfaces.

8 bar = 800kPa = 800 kN/m2

Now given two different basket sizes 58mm and 52mm which are 0.058m and 0.052m respectively, the net force on the surface of bed of coffee will be:

For 58mm:

Surface area: πr2 = π*0.0292 = 0.00264207942

Net force on area: pressure x area = 800*0.00264 = 2.11 kN

For 52mm:

Surface area: πr2 = π*0.0262 = 0.00212371663

Net force on area: pressure x area = 800*0.00212 = 1.7 kN

We can see that the larger portafilter is subject to a higher force of extraction with the same pressure. What this amounts to in practice is very much dependent on your setup. However it should tend towards better consistency in extraction. This is because, for a given dose, more of the coffee is in contact with the water at the bed surface and so has a more direct pressure gradient through the puck as it will be comparatively thin in the larger basket helping to reduce probability of channeling.

However, observable effects in practice will be slight to none as many other variables will take precedence in affecting shot flavour and the difference in extraction force will be accounted for silently in your dial-in process.


Large scale cold brewing - Mesh bag technique - What size mesh is best? I'm looking to upscale our production of cold brew to batches with a 1000L yield, using a ratio of 1:12.5 to make a ready-to-drink coffee for bottling. Currently we run batches of ~40L through a large stainless 40-micron mesh conical filter with good results, however this won't scale so easily as the mesh is really expensive. I'm thinking that making large batches by steeping coffee in big mesh tea bags will be the easiest upgrade. I'm also assuming that a secondary filtration will be necessary, but that's a separate question.

What sort of mesh sizes and materials are best for balancing yield with how fine the filtration is?
Thanks!

I have had bags made up in China. 30cm x 30cm 100 micron is best for stepping. Put 5kgs of coffee in each bag and filter it a second time straight out of the tap.

Ohhhh and never squeeze the bags.


General How-To: Arduino Based PID for Saeco Aroma I have 2 spare Arduino R3 Unos lying around and have heard a lot of positive results from folks who have PID'ed their Silvias, Via Venezias, etc.

How would I go about PIDing my Saeco Aroma with my R3 Uno? (software, installation, etc.)

I have seen many people playing with their Arduino's for robot control, industrial control and even for architectural projects. It seems easy to play with Raspberry Pi and Arduino for such projects.

So after I've seen this question here, I have take a look at it.

I found a useful demo here. It has some links including the libraries and the code in German in the video explanation. Unfortunately, the links are broken. Maybe you can try to e-mail them.

Anyhow, if you start a garage project, it should not be that difficult (in theory). There must be a few sensors; some actuators to pump the water through heaters; as well as a µC or a cheap good-old µP like Motorola 68k or an Arduino-like µP recently.


Breville Smart Grinder Pro setting for cold drip I've been trying to find the best grind size to use in my Bruer cold drip setup.
I bought a Breville Smart Grinder Pro (highly recommended).

Has anyone used this grinder before, and if so what grind size would be the best for cold drip?  Thanks

While I do not own a Smart Grinder Pro, most local places that make cold brew/drip use a medium-fine grind. This picture below can give you a good illustration on how coarse you want your bean.

It is really preference, however, I have found that too fine of a grind (like espresso) will usually muddy up a filter and make it harder to pass through due to the lack of pressure. I am sure there is a setting guide either that comes with the box or online that you can use for drip/cold drip. Just remember to keep it coarse enough so that it does not come out too "powdery".

Image source: http://www.bruer.co/blogs/news/12222337-cold-bruer-experiments-with-grind-size

Edit: My recommendation is to use the "Drip Grind" coarseness. That means, a grind that is not as powdered down as espresso; grinds should be no larger that ~1-1.5mm in diameter. Usually the finer a grind is, the more pressure is needed to account for the surface area created.


"Speed Roasting" from Coffee Tonya: Is it just as good? If any of you are familiar with the local coffee chain in Yokohama Japan, called Coffee Tonya, they have this speed roaster that roasts the beans you choose from their great selection of beans from around the world. I'd never seen one before, and I'm not familiar with the machine, so I'm not sure if the design and make is proprietary. But the roaster can roast the green beans to your desired roast in nearly 2 minutes flat & that is quite impressive, since you can choose from a light to dark roast gradient. I've purchased beans from a branch in the Philippines, had about 250g of Brazilian beans city-roasted (on the dark side), and must say that the result delivered a balanced flavor, without too much bitterness in the brew, creating a good bloom (pour over) &/or crema (Bialetti Brikka), and a pretty good expression from the roasted bean.

