Consistency

[Shotgun]

Hi all,
Well Ive been at it for some months now and Im very pleased with my results. Thanks go out to all who helped in my hours of need.

One aspect still intrigues me though. Ive managed through (hopefully) good practice to consistently repeat my grinding, dosing, tamping and the pulling of shots to the point where I seem to get it right most of the time.

The strange thing is, on consuming consecutive cups of coffee, when everything seems almost identical, the taste in the cup can be completely different. Not one good cup and one bad cup, they both might be very nice but with seemingly a totally different flavour.

Has anyone else experienced this or is it just me and the subjective nature of espresso making?

Cheers
Tony

[GregWormald]

Re: Consistency

I have somewhat the same experience, although Im finally getting to where I can get very similar tastes more often than not--especially if I work at it.

As the different chemicals extract at different times and rates throughout the pour it is going to take an *extremely* consistent production to duplicate the taste of the previous cup. It requires the same beans, the same quantity of beans, the same dose and tamp and *exactly* the same amount of coffee expressed in the same time by the same temperature of water. Then the milk has to be frothed to exactly the same temperature and volume.

Ive come to the conclusion that *almost identical* does not do for identical taste.

Greg

[WSullivan]

Re: Consistency

Ive discovered that with a HX(well mine anyway)the cups only start to taste the same after a few have been made one after the other, i put this down to the brew temp stabilising after a few consecutive shots, and this is show in various temp profiles around the net that show the brew temps stabilising around the magic 92C mark.

Ive nailed down a grind, dose, distribution and tamp routine that never changes so that helps remove a heap of variables, as greg said, milk temps will make a big difference too, get it just right and the sweetness of the proteins pour through, get it wrong either way and it can taste flat or burnt.

Try making say 10 lattes in a row back to back then taste them as you go, making sure you steam the milk to exactly the same temp......its quite amazing how consistent it gets after 4

cheers
warren

[coffeescotttaste]

Re: Consistency

I agree 100% with the milk temps you can get a lovely sweet flavour or a really flat or burnt taste. only a couple of degrees and you can really taste the difference. A good cup will not need sugar as the sweetnessof the milk is more then enough to sweeten your cup.

[muppet_man67]

Re: Consistency

Brew temperature! Make sure your machine is warmed up properly before brewing, make sure you run a cooling flush before brewing.