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Fresh beans vital for good espresso

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  • Fresh beans vital for good espresso

    At the risk of preaching to the converted, here's a short story that underscores the need for fresh beans for good espresso.

    I have been away from home for approx 7 weeks, parted from my much loved Bezzera and of course my home roasting gear.

    Prior to leaving I roasted 2 kg of coffee to hopefully last me whilst away, I've been using it daily in a plunger, far from my favorite of espresso, but it was at least coffee.

    Returned home for a visit a couple of days ago and bought the last of my bean supply with me, fired up the Bezzera all looked good, ground my usual 18 grams at the usual setting in my Mazzer Mini, dosed, tamped and locked the portafilter in, lifted the lever, gusher, tightened up the grinder a couple of notches and repeated the process, another gusher, repeated the process 4 times before the penny dropped, the beans were way past their best, as long as my backside is pointing to the ground they were never going to produce anything close to a decent espresso, yep I'm a slow learner?

    Down to the shed in 40° heat and roasted a batch of Yirgacheffe, back to the machine, return the grinder to my standard setting, in with 18 grams of freshly roasted beans, ground them, dosed, tamped, locked and loaded, lifted the lever, viola, was rewarded by a thick viscous stream of nectar; all in the garden is well.?

    The beans were stored in one way valve bags in a cool dark cupboard for the whole time I was away.

    This little episode emphasizes the importance of fresh beans if your hoping to get the best out of any espresso machine.

    Obviously this post is primarily directed toward newcomers to the world of espresso, I note that currently there is a thread from a person trying to get sense out a machine using Aldi beans, it really does make the process much more difficult than it should be, buy good quality freshly roasted beans https://beanbay.coffeesnobs.com.au/ViewCategory.aspx/roasted-coffee-ready-to-freight-now in the first place and be prepared to sacrifice a hundred grams or so, it will make the process of setting up your grinder/machine so much easier.?



  • #2
    Essential reading Yelta.

    At 40deg the beans would have almost roasted themselves...

    Cheers

    Comment


    • Yelta
      Yelta commented
      Editing a comment
      It certainly changed the heat gun temp settings substantially.

  • #3
    Good post Yelta.

    I know how much more effort "roasted to order" is for us to offer but we've always pushed it as the best way to control the freshness variable. It would be far simpler to be a "Well known Specialty Roaster" who roasts two different blends a couple of times a month and then sells it at varying levels of stale until it's gone.

    The coffee in the Ready To Freight Now (RTFN) section was from todays (Sunday) roast and we'll only sell that till the next roast on Wednesday.

    Coffee is a fresh food,
    supermarkets try and tell us it's good 18 months but so is frozen bread.

    Your story also covers "You MUST rest it for x Days" as I'm assuming you crawled from the hot shed to coffee machine as soon as the beans were cool enough to handle.
    Sure, it won't be as good as it will after a few days rest but it's a whole lot better than the old coffee and you can enjoy the progression through the week.

    Comment


    • #4
      Originally posted by Andy View Post
      Good post Yelta.

      I know how much more effort "roasted to order" is for us to offer but we've always pushed it as the best way to control the freshness variable. It would be far simpler to be a "Well known Specialty Roaster" who roasts two different blends a couple of times a month and then sells it at varying levels of stale until it's gone.

      The coffee in the Ready To Freight Now (RTFN) section was from todays roast and we'll only sell that till the next roast on Wednesday.

      Coffee is a fresh food,
      supermarkets try and tell us it's good 18 months but so is frozen bread.

      Your story also covers "You MUST rest it for x Days" as I'm assuming you crawled from the hot shed to coffee machine as soon as the beans were cool enough to handle.
      Sure, it won't be as good as it will after a few days rest but it's a whole lot better than the old coffee and you can enjoy the progression through the week.
      Thanks Andy.

      Supermarkets tell fibs!

      You assume correctly!

      Comment


      • #5
        Interesting post, especially given I’m the one trying to make sense out of Aldi beans.

        My reasoning with the Aldi beans was that it was a new (to me) grinder and machine that was going to take a while to dial in properly and I thought I could get it close enough with the cheaper beans and then move onto fresh beans when I was confident I wouldn’t be burning 15+ shots worth. I still don’t think that was the wrong approach for me but I understand those more experienced than I would go about it a different way.

        In your experience, can fresh beans be the only difference between a ten second shot and a thirty second shot?

        Comment


        • Yelta
          Yelta commented
          Editing a comment
          I think I made my thoughts on the subject pretty clear in my post, perhaps not, I'll say it again.

          Don't waste time nor money trying to set up a machine and grinder with stale beans, you'll get nowhere fast.

          Instead of burning your money a kg of stale beans for $14 and stuffing around trying to do the impossible, buy yourself a kg of good coffee beans from Bean Bay for $38, sacrifice about 100 grams getting your grind and dose right (that $3.80 worth) then your left with about 900 grams of quality beans to enjoy.

          Yep, you can buy em right here on Bean Bay. https://beanbay.coffeesnobs.com.au/V...longberry-rtfn


          cant explain it any better than that.

      • #6
        Originally posted by Vacant View Post
        Interesting post, especially given I’m the one trying to make sense out of Aldi beans.

        My reasoning with the Aldi beans was that it was a new (to me) grinder and machine that was going to take a while to dial in properly and I thought I could get it close enough with the cheaper beans and then move onto fresh beans when I was confident I wouldn’t be burning 15+ shots worth. I still don’t think that was the wrong approach for me but I understand those more experienced than I would go about it a different way.

        In your experience, can fresh beans be the only difference between a ten second shot and a thirty second shot?
        No, but it is a simple way to check if a bean is the problem.
        In your case, the fact that water is coming from your overpressure valve circuit when you choke the group makes me think that a pressure valve is misbehaving.

        Comment


        • #7
          Amberale, that’s a good point and I will try some fresh beans to eliminate that as a possibility.

          Yelta, my question was genuine and not intended to stir the pot. You did make your thoughts on the subject pretty clear and I appreciate your view and agree with the idea of fine tuning a machine with fresh beans. Because I’m not yet close to getting to a point where I am fine tuning the machine I’m pleased to have wasted less than $7 worth of beans rather than $19. To quote the Aldi bean thread, using good quality beans will fix your espresso, not your machine.



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