I got an interview at a café later this week when I have legit never made anything but drip coffee. I figured I needed to know a lot more beforehand so I started a UA-cam binge, I’m learning that coffee and espresso is a whole WORLD of terms and tips and I’m really excited to jump into things.
Wow! Now, this is what I call a great video. Short, to the point, and with lots of info. I've had my espresso machine for almost four years now and never realized the small little things I was doing wrong. Thanks for the tips!!!
This video just letting me know that no matter the topic in life, theres somebody who knows things I didn't even think could possibly exist on the subject. Me stumbling in here not knowing espresso has an ENTIRE DICTIONARY of terminology. I feel like I just saw proof aliens exist. Anyhoo, just bought my first machine and now I'm scared lol! Ahhhh
Thank you so much. I am a barista w/ 5 years experience yet I still have much to learn. I always tapped to make sure my grounds were even before tamping. But I just got myself the Breville Barista pro soooo I want to make the most of it and hopefully be getting a new job as a barista as well.
I did not know that making coffee/espresso is so demanding? As far as finding a barista job. Put in 10 applications every day all around town. EVERY DAY!
A couple of observations. First, you are using a spouted portafilter. There is no left side or right side. Either your machine is not level of you have bent the spouts in some way. Second, leveling is important but your approach to it is even more important. When talking about polishing, you semi-leveled your grounds before you used your leveler. This is a good and important tip. A slow approach with the leveler is needed in order to not pack the coffee bed with the leveler wings. Same reason we teach not to pack the bed with your fingers before tamping. If you simply press the grounds down with the leveler then twist, it is essentially doing the same as packing with your fingers or hand. Slow approach is best. Third, the polishing should be done after a pressure tamp - no pressure polish. If you tamp and twist at the same time you could get some bed movement, but I believe the moment the hot water hits the bed, the pre-wetting will expand the grounds thus sealing up any edge gaps that might be present - and you simply have a tamper that is old and damaged and needs to be replaced. Smooth surface, free of dings, chips, or scars. Lastly, a smooth approach of the portafilter to the group is the best advise you given; spot on in my opinion! All common sense. Thanks!
You're wrong Chris, if your coffee is not put in evenly, it comes out of the spouts at different rates, as shown in the video. It has nothing to do with the machine being on an uneven surface.
@@anthonypaynter828 you guys are arguing about how fluid goes down a drain hole. It’s accumulated in the handle then split again at the double spout. How it exits the common path will be affected by how it enters, so flow at the individual basket holes will influence. But the demonstration in the video is vastly oversimplified for general purpose advice beyond a specific handle. Any channeling could create or neutralise the effects at the spout. A naked would’ve been a far better demonstration of the fault. But aggregate and then divide is a coarse assessment of a system with too many variables. And it could easily be an uneven machine or an asymmetric handle. We will need 20 sample splits all weighed to the microgram!
They are all designed to share the coffee evenly between two cups right? This model does so better than the simplest ones by the extra T-junction before the slopes. Hence Chris is correct why a bottomless holder would have made this otherwise good presentation even better. :)
Thinking about it, the minute evening of the top milimeter of grounds that polishing might accomplishing is not going to do anything to affect your shot positively. This is like people who tap the portafilter after tamping to dislodge a few stray grounds on the wall of the portafilter. Those grounds weren't hurting anything, but you may have just unseated your coffee bed.
Good video. I've recently purchased a Sage Barista Express, and have taken the dive into making the best coffee I can. :) I've got just one minor complaint about the video. I believe you are right, when you state that tamping an uneven spread of grinded beans, will cause one side of the puck to be packed more tightly, thus making it harder for the water to come through on that side of the puck. But when you try to illustrate this by visualizing the coffee running faster out in one side than the other... I seriously doubt that can be the case. Your coffee clearly runs to a hole in the middle of the filter, then proceeds down into one channel, before it is split in two. There is absolutely no way the coffee coming from one side of the puck is going to stay in the same side all the way down the hole, through the single channel and then out the same side it came in.
@@MichaelNJ853 Fairly sure. Look at how liquids behave. Take out your filter, and pour some water into one side, and watch the flow. The water will not stay in the same side, no matter how onesided you make your pour. If your coffee is only coming out one side, it is more likely that your filter is ever so slightly tilted.
wow, right off the bat....the left side/right thing happens to me all the time and I never quite new why! I actually thought maybe my machine was little wonky, thanks!
