Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

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Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby ttommy » Tue Mar 13, 2012 11:27 pm

During the past few months, I've developed this hobby "cross-pollinating" with another coffee enthusiast, Eric N, at Gearsomniac. One of the first things I learned is that even as coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world after oil, the appreciation of coffee by the consuming public trails behind wine and other spirits. Imagine visiting a wine store and seeing shelves of wine where the only information available to you is a label saying "French," or "Italian" and nothing else. No mention of the type of grape or the year these grapes were picked. If you find this image appalling, then welcome to the world of coffee for most of us.

Our parents experienced the "first wave" of coffee-- basically, coffee that was packed into jars and bins and allowed for instant gratification. Maxwell's House, Folger's and Nescafe are brands they grew up with. Fast forward to "second wave," nowadays whereas one might purchase a pound of "Italian roast", it's the equivalent of the example above-- we don't know exactly what type of beans were used, where it's from or when it was roasted. "Third Wave" coffee is based on the idea that as consumers we deserve better. At the very least, we'd like to know when the beans were roasted, obviously, since roasted coffee goes stale. It also doesn't hurt to indicate origin, the varietal of bean or perhaps information about the farming cooperative for the more conscientious, who might look into issues of sustainability and fair trade. When it comes to taste, however, most coffee drinkers don't care whether they're buying from Starbucks or a "specialty" shop... until they try truly good coffee and realize, all along, they've been paying for more expensive, vastly inferior product. Then there are those whose preference lies towards milk-based, sweet-laden "confections." No offense if you're one of them, but then you're not really interested in coffee, you're interested in milk-based, sweet-laden "confections." :roll:

Within the culture of coffee afficionados, there exists a smaller community of espresso lovers. Espresso coffee, as we all know, is simply the result of forcing near boiling water through ground beans to produce a concentrated beverage. Espresso appreciation has its own learning curve, quite distinct from appreciating Specialty Coffee. For one, there's not much reliance on cupping and hence the scoring used to grade whether a coffee meets "specialty" grade. And for some espresso-only drinkers, myself included, compared to regular coffee, we might as well be talking about another hobby! In this post, I'll describe my rapid descent into espresso madness which, like most my hobbies, start with an understanding of its gear.

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My journey started last fall when our office moved back to my old neighborhood in lower Manhattan and I was reunited with my favorite coffee shop, Jack's. I started going to Jack's for espresso everyday and my conversations with my friend Eric made me want to learn how to make espresso that's as good, an impossibility, I thought at the time. Jack uses a three group (or three "spout") La Marzocco, one of the top commercial brands of semi-automatic espresso machines. In the world of espresso making, there are manual machines that require the operator to either push a piston via a lever (or pull a spring lever to push a piston) to force hot water through grounds, semi-auto machines that replace the operator's force with a pump, and fully automatic machines that grind the beans and prepare coffee for you. Between manual and full-auto, one trades full control, on one hand, with the ease of pushing a button. Early on, I decided full auto was not for me and I started looking at semi-autos.

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Within the category of semi-automatics, there are single-boiler dual use (SBDU) machines the most popular of which, the Rancilio Silvia, being the machine of choice for folk starting out. From here one usually upgrades to heat exchanger (HX) machines or double-boilers (DB). Here's a spreadsheet I prepared that compares brands/models for "prosumer" grade HXs and DBs.. Just very recently HX and DBs were starting to break the $1K barrier making them much more accessible for home use. However, in my case, a revelation occurred when I tried the coffee at RBCNYC. RBC uses the much touted Slayer, a machine that uses "pressure profiling" which, unlike traditional pumps that extract at 9 bar constantly, allows programming a variable pressure profile that changes depending on the nature of the roast/bean. That made me realize that if a state-of-the-art pump-driven machine like the Slayer were trying to emulate manual machines, then why don't I start by learning to do things full manual in the first place? That's when I knew it was gonna be strictly levers for me.

