Barista's professionalism is decisive for a good coffee
extraction as much as the right equipment and its correct
use.
Manual skills make the pair with the marketing of the coffee
shop: an espresso expert has got the technical know how
to make the perfect coffee, knows the blend he uses and
has no problem to talk about it with his customers.
From coffee seeds, delivered from coffee merchants to the
Barista, to the little cup of espresso served on the counter,
there are processes and gestures which are able to influence
the final outcome, causing loyalty or discredit by consumers.
Let's take a glance to the correct
manual skills:
• Coffee seeds must be stored in a dry place, with
no hygiene products, soap, air freshener, spices and everything
else can send scents; this is important because coffee is
hygroscopic, that is it can absorb any smells in the air
and transfer them in the cup!
• We've already talked about the maintenance of the
whole machine and grinder-doser: a "good hand"
makes controls and cleaning daily!
Every espresso is an artwork,
so is necessary to work hard:
• unhook the branch and hit it on the coffee grounds
tray (it should have some rubber on, in order not to ruin
branch or filter);
• clean the filter with a brush or a pipe brush;
• empty the group of the machine; let the water flows
for two seconds, in order to rinse all the coffee grounds
out;
• fill the branch up with grinded coffee (the ideal
grammage is 14 g for two cups and 7 g for one cup);
• lightly press the powder (use a steel little press)
to make a compact, uniform pod. We got two different tampers:
the curved one, for one branch, and the smooth one, for
two branches;
• hit the filter-holder, in order to gather loose powder
in the middle of the filter, and then press again with a
slight rotation;
• hook the branch and dispense coffee;
• Verify the extraction is right. If it's not then
throw the coffee away and try again. Is better to lose an
espresso then a customer.
When you make a cappuccino you
should know that:
• the first steam current of the frothing jet should
run idle in order to remove leftover milk from the last
whipping;
• the frothing jet must be cleaned after every whipping
(you can use a wet cloth); in this way leftover milk doesn't
affect the flavor of next cappuccino. If usually cleaned,
the frothing jet doesn't need to be changed or treated with
some descaling solution.
When we need hot water for infusions:
• it's important not to pick up water from boiler discharge
valve; using tap water, and warm it up with frothing jet,
is far more hygienic. Boiler water, indeed, is only used
as an heat transfer for exchargers. Those ones, then, warm
the water in deliver circuit and produce steam;