I wanted to ask if anyone is familiar with the process of this quick-roasting style, and if there are any inherent differences that could come from this speed-roasted bean, as compared to a more traditional slow-roasted bean.

Roast times can significantly affect coffee flavors, and a 2 minute roast profile is concerning.  While I cannot say I am familiar with the process they are using, I do know a decent amount about the chemistry involved when you are roasting a coffee bean.  My biggest concern would be internal development of the coffee bean.

To give you a brief run-down of roasting, without spending hours on this post..

You typically have two types of heat in roasting, conductive and convective.  There are disagreements on how best to apply heat to a coffee bean, but the traditional understanding is you apply conductive heat early in the roast and convective at the end.  The reason is because if you do not dehydrate the internal bean, you will get an insulating barrier of zero moisture encapsulating the moist interior of the bean that will result in underdeveloped flavors (sour, acidic)

If you apply too much convective heat early on, then this will typically happen.  If you apply too much conductive heat, you usually get what is called tipping which can be seen on the ends of beans as a small black spot where the plant would actually sprout had the bean been planted (this is a natural weak spot in the cellular structure that allows the plant to sprout).

To roast a coffee bean from room temp to ~400F give or take 25 degrees in 2 minutes would require an average rate of rise (RoR) of 115 degree / minute.  To give you an idea of the difference, The highest RoR I typically roast at is about 36 RoR and maybe an average RoR of 15 or 20.

My initial reaction to application of heat so quickly to a coffee bean would be that you would get over-roasted on the outside with possible tipping, and an under roasted interior resulting in sourness.

I know that timing on airbed roasters is different from traditional drum roasters, but I've never heard of them doing 2 minute roasts either so I am guessing this is a proprietary roasting system of some sort.  That being said, if you want a pretty in depth discussion on how roast times affect flavor you can check out Modulating the Flavor Profile of Coffee by Rob Hoos.  He gives a very thorough break down of what happens when you trim as little as 20 seconds off a given segment of a roast profile and how that affects the flavors in coffee.

(btw, if I deviate from my desired roast level by more than 45 seconds, the beans usually end up in the trash can because I refuse to sell them)


Manual vs Automatic espresso machine I’m thinking of transferring to manual machine from a semi automatic machine. What are the differences between manual and semi-automatic machines? I'm interested in how difficult they are to use and in getting consistent results.

It depends greatly on the actual machine, e.g. when used correctly, a £1000 manual La Pavoni lever machine will by far produce a better espresso more consistently than a £60 semi-auto from your nearest department store.

There are two different types of semi-autos: those where you have to flick a switch on to start the pump and flick it off again to stop the pump (you can use a measuring glass to ensure you're yielding the same amount of espresso each time), and those that are 'volumetric', i.e. you program into the machine how much water you want it to dose, and it will dose this amount every time.

Manual machines (e.g. the La Pavoni Europiccola) require you to use your hand to push a lever that will in turn force water through the coffee. It's not as easy to get consistent results right away, as there are more factors involved that will very easily vary (the amount of force you apply, the time over which you apply it)

If you could provide more information, or share any particular machines you've been looking at, that would help us to build a better response that would answer your question a little more fully!


How to (re-)calibrate an espresso machine and grinder setup? When you're starting your shift at your coffee shop and take over the bar from another barista, the machine and grinder can be in varying states of cleanliness and calibration. How do you quickly and correctly get back to pulling good shots from clean equipment?

This answer addresses a "standard" semi-automatic espresso machine with a separate grinder. Specifically the LaMarzocco and Astoria grinder, but the ideas should generalize to other machines of the same class.
Cleaning
Of course, wipe down everything and get all pitchers and spoons clean. Blast out all the milk and "wetness" from the steam wands. Inspect and clean all portafilters* (get one clean, and then use it while you clean the others), and if necessary backflush the groups with water (with "bumping" so you blast water around the seals to get any buildup there clean).
*especially under the basket.
Calibrating
The abstract procedure here is described using the Hackers' terms Frob, Twiddle, and Tweak.

http://catb.org/esr/jargon/html/F/frob.html
To fully calibrate the setup, we'll need to make three passes over all the controls.

