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What is blonding and why is it bad?
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Re: What is blonding and why is it bad?
Blonding is the stage at when the coffee extraction starts to change colour from a dark brown reddish colour to a pale yellow colour.
To find out why it is bad simply do the following.
Pull a 30ml extraction but split it into 3 cups as it is being extracted. ie 10ml in each from the spouts. Start by tasting the first cup, then the second, and finally taste the last cup.
You will find out why blonding is bad.
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Re: What is blonding and why is it bad?
Yes, Im finding it hard to see when its actually blonding, as the colour change is rather gradual for me. Its not like it suddenly gets markedly lighter in colour when all the crema is extracted.
Could this be due to my tamping technique that the blonding is not obvious to me?
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Re: What is blonding and why is it bad?
Hi Mal,
Maybe Im going colour blind! :-)
I do see that if I switch from one bean to another, the colour of the crema can be substantially different.
These days I just try to pull more ristrettos instead of the full 30 ml extraction when making coffee for guests.
And since they are asking for a 2nd cup soon after the first one, I know it cant have been too shabby.
Lawrance
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Re: What is blonding and why is it bad?
Yeppers, I too sometimes find it hard to determing blonding via colour alone.
If the beans produce a high crema, the extraction can be relatively blond all the way through, but if you go long enough [hopefully over 25 sec] you can see the transition from foamy to watery extraction. ....does that sound right?
Also, I watch the entry point of the flow onto the top of the crema, if the point of entry is lighter than the creama, then its time to stop.
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Re: What is blonding and why is it bad?
Originally posted by reubster link=1182227611/0#8 date=1182310328Yeppers, I too sometimes find it hard to determing blonding via colour alone.
If the beans produce a high crema, the extraction can be relatively blond all the way through, but if you go long enough [hopefully over 25 sec] you can see the transition from foamy to watery extraction. ....does that sound right?
Also, I watch the entry point of the flow onto the top of the crema, if the point of entry is lighter than the creama, then its time to stop.
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Re: What is blonding and why is it bad?
Gday NTE,
Theres some great info about this and many other topics to be found on the Home Barista website, their forum is a mine of info too with links to videos and How Tos, etc. Try this page to start off with and then scout around a bit,
Cheers,
Mal.
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Re: What is blonding and why is it bad?
NTE
I too use blends from Veneziano, mainly their Estate.
In my experience, it tends to produce a very heavy crema [virtually 95% of the pour] . It has a tan/blondish colour throughout the pour and the colour change is less distinguishable than the dilution.
If you look close at the extraction you should see whats called "tiger striping" [dark lines] within the foam.
As said earlier blonding is really about the transition from extracting the good oils [and flavour] to the extraction of of purely bitter caffiene.
Kill the shot at the onset of dilution.
You should also try espressos from first pour and compare them to what you make at home.
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Re: What is blonding and why is it bad?
Hi All,
Marcstolk hit the nail on the head; a greater dose for the same pour time will delay the onset of blonding. This means that you might need to coarsen up your grind (and is one of the reasons why I cant stand stepped grinders!)
A nice little exercise to work out what blonding is is to pull your cup out from under the stream, rather than stopping it, and just watch and see what happens.
Light coloured crema can sometimes be due to low brew temperatures. Veneziano Estate is roasted and blended to be brewed in the low 90 range ... I think that Im at 92C or 93C at work. If youre buying Estate from First Pour, youre more than welcome to have a look at how the shots are flowing to get a feel for what we are after.
Cheers,
Luca
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Re: What is blonding and why is it bad?
Yeah, home barista.com is a fabulous site. When I was first getting into coffee I came accross this site and was blown away by the depth of knowledge needed to be a competent barrista. Reading all that you begin to realise how complex a beast espresso is, and come to terms with the inexplicability of the fact that you cant get decent espresso at most cafes, even with their expensive machines.
And yeah, theres plaenty on blonding there too. Also check out http://www.coffeeresearch.org/espresso/potential.htm
Richy
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