PODcast #50 : Espresso Pods News

Welcome to The PODcast, PodMerchant's newsletter of espresso pod news, education, tips and deals. Back issues of The PODcast are available online.

2009 "Best Of" Issue

When a talk-show host or other television personality goes on vacation, that doesn't stop the show from going on. Instead, they run a "Best Of" show. The busy holiday season just does not allow me to spend the time needed to write a good PODcast, so for our December issue, here are some of the PODcast's "Best Of" articles.

Holiday Schedule

Our last day of shipping this year will be Monday, December 21st. We will resume shipping two weeks later on Monday, January 4th, 2010.

Espresso Elucidations

More on Extraction

Few things affect the quality of a shot of espresso more than the extraction process. This is where the "rubber meets the road," and if not done right, your espresso may well taste like a cup of burned rubber.

Fortunately — and unfortunately — espresso pods cut down the variables in extraction. There is little to go wrong, but also little that one can do to correct any problems. There are some basics that should be heeded to get a great shot and I want to talk about that.

In every order that we send out we include a stuffer intended to communicate the simple fact that one pod does not equal one entire cup of espresso. One espresso pod — 7 grams of ground coffee — is meant to produce one ounce of coffee — a single shot. A demitasse cup is a 2 ounce (2 shot) cup. If you are filling a demitasse cup to the top with the coffee from a single pod, then you are probably horribly over-extracting the coffee. Besides being very weak, the resulting cup will contain bad tasting compounds that would be better left behind in the grounds. If making a full cup from a single pod has been your practice, please try it the right way and see if you don't find an enormous improvement.

I wish it was always as easy as "one pod = one ounce" and leave it at that. It usually is just that easy, but some pods and machines don't fully cooperate. It is not only desired to pour one ounce of coffee from a pod, but also that this occur within a window of time — around 25 to 30 seconds. Too short, and the espresso is watery and often sour. Too long and out come the bitter compounds as well as high levels of caffeine. We can see this in the following chart, taken from "The Complexity of Coffee," by Ernesto Illy (yes, that Illy). Note how the rancid and smoke components rise rapidly with time.



Some brands, Lavazza for example, are a bit more coarsely ground than most. So, in some machines, the water will flow through the pod too fast and produce an ounce too quickly — say 15 to 20 seconds. This is too fast — the coffee will be underextracted. Besides being weak, the cup will not contain the desired balance of the bean's soluble compounds. The solution? Change to a more finely ground brand or, if applicable, tighten up a bit on the portafilter handle. (Note: FrancisFrancis! machines with the Trio system can easily adjust to variations in coarseness.)

One pod = one ounce — but under 20 seconds is too fast.

At the other end of the spectrum, the coffee just drips out of the spout instead of making a steady stream. Perhaps the coffee is too finely ground or too tightly packed for your particular machine. Or the pod may be too tightly clamped between the portafilter and shower screen in the grouphead. If this is happening, don't keep it flowing until the full ounce has poured. If you value quality over quantity, cut it off before 30 seconds regardless of how much has come out.

One pod = one ounce or 30 seconds, which ever comes first.
 

Steady flow — good crema.		Just dripping out. Be sure to cut off before 30 seconds.

More on Decaffeination

I've written about decaffeination in PODcast before — perhaps more than some people would like. Some coffee drinkers seem to feel that decaffeinated coffee is morally reprehensible. Well, I like my espresso and I like to drink it late in the evening. If I drink caffeinated espresso it will affect my sleep (oddly I can fall asleep OK but I'll be wide awake at 4 AM...). A lot of people are sensitive to caffeine, including cardio patients, so decaf has its adherents.

This article concerns decaffeination methods and toxicity. There are generally four solvents of decaffeination: water, ethyl acetate, carbon dioxide, and dichloromethane.

The first solvent, water, is the basis of the famous Swiss Water Process, which is very expensive. No chemicals are used in the Swiss Water Process. It is available from only one company. At this time we do not carry any coffee decaffeinated by this process.

Ethyl acetate, a substance found in fruit and wine, is used in the Direct and Indirect Methods of decaffeination. These methods are sometimes referred to as "natural decaffeination," because ethyl acetate occurs naturally in fruit, or even more misleadingly as "water processed," because water is used in the initial phase of the Indirect Method.

I am informed that carbon dioxide (or supercritical fluid extraction) decaffeination requires a large capital expenditure, limiting the popularity of this method. Carbon dioxide, is of course, non-toxic.

The last solvent, dichloromethane, is perhaps the most common form of decaffeination in Italy. The Italian government limits the residual dichloromethane in roasted coffee to 2 parts per million (2 mg/kg). The USA limit for dichloromethane is 5 times higher (10 mg/kg).

Beans processed with dichloromethane are washed with hot water to remove the chemical. As dichloromethane evaporates at only 104 F, it is easy to remove it without damaging the coffee. (As with ethyl acetate methods, reference to this use of water sometimes misleads customers (as well as distributors and retailers) into thinking the beans were decaffeinated with the Swiss Water Process.) Note also that the act of roasting the coffee will cause any remaining dichloromethane to evaporate. Therefore, once roasted, there should be no detectable residue of dichloromethane.

I have been contacted by customers concerned about the safety of decaffeinated coffee, in particular for expectant mothers. I cannot make this judgment call for you, but based on my investigation, it would seem that decaffeination uses either a non-toxic solvent (water, CO2), a relatively non-toxic solvent (ethyl acetate), or the chemical dichloromethane, which is certain to evaporate before consumption, and at any rate, by law is held to very low concentrations in coffee roasted in Italy.
 

Espresso Tips

For your maximized espresso enjoyment, we present this issue's tips:

The brew head and portafilter should be up to proper temperature when you pull a shot of espresso. To accomplish this, you must let the machine heat up with the portafilter in place, and then run the machine for several seconds without a pod, pumping hot water through the brew head, filter basket, and portafilter.

After the machine is properly heated, it's time to pull a shot of espresso. When you begin the shot, don't catch the first couple of seconds of coffee coming out of the portafilter. This coffee is diluted with water used to heat the brew head (see above). Just as importantly, the crema does not start being produced until a bit later in the shot. By bypassing the first few seconds, the espresso you do catch in the cup will have more crema. Capisce?

When you've finished your last shot, what do you do? Remove the portafilter and wash it off? I used to, and the inside eventually got caked with coffee gunk. Our tip is simply that after you run your last shot, replace the filter handle, restart the machine's pump, and flush the grouphead / filterbasket / portafilter with hot water. It's easy and fast and will go a long way towards keeping your machine in good condition. Watch your tank's water level though... You'll run through your tank a lot quicker.

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That's all for this issue of the PODcast.


Kevin Garrett, The PodMerchant.