Frob. In the frob pass, we make just "coarse" adjustments to get everything roughly correct. (reinterpreting the hacker usage. This isn't aimless.)
Twiddle. In the twiddle pass, we adjust each parameter up and down a little, in a more "scientific" manner: while adjusting any one parameter, the rest are left alone so they behave as "controls" for the quick little "experiments" to check each change.
Tweak. In the tweak pass, everything should be mostly correct by now. Just apply any finishing touches.

The controls we have available are the grind, dose, and water quantity. Following the David Schomer method, I strongly advise that the tamping pressure should be constant. Always tamp the same way: from the elbow, so you don't stress your wrists.
In the David Schomer method, the dose is controlled by counting "clicks" of the doser. You keep the doser compartment as empty as possible, grinding only what you need so everything stays fresh, locked in the bean). Count how many clicks gets you to "full", maybe a little heaping. This number is your base dose. Keep it constant for now. And this constitutes the "frob" of the dose.
Set the group in programming mode and Pull a shot, setting the water level to yield 2 oz. This is the "frob" of the water quantity.
If the extraction time was off, adjust the grind. This the "frob" of the grind, so you can make bigger movements if you need to (exercise your judgement), but remember only adjust finer while grinding, so you don't lock the burrs on a tough bean. Pull a few shots until the time is (roughly) correct.
So, we've done our "frob" pass. Now "twiddle." Adjusting the grind to control the extraction time probably threw off the water quantity a little bit. So do a "twiddle" of the water quantity by entering programming mode and pulling a shot. Actually, you shouldn't need to "twiddle" per se: there's no *up and down" here, but I think the terms still represent a useful mnemonic for the general procedure.
Then do a "twiddle" of the grind. You want the grind to be as coarse as possible within its "range", if you know what I mean. All the grounds in the doser are quickly going stale. A coarser grind yields little pieces of coffee bean that are slightly larger, with a lower surface/volume ratio. Lower surface area means less interaction with the air, and the grounds resist going stale a little better.
There should be no need to "twiddle" the dose at this point. We're adjusting the other controls so the dose remains at comfortable spot.
Now, one final pass to "tweak". Pull a shot, and examine its quality. Particularly look for the tell-tale white "overextraction stain" where the last drips struck the crema. You want to tweak the water quantity to stop just before the color changes. This tweak gives you "ristretto-quality" shots.
Adjusting on-the-fly
Remember that we did not mess with the dose much in the above steps. But the other parameters were setup so the dose is "comfortable". This lets us make small adjustments to the dose in order to "ride the wave" of the machine and keep all the shots in the time range. Remember not to brew shots while the boiler is cycling.
The same three adjustments, frob, twiddle, and tweak, apply also to dynamic adjustments. Frob, the coarsest control is the water quantity, which should no longer need adjusting at this point. Twiddle, the medium-grain control is the grind setting. Unless a freak thundershower rolls-in and totally changes the pressure and humidity of the atmosphere, you should only need to make small adjustments and only to recalibrate the dose to a comfortable level. Tweak, the finest control is the dose.
If a shot pulls 1-second too long, tweak your dose ever-so-slightly shorter. Either count 1-fewer click, or count your clicks just a hair faster.
If a shot pulls 1-second too short, tweak your dose ever-so-slightly longer. Either count 1 more click, or count your clicks just a hair slower.
If the dose gets too low (by visual inspection: exercise your judgement), twiddle the grind a little coarser so you can achieve the same density with more mass.
If the dose gets too high (exercise judgement), twiddle the grind a little finer so you can achieve the density with less mass. (Volume is constant.)

I actually haven't worked on this machine in almost 10 years. So this is all based on my memory of that one amazing day when I pulled 20sec (+/-1) shots for eight solid hours.
On a different day, I recalibrated after a thunderstorm started by pulling the grinder 8 clicks (!) coarser. And got it back to 20sec after 2 or 3 pairs.
That's how I know. But I learned this all from David Schomer's book.
--
Appendix: The "David Schomer" method or "ritual"
This is what I remember from the amazing book, Espresso Coffee: Professional techniques by David Schomer. And hey Matt, I want my copy back!
A. Preheat and Clean.

Pull an ounce or so of water through the old spent puck to heat the group.

Yank the portafilter and knock the old puck into the compost bin.

Wipe the basket and run a splash of water through the group without the portafilter to rinse the upper screen. (You can catch this water with the portafilter before wiping to rinse more of the grounds so your clean towel stays clean longer.)