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After much research, I hunted down a 1991 Olympia Cremina but had to take apart the grouphead to chase a problem which turned out to have a much simpler solution. In doing so, I realized there's not much to fear taking apart lever machines like these if you're a bit adventurous. It can even feel a bit like fun, much like a cross between disassembling a vintage watch and plumbing a toilet. I paired the Cremina with an Orphan Espresso Pharos, a truly superb product, and is the first use of a commercial 68mm conical burr in a hand grinder. One surprising side-effect, a couple weeks into using this combo, was that I couldn't stand the espresso at Jack's! Apparently doing everything by hand changed my perception of how espresso was prepared at my once favorite coffee shop. For one, I started to discern the differences between the "mano" of each barista and most of the baristas over-extracted their espressos. I also began noticing the astringent taste of their paper cups which somehow got emphasized when the temperature got too hot. In short, what I once thought was like a nectar of molten chocolate now tasted, most of the time, like bitter chemical sludge. Oh cr*p, it sounds like I'd turned into a snob :oops:



Meanwhile, Mrs Y has joined me in this hobby although her drink of choice is a cappuccino. Between the two of us we consume around 1.5 lbs of coffee every 6 days. While she can pull an excellent shot of espresso herself, it's the Pharos grinder below that kept her away. Eventually I added the very decent Krups GX610050 grinder (which has to be modded to grind in the espresso range). Both of us now enjoy the same coffee ritual everyday and later on, as you'll read below, it helped us take things a step further.

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Early on, I knew this wasn't really going to be about just making espressos but about roasting! Those who enjoy primarily brewed coffee but dislike espressos actually have a wider range of green coffee to choose from. Espresso drinkers, on the other hand, might combine a lighter "City+" roast in a blend. Studying the range of choices in home and commercial roasters, I eventually settled on a Gene Cafe mainly because I can vent to a nearby window and, at least in theory, have less smoke inside our apartment. Too bad we don't have a garage or spare room, otherwise there are very reasonable 500g - 1Kg roasters from Taiwan (e.g. Huky, Yang-Chia 800n, T1000) that I'd love to try. For the fraction of the price of a Probat or Diedrich, you have a comparable roaster and I'd also argue that there is actually more action happening in Taiwan when it comes to micro-roasting. The stovetop Huky 500 in particular is appealing because for the same price of a Quest M3 you have a larger "fully manual" roaster but, unlike the Gene Cafe, you can attach temperature probes to monitor your roasts via software like Artisan.

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If you're interested to read more about roasting, I have a lengthier post here. What's important to understand is as with cooking, you might take away your ingredients from the heat but the surface of your ingredient is still hot enough it'll cook "the insides." The trick in roasting is to be able to rapidly cool the beans and, below, you'll see me use a vacuum-cleaner contraption which, for the sake of decency, I've later upgraded to a shop vac :lol:



Then, in conversations with my younger brother Buddy, who used to run his own coffee shop in our home province of Iloilo, his interest in espressos was revived and this became another excuse to source some more vintage lever machines. Below, we have the ingenuously-designed Arrarex Caravel which, besides producing what might be termed a "reference" shot of ristretto, is the only lever espresso machine that can be taken apart without the use of any tools!



One of the disadvantages for those of us in the US with 110V is that these vintage lever machines were manufactured in Italy so are 220V. While there are companies that can manufacture heating elements for US voltage, mistakes are still possible. Take this Faema Faemina heating element from Convectronics I was installing on my latest, having toiled on the cleaning and disassembly and making a gasket at 3AM last Sunday morning, only to discover the dimensions of the replacement element was off depth-wise by 7mm! :evil:

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When I'm done with this rebuild, then I'll keep both the fully manual Cremina lever and the spring-driven Faemina side-by-side and migrate my Arrarex to the office (Buddy's getting the one below but I have another on its way.)

