What's the Ultimate Stain Remover for Coffee? Why Do Baristas Need So Many Cloths? What Does "Milk Cloth" Mean?

Yes, you read that correctly, it's five cloths, not the five-tailed figure that's been split in two.

As we all know, when making espresso, we often use numerous tools for assistance, such as distribution needles, levelers, latte art pins, and more. However, besides these auxiliary tools used during coffee preparation, we must not overlook the unsung heroes responsible for cleaning, such as cleaning cloths. Many friends wonder: while it's understandable that coffee making requires cleaning, why do we need so many—specifically, "five" cloths? Could it be that baristas are the ancient Greek gods of rags?

Just kidding! The reason for needing five cloths is that each one handles different responsibilities, with some tasks requiring extremely high hygiene standards, meaning there's no room for an "all-purpose" champion. Beyond ensuring hygiene, these tasks also require different moisture levels from the cloths, so they need to be separated, each serving its specific function. Today, FrontStreet Coffee will share what each of these five cloths used by baristas is responsible for!

1. The Portafilter Cloth

Since we're talking about cloths for espresso, the "portafilter" naturally refers to the extraction portafilter used by the espresso machine! After we extract espresso and knock out the coffee puck, some coffee grounds or water stains from cleaning will remain in the portafilter—both of which can affect the quality of coffee extraction!

If we need to immediately put the portafilter back into extraction, we need a dry cloth to quickly remove these "troublemakers." Therefore, the purpose of the first cloth is specifically to wipe stains from the portafilter!

2. The Cup Wiping Cloth

I wonder if any friends have been captivated by scenes of "baristas wiping cups" in movies and TV shows. Regardless, FrontStreet Coffee from the past thought that baristas who seriously wipe cups were as handsome as FrontStreet Coffee itself!

After we wash cups, if we don't wipe them promptly, the water droplets remaining on the cups will leave a film-like mark after evaporation, commonly known as "water spots."

Water spots significantly affect the appearance of a cup and can give guests an impression of uncleanliness. Therefore, to prevent the formation of water spots, we always use a clean, hygienic cloth to wipe cups after washing them. So, the purpose of the second cloth is to wipe cups! It's worth mentioning that to ensure this cleaning cloth doesn't breed mold due to constantly being in a damp state, this cloth is always placed above the espresso machine, continuously exposed to high temperatures.

3. The Milk Cloth

The milk cloth is what we discussed yesterday—"the cleaning cloth used to wipe milk residue from the steam wand," abbreviated as "milk cloth."

However, one point not mentioned yesterday is that since milk evaporates quickly due to high temperatures, the milk residue stuck to the steam wand needs to be wiped with a "damp milk cloth." Otherwise, not only can a dry milk cloth fail to remove the milk residue, but it can also easily cause the cloth's fibers to be burned by heat, serving no purpose at all.

4. The Espresso Machine Cleaning Cloth

For those who use bottomless portafilters, the biggest frustration is probably when channeling occurs during extraction, causing coffee to splash everywhere, all over the espresso machine! Therefore, we need an additional cloth specifically for cleaning the espresso machine! Of course, this also needs to be damp before use. Otherwise, it won't effectively clean and won't be able to remove dried coffee liquid from the machine.

5. The General Purpose Cloth

The general purpose cloth is straightforward—it's mainly used for cleaning all stains on the bar counter outside of the espresso machine. After all, the bar counter faces customers, so overall hygiene must be maintained to a certain standard!

Additionally, because there are quite a few cloths, to easily distinguish between them, most coffee shops use different styles and colors as unique identifiers for each cloth. This prevents confusion due to similar appearance or color. Therefore, when purchasing cloths, everyone should pay attention to this point~ to avoid being unable to distinguish between them later due to excessive similarity~

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473