B. Grind and Dose.

Turn on grinder to start to fill the doser (which should be as empty as practical).

Immediately start pulling clicks of the doser until the basket is full, or a little heaping.

Turn off grinder.

C. Distribute and Tamp.

With clean hands, distribute the grounds evenly with a finger (I use my ring finger, but whatever works).

Tamp lightly to shape the puck.

Tap the edge with the handle end of your nice aluminum tamper that you bought yourself and brought to work to help. This gets the little bit of coffee around the edge that the tamper missed.

Tamp firmly, from the elbow. About 30 pounds of pressure.

Reinsert the portafiler.

D. Brew.

Click the button to start brewing.

Immediately discard the hot water from the shot glasses which is still there from step A.1.

Watch the pour and stop it early if you need to, to catch the sweet spot.

And finally, I apologize for my excessive use of emphatic "quotation marks".


How should I make multiple batches quickly with a moka pot? I made three batches in a row with a moka pot (for Vietnamese coffee ice cream!) recently. I did my best to handle things with a wet rag while still hot, but it was still a bit of a pain and a bit slow. Is there anything else I can do to speed things along or make it easier? Is it safe to just run water over it to fully cool it down?

Here's what I do:

Boil a kettle with as much water as you're going to need for everyone
Fill the sink with cold water
Make your pot of coffee as normal: using boiling water
After you've made the coffee and poured it out, dunk the pot in the sink of cold water
It should cool down within a few seconds, allowing you to unscrew it, clean it out, and reset (it helps if you have a second sink to do the cleaning in)
Fill with coffee/boiling water again, and repeat until everyone has coffee


Are there general recommendations for mugs? Is there a general consensus on what some of the best mugs out there are in terms of keeping (drip/pour-over) coffee warm, style, and flavor? Ceramic? Double-walled glass?

Ceramic is more porous than glass, so a ceramic mug insulates better than regular glass and thus keep the coffee hotter, but double-walled glass insulates even better than ceramic.

A porous mug might exchange molecules from one cup to the next. (Is there experimental data on that?)


What was the minimum amount of grind that gave you a decent enough quality of coffee in an Aeropress? I am new to coffee and have recently purchased an aeropress. I know my question is subjective, but I would love to know what was the minimum amount of coffee grind that gave you a decent enough solution which you could have used to make a 200ml cup of Americano with.

I think you'll have to do the experiment to find out.

Measure the beans by weight rather than volume. A digital scale that resolves to 0.1 gram would suffice.

Use a binary search in order to converge on a result with as few trials as possible. E.g. if a reference scoop holds 8 grams, test 4 grams, then if that's too weak, split the difference to 6 grams, and so on. In only 5 trials you'll be able to get an answer to the nearest 0.25 grams; 6 trials to the nearest 0.125 grams.

If your goal is to use the minimum coffee to achieve acceptable taste, think ahead about how to judge if a sample taste is acceptable and how much time to wait between tastings for your mouth to clear. If your goal is to use the minimum code without noticeably changing the taste, use the triangle test.

Control the other brewing variables as tightly as you can: grind size, brewing water temperature (with a thermometer), water volume in the press and in bypass (Americano), brewing time, stirring amount, ... I think the most sensitive factors are water temperature and grind size -- and of course the batch of beans.

Please do report back!


Does Chicory make coffee taste bitter? I am new to coffee and recently ordered a dark roast pre ground coffee mix containing 20% chicory and 80% 'coffee'. No mention of date of roasting or anything. When I brew the coffee the only 'notes' I taste are bitter. I thought maybe the MokaPot i had got burnt the coffee or something bringing out bitter notes but on returning it and getting an aeropress, i get similar flavor. I am using lower temperature water and brewing for only 30 seconds in the aeropress with 30 sec plunge. Would changing my coffee make a better experience? Have got whole beans medium roast complementary with my aeropress and have ordered a hand grinder. Want to try out an Americano type drink. The latte made with my current coffee blend tastes nice.

I'm not a fan of chicory, though I know a lot of people who love it.  I'm not sure if I'd use the term bitter to describe it, but it's definitely distinct.  The taste your getting definitely isn't the coffee maker your using, it's what you're trying to brew.  Huffington Post had a decent write up on the "origin" of chicory here if you're interested.