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In the course of this adventure, I've also stumbled upon a mother lode in Turin, Italy, with a guy who has a stash of vintage *commercial* lever machines that can be the envy of any top collection. The supplier and I hit it off and I built him a website and was considering turning this into something, but the language barrier is so significant that Google translate doesn't help much. As much as I'd love a Faema Mercurio or later Lambro, the huge possibility of miscommunication and the fear of sourcing parts for machines that have been out of production for decades has me unsure whether to pursue this further.

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But wait, there's more! :P Circling back to roasting, I thought that if we end up doing something that's commercial in nature, then I'd like to understand the "end-to-end" of this process. Which means, starting with green beans and the supply chain, we'll need to see the final product. So, Mrs Y and I thought up a hypothetical business name, she had a die made and mounted on her Adana Eight-Five letterpress machine, and ran through a gazillion paper bags this weekend trying to get the print right.

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Not that we'll actually sell this, at the moment, this is just for the consumption of family and friends but, finally, the process producing a "Third Wave" coffee product is understood and complete!

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Finally, something I didn't expect, one day after I brought the sample to the office, we've got "orders"... oh boy, madness indeed! :)

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Thanks for reading!
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby enzolm » Wed Mar 14, 2012 9:46 am

Bravo, Tito! I would pay to read your musings. Hope this is just part 1.
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby desmo » Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:31 am

Excellent read.

Man when you decide to do something, you really go all the way. Bravo. :)
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby planarribbon » Wed Mar 14, 2012 12:11 pm

yep. when tito does things, he never does things halfway. all or nothing! yan ang tunay!
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby manila » Wed Mar 14, 2012 3:23 pm

Dude, i thought i was drinking great espressos until i read your post. This is on another galaxy altogether!

Looking forward for part2. . . . Thanks!
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby dante » Wed Mar 14, 2012 3:58 pm

Tito, I will have to take lessons from you! I thought I was rabid on coffee, but you're over the top! Congratulations on your small business! And on your passion for all things good! Bravo! :clap: :clap: :clap:
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby JackD201 » Wed Mar 14, 2012 4:35 pm

I'm even more amazed at how you can store all your kitchen wonders in a NY apartment and have a raging full on system and bouncing baby boy to boot!
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby ttommy » Thu Mar 15, 2012 12:57 am

Much appreciated feedback, guys, but the planned Part 2, unfortunately, was derailed :( I was looking forward to attending Coffee Fest NY at the Javits this past weekend and doing a show report but didn't realize how difficult it was to get the letterpress to print evenly on our packaging. Anyway, there will be other developments, I'm sure that can be rolled into a more cohesive "part 2" but for now, I'll just continue with some more "musings."

Dante, I wish I had this hobby back when we got together in '08. Rest assured I read every single one of your coffee posts, even captured all your selling prices (haha) including those from all other coffee shops in our province just in case my brother wanted to get into a similar business. To be honest, my "end-to-end" study is mostly for his sake as we figured, the micro-roasting market here is already over-saturated. Btw, would you know if there are any coffee forums in the country? That's probably another community to be built and good business to be made (and you, my friend E, I see you ;))

And Jack, the hobbies are indeed competing... take when I'd scheduled a trip to NJ to buy a Bezzera Strega from its distributor but afterwards got an email from an online vendor that the Mytek DSD DAC was available, biglang liko! As for Pubby, well, he thinks it's his babycave :rofl:

Returning to the subject: why go with a lever machine? What's wrong with a semi- (or for that matter, a full-) auto?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with a semi-auto espresso machine. In fact, consistency wise, you can't beat those and full-autos. You get more-or-less the same drink shot after shot. The downside? You get more-or-less the same drink shot after shot. As far as that shot goes, if a constant 9-bar pressure is applied throughout the pull, then for me, there seems to be a tendency to "over-extract," especially towards the tail end of the shot. In other words, "pigang-piga," which I think makes the shot unnecessarily bitter.