I just bought my first machine the Chefmate 6 in 1 for only $144 and LOVE IT. Believe it or not, it does the job, works and is built very well. It pays for itself in a single month of Starbucks! 😎
I just pulled a shot this morning and got an unseated puck. I do polish, from the videos i see on youtube. Thanks for the tips - i learn a lot from this channel
Well.... I wanna say thanks! These three tips just saved me a lot of frustration! I'd finally decided to abandon Aldi Pod coffee (for the waste, not the taste... I actually love the pod I ended up with) and bought a simple Delonghi machine... It's been hit n miss and I was starting to think I'd made a mistake.... After simply paying more attention from these tips, the shot was much much better! Now I just need to find the right beans I like and get me a grinder to get the grind I want... Thanks :)
Hi, good vid. One way to prove the uneven tamp is to then repeat the higher density on the other side of the portafilter. If it switched sides, then it does make a difference. If it doesn't, then probably a tilt somewhere.
@@brandony8691 Agree. I'm surprised he demonstrated that with a double-spouted portafilter rather than a bottomless one. I only use a bottomless filter so I can always see if I've messed up and can correct immediately.
Hm, your point with uneven extraction when no distribution of grounds is done before tamping is right of course. But I highly doubt you can see the difference on the spouts of the portafilter. You’d need to use a naked one. Because an uneven flow at the spouts correlates with a slightly tilted machine, but not determines what’s happening at the bottom of the basket.
I am definitely seeing the difference on the spouts with uneven distribution. Happens quite often cause I just bought my first machine and I'm a complete beginner, but can confirm from experience that its very much a real occurence.
@@empt60 of course you can see the flow rate and if it’s rapidly changing. But you won’t be able to tell on which side a channel might have or not formed only by looking at the spouts and the distribution from espresso.
@@whyilovethemoon depends on the outlet and spout design. If it collects, runs forwards, then splits, it will remain balanced. But if the shot runs straight across a gently tapered bottom and drops straight down a large central hole into the spouts, it will be sensitive to lopsided pucks. Many commercial or high end handles use the offset spouts to even up the split shots, but with a central spout it's less forgiving. The spout in the video looks to offer fairly open paths, so I don't doubt it's real, but it could be more pronounced in some handles, less in others
Great question! This is probably one of those things where it's all about knowing the correct terminology in front of your friends and arguing technique, etc. Sort of like how wine experts can't tell which is "better" a 12 dollar bottle or a $350 bottle.
Hm, at 1:20 you claim that the left and right side flow differently, while clearly both flows originate from a single flow and are split by the portafilter spout itself. I mean, your point is clear & valid, true that uneven spread causes uneven distribution, but that is impossible to see on your portafilter, you have to use a naked one for that
I don't get your picture of the uneven shot. I get it how the left side of the spout is running more freely than the right. However, what does not make sense is that since both the left and the right spouts are fed by the same orifice it would seem to me that real issue here would be that the portafilter is either slightly off level or perhaps that there is an imperfection on the right side of the spout.
I was also confused about that. It's not like espresso from the left side of the basket goes into the left spout. The only way to actually see that uneven extraction or channeling would be a bottomless portafilter.
From what I could get from his explanation, since there is more coffee on one side, the coffee will be more densely packed on the right side and the water will have a harder time pushing through that side. The bigger amount of coffee is creating more resistance on the right side because there is less space in between each little coffee grind.
The first one about distributing the grounds before tamping may or may not be true, but the fact that the coffee is coming out of one wing of the portafilter more than the other is not evidence. The coffee all goes through the same hole and just falls randomly to one side or the other. You can see it in this very video!
I am working on a La San Marco coffee machine which has a 54 mm portafilter. I wonder how much the diameter of the basket affects the taste of the espresso. Does espresso from larger baskets taste better? Why do some Italian companies use 58.3 mm baskets and others 54 mm? Could you do a short chapter on this?
Im assuming pressure and speed of water come into play. Irl probably no real difference. Seems some machines let you play with variables.. perhaps more of a hobby than functioning side of pro coffee 😝
danguee1 central spout would still have water coming in from left and right hand sides I guess. I don’t really know to be honest but tried this and it fixed my problem straight away.
I always have coffee grinds on the group-head after pulling a shot... Maybe I'm overfilling or not tamping firmly enough. It could be also that my espresso machine isn't very high-end (starting out with a Cassabrews 20-bar machine). Amazing video BTW!
I actually noticed those things and I guess that's why my spouse makes me do all the cappuccinos. LOL....trial and error over the years. I could never explain it like you. I love your video. There really is an art to it.
Lol. Where I do agree you can tamp unevenly, when it all comes out the same orifice then is split left and right after coming out, it is impossible to say because there is less pouring on the right, that it is because of the tamp.