If your new to coffee, I would suggest starting out with an Arabica coffee in a variety of roasts.  Arabica is the type of bean that grows in higher elevation and has a longer grow cycle leading to a richer and fuller flavor.  Starbucks is obviously popular and it's where I got my start when I worked there, but there are a lot of other good options.  If you have local roasters in your town or city, check them out.  A lot of local coffee shops roast their beans in house these days and they can be a good place to start.  If you don't have that option, maybe go with something like Peet's Coffee, or Caribou in the grocery store.  Seattle's Best is cheap, but it's also owned by Starbucks and is basically their second rate coffee and way-overly roasted in my opinion.

As far as the americano  or latte you're going for, I'm not sure how that will work with an aeropress as I've only really used espresso machines to make them, but you're going to want a dark roast for those as the coffee is condensed into a 1 ounce shot and diluted with water or milk respectively.  Go for a good quality espresso roast (Illy is a great choice but is pretty pricey), or something like an Italian Roast.  I would avoid going too dark (like a French Roast), but that's up to your taste preference.


Ideal brewing time for 3-cup Chemex? I'm not very good with judging grind sizes, so one method I read about was, instead of focusing so much on grind size pay attention to the brew time. If the brew takes too long, the coffee grounds are too fine, but if the brew time is too short then the coffee is too coarse.
I really like this method, and the estimated ranges I've come across for pour over is 2:30 mins to 4 mins (i.e., it should be no faster than 2:30min, but take no longer than 4 mins)
So far, I feel like around 3 mins is the sweet spot for my usual choice of coffee and a 3-cup Chemex.
Is there just one ideal brewing time (or time window) or does that differ depending on the roast or other factors? How would I recognize a too long or too short brewing time in the finished product?

Ideal brewing time varies based on grind. Finer grinds need shorter brew times. Coarser grinds need longer brew times. This is because fine grinds expose more surface area of the beans, which lets solutes diffuse quickly into the water. Coarse grinds need more time for solutes to be drawn out.
As for roast level, that's totally up to you. Different roast levels expose different flavor profiles, so you might like them all brewed for the same amount of time or you might prefer to brew darker or lighter roasts for longer or shorter times. There's not really an ideal here unless you align with the preferences of the person offering you the ideal.
You'll know that your brew time is too long if your coffee tastes bitter. Coffee brewed perfectly should taste very smooth if you're using medium or lighter roasts. Very dark coffees might taste bitter in a burnt sort of way even with perfect brewing. Conversely, too short brew time will result in weak tasting coffee. Note that weak coffee can also be caused by too high of a water to grounds ratio or poor contact between water and grinds (channeling during the pour). Bloom to help mitigate channeling.
Hope this info helps!


Does coffee consumption cause continuous chest pain? I drink coffee twice a day for almost a month. Lately, for last few week, I feel chest pain right after drinking coffee. I initially thought that was some gastric related problem. But even after continuing my gastric med for over a week I'm still feeling the pain. And I  must say it doesn't feel like a typical acidity-caused chest pain. Is it caused by coffee, should I stop drinking it?

Similar questions have been answered in Coffee SE several times. So please check these previous questions first. I'm enlisting the most related ones I can think of below:

How many cups of coffee is it safe to consume per day?
What are the side effects of drinking too much coffee?
Can drinking coffee at least once a day increase anxiety?
Coffee on daily basis

Based on these, one can say, regular coffee consumption shouldn't be a problem for a regular healthy person.

Specifically for your question, my humble advice is that you should see a physician. People who are into coffee cannot diagnose others based on coffee consumption habits.


Instant coffee to powdered milk ratio? I'm going backpacking in a few weekends, and in order to save on pack weight I've been dehydrating a lot of my meals. As I think about breakfast, I'm settling on carrying only powdered milk and instant coffee for my breakfast cup of joe. I was wondering if anyone has done this and what a good instant coffee to hot water to powdered milk ratio would be. What would the steps for making it look like? Would I add the powdered milk first or the coffee first, or both at the same time? Thanks!

As a disclaimer, I've never done this, but here's the way I would do it if I were you:

First, determine how you like your coffee when its a regular cup of joe.  Once you know how much milk you use to however much coffee, determine how much powdered milk reconstitutes to the equivalent amount of regular milk.  Then determine how much instant coffee in a glass of hot water makes a comparably sized cup of regular black coffee.  When you've done that, you should have measurements for how much instant coffee and how much powdered milk you need for one cup of coffee.  (Be sure to make a test cup!)

