Backflushing Dilema

[CakeBoy]

Like Joris said, the shot times are a little short too, you are right to grind finer, but remember apart from all the coarser grinds already in the doser that need to be used first, it can also take a shot or two for the burrs to settle on the new setting before you see the difference.

[Guest]

Everything is set up so nothing should be change. I break that rule all the time. I'm always changing something.

The doser is always full, all the time. And you'll all cringe, I do to, but the unused ground is kept in the doser all the time. So when we shut at 5pm on a sunday and are serving coffee at 9am, the ground we are using has been sitting all night.

I don't really know what coffee we use. We just get boxes of foil bags shipped in. And all the bags say is "Coffee Beans".

[Raf]

Bah. You're probably using stale overroasted beans, and you're definitely destroying any taste left in them by letting the grounds sit in the doser all night.

As somebody said: keep grinding after two clicks, but make sure the doser is empty. That way, you'll only have one shot of coffee going stale at night, and it's easier to chuck the first shot the next day than to throw away an entire doser.

Instead of grinding finer, you could also try to dose more coffee. My guess is that your boss is probably skimping on the amount of grounds in each shot (and please don't tell me that you have to use the same puck twice??).

[Joris]

In that book I mentioned earlier there might be some arguments which your boss would listen to. Wasted grounds do cost a bit of money, on the other hand, a happy customer will return and thus he should see the wasted grounds as an investment. It's better to sell a lot good cups and waste some coffee than to waste none and sell just a couple of cups.

[CakeBoy]

What is your main market? Do you have mainly retired folk looking for "frothy" capps or have you a mixture? You certainly won't be getting anyone serious about coffee calling back too often with the current regime.

I had the worst, the absolutely unbelievable worst, capp ever in a beautiful tea room in Dorset. It had cold sour cremaless coffee with loads of foam and half a ton of bloody chocolate powder on top. It was clearly pants without tasting, but I did sip it. Yuk. Two old ladies who were clearly regulars had similar concoctions and were praising the owner no end for the fabulous coffee. It was clear that they just wanted a frothy, sweet, milky drink that looked "nice" and a decent capp would almost certainly be too strong for them. When I left mine the owner did not even bother to ask what was wrong. That is the sorry state of coffee in this country - with the groundswell of people accepting sub-standard drinks unable even to descern the difference between good and terrible, the owner probably assumed I had a problem with "real" coffee and it would never occur that she was pulling total rubbish from her four grand coffee machine.

[Guest]

The main market is mixed. Its a major department store espresso bar so we get mostly OAP's and business like people. Sometimes we get young people in but not often.

Don't worry, we don't use the same puck twice.

At the start of the day we run some shots through the machine before we start serving so that gets rid of 5 shots of coffee at the very start but its still not enough to empty the doser. I don't think we are skimping on coffee. It seems that we seem to be dosing too much.

I know what you mean about the worst capp. The amount of people that come in and either just say "coffee" and then get annoyed when you ask if its a latte, or a capp or what. Or the people that come in and ask us if we have any capps "in stock". The worst was when a woman asked me for a "milky coffee" so I asked if it was just an Americano with milk or a Latte she wanted. "What way do you think you can actually make a milky coffee" she said, "well, you could have a black coffee and add as much cold milk to it you want, or we can make one with 6 parts hot milk and 1 part coffee, thats your latte". She went bright red and then just told me to "microwave some milk and add a spoon of nescafe to it". I nearly slapped her.

[CakeBoy]

Sounds like great fun to me .... not! Glad you don't reuse the pucks at least. Reducing the volume in your doser will help no end. Do you have single and double baskets for your portafilter? If so, which do you use generally and how full is "too full" that you referred to?

You really ought to join us on here. You clearly know what is what and like coffee, so have a think about it.

[Guest]

I've already emailed to join! Just waiting!

Yeah have 2 double baskets and 1 single. Normally the single is just used for the decaf pods. I tend to use the doubles all the time. We also have triple baskets, not sure why.

With the doubles, once dosed and tamped the level sits about 4mm below the surface.

With the single its about the same.

Sometimes tho, once its dosed, there is too much in it and its hard to get the PF on the machine. Mind you, that could be a problem with the doser.

[Beanie]

Decaf pods, doser to the brim... overnight, stale, stale, stale... fast pours *sigh*

my heart bleeds for you. I wish you all the luck in setting your boss straight... but rather than telling him, I think you should have him "blind" taste which cup he'd rather have every day... the one done his way... or the "new" way - freshly roasted, freshly ground per cup, proper dose/distri/tamp, proper temp range and brew time range

[Guest]

Well, thats what I'm aiming for but only about 5 staff there actually like coffee.

And I'm the only one passionate about it!

So it looks to be a challenge. But a challenge that is worth it.

When I'm back on Tuesday I'll try and make some adjustments.

[CakeBoy]

Glad you are joining. Same old problem, people serving coffee that don't like it and very few that are passionate.

PODS! Whatever did decaf drinkers do to upset you lot? Good luck on Tuesday ....

[Cookie]

gah, coffee staff that dont like coffee........

and then there's me thinking about a second coffee machine, because i'm not impressed with the bean to cup machine in teh work canteen, I suppose i ought to be honoured that they even have one, but i'm just never satisfied.

now to start saving for that hottop......

[Joris]

Great to hear you enlisted in the Too Much Coffee Peoples Liberation Front, or was it the TMC Liberation Front of the people... or...

[Paws]

Well, thats me got word through and I've now enlisted.

The only decaf we have is decaf pods from James Aimer and decaf ground from Pelican Rogue.

Sigh, James Aimer. I used to live in Dundee about 5 doors away from James Aimer. Every day when they were roasting. What a heavenly aroma.

[CakeBoy]

And Welcome Paws!