I guess most of the professionals that we work making thousands of coffees, espresso etc daily, know about this. The fact is, can you do it that way for every single hot drink when you open your local every morning and 80 people together come in shouting for coffee asap? or when you should do 2 espresso, 3 beers, 2 latte macchiato, and 3 cocktails for the same table? you only can do it when the place it's not so busy (or if your bar can charge 5 euro for an Espresso). And if you don't have to share your bar with a colleague that doesn't have the same passion like you to offer well done beverages, and leave the machine and other things made a mess
well this is the reason why you'll see more than 1-2 baristas working behind the machine at places with great coffee. I think you're missing the point by saying this is unrealistic, in fact, many cafes i've been to have baristas dedicated to each section (pulling the shots, milk texturing, latte art) to make sure all coffees they make are great!
RyAnn yes, I know a couple of places like this, even worked in one. All of them with financial problems. But for sure there's some that make good business
@@q-bainoelpasaol380 Teaching how to do something correctly is not for own popularity. He is not forcing every single barista to pull every shot perfectly, he is simply explaining what can cause bad flavors. You do what you can, maybe when there aren't many customers or you do a coffee for yourself or your boss or your gf you can take the time to be more careful.
Try to use tds and taste test espressø with distributing and without. Now I am talking about using O.C.D. d.t. If you are talking here about distribution, ok, but then you shouldn't be showing it wrong way using O.C.D. d.t. No barista have got more points in flavour column when he did use d.t. in comparison with barista that distributed coffee by hand (for example clockwise style or NSEW.) OCD develops more of bitterness etc. This could be like 30p text, but for now this is enough. Just advice no hate, peace in ☕
I seen a good tip. Put your grounds inna glass jar first and shake then to make the chunks disburse and fluff up the grounds. Then transfer to portafikter
Only place I have seen portafilter handling called out. How many times we see, or hear, someone banging the portafilter into the grouphead in their video. Of course, that will disturb the puck. Good call, thank you!
how dare I saying that, huh>? because I joined in the coffee industries for 10 years but I really luck when I started at first step due to the person who teaches me he is a genuine barista and we really cray love drinking coffee and we put passion there,. as two of us has been perceived for many specialty coffees in SYD and customers recommended me as a high class, you make good coffee
It does not matter about where else I work for in the past. no one else dares to say as I am a poor barista, never heard in my life since I worked for many companies
"left side runs fast right side runns slow," how is this possible when your coffee hole at the bottom on your porterfilter is just in the middle and all the coffee runs through?
the hole is in the centre but the coffee doesn't drip down through it directly, it drips out of the basket and then hits the body of the filter and runs down to the hole so if one side has more coffee that side will run slower owing to the fact that the water has to go through a more compact area.
I just got a Capresso Select espresso machine. I am trying to become a novice barista. I can't for the life of me to get it to pull a shot in less than 7 seconds after which the espresso is totally thin and watery. I can't imagine it is extracting efficiently. I DO have a conical burr grinder and have experimented with grind size, tamp, and dose but it still gets watery after 7 seconds and I don't think the espresso is as thick as it should be. I suspect it is chanelling. I need to try some different coffees but I can't imagine it will lengthen that pull time much,
Hi P! Also, what kind of grinder does your machine have? I heard bur grinders aren't the best, but what is and are there any professional home machines that do it any other way? How do you like yours?
Abolish the polish. That's good. It's hard to resist with a combo leveler/tamper device since they spin so readily. I also find myself doing it in case there are some grounds on the metal.
Yes, there is no need to polish by spinning at all. A proper tamp gets the job done all on its own. Why add an unnecessary variable to the art of espresso extraction when the idea is to lock down the necessary variables as consistently as possible. :)))
Oh this is very helpful..thanks!!! Btw, whats a "sproby" or what does it i mean "sproby on board??? " googled it and didnt get anyting. Is this a barista / coffee lingo? 😬 i feel silly but i had to ask.
Haha thanks Angela! Haha so it’s kind of a joke. So have you seen those “Baby On Board” stockers people put on their cars? So it’s like that, but e “Sproby”’ or Spro baby. Basically saying you need to be careful with your portafilter when you have a spro baby on board.
I bought a home machine and having watched my share of expresso shots being made, was surprised when the instructions said you don't have to tamp it. I'm still trying to get the hang of my machine which for some reason doesn't seem to have much steam at the end. Half inclined just to go back to my bullet coffee.
don't have to tamp? [puzzled look] I suspect you bought a very entry-level machine with a pressurized portafilter. Such machines don't depend on proper grind, distributing, and tamping; they simulate espresso pulling by brewing in the pressurized basket, then let the pressure finally overcome the resistance of the valve to eject the espresso. I used such a machine (a Saeco Via Venezia) for a decade or more before finally understanding what it was doing and learning that I could easily hack the portafilter to remove the valve and make it non-pressurized. At that point, you have a lot more control over your espresso, and although it's possible to make worse espresso that way, the upside is also there to significantly exceed the results of a pressurized portafilter.