Then for ease of use on the trail I would scale up the amounts based on how long of a trip and how many cups of coffee you think you'll want and combine the coffee and milk powders.  Thoroughly mixed, they can be stored in a single container, and since you know how much instant coffee and how much powdered milk to use separately in a given amount of hot water, you can add those amounts to know how much of the mix to put in your cup on the trail.

I would do powder mix first, then hot water, and stir to combine/dissolve completely.


What Type of Coffee Pot is Shown in Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire"? I was recently watching the original music video for Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire," and at 0:38 there's a shot of a stovetop with an odd looking device with what I assume is a coffee pot on top. There are two bowls, one on top of the other, with some tubes in between them. There appears to be coffee, or some other dark beverage, in the bottom of the two bowls. It doesn't appear to be on an actual range, but rather sitting on a hot pad, after the brewing process is done.

Here's a screenshot of the scene:

What type of coffee pot is this, and how is it supposed to work?
Thanks!

This is a vacuum coffee maker or siphon.

The invention is nearly 200 years old and uses the physical principles of vapor pressure and vacuum. When placed on a heat source, boiling water creates steam and thus pressure in the bottom compartment. Hot water from the lower pot is pushed through a (glass) tube into the upper part, where it meets the ground coffee. After the required brewing time, the pot is removed from the stove and the resulting partial vacuum and the atmospheric pressure push the coffee back into the lower vessel. The grounds are held back by a filter mechanism (various types used).
Here’s a video, that shows the Bodum type in action, without distracting talk.

A related type of coffee maker is Bialetti’s moka pot, which pushes the water through the grounds by the same principle, but collects it in the upper part - no flow-back mechanism in this case.


What kind of coffee machine can process powdered coffee? I have a drink I like to make using powdered coffee, a coffee grind finer than espresso. but when I try to make it in an espresso machine, the powder expands, and only the first few drips come out. (its delicious) Then the espresso machine will nearly explode, as the heat builds, and the pressure cannot escape.

what is out there for high pressure espresso machines?  I would also like to make a gaurana drink in a similar fashion, but I think it would be the same issue, with tiny particles expanding when wet, and clogging the holes in the press.

To be perfectly clear, I mean very fine ground coffee, which is in a powder, and not freeze dried coffee.

As far as I understood, such coffee is ground for Turkish. If this is the case, you may try to prepare your coffee in a pot. If you are really considering (somewhat) automated machine, you may go for Turkish coffee machines. Keep in mind, that they don't prepare coffee as good as an experienced human; but they are nice enough to drink. I put an image of one of those, so you can search it on the web.


What is this white spots inside my Bialetti Moka? What is this white spots inside my Bialetti Moka, and they appear even after clean it.

I believe that is corrosion of the metal depending on what is put in that container and the chemical properties of that substance can lead to wear and tear on the metal. Test this out to see if this works mix a baking soda solution and let it soak in the pot for 30 min to an hour. Then wash the pot that should remove it.


What can I do with bad coffee beans? I recently was about to have a week before I could get my good coffee, so I went to the grocery store and got some of theirs.

Unfortunately, I pulled the lever and got way more grocery store coffee than I could ever need.

It's also terrible. Short of tossing it, is there anything I can do to make it taste better until I get good coffee again?

Cold brew it! Make sure you start with very cold water and a coarse grind. Cold-temp chemistry has a better chance of taking what's good and leaving what's bad.


How long does sealed ground coffee retain its flavors? Assuming I purchase freshly ground coffee from a shop which sell it sealed. How long can I store it before it begins to lose its flavor?

Sealed here means the sealed packets which we get from supermarkets.

To answer your question properly it is necessary to explain what coffee beans actually consist of. Around 50% of the coffee bean are carbohydrates, some of them soluble (like sucrose), but most of them are not (they add to body and mouthfeel though as non soluble substances in your cup). Other important parts are acids, such as chlorogenic acid, fatty acids, caffein obviously, proteins and other volatile flavor compounds. There are around 1000 of these volatile flavor compounds.

When the beans are roasted CO2 gas is developed and stored inside the bean. It's a natural oxidation inhibitor as it prevents oxygen from reaching the bean. When you are grinding the beans almost immediately most of the CO2 gas is exhausted. Simultaneously the surface area of the bean is exponentially increased. That means that oxygen has a much larger surface area to "attack" plus the gas protecting these volatile flavor compounds vanishes almost instantly.

