Tips to maximize your coffee extraction
In the last years, people started to get more interested in a lot of angles concerning the coffee world, and luckily the “preparing my coffee” square meter was overpassed.
If we only stay in the brewing topic, we find at home an increasing amount of devices used to prepare our coffees; this can be due to a gourmetization of the whole industry as a consequence of easier access to information for everybody. So it is very rewarding for me to see better espresso machines, incredible grinders (this is key! And many times, more important than the machine itself. We will talk about this on following articles), beautiful kettles, V60´s, AeroPress coffee makers, etc.
Brewing our own coffee has become a kind or ritual, right? In that sense, we need to give the several lockdowns a credit because they allowed us to mandatorily slow down in the middle of a hectic way of living and also to start pampering ourselves a bit more, especially with tiny, little things that make us happy. Thousands of people learnt to play the guitar, many started painting, and tons more invested more money to get better coffee beans. The description of those packs promised us a range of incredible flavours and aromas, which we were able to experience every single time we brewed our beverages.
But slowly, many started having a decrease of those effects in their palates. Was it because our mouth and senses got used to those flavours and now we don´t feel the difference? We did not find it special any longer? Did it become boring? For sure not. Actually the more you “challenge” your senses with more sophistication, these turn better, sharper and more sensible; so certainly that is not a reason. What I can point out are mainly 2 aspects, of which we will focus on one on this article: keeping the tools clean (the other is grinding the beans correctly, which has also a big impact on coffee extraction).
If you use an espresso machine, for sure you got the indication to use filtered water and to also descale it from time to time; but actually, what I would like to focus here is on a simpler, daily aspect of the maintenance: keeping your portafilter basket and the shower clean. The image below shows what I am mentioning:
The basket on the left hand side has dry leftovers of coffee oils that deposit in those pores. This is neither toxic nor harmful at all, but for sure has a (negative) effect on the following coffees brewed. And you don´t necessarily need to be a professional barista nor have a coffee shop to experience this: the basket starts getting dirty after only 1 day of using the coffee machine, so keeping it clean (like the photo on the right hand side) will help you to have consistency in the extraction and to guarantee that you continue enjoying the best flavours and notes in your beloved drink. So, how can I clean it? The answer is super easy: hot water coming from the tap. No soap, no chemicals… nothing more than water. And this action takes literally a couple of seconds. Same action you need to do with the portafilter in which the basket goes: apply hot water, rub it with your fingers… and that´s it.
To clean the shower of the coffee machine, the principle is the same: water (of course, you will use a specific coffee machine soap to clean the brew group from time to time with the blind basket, but this is not done on a daily base).
For this, you can use one of the below tools. The first one is the plastic brush shown on the upper side of the left image: this usually comes with the coffee machine and acts like a tooth brush that you place in the inner outline of the shower (photo on the right hand side). If you want hot water for an easier process, simply press the brew button for some seconds and then start rubbing the brush to remove the oils and the coffee ground leftovers.
The other alternative is to do exactly the same process, but using a humid mop. Again: no special cleaners nor chemicals. These can damage the machine and also your health!
So, my dear coffee lovers: do this on a daily base and you will see how the end-result of the cup you are enjoying is continuously delicious.
In case you have questions, or you just simply want to share your experience, I would love to hear from you! Let´s stay in touch.