0:45 - Simple solution - when grinding the coffee into a handle simply wobble the handle left and right to evenly spread the grind in the cup. 1:20 - The left and right sides of the spout should be dispensing evenly regardless of the grind concentration. Please explain how during purging one spout pours more from a single exit flow? Sounds like a terrible spout. Probably should check your seals aren't worn and square the lock.
Wait, isn't that spout left and right sides both hooked up to the center spout? The fact that the left spout ran faster is just a coincidence because they both come from the center spout anyways no?
Love all your videos but have a question about the OCD. Should you be spinning it the other direction so it causes a wave of distribution rather than a slope that’s pushing it down?
Hi Frank! Thanks for the kind words. So the OCD if spun the other direction will create big squared off mounds of coffee and will never flatten them. Just pushes them around. So it only really works in one direction. Good question!!
I got an interview at a café later this week when I have legit never made anything but drip coffee. I figured I needed to know a lot more beforehand so I started a UA-cam binge, I’m learning that coffee and espresso is a whole WORLD of terms and tips and I’m really excited to jump into things.
Wow! Now, this is what I call a great video. Short, to the point, and with lots of info. I've had my espresso machine for almost four years now and never realized the small little things I was doing wrong. Thanks for the tips!!!
Now that you are doing things the right way, do you perceive a markedly improved taste?
I'm still fishing around for consistent pulls, and videos like this really help us, less experienced, badristas.
Fine grinds, keep your machine clean, and you’ll be on your way to espresso shot addiction
This video just letting me know that no matter the topic in life, theres somebody who knows things I didn't even think could possibly exist on the subject. Me stumbling in here not knowing espresso has an ENTIRE DICTIONARY of terminology. I feel like I just saw proof aliens exist. Anyhoo, just bought my first machine and now I'm scared lol! Ahhhh
Don't worry your machine will do all Steps
Good to see you're on the proper part of the Dunning Kruger effect curve. Me too.
@@Phoenix-et9bk help I can't come back... It's like I'm locked in another dimension watching it all unfold now 😂
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Same!! I stumbled across espresso videos and immediately bought a cheap one on Amazon and hoping for the best lol
Thank you so much. I am a barista w/ 5 years experience yet I still have much to learn. I always tapped to make sure my grounds were even before tamping. But I just got myself the Breville Barista pro soooo I want to make the most of it and hopefully be getting a new job as a barista as well.
I did not know that making coffee/espresso is so demanding? As far as finding a barista job. Put in 10 applications every day all around town. EVERY DAY!
Thanks, very very helpful. I'm about to use my FIRST machine for my FIRST ATTEMPT ! WEE
So how’d it go?
Same!
A couple of observations. First, you are using a spouted portafilter. There is no left side or right side. Either your machine is not level of you have bent the spouts in some way. Second, leveling is important but your approach to it is even more important. When talking about polishing, you semi-leveled your grounds before you used your leveler. This is a good and important tip. A slow approach with the leveler is needed in order to not pack the coffee bed with the leveler wings. Same reason we teach not to pack the bed with your fingers before tamping. If you simply press the grounds down with the leveler then twist, it is essentially doing the same as packing with your fingers or hand. Slow approach is best. Third, the polishing should be done after a pressure tamp - no pressure polish. If you tamp and twist at the same time you could get some bed movement, but I believe the moment the hot water hits the bed, the pre-wetting will expand the grounds thus sealing up any edge gaps that might be present - and you simply have a tamper that is old and damaged and needs to be replaced. Smooth surface, free of dings, chips, or scars. Lastly, a smooth approach of the portafilter to the group is the best advise you given; spot on in my opinion! All common sense. Thanks!
You're wrong Chris, if your coffee is not put in evenly, it comes out of the spouts at different rates, as shown in the video. It has nothing to do with the machine being on an uneven surface.
@@anthonypaynter828 you guys are arguing about how fluid goes down a drain hole. It’s accumulated in the handle then split again at the double spout. How it exits the common path will be affected by how it enters, so flow at the individual basket holes will influence. But the demonstration in the video is vastly oversimplified for general purpose advice beyond a specific handle. Any channeling could create or neutralise the effects at the spout. A naked would’ve been a far better demonstration of the fault. But aggregate and then divide is a coarse assessment of a system with too many variables.