Oxidation starts and in 15min. around 60% of these the volatile flavor compounds are evaporated. That is why most pre ground coffee beans smell almost identical when you open the packages, independently of the bean origin. What remains as flavorful compounds are the proteins, that have mostly undergone Maillard reactions, making them rather bitter, the sucrose, caffein and some acids like chlorogenic acid. All beans (Arabica) contain those in more or less the same quantities. The flavor compounds that contribute to origin specific flavors are mostly gone by the time you open up a package of preground coffee.

Thus to answer your question, coffee goes stale almost immediately after grinding. The coffee in the packages you buy in the supermarket is pretty much already stale when they pack it in the factories. Hence you can probably keep an unopened package for about a year before you will note further significant impacts on the flavor, it will just keep getting more bitter as oxidation continues.

Some sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_bean
https://coffeeconfidential.org/grinding/ground-coffee/
Severini, C., Derossi, A., Ricci, I., Fiore, A. G., & Caporizzi, R. (2017). How much caffeine in coffee cup? Effects of processing operations, extraction methods and variables. In The Question of Caffeine. InTech. URL: https://www.intechopen.com/books/the-question-of-caffeine/how-much-caffeine-in-coffee-cup-effects-of-processing-operations-extraction-methods-and-variables


How can I cost-effectively improve the coffee supply in my company break room? I work at a company of about sixty people. Like most offices, there's a communal coffee machine in our break room. It's what I understand to be a typical drip machine, pretty confident it's a Bunn VPS 12.

The grounds used are Maxwell House.

The filters are pretty generic looking, and the water is straight from our local tap.

The end result of all this could charitably be described as burnt water.

I know you can spend pretty much any amount of money on beans, roasters, grinders, presses, additives, and everything else that could possibly be coffee-related. But I'm not trying to make the best imaginable cup of coffee. I'm trying to make about 200 decent cups of coffee a day, for relatively little investment.

I've cleaned out the machine with Goo Gone coffee maker cleaner, to no significant effect. Past that, everything I can think of involves permanent changes to the process, and I want to have some way to justify that before I push for it. Where would my investments of money and political capital be best directed?

The easiest step would be to swap out the Maxwell House coffee for something of higher quality.  If there are local roasters nearby, check to see if they do wholesale or bulk orders, and then order some 5lb. bags of coffee from them.  Since the idea is to keep costs low, they should be able to grind it for you ahead of time so that you won't have to add the cost of a grinder for the time being.


How to tell if coffee beans are burnt? I bought a bag of whole bean "Medium Dark" coffee from a café which recently started roasting its own beans. To my taste it is awful, however am unsure if the coffee is burnt or just not to my taste. I am considering returning the beans.

What ways are there for telling if coffee beans are burnt?

Char - smell and taste. Excessive oil coating the surface of the beans. The extracted coffee will have a flat taste. Hard to describe, but the taste will be predominately "charred" and nothing else.

Cracking a bean open may help, I don't think it should be black through and through, but I don't have any experience with that.

Can you actually return beans?


I'm perplexed on coffee types. What is filter ground coffee? I bought a new coffee maker and it has a permanent filter and says to only use filter ground coffee.What exactly is filter ground coffee?

Filter ground coffee stands for roasted, then cracked to smaller pieces to be brewed easily coffee beans. The question is, how small and consistent you should crack them to pieces. This is important as it affects the extraction of the coffee, so your cup. You should crack all the coffee beans at the same desired size for a good cup of coffee.

Here's a previous discussion on a similar topic, but on espresso machines:

What is the right coffee ground size for an espresso coffee machine?

And, what about the right size? It should be about 400 microns for a drip machine that uses filter size grounds. But, don't worry. Coffee shops know about these. All you need to do is just ask for it or read the labels. Here is a quick chart for all coffee brewing methods and ground sizes:


How do I judge the quality of 'green' beans? I'll have a chance to visit some coffee farms in the coming months, at which time I'll be able to purchase small amounts of 'green' Arabica beans. The only experience I have with purchasing these types of beans in the past has been online, and I'm not particularly certain that the beans I received could be considered fresh.

Now that I have a chance to actually see what I'm getting before I get it, what should I look for in a fresh bean as far as quality? Are there characteristics that I can look for which indicate that (if properly roasted) the bean will produce something good? I can only compare with what I've bought previously, which was of dubious quality, so I'm not entirely sure what to look for.

