Pay Attention to These Details When Making Espresso! Why Do You Need to Prime an Espresso Machine? How to Clean Your Coffee Machine?

FrontStreet Coffee has shared many small details to pay attention to when making espresso, but previous sharing mainly focused on aspects that have a greater impact on espresso extraction, such as parameters and distribution. Today, FrontStreet Coffee wants to share some operational details that are easily overlooked.

Although compared to the previous aspects, these impacts may not be as significant, the accumulated negative effects over time should not be underestimated. So, let's take a look at what details we need to pay attention to when extracting espresso~

1. Not flushing water before attaching the portafilter for extraction

Before attaching the portafilter to extract espresso, baristas often first open the water valve to flush hot water.

The reason for doing this is that hot water travels from the water tank to the brew head, passing through a long section of piping where hot water from the previous extraction may remain. Since this water has been sitting for a longer time, compared to fresh hot water in the boiler, it has more unstable factors (lower temperature and less cleanliness)! Therefore, we need to flush the water first and then use completely fresh hot water to extract coffee. At the same time, this "flushing" water can also help cool down an overheated dispersion screen while washing away any incompletely cleaned coffee stains~ So, just by opening the water valve for a few seconds to flush, we can gain so many advantages! Why not do it~

2. Leaving the portafilter attached for a long time after extraction

Many times, after extracting espresso, we start making the coffee we want (such as latte, Americano, etc.), and then immediately enjoy the delicious beverage, completely ignoring the portafilter still attached to the brew head! If left for an extended period, this will increase the difficulty of cleaning.

When we finish extracting espresso, the brew head will suck back the hot water remaining in the portafilter due to backflushing, then discharge it from the pressure relief valve. However, what gets sucked up is not just the hot water that didn't penetrate in time, but also some coffee grounds.

When coffee grounds are sucked up by the backflush, they will stick to the dispersion screen. These fine particles will continue to be baked by the heat emitted from the dispersion screen. When the moisture completely dries, a burnt taste will appear, and they will adhere more firmly. The same applies to the coffee puck in the portafilter! In just a few minutes, the moisture in the puck will dry out, making its adhesion stronger. At this point, knocking out the puck will require more effort than usual, and because of the stronger adhesion, cleaning becomes more troublesome. Therefore, for friends like those at FrontStreet Coffee who are slightly forgetful, it's best to remove the portafilter first after extracting espresso, knock out the puck, and then proceed with other operational steps.

3. Keeping the portafilter attached to the brew head for extended periods

Many friends keep the portafilter attached to the brew head to maintain heat when not extracting coffee, aiming to reduce instability during serving. But it is precisely this action that makes it easier to overlook the puck that hasn't been removed after extraction. After all, once the portafilter is attached, we cannot visually determine whether it's in extraction mode or heat preservation mode.

Secondly, it also brings two negative consequences! One is the impact on extraction. The aromatic substances in coffee beans are volatile and evaporate more easily in high-temperature environments. Therefore, if we use a preheated portafilter to extract espresso, once the coffee grounds are loaded, the loss rate of aromatic substances will greatly accelerate! If something happens to delay your extraction at this moment, it's easy to produce an espresso with flavor deviations.

Then there's a more important point: this practice will damage the gasket! There is a gasket in the dispersion screen used to secure the portafilter and prevent coffee liquid from overflowing. But if we always keep the portafilter attached for heat preservation, the heat that should have been continuously released will be trapped, only able to slowly escape from the gaps in the portafilter! Although this can achieve a heat preservation effect, the continuously circulating heat waves with nowhere to release will continuously bake the gasket, accelerating aging. Therefore, it's best not to keep the portafilter attached to the brew head. If you need to maintain the portafilter's heat, simply flush hot water to preheat it before extracting coffee! This can also clean the dispersion screen and remove coffee grounds stuck in it, achieving two goals with one action.

4. Not cleaning the brew head regularly

After extraction, although we flush water to wash away coffee grounds left on the dispersion screen, the gaps around the dispersion screen where the portafilter attaches cannot be reached by the flushing water, and they will retain coffee ground residue. Therefore, after multiple extractions, it's best to use a brush specifically designed for espresso machines to clean these gaps to ensure that when attaching the portafilter to extract espresso, excessive fine grounds won't fall from above.

The specific operation is to open the water valve to flush while using the brush to scrub with the hot water~

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473