Syrups and Espresso

[illudereludere]

Don't get me wrong, syrups are for the cosmetic connoisseur but when I have to, I like to have my espresso pulled straight into the syrup of choice instead of pouring the espresso from the shot cups and then into the cup with the syrup, but I find that I lose my crema. I figure, having the espresso hitting the syrup at first gives the syrup a better way (chance) to mix with the espresso since it's at a higher temp. My large cups (solo t16) don't fit under my pf, and my glass shots 'fraid won't hold too much. I hate using metal because it's an excellent conductor....

[Malt Barista]

The "Blonding" factor relies on basicly two things! the grind and the dose.if you have a coarse grind and dose to the brim with a light tamper. the "blonding" would start at about 15 secs into the shot (Definitely not ideal). But when you make a fine grind with a half basket load that would give your coffee space to pull closer to the basket and relax the coffee out of the basket and into the cup. You'll see the coffee takes longer to start pouring but it will start with a really dark color and blend itself down to a full, round mouth feel espresso.
Try this next time. take three latte glasses and extract a shot. in the first glass pour the first 7 seconds into the glass, then the next 7 secs in the next glass, then the remaining extraction. Taste all three separately!!!
Knowing the stages of your extraction will help you for years in the long run.

Ricky Sutton said:

I agree about the volume issue. I pull my shots around 1.75 oz. between days 2-3 post roast, dosing at about 19 gr. in an 18 gr. synesso basket. Days 4-5 it's 1.5 oz. with a 20 gr. dose. Days 6-8 it's 1.25 oz. with a 21 gr. dose. These are all ROUGH estimates, but they're the guidelines that i start a shift with before i begin tweaking.
I strongly disagree about blonding. As i said before, i can pull a 40 second shot without seeing any blonding at all. That shot would not be ideal. It's not as simple as blonde espresso tastes bad and brown espresso tastes good. I've had plenty of experience with rich reddish-brown espresso tasting terrible if something is off. More rarely, sometimes the stream thinning out a little bit is exactly what a shot needs. Since the last few seconds of the shot seem to be where a lot of the more floral and acidic flavors reside, sometimes having those present in a capp for instance helps the espresso to have a more present personality in the drink.
For my current espressophilosophy, it's all about extraction. Too much time or surface area, bitter and astringent. Too little time or surface area, sour or underdeveloped. Time (dictated by grind size/dose) is significantly more important to me than color.


Damon Lurie said:

technically the volume of a shot doesnt matter, its actually the colour, once the running esspresso comming straight from the pf starts turning a light tawny colour you know the shot is ready, measurement arent flexible enough cause they dont account for the differences in grind, bean and age of the bean


Ricky Sutton said:

I seem to be a minority in disagreeing with the "espresso directly in the cup it will be consumed in" thing.

I always pull my shots in a demi. My reasons for this are so that i can keep a very strict eye on volume. Were i to put a 16 oz. paper cup under my portafilter, i couldn't see the splitters and therefore have no idea what the shot is doing. To be able to watch the espresso coming from the splitters and watch it pooling in my demi has greatly increased the consistency of my shots. Also espresso kind of stays in the layers it is produced in. The espresso at the bottom tastes super dense and bassy (chocolates, caramels, toffee etc.), the middle of the shot is the fruit and the top is citrus and floral. The crema is invariably the ashy and bittersweet qualities. Those profiles will change depending on, well everything. But the theory is there that shots don't mix themselves. Which is why i stir my espresso before drinking. Anyway, my point is that if i pull a shot directly into a capp cup and don't vigorously swirl the shot before pouring, those bitters are risen to the surface of the drink as i pour and the top of my capp doesn't taste so great. Then when i reach the bottom, it's super syrupy. If i always pull into demi's then pour the shot into the cup, it's pre-mixed. Sure i lose some crema. It's a sacrifice i currently make in exchange for my drinks tasting better (to me).

As far as syrup is concerned, i always put it in the cup. I've seen a noticeable difference in the texture of my milk when steaming syrup with it.

