I bought a David Makin machine off Chris about ten days ago. Ive made LOTS of coffees since then and being a newbie, I just couldnt get the coffee right no matter what I did. As for the milk texturing...I STINK.
Fortunately for me, my neighbor across the street had her daughter visit and she just happens to be the sales rep for Merlo coffee. She has also owned a coffee shop for many years.
She came over to have a look at the machine. She reset the grind (ECM KS) to a finer setting, filled the PF to just slightly over full and tamped to about 10Kg. Tasted bitter! So she filled it again and just lightly tamped...maybe 5Kg. What a difference! The best shot Ive seen this machine make came out....lovely syrup followed by a beautiful crema. Then she textured the milk and did a perfect rosetta in the crema. In two goes...she had it right....Grrrr!
I have a lot to learn. :-[ It has soooooooo much to do with the grind and the tamp. She felt that it was never necessary to tamp to 15Kg. Usually just a light tamp and a quick twist. And I have to remember to pour the shot as soon as the PF is put into place.
Besides getting a valuable lesson....I got a whole lot of free coffee too 8-)
Fortunately for me, my neighbor across the street had her daughter visit and she just happens to be the sales rep for Merlo coffee. She has also owned a coffee shop for many years.
She came over to have a look at the machine. She reset the grind (ECM KS) to a finer setting, filled the PF to just slightly over full and tamped to about 10Kg. Tasted bitter! So she filled it again and just lightly tamped...maybe 5Kg. What a difference! The best shot Ive seen this machine make came out....lovely syrup followed by a beautiful crema. Then she textured the milk and did a perfect rosetta in the crema. In two goes...she had it right....Grrrr!
I have a lot to learn. :-[ It has soooooooo much to do with the grind and the tamp. She felt that it was never necessary to tamp to 15Kg. Usually just a light tamp and a quick twist. And I have to remember to pour the shot as soon as the PF is put into place.
Besides getting a valuable lesson....I got a whole lot of free coffee too 8-)

. As with most aspects of learning how to consistently pull excellent espresso, its all about practice, practice and more practice..... not so much about absolutes per se.
More free coffee I hope!
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