Coffee – first of many posts about coffee, I expect.

I’m still struggling to figure out all the commands in WordPress. Half of the time I get to a spot and have no idea how I got there and, more importantly, no idea how to get back. Stupid program. Why can’t they just make it for my way of thinking? Sheesh.

This is my second post about coffee. I wanted to write something clever about the ‘magic elixir’ or how amazing coffee is. I did write a bunch but it was so hard to figure out the drafts and the revisions I just had to give up and start again.

Right. Where was I? Coffee!

I’ll admit, I really like it, but it has occurred to me that the actual process of making an espresso adds a lot to my enjoyment of the drink. This may be a theme in my life that I’ll possibly explore ad nauseum in days to come, but for the time being, coffee is as much for me about the process as it is about the drink itself.

Perhaps that’s not quite accurate. Coffee is a really fickle pickle, to use a technical term. When people talk about the process they go though when making a cup of joe, coffee is one of the very few food items that demands that level of attention and respect and will reward you for being diligent and careful. Like baking pastries, careful counts.

Many years ago I bought a Rancilio Silvia espresso maker. I used it every day for 7 years and it taught me a ton about coffee. Careful pays off. A grinder is worth the money (to a point). When I moved from the Baratza Virtuoso that wore out after 6 years I switched to the Eureka Silencio. The improvement in the coffee was immediate. I was amazed. All of a sudden I understood why people would blow $1500 on a grinder.

I upgraded to a Rocket not that long ago, but that has more to do with my magpie nature (can’t resist shiny things) and my ability to rationalize many mechanical things (I am a photographer, after all) than it does with coffee.

Besides, getting a great shot out of the Silvia is way harder than the Rocket. The Silvia is a pretty badass machine.

But where I’m trying to go is to say that some things about coffee really matter: The beans, how fresh the grind is, quality of the water as well as the temperature of it will make a big difference in your coffee experience.

If you’re brewing espresso, the amount of coffee in the portafilter (in grams – get yourself a scale – you’ll need it in the kitchen, anyway) how hard you tamp the coffee and how long you run it through the machine also make a big difference in the extraction. The key is 2oz (60ml) of coffee in 25 seconds at the right temperature. Apparently a single-shot portafilter is for people more adept than I.

Naked (bottomless) portafilters, weighing the coffee once it has brewed and snippy comments directed at people who like to drink their coffee with sugar and have it to go are listed under the heading of ‘smoke ’em if you got ’em’.

Although I will admit that the reason why I hate naked portafilters so much is because your espresso technique is shredded by those things. I don’t mind having my inadequacies gently pointed out. I’m not a fan of them making a mess of my clothes.