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Report 2
Micro foam:
The first micro foam experiment was positive. The steam wand feels slightly
short for the 0.6 liter pitcher. I put 2 dl of red milk (our red carton is 3.5
%)for a few minutes to the freezer. Then I emptied the wand of water, and as the
steam started to come out I put the wand to the milk and opened the steam valve.
It was not an easy job to do it together with the thermometer. After few seconds
I lowered the pitcher down to lift the wand to the milk surface. I got the milk
moving in the pitcher. As the temperature was increased to 40 degC, I lifted the
pitcher back and at 60 degC the steam valve was shut off. To my total surprise I
had managed to make nice looking micro foam. As I had expected it to be much
more difficult, I hadn't even the camera ready.
I then tried to make two shots (Shot
4: Rocky adjusted to 9 and Shot 5: Slightly finer with Rocky at 8) continuing
from the previous day (Report 1). The coffee was very
lumpy and the tamping seemed to be more difficult. The cake looked awful and I
was glad that I had being much more successful earlier.
At this stage I decided to use the
Naked Portafilter using Rocky at 8.
The following shots are also available as video (wmv
file, 2 min, 15 Mb)
Shot 6:
Tamping (13 kg) down to the slot in the filter and went now well. The Naked
PF was clearly tighter then the normal one and I had to use much more force to
get it to the right position. The brew was 40 ml espresso in 25 seconds, but
there were several water jets coming from the seal of the PF. It wasn't tight
enough, after all.
Shot 7:
The tamping caused a slanted cake (13 kg) and there still were some extra jets.
Due to a wrong knob pushing, the camera only shows the final product. The brew
was again 40 ml espresso in 25 seconds.
Shot 8:
The first cake was wasted as during the PF tightening the finger hit the brew
button. The new cake looked OK (13 kg). The brew was 60 ml espresso in 23
seconds as the 60 ml cup was totally filled. There was a small amount of water
on top of the cake and it looked uneven.
Shot 9:
A similar shot, now to a bigger cup, 65 ml espresso in 25 seconds. The brew at
the end was very watery. There was no water on the cake, but it was uneven.
Tasted quite OK, but nothing fancy. Only slightly crema.
Shot 10:
Now slightly more coffee and a 13 kg tamp. No indentation on the cake as dry.
The cake was quite tight as the brew was 20 ml in 30 seconds. It tasted quite
strong and there was slightly more crema. The cake surface afterwards was even
and there was a clear indentation of the screen screw..
The working around the machine seems
more sure. I now understand, why I would need a scale to measure the coffee.
Ordered one but have to wait for the delivery for a some time |