[Malt Barista]

I have only one customer whom insists on syrups! thing is I don't do flavored shit! ruins my Single estate beans!!!! anywho I started putting milkshake topping in it just so I don't look like an idiot standing in line buying coffee syrup!!! but this very morning me and my roaster where talking about origin flavors and this young lass walks in the door. I look at Peter(roaster) and say here we go. she orders her latte with caramel and insists that I make it strong...not the coffee. So I fill an 8 oz cup halfway with milkshake topping. extract a shot ontop of that. topped up with milk and stirred it. as I stirred it I could feel how thick it was!!!

Gave it to her. she took a sip and went...perfect! (I should not have said this but I did) "ah, Glad you like it,'cause I hope I wont be seeing you here again, you embarrass my other clientele."

Brady said:

Alex said a few things, but the part that made me chuckle was this one:

On another note - an American tourist once came in and asked what flavoured lattes we did, I told him "we do vanilla, caramal, and hazelnut - but if your game we have an excellent coffee flavour" he said he'd give it a go, not realising I had actually made a joke, I handed him a regular latte, and he said it was the best he'd ever had... Still thinking I had put some magical syrup in there.

Brilliant! I've tried that before too, but it only works if the delivery is perfect. Any touch of sarcasm and it goes wrong in a hurry.

[Jay Caragay]

Malt-
If if pains you so much to do syrups or milkshake toppings, why do you even have them at all? Why not get rid of them - especially since you don't want to serve those customer who like syrups anyway?

[Bryan Wray]

You didn't seriously say this did you? That's horrible and an embarrASSment to baristas that don't need to act "too cool for school" in order to feel like they did their coffee justice.

Exactly as Jay said, if you don't want to offer syrups, don't offer them.

It's simple and it doesn't require you to insult customers and belittle them because they don't share the same dream of a perfect cup of coffee as you do. I'm not a syrup fan either, but I don't go out of my way to insult people who do like them. You just lost a potential educational opportunity. You could have opened this person's eyes to a less "masked" world of coffee, but instead you turned them off from a quality experience, and perhaps the only connection they'll ever make with a shop that is committed to promoting quality single origin coffees for what they are.

I assume this is your cafe? You make it sound as though it is. If it is, why on earth would you put forth that kind of attitude in front of your employees and customers? What kind of mindset are you trying to give to your employees? They see you act out like this and now they assume they can do the same. If you fire them for being rude to customers then you are just a hypocrite to them. I can only imagine that the other customers in earshot must have found this extremely rude and probably had the thought, "If he is willing to say this to a customer's FACE I wonder what he says about customers behind their backs... I wonder what he says about ME behind MY back." If this is not your cafe, I'm amazed that you haven't been fired yet if you find it EVER okay to act this way to a customer.

Why not wait until the customer leaves and turn to your roaster friend and say, "Oh gross! It killed me to make that drink like that. I could feel how thick it was on the spoon! Yuck!" You get all of your frustration out without making yourself look like a complete fool.

The only person in this situation that was embarrassed was you, whether you realize it or not.

-bry

Malt Barista said:

I have only one customer whom insists on syrups! thing is I don't do flavored shit! ruins my Single estate beans!!!! anywho I started putting milkshake topping in it just so I don't look like an idiot standing in line buying coffee syrup!!! but this very morning me and my roaster where talking about origin flavors and this young lass walks in the door. I look at Peter(roaster) and say here we go. she orders her latte with caramel and insists that I make it strong...not the coffee. So I fill an 8 oz cup halfway with milkshake topping. extract a shot ontop of that. topped up with milk and stirred it. as I stirred it I could feel how thick it was!!!

Gave it to her. she took a sip and went...perfect! (I should not have said this but I did) "ah, Glad you like it,'cause I hope I wont be seeing you here again, you embarrass my other clientele."

Brady said:

Alex said a few things, but the part that made me chuckle was this one:

On another note - an American tourist once came in and asked what flavoured lattes we did, I told him "we do vanilla, caramal, and hazelnut - but if your game we have an excellent coffee flavour" he said he'd give it a go, not realising I had actually made a joke, I handed him a regular latte, and he said it was the best he'd ever had... Still thinking I had put some magical syrup in there.

Brilliant! I've tried that before too, but it only works if the delivery is perfect. Any touch of sarcasm and it goes wrong in a hurry.