The upside is that 9-bar is about 130 psi and for a portafilter that's 58mm diameter (2.28") or 1.14" radius, then our surface area (pi x radius squared) = 3.14 x (1.14" ^ 2) = roughly 4 square inches. In short, that 9-bar pump driven machine is exerting about 130 pounds per square inch * 4 square inches = 520 lbs! That, my friends, is what we call *punch*. In comparison, you might've seen me lift the Trodt Sikatunas which weigh 70lbs per side but I guarantee you the ligaments on my knees were already throbbing :lol:

A pump-driven punchier pull can result in very dense, syrupy, chocolatey espressos with that sticky, lingering aftertaste on your mouth and lips. This experience often forms very strong sense-memories and, especially for those having it the first time, can be like that proverbial crack high... I imagine :) On the other hand, those whose remember espresso as nothing but an overly bitter, concentrated drink probably had their experience tainted by an over-extraction. But, unfortunately, as with most hobbies, there often are tendencies to over complicate explanations, like with this "color space" below--

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In contrast, spring- or fully manual lever machines are said to be mellower in taste and afford the barista better tuning possibilities. But *everything* starts with understanding the bean. If you're roasting yourself, then you have the advantage of being able to correlate the roast profile/times/temps with the shot produced. In my case, my first roast with the Gene Cafe, I didn't use a roasting profile, max'd out the temps at 482F and roasted until the point I knew the beans were charred. This for me became my "boundary condition," an event-horizon of sorts before the roasted beans get charred and lost in a black hole and popup on the other side of a parallel universe on a Starbucks shelf :hai:

But knowing that boundary condition helped me understand the features/limitations of the roasting equipment (and led to that cooling contraption above). Now once the character of the bean is understood, your preferences for that bean (or blend) defined, then with lever machines, the fun begins! As with semi-autos, the contribution made by grinders is not to be under-estimated but nowadays, it's possible to have relatively inexpensive grinders that get the job done. With levers if you'd like to approximate the syrupy-ness of pump machines, then the trick is to bring the machine to the point of choking, meaning, the grind is so fine it almost chokes the machine and/or a combination of "updosing" (simply adding more coffee in the portafilter).

Then we have the pull-- especially with fully manual machines like the Cremina, this becomes a highly interactive experience. All the factors that led to this point-- the bean, the roast, the freshness of the roast, the blend (I blend beans *after* roasting), the grind, the dose, the temperature, the pre-infusion and, finally, the pull come together. Watching the extraction stream out of the portafilter, it becomes possible to tell the character of the shot and one could compensate or adjust during the pull. Do I do a Fellini? Do I ease up on the tail end of the pull? Although actually, a lot of the preparation had already occured before the shot was pulled and the determinants for flavor, texture, aroma, etc. happened before any water hit the grounds! If you're the type who also researches the farm/coop that produces the coffee and, much like a method actor, immerse yourself in-context while pulling the shot, then you'll realize, the journey your coffee went through,the plant budding for years, getting picked, making the "trip down the mountain," through much poverty, injustice and politics, through processing, global distribution and retail, then it hits you:

The universe in a drop.
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby Superman » Thu Mar 15, 2012 1:21 am

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby corrsty » Thu Mar 15, 2012 3:49 pm

Great, great musings Tito.

I have a newbie question. Since a full-auto machine has a tendency to "pull" bitter shots, can you remedy it by setting the grind level to the finest grind? According to the machine's spec, it has a 15-bar pressure. If the grind is the finest, will it force the machine to pre-infuse the coffee grind before the pressure pushes the coffee extract down? Or will setting the grind to the finest level make the brew more bitter? Another unknown will be how the machine does its tamping.

Thanks!
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby rtsyrtsy » Thu Mar 15, 2012 7:56 pm

ttommy,

As usual, di ko ma-reach. Ang lalim! :lol:

And here I was happily sipping the Bose of the coffee world: Nespresso!
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby Gino » Thu Mar 15, 2012 7:57 pm

I would think a finer grind will yield more bitter taste. The surface area exposed to the eater will be greater.
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby ttommy » Thu Mar 15, 2012 10:58 pm

Thanks, Jen, and Russ, I haven't tasted a Nespresso so can't comment about that but for sure you get consistency shot after shot!