And it could easily be an uneven machine or an asymmetric handle. We will need 20 sample splits all weighed to the microgram!
They are all designed to share the coffee evenly between two cups right? This model does so better than the simplest ones by the extra T-junction before the slopes. Hence Chris is correct why a bottomless holder would have made this otherwise good presentation even better. :)
Thinking about it, the minute evening of the top milimeter of grounds that polishing might accomplishing is not going to do anything to affect your shot positively. This is like people who tap the portafilter after tamping to dislodge a few stray grounds on the wall of the portafilter. Those grounds weren't hurting anything, but you may have just unseated your coffee bed.
Good video. I've recently purchased a Sage Barista Express, and have taken the dive into making the best coffee I can. :)
I've got just one minor complaint about the video. I believe you are right, when you state that tamping an uneven spread of grinded beans, will cause one side of the puck to be packed more tightly, thus making it harder for the water to come through on that side of the puck. But when you try to illustrate this by visualizing the coffee running faster out in one side than the other... I seriously doubt that can be the case. Your coffee clearly runs to a hole in the middle of the filter, then proceeds down into one channel, before it is split in two. There is absolutely no way the coffee coming from one side of the puck is going to stay in the same side all the way down the hole, through the single channel and then out the same side it came in.
Are you absolutely sure? In other words, there is no way that the density mixed with air and gravity can cause this separation at the junction point?
@@MichaelNJ853 Fairly sure. Look at how liquids behave. Take out your filter, and pour some water into one side, and watch the flow. The water will not stay in the same side, no matter how onesided you make your pour. If your coffee is only coming out one side, it is more likely that your filter is ever so slightly tilted.
ZING POW. what you said is all true. what does that do to this video?!! might be some religious like hocus pocus belief mixed in with these good tips.
wow, right off the bat....the left side/right thing happens to me all the time and I never quite new why! I actually thought maybe my machine was little wonky, thanks!
I am a newbie to espresso. This is so helpful.
I just bought my first machine the Chefmate 6 in 1 for only $144 and LOVE IT. Believe it or not, it does the job, works and is built very well. It pays for itself in a single month of Starbucks! 😎
"AbolishThePolish"
Me, a Polish person: "I don't like where this is going."
Dawid Bednorz all about the context
@@Sprometheus I think he was joking.
Its un unnecessary wank
Laughed hard at that one
Sounds like he got you all pucked up bro!
I just pulled a shot this morning and got an unseated puck. I do polish, from the videos i see on youtube. Thanks for the tips - i learn a lot from this channel
Nicole Policarpio thank you so much! I appreciate the kind words and you watching!
@@Sprometheus oo
Learning how to make espresso for myself. So little videos like this help me get from beginner to awesome. So I can just feel all nice and spoiled
Well.... I wanna say thanks! These three tips just saved me a lot of frustration! I'd finally decided to abandon Aldi Pod coffee (for the waste, not the taste... I actually love the pod I ended up with) and bought a simple Delonghi machine... It's been hit n miss and I was starting to think I'd made a mistake.... After simply paying more attention from these tips, the shot was much much better! Now I just need to find the right beans I like and get me a grinder to get the grind I want... Thanks :)
Hi, good vid. One way to prove the uneven tamp is to then repeat the higher density on the other side of the portafilter. If it switched sides, then it does make a difference. If it doesn't, then probably a tilt somewhere.
Or use a bottomless portafilter and watch the flow.
@@ultima199g 100%. The only reliable way to know without getting expensive gadgetry is to use a bottomless portafilter and watch as you pull a shot.
@@brandony8691 Agree. I'm surprised he demonstrated that with a double-spouted portafilter rather than a bottomless one. I only use a bottomless filter so I can always see if I've messed up and can correct immediately.
Fantastic! You have just solved my issues with my morning coffee - so simple. Thank you.
Cool Muzak! I am now enlightened as to the intricacies of the “puck”☕️
No
@@ismaeljabran5756 yes
Hm, your point with uneven extraction when no distribution of grounds is done before tamping is right of course. But I highly doubt you can see the difference on the spouts of the portafilter. You’d need to use a naked one. Because an uneven flow at the spouts correlates with a slightly tilted machine, but not determines what’s happening at the bottom of the basket.
Exactly. This was my first thought watching this video. Otherwise, thanks The Real Sprometheus for the tips, they are definitely useful!
I am definitely seeing the difference on the spouts with uneven distribution. Happens quite often cause I just bought my first machine and I'm a complete beginner, but can confirm from experience that its very much a real occurence.
@@empt60 of course you can see the flow rate and if it’s rapidly changing. But you won’t be able to tell on which side a channel might have or not formed only by looking at the spouts and the distribution from espresso.
