Sunset on Alona Beach.
Did laundry, ate breakfast and then I went into work at Genesis by 11:30 AM. Not much was happening at all at the dive shop. Gina offered me some leftovers from the night before for lunch. I ate with the local boat crew which was nice. After Luer came back from his dive, I went to Coco Vida to do Internet and chill for the day.
In the evening, Greg managed to find me and chat a little bit. Him and his girlfriend Emma needed to do something so we agreed to meet up at 7:30 PM for dinner at Powder Keg. I ordered the Chili con Carne which was average American style chili with beans. I ate it with rice which was an odd combination. Afterwards I wasn’t sure what to do—should I go home or hang around. I decided to hang around Alona Beach so I went to the bank and then checked out Trendis. There wasn’t anything going on at Trendis so I went to Oops bar where I had a drink.
I was tempted to give the Oops bar cafe another try after recommending a few tips to the barista in training. Of course, she did nothing I told her and as a result the cappuccino she made me was what I expected—bad. In fact, my failed latte I made myself the day before tasted better. Of course, one may say that judging good coffee is completely subjective. To a certain extent, yes, however, making a good espresso based drink is highly reliant on the occurrence of certain chemical and physical changes during creation in both the steamed milk and espresso. So, proper technique has a major influence on the flavor and texture of the final cup of coffee.
While having a coffee at the Oops Beach Cafe, I managed to have a conversation with Peter, the person in charge of training the young baristas there. While talking with him about coffee, I acted a little naive so as not to offend him and to see what he really knew about making espresso based drinks. I’m not admitting to being a master barista myself, but, I have studied and practiced techniques considered correct by the general professional barista community and top baristas around the world. From what I learned, I’ve concluded Peter is a good salesman for coffee equipment and roasted beans to the naive—the only topic I really agreed with him on was cleaning an espresso machine.
There are so many problems with the way they are making coffee I’ll write a book by the time I’m done writing everything. Well, I’ve got time, lets give it a try. Warning: This is a big digression from just my blog of day to day activities. But, since I’m in the mood to try to save the world, why not start with coffee?
Coffee Bean Freshness
Peter’s big sell is that the coffee he imports is fresh from Germany. Italy, France, Central and South America are far better known for good coffee. I talked to him about this and asked him how often he imports a shipment of coffee beans to Alona Beach. He said it takes 8 weeks to ship the fresh beans from Germany! Additionally, there’s the couple weeks the coffee sits around to be consumed. And, he said he “thinks” they ship the beans the day they roast them. The general coffee community agrees that coffee goes stale after about 2 weeks. From this comment alone, I knew Peter doesn’t really know how to make a good espresso because you can’t!
Extraction Time
When the barista-in-training extracted a shot of espresso, water flowed out of the portafilter (the thing with a handle that you put coffee grinds into) far too quickly to even produce something worthy of being called an espresso. To my surprise, Peter said that was the perfect extraction rate; I would have thrown it away and started over myself. It took about 5 seconds to produce 2 ounces of “coffee” whereas the general rule of thumb is that a double espresso shot should take 25-30 seconds to produce 1.5 ounces of espresso.
Tamping
Tamping is when the barista puts pressure on the coffee grinds in the portafilter before extraction. This packs in the ground coffee which creates a seal and resistance for the pressurized hot water to flow through. The general rule is to tamp with 30lbs of pressure. Water passes through the coffee grinds too fast if the coffee isn’t tamped hard enough whereas the opposite is true if one tamps too hard. If the tamp is done at an angle other than perpendicular, then extraction will be uneven as water flows down the path of least resistance. At the Oops cafe, the only tamper they have is the one built into the grinder which is useless. It’s too difficult to get an even 30lbs of pressure with it. I probably can get a better tamp with the bottom of an espresso cup.
Heated Portafilter
The portafilter should be kept attached to the machine via the group head to keep it heated. A simple and easy thing to do that’s not done. It’s important because espresso extraction is very sensitive to temperature changes which can deteriorate the taste and texture of the espresso. When the hot water comes in contact with a cooler portafilter, crema, texture and flavor are deteriorated. That’s why it’s also important to heat the cups a barista extracts to.
Steamed Milk
It’s generally best not to reuse leftover steamed milk but hard not to when running a business with high volume. The Oops cafe reuses too much leftover milk (almost 100%) and should at least combine it with fresh cool milk. The reason why is because it’s hard to create tiny, mirco-bubbles when making foam (texturing) with warm pre-steamed milk. Who cares if the bubbles are big or small? Large foam bubbles, also known as “sea foam,” robs the drink of flavor because of the large air pockets in the drink. It’s like eating a fluffy chocolate cake versus a more dense one; which one will have more flavor per bite? Also, the fine texture of tiny bubbles is usually nicer than big bubbles.
Why Do I Care?
I would love to have a good cafe to hang out at where I can enjoy a decently good coffee on Alona Beach. I was asked by the owner of Oops Bar to train and advise the staff before they opened but couldn’t because I was out of town in Cebu. Now I see the one cafe that has so much potential is going the wrong direction with regard to making good espresso coffee. It’s still early enough though to make the proper corrections; they just need to be made.
Ok, enough ranting. Didn’t I warn you not to talk to me about coffee?
- jason
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