Excellent questions, corrsty, and Gino is correct, it'll just increase the surface area. Let's use an analogy-- let's say you have a "juicer" machine that can exert 500 lbs of continuous pressure on an orange until it gets completely flattened. You'll definitely get all the pulp, plus the liquids contained in the peel. On the other hand, imagine if you had a lever controlling that juicer and where, at first, you exert the same amount of pressure but gradually ease off... The first example with that constant pressure is what I mean by "pigang piga" and, coupled with either high temps or longer extraction times, can result in over-extraction. There's also the effect of pre-infusion patterns on taste but I'll oversimplify and won't get there for now.

Another oversimplification I did earlier was when I used the 9-bar / 520 lb example compared to my feeble lifting prowess but, fact of the matter is, using levers there's such a thing as mechanical advantage so you really don't have to exert that brutal of a pull to get your 9 bars. Where the difference lies is towards the tail end of the extraction where, with a lever and an understanding of the character of your bean, you can adjust the pull.

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Above we have the measured pressure profile of a fully manual Olympia Cremina. If this were a typical pump-driven machine, you'll see 9-bars continuously throughout the duration of the extraction instead of that tapering pressure profile. The capability to "relax" that pressure is what gives levers its distinct "mellower" taste without-- going back to our orange analogy-- losing much of the pulp, but with less of the flavor from the peel.
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby ttommy » Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:17 am

Received my 2nd '60s era Arrarex just in time for a quick side-by-side picture before one of them got packed and shipped to my brother back home. The one left behind needs its piston gaskets replaced but with the Caravels, most fixes are easy.

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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby corrsty » Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:41 am

Ang ga-ganda naman nyan! :D

Thanks for the reply on my previous questions sirs.
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby ttommy » Tue May 08, 2012 1:26 am

Just a quick update, I'd recently visited Joe Pro Shop in Chelsea which is not like your typical coffee shop. Instead of a multitude of drink choices, tables and wifi, Joe Pro just has a counter where you can order your espresso or capa, and shelves containing goodies for the home brewer. I'd been thinking about a similar concept but Joe Pro Shop makes an excellent choice in its use of a Kees Van Der Westen Mirage Idrocompresso lever machine--

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Meanwhile, for the past few months I'd been pinging myself with text messages from a robot/crawler I wrote but still missed on some opportunities. I almost landed another Cremina for $75 but on my way to the Craigslist seller, he backed out of the deal saying other folks have been calling him and upbidding. Last week I missed out on another opportunity, a museum grade Faema Urania in Dimfer's neck of the woods... but I still couldn't pull the trigger despite its bargain price.

Yesterday, however, I got lucky. My robot messenger texted me---

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and I got in touch with the seller who had this listing--

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This La Pavoni definitely needs some TLC and is missing a portafilter... all easy remedies.

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On the other hand, my Arrarex Caravel is now PID-ed but hopefully I'll get to discuss this build in a more appropriate venue :)

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Thanks again!
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby desmo » Tue May 08, 2012 6:31 am

This is as far removed from the instant Nescafé days as I can I imagine. A perfect example of what one goes through in search of perfection. Needs passion to do it. I for one would love a taste of ttommy's espresso one of these days. :)
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby ferdit » Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:15 pm

ttommy: I was surprised that I actually went through your post. I enjoyed it and admire your passion for coffee.
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Re: Espresso and the Third Wave of Coffee

Postby ttommy » Tue Jul 24, 2012 4:23 am

Thanks for the comments desmo and ferdit.

Unfortunately, I haven't kept up with audio in a while... in the meantime, been doing more roasting:



More talk about roasting here: Monitoring via Artisan
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