@@whyilovethemoon depends on the outlet and spout design. If it collects, runs forwards, then splits, it will remain balanced. But if the shot runs straight across a gently tapered bottom and drops straight down a large central hole into the spouts, it will be sensitive to lopsided pucks. Many commercial or high end handles use the offset spouts to even up the split shots, but with a central spout it's less forgiving. The spout in the video looks to offer fairly open paths, so I don't doubt it's real, but it could be more pronounced in some handles, less in others
I thought the same
A good demonstration of common mistakes. Following each improper technique with the correct one would’ve been appreciated, though…
My first espresso machine is coming in today and thank you 🙏🏻 I learned a few things.
me: doesn't own a machine, doesn't make coffee, doesn't drink coffee
also me: watches how to make 'better' coffee
☠☠☠
And that's how you got your new machine lol
You and I should split weekly therapy sessions
Have ever done a blind test to see if there are real perceptible differences in flavor doing things the wrong way vs. the right way?
esoteric differences
Great question! This is probably one of those things where it's all about knowing the correct terminology in front of your friends and arguing technique, etc. Sort of like how wine experts can't tell which is "better" a 12 dollar bottle or a $350 bottle.
I like coffee but man, this is serious. Who knew it comes down to such fine details.
It really does matter
Its like an art
Hm, at 1:20 you claim that the left and right side flow differently, while clearly both flows originate from a single flow and are split by the portafilter spout itself. I mean, your point is clear & valid, true that uneven spread causes uneven distribution, but that is impossible to see on your portafilter, you have to use a naked one for that
Well done, clear and concise. I get it!
I’m also Barista and this video it’s so helpful for me I really need more to learn to plan open new cafe. Thanks a million x
I don't get your picture of the uneven shot. I get it how the left side of the spout is running more freely than the right. However, what does not make sense is that since both the left and the right spouts are fed by the same orifice it would seem to me that real issue here would be that the portafilter is either slightly off level or perhaps that there is an imperfection on the right side of the spout.
It probably means the water isn’t distributed properly across the grind and you don’t get all the “flavor” (I’m not a barista) from the grind.
I was also confused about that. It's not like espresso from the left side of the basket goes into the left spout. The only way to actually see that uneven extraction or channeling would be a bottomless portafilter.
From what I could get from his explanation, since there is more coffee on one side, the coffee will be more densely packed on the right side and the water will have a harder time pushing through that side. The bigger amount of coffee is creating more resistance on the right side because there is less space in between each little coffee grind.
The first one about distributing the grounds before tamping may or may not be true, but the fact that the coffee is coming out of one wing of the portafilter more than the other is not evidence. The coffee all goes through the same hole and just falls randomly to one side or the other. You can see it in this very video!
Excelente vídeo! Pena que não temos tanto tempo para a feitura do expresso!
Nada disso demora nem acrescenta tempo nas mãos de uma pessoa treinada.
Thanks for the tips. Many of the things we would overlook.
I am working on a La San Marco coffee machine which has a 54 mm portafilter. I wonder how much the diameter of the basket affects the taste of the espresso. Does espresso from larger baskets taste better? Why do some Italian companies use 58.3 mm baskets and others 54 mm? Could you do a short chapter on this?
Im assuming pressure and speed of water come into play. Irl probably no real difference. Seems some machines let you play with variables.. perhaps more of a hobby than functioning side of pro coffee 😝
well now i understand why one side is flowing faster than the other....👍
thank you
40 FK happy to help!
Same this has been driving me mad for weeks.
What even though it all feeds through a central spout before splitting?
That doesn't make sense at all....
danguee1 central spout would still have water coming in from left and right hand sides I guess.
I don’t really know to be honest but tried this and it fixed my problem straight away.
Coffee is distributed from one spout which splits into two....the guy doesn't know what he's talking about!
I always have coffee grinds on the group-head after pulling a shot... Maybe I'm overfilling or not tamping firmly enough. It could be also that my espresso machine isn't very high-end (starting out with a Cassabrews 20-bar machine). Amazing video BTW!
I actually noticed those things and I guess that's why my spouse makes me do all the cappuccinos. LOL....trial and error over the years. I could never explain it like you. I love your video. There really is an art to it.
Lol. Where I do agree you can tamp unevenly, when it all comes out the same orifice then is split left and right after coming out, it is impossible to say because there is less pouring on the right, that it is because of the tamp.
Exactly. I thought this video was a joke when I saw that.
Six vids tried only u emerged victorious .
I came across one of your shorts and it lead me to subscribe.. awesome tips and tricks of the trade but I HAVE to know what camera you use..