I have been purchasing everything from cheap beans to rather pricey beans and what i discovered while buying the more pricey (and higher quality) beans was that the fragrance of the bean is somewhat stronger and can actually smell of more than just the usual grassy fragrance. Notes from fruits and nuts are not unusual and could be a indicator of somewhat higher quality coffee.

I have no scientific proof of this, and while even expensive coffee can be bad, it is my empirical approach to determine what could be a step up in coffee quality.

Apart from that i have to admit that its hard to determine the quality of the bean before it has been roasted.


COVID-19 screening test using coffee beans Loss of taste or smell is one of the strongest signals for COVID-19. Though not every COVID-19 case has this symptom, it's a very specific symptom that doesn't commonly have other causes. This question is about the suitability of coffee beans as a low cost testing tool for COVID-19. I'm interested in exploring this as I lead development of the WHO COVID-19 app.
The Odds Ratio for a person reporting loss of taste or smell was reported as 6.7 through the COVID Symptom Study in their Nature research paper: Real-time tracking of self-reported symptoms to predict potential COVID-19. Overall AUC reported as 0.75 for all user symptoms. It's not accurate enough to be a diagnosis but it can be combined with other symptoms, cough recording and COVID exposure information to improve accuracy to do screening for further tests. The question is whether adding a specific daily smell test using coffee beans would be worthwhile?
The general thought is to have a cup of coffee beans that you smell on a daily basis. Then report in the app if you had a loss of smell. The ideal test is fast, cheap and easy. To be fast, the container may need to be open so you don't have the daily irritation of having to remove a sealed lid. I considered a coffee bean as I thought they'd be cheap and available around the world.
If you'll excuse multiple questions, I have some specific areas I was looking for feedback on....

How to get consistency in smell? Smell decay curve for coffee beans. How quickly does open coffee beans lose their smell? How does an open / closed container impact this? How often might you need to replace the beans due to smell decay, mold or other reasons?

Cost of coffee beans. How widely available and affordable are they in some of the poorest communities in the world?

Any other product that you think that could be more effective. It needs to be an existing widely available low cost product.

Please share any other thoughts or feedback you might have.

Fresh coffee is neither widely available nor inexpensive in all places. Coffee in Japan is relatively expensive because demand is relatively (extremely) low compared to western nations. I think I remember my coworkers also telling me that fresh coffee in India is almost never used because most Indians so drink coffee prefer instant. I wouldn't trust availability of coffee for this kind of test, but it also can't hurt to include it in the app as an option for people who can get fresh coffee.
I say fresh coffee because instant coffee in my experience doesn't have a strong smell in the first place.
About smell decay, that depends on a wide range of factors such as time since roasting at time of sale, quality of beans, conditions of storage, and qualities of packaging. My experience with cheap coffees is that they tend to be sold preground (which will lose scents faster than whole bean), though this will not be true in all countries or even all regions within a country.
Does it even matter though? My interpretation of the "loss of smell" symptom of COVID, having not experienced it myself, is literally a complete loss of smell. It would be far more reliable to advise acquiring a new bag of coffee and seeing if you can smell it.
Then again, there are loads of more economical options. Basically every spice under the sun (onion powder, garlic powder, curry powder, chili powder, cumin, paprika, oregano, thyme, rosemary, etc.), aromatic vegetables like onions and garlic, vinegar, fish or fish oil, and other aromatic foods might be more widely available at lower prices than coffee in most places.


Whenever I froth my milk and pour it into the espresso, it dries and makes water under it. How do I fix that? So I'm learning how to make coffee and I absolutely love it but the hardest part about it is steaming the milk. Whenever I make a latte or a capp the foam sort of rises and makes this layer of froth and but I want the froth fully in the espresso. Why does this happen and how do I fix it?

Based on the following comment:

  No Im asking whenever I serve Lattes or capps the froth usually rises to the top and leaves water and espresso under the froth. Im told that this is wrong and Im frothing the milk wrong

I surmise that you're using a steam pipe and you're frothing the entire drink with the espresso already in the cup. The problem you're experiencing (as I understand it) is that you don't get a nice emulsion, you get some water from the steam at the bottom.

Based on that, I'd recommend the following:

Froth the milk separately, for example in a metal frothing jug. Add it to the espresso after frothing.
Use cold milk, this froths better.
When steaming the milk, your technique is very important. Specifically, you want the tip of the steam wand to be just below the surface of the milk. (This isn't important if you have a special steam wand which also blows in air.)