The format of the competition goes like this

• 15 minute time limit
• 6 minutes to adjust the grinder so your shots pull perfectly.
• 9 minutes to produce 2 Short Black’s and 2 Cappuccino’s, with each pair served simultaneously.

Points on the Short Blacks were awarded based on the following

1. Colour of the Crema (Hazelnut, Dark Brown, Reddish)
2. Consistency and persistence of crema
3. Taste balance (of sweet vs acidic vs bitter)
4. Tactile balance (full bodied, round, smooth)
5. All espressos served simultaneously
6. Correct espresso cups used (Hurr Durr)

Cappuccino points were awarded on a similar standard, though the criteria reflects the drink

1. Visually correct cappuccino
2. Consistency and persistent foam
3. Temperature of cappuccino (not too hot or cold)
4. Taste balance (rich sweet milk vs espresso)

Additional points were awarded for how technically correct the use of the espresso machine was, as well as the workstation tidiness. As you can see very few details go un-noticed.

Want to improve on your Barista Technique, visit The Mighty Coffee.

Beville-BES-860

I’ll step you through what I do and use to make my coffees and I’ll take some pictures of the ones I make tomorrow and post them up, but it’s a bit late now.

The machine I use at home is a Breville BES-860. I really like it because its got a conical grinder built in, which is fully adjustable and pretty much everything is adjustable. The notable exception here is the temperature of the water. However I don’t see this as an issue. It would just confuse people and outside of the hands of a skilled barista, whose coffee technique was good enough to make full use of this feature it would just confuse people and provide another way to muck up their shots. Although I recommend this machine I’m sure that there are other systems on the market that will do just as good, if not better, I’m simply not familiar with them.

I use a 600ml steaming jug, with a pointed spout. The Breville comes with one, but I find that it’s not as good as a more traditional shaped jug. Having said that, use what works for you, I’m not out to tell you what to do, I’m just writing about what works for me.

One thing I would recommend for everyone is a tamp pad. Also known as a barista mat. This is a piece of rubber that sits on your bench, near your machine. You rest your group head on it as you tamp so you don’t damage the spout of your group head. A tamp pad will also allow you to lightly tap the group head without damaging either your bench top or your group head. I’d recommend a tamp pad to anyone, regardless of your skill level.

I don’t have an external grinder because my machine has one built in that does a darn fine job.

With these appliances in mind I’ll now step out exactly how I go about making my coffees.

1. Turn on the machine (durrr); make sure it’s got enough water and beans in it. Assemble anything that is in pieces.

2. Get your milk and steaming jug out of the refrigerator. Pour into your jug enough milk for one cup. This machine isn’t big enough to make more than one cup at a time.

3. Purge the steam wand and get your milk going. With this machine you can rest the jug against the wand so that you don’t have to hold it.

4. While your milk is steaming away you should have enough time to grind your beans and tamp them down.

5. The Breville has a little quirk where it purges the steam so that you can pull shots within seconds of the time when you finish steaming, and this is enough time for you to load the group head into the machine, get your cup ready and wipe down your steam wand.

6. Pull your shot, pour your milk, and enjoy your coffee.

It’s as simple as that. You’ll notice in this method that I steam the milk first, this is because with the Breville it takes a while to steam the milk, and in this time the shot has gone off, so to avoid this I do the milk first, which leaves it enough time to settle but not too long, avoiding it separating.

Now that I’ve said all that go, enjoy your brilliant and fantastic coffee from home.

Want to improve on your Barista Technique, visit The Mighty Coffee.

Unfortunately, a proper tamping method is rarely performed by most baristas in the United States. At most, you will see a mild flattening motion where the server gently lifts the dosed basket up to a tamping plate mounted on the outside of many grinders. Some baristas have heard that firm tamping is important, but really don’t understand the mechanics. In this case, you will see the barista pressing firmly on the coffee and than rapping the side of the portafilter violently and repeatedly, as if it were necessary to kill the coffee before brewing it.

Tamping is necessary because the brew water is under major pressure (8 to 10 times the weight of gravity) and will have an almost intelligent ability to find the path of least resistance through the coffee. If it does find channels that are easy to get through it will rush through these areas, overextracting the coffee surrounding the channels and underextracting the coffee in the channels. The resulting beverage is the worst of circumstanceswhat flavor does get into the cup is bitter and astringent, and so much of the coffees potential good flavors remain behind in the portafilter basket. With firm and even tamping, the water has no choice but to flow through all of the coffee uniformly, and if the barista has adjusted his or her grind correctly and the espresso machine is in good order, the resulting coffee beverage represents the best the coffee has to offer.

So how do you tamp correctly? Well, now that you know why you tamp, you can apply your intelligence and sense of feeling to the challenge. You can try this at home or politely inform a misinformed barista on these steps of proper tamping:

Step 1: Having dosed the proper amount of coffee into the portafilter basket, even it out so that it is level in its distribution in the basket. Any “high” points will result in areas more compacted than “low” points after tamping, so it is important that the coffee be packed full and level in the basket.

Step 2: Use a flat-faced hand tamper and a counter that is low enough so that you can lean into the tamper with your body weight and arm straight. The tamper should be held in your relaxed hand as an extension of the arm. The tamper face needs to always be applied straight into the coffee, without an angle, because any canting will result in an area where the coffee is thinner.

Step 3: Note that the diameter of the tamper is slightly smaller than the inside diameter of the basket. If you just tamp in the middle, the outside perimeter will still be loose, exaggerating the tendency for the water to flow between the basket and the coffee. I recommend employing the “Staub Tamp” where you tamp the coffee four times riding the tamper up against the inside of the “North, South, East, and West” edge of the basket. Tamp with 30-40 pounds of pressure (in training we tamp on a bathroom scale on the counter). This evenly compacts all of the coffee giving the water a uniform bed to percolate through. Do not tap the portafilter handle between tamps, as this will just tend to loosen adhesion between the packed coffee and the basket. When releasing pressure from each of the four tamps, give a slight twist to the tamper to polish the surface of the compacted coffee.

Step 4: Inspect the result of your tamping to make sure that it was even and there is a good polish. If you notice that one side is deeper than another, you should really knock out the grounds and start over again. If everything looks acceptable, then mount the portafilter handle into the espresso machines group head and begin the brewing cycle.

Step 5: Your final step in tamping is quality control assessment. Noting the quality of the extraction (and of course the best duty of all is tasting the coffee!) is critical to improving your tamping skill. Also examine the spent coffee in the basket after brewinglooking for “worm holes” which is a sure sign of channeling where the water found a weak spot in the coffee pack. The knocked out grounds should have the form of a puck; if it’s mush then the grind and the tamp were off.

Ultimately, the quality of the espresso will be a reflection of the training and the consciousness of the barista. Nowhere is this more apparent that in the tamping technique of the barista.

Want to improve on your Barista Technique, visit The Mighty Coffee.