Thanks for stopping by and the sub. This video was filmed in a Canon T5i and my newer videos are now recorded in a Canon EOS R6.
@@Sprometheus cheers
I guess most of the professionals that we work making thousands of coffees, espresso etc daily, know about this. The fact is, can you do it that way for every single hot drink when you open your local every morning and 80 people together come in shouting for coffee asap? or when you should do 2 espresso, 3 beers, 2 latte macchiato, and 3 cocktails for the same table? you only can do it when the place it's not so busy (or if your bar can charge 5 euro for an Espresso). And if you don't have to share your bar with a colleague that doesn't have the same passion like you to offer well done beverages, and leave the machine and other things made a mess
Your 101% correct sir,
His video is only for his own papularity. not realistic
well this is the reason why you'll see more than 1-2 baristas working behind the machine at places with great coffee. I think you're missing the point by saying this is unrealistic, in fact, many cafes i've been to have baristas dedicated to each section (pulling the shots, milk texturing, latte art) to make sure all coffees they make are great!
RyAnn yes, I know a couple of places like this, even worked in one. All of them with financial problems. But for sure there's some that make good business
@@q-bainoelpasaol380
Teaching how to do something correctly is not for own popularity. He is not forcing every single barista to pull every shot perfectly, he is simply explaining what can cause bad flavors. You do what you can, maybe when there aren't many customers or you do a coffee for yourself or your boss or your gf you can take the time to be more careful.
Try to use tds and taste test espressø with distributing and without. Now I am talking about using O.C.D. d.t. If you are talking here about distribution, ok, but then you shouldn't be showing it wrong way using O.C.D. d.t. No barista have got more points in flavour column when he did use d.t. in comparison with barista that distributed coffee by hand (for example clockwise style or NSEW.)
OCD develops more of bitterness etc. This could be like 30p text, but for now this is enough.
Just advice no hate, peace in ☕
I just quit polishing after upgrading to a 58.4mm tamper as it doesn't feel necessary, the last tip is great as well.
I seen a good tip. Put your grounds inna glass jar first and shake then to make the chunks disburse and fluff up the grounds. Then transfer to portafikter
Liked and already subscribed (notifications on).
Thanks.
This is great. My only question would be around how to do #2 mistake correctly (sorry, I'm a total newb).
Only place I have seen portafilter handling called out. How many times we see, or hear, someone banging the portafilter into the grouphead in their video. Of course, that will disturb the puck. Good call, thank you!
how dare I saying that, huh>? because I joined in the coffee industries for 10 years but I really luck when I started at first step due to the person who teaches me he is a genuine barista and we really cray love drinking coffee and we put passion there,. as two of us has been perceived for many specialty coffees in SYD and customers recommended me as a high class, you make good coffee
Can you teach me...
Great video!
It does not matter about where else I work for in the past. no one else dares to say as I am a poor barista, never heard in my life since I worked for many companies
thanks for sharing, this video made me subscribed.
Good tips are much appreciated from this beginner.
Helpful video. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you. ☕️🤎
Yes! Love this.
Well explained. Thanks
"left side runs fast right side runns slow," how is this possible when your coffee hole at the bottom on your porterfilter is just in the middle and all the coffee runs through?
the hole is in the centre but the coffee doesn't drip down through it directly, it drips
out of the basket and then hits the body of the filter and runs down to the hole so if one side has more coffee that side will run slower owing to the fact that the water has to go through a more compact area.
thinking the same thing as i watched the video
That would be possible when you had two portafilter outlets, one on the left, one on the right, completely unconnected to each other.
I've made the first mistake 3 times this week thank you
All, this is the coolest and detailed video with references by far, nothing compares to this. Keep the fire going.
Thank you so much my friend!
Thank you, can you make a comparison between IMS / VST / pullman portafilter basket ,please 🙏
That’s a good one. Been thinking about the basket program lately. I’ll add that to my list.
Nice
Now im aware of my mistakes 😅
Did you do an Espro french press review? Would love a comparison with Fellow.
Great tips ☕️
No polish, noted.
Thank you sir i have learn alot
like that mistakes are pointed out, but it would be nice to see the proper way to do... coming from a novice
Main diatas bus sekolah
Can you do a video to remedy all these things please in detail
Best distributor ever: BRAVO Distributor
Woo woo well great work !
I just got a Capresso Select espresso machine. I am trying to become a novice barista. I can't for the life of me to get it to pull a shot in less than 7 seconds after which the espresso is totally thin and watery. I can't imagine it is extracting efficiently. I DO have a conical burr grinder and have experimented with grind size, tamp, and dose but it still gets watery after 7 seconds and I don't think the espresso is as thick as it should be. I suspect it is chanelling. I need to try some different coffees but I can't imagine it will lengthen that pull time much,
Wow, this guy is a perfectionist. I would love to taste an espresso that he made.
