make great espresso at home

I just tried Peet’s Mocha-java as a coffee for espresso (on the recommendation of one of there staff). This has produced the best cup of espresso I have made so far with my Expobar. I did it by slightly over-packing the portafilter, at a slightly too-big grind setting on the Rancilo Rocky. (If you have the relevant equipment, let me know and I will give you specifics.)

The crema was thick as could be, the taste was excellent, mouthfeel wonderful, and the puck formation was perfect. If I hadn’t decided to mark this done based on what might be called average process statistics, today would have been the day.

This is an endless process of quality improvement, so it is unattainable in final form. But the stuff coming out of my Expobar is indistinguishable from what I get at most cafes, and attains the perfection of the best cafe I know periodically so I am calling it.

Fixed the screw. Just pulled the machine over the counter ledge and had my wife hold it precariously over my head and looked underneath. It was obvious where it went. Fixed in one minute.

Why did I not think of this on Monday?!!?!!??!

Back online now.

So a screw fell out of the bottom of the espresso machine and we now have to wait for the company to call us back and advise. Lovely Spanish engineering! :-|

So I have now tried Peet’s coffee at home and it produces a very foamy product at the time of production. It decays faster than other coffee brands sometimes do, but at the current grind it is very interesting crema. I will try downing the average particle size to see where we can get!

Working so far, but I am scared to start changing the settings too much. That is what went wrong with the other one.

Got a good shot from overly dry second rate beans. Need to try the good ones in the machine with these settings…

Experimenting with Whole Latte Love’s Monaco espresso beans, I got a very think crema (thickest so far!), an almost perfect pull time, and a taste reminiscent of some of the better shots I have had recently.

So. Something. :-)

The company finally sent the replacement grinder! It had been out of stock for a week or so. So in another week…

Yanked the handle off of the machine today without fully depressurizing it! What a terrible mess! Cleaning it up off and on all day!!

Lousy espresso for two days now, still waiting for the company to send us a replacement for the malfunctioning grinder.

By the way, never buy from wholelattelove.com their customer service is possibly the worst I have ever seen, especially for products that cost thousands of dollars!

Well I can now get a consistent cup of so-so espresso. I think the next step is to get better quality beans and see if that alters things. I have been working with a really cheap beans (apx. 10$US per 2+ lbs.) and get a consistent 5mm crema. I want 10mm. That is the next goal. :-)