P
Good video but what you didn't show people is what to do if they have more coffee on one side or the other before tamping.
Thankyou so much for the video ❤️
Hi P! Also, what kind of grinder does your machine have? I heard bur grinders aren't the best, but what is and are there any professional home machines that do it any other way? How do you like yours?
Tamper?what is it good for?if you want even ,flat puck ,just use leveler is adjustable and that is perfectly enough,my experience .cheers
Good point! Thx.
Abolish the polish. That's good. It's hard to resist with a combo leveler/tamper device since they spin so readily. I also find myself doing it in case there are some grounds on the metal.
What’s a spyrobi?
Really helpful thanks
Great tips , thanks!
Thanks for sharing
Fantastic video! Great content and very instructive
Hahaaa... You said "Puck" more than anyone in a YEAR of NHL. :D Thanks for the video.
Umm.. I don't get the second one. Can you explain it? 😅😅
I second this question..I understand the consequences but do you just tamp it down and not spin at all as a solution?
Yes, there is no need to polish by spinning at all. A proper tamp gets the job done all on its own. Why add an unnecessary variable to the art of espresso extraction when the idea is to lock down the necessary variables as consistently as possible. :)))
Darryl Loandy Nick down below nailed it. No need for it. It doesn’t really add anything but risk of damaging your puck.
Oh this is very helpful..thanks!!! Btw, whats a "sproby" or what does it i mean "sproby on board??? " googled it and didnt get anyting. Is this a barista / coffee lingo? 😬 i feel silly but i had to ask.
Haha thanks Angela! Haha so it’s kind of a joke. So have you seen those “Baby On Board” stockers people put on their cars? So it’s like that, but e “Sproby”’ or Spro baby. Basically saying you need to be careful with your portafilter when you have a spro baby on board.
@@Sprometheus yes saw those stickers. thanks for this.😂
Yhanks for sharing
I bought a home machine and having watched my share of expresso shots being made, was surprised when the instructions said you don't have to tamp it. I'm still trying to get the hang of my machine which for some reason doesn't seem to have much steam at the end. Half inclined just to go back to my bullet coffee.
don't have to tamp? [puzzled look] I suspect you bought a very entry-level machine with a pressurized portafilter. Such machines don't depend on proper grind, distributing, and tamping; they simulate espresso pulling by brewing in the pressurized basket, then let the pressure finally overcome the resistance of the valve to eject the espresso. I used such a machine (a Saeco Via Venezia) for a decade or more before finally understanding what it was doing and learning that I could easily hack the portafilter to remove the valve and make it non-pressurized. At that point, you have a lot more control over your espresso, and although it's possible to make worse espresso that way, the upside is also there to significantly exceed the results of a pressurized portafilter.
What’s a sprobee?
espresso baby - you don't wanna hurt them
Oh shit! I found your channel! Great work man!
Hey! Thanks! Small world!
I have a manual coffee machine. It was a bit trial and error at first, getting the quantity for coffee and water. I really do need a better machine 😂
I’m curious, does the spinning tamp work better then hand tamping?
Thanks!
Excellent
0:45 - Simple solution - when grinding the coffee into a handle simply wobble the handle left and right to evenly spread the grind in the cup.
1:20 - The left and right sides of the spout should be dispensing evenly regardless of the grind concentration. Please explain how during purging one spout pours more from a single exit flow? Sounds like a terrible spout. Probably should check your seals aren't worn and square the lock.
Any idea where I can get one of those spouts for the grind process, mine send a lot of the coffee all over my worktop.
I got my portafilter funnel at Orphan Espresso.
They call it a dosing ring. You can find them on eBay or Amazon.
Wait, isn't that spout left and right sides both hooked up to the center spout? The fact that the left spout ran faster is just a coincidence because they both come from the center spout anyways no?
dude doesn't fluid dynamics. thank god he got better since then.
Spro - the title of this one could be "Don't Play With Your Puck" ;)
Thanks
Love all your videos but have a question about the OCD. Should you be spinning it the other direction so it causes a wave of distribution rather than a slope that’s pushing it down?
Hi Frank! Thanks for the kind words. So the OCD if spun the other direction will create big squared off mounds of coffee and will never flatten them. Just pushes them around. So it only really works in one direction. Good question!!
How can flow from one end of portafilter outlet more than from second one, when they are divided from one central hole on the bottom of portafilter? 🙂