Table of Contents Section 1.01 Questioning the history of technical - PDF document

Table of Contents Section 1.01 Questioning the history of technical standards........................................................... 2 (a) Rational for the discussion...................................................................................................... 2 (b) Examples................................................................................................................................. 2 Section 1.02 Comparison between the United States and Italy....................................................... 3 (a) The United States lacks the institutional background............................................................. 3 (b) The Italian approach to technology ........................................................................................ 4 (i) Institutional memory ............................................................................................................... 4 (ii) Scientific approach and investment .................................................................................... 4 (iii) Alternate concerns .............................................................................................................. 4 Section 1.03 Exploring technical standards..................................................................................... 5 (a) Temperature............................................................................................................................ 5 (i) Origins of temperature stability theory .................................................................................. 5 (ii) Temperature profiling ......................................................................................................... 6 (iii) Methods of temperature control ......................................................................................... 9 (b) Brew Pressure control/Pre-infusion...................................................................................... 11 (i) The Purpose of Pressure Profiling ....................................................................................... 11 (ii) Methods ............................................................................................................................. 12 (iii) Gicleurs ............................................................................................................................. 13 (c) Stainless Steel vs. Copper vs. Brass vs. Water ........................................................................ 14 (i) System Comparisons ............................................................................................................. 15 (d) Tamping................................................................................................................................ 17 Section 1.04 Conclusion:............................................................................................................... 21 (i) End Notes .............................................................................................................................. 22

Section 1.01 Questioning the history of technical standards (a) Rational for the discussion When reviewing the topics of discourse on espresso standards, both in print and online, there seemed to be a disconnect between the kinds of concerns expressed in the United States versus those I have observed among Italian professionals and engineers. What seems to be the most important factors in producing a quality shot of espresso here in the United States is of much less concern to the Italians. This should in no way imply that Italians are little concerned about technical standards or not aggressively trying to improve the technology, because for them, the quality of the espresso is everything. We may try to convince ourselves that Italy has an infatuation with Robusta coffee, pollutes its espresso with too much sugar and that their drive for market share has forced technical innovation into a small back room; but doing so underscores how little we know of Italy’s commitment to that which is a great source of pride and national heritage. While we obsess about the smallest detail of tamping our espresso—at least half a dozen techniques are referred to by the name of their creator—the Engineers with whom I have had the pleasure of working have a more holistic approach to machine design, moving beyond mere extraction theories to concerns about ecology, adapting machines to specific markets and reducing energy consumption. All the while remaining true to the purpose of their machines, producing great espresso. (b) Examples The WBC standards for temperature stability are quite precise, i but no mention is provided for the history or importance of temperature stability in the production of espresso. There is an assumption that the holy grail of espresso machine manufacture is the ability to precisely maintain a specific temperature throughout the extraction process tailored to a chosen espresso blend. Not withstanding that a blend of beans, by its very nature, may require a plurality of extraction temperatures to achieve optimal results, the Italian engineers with whom I have worked take it for granted that a flat line temperature profile is not what they are looking for. To test an Italian machine to this arbitrary standard seems a little problematic. Even tamping is a bit of a curiosity. The importance of tamping among the Italian professionals seems to have gained in importance as training materials for machines started showing up in English. One would think that tamping should be an obsession in a country in a country with well over 200,000 espresso bars where being a barista is considered a valued profession; if tamping was the key to ones livelihood, baristi would carry tampers around in much the same way that chef’s carry there knives. Tampers would be handed down from one generation of barista to the next . . . .but they don’t When Luigi Lupi, a barista working wit Elektra at SCAA 2005 was approached by a approached by a small contingent of consumer members, he was quizzed as to the role tamping played in his profession. He shrugged and produced the same quality shot he had produced 2

moments earlier without tamping at all. Speculation in response to his effort ran the range of commentary, from simply crediting his experience to whether or not he had secretly tamped the coffee out of view in some stealth-like manner before mounting the filter. It was the former. The history of these assumptions is hard to track down. When presenting machines to Starbucks in early 1992, their technical department took substantial space, was full of machines from virtually every manufacturer and staffed by two ex-baristas with no training in engineering. Even though most of us like to think we have Luigi Lupi, from Elektra. Marzocco has, by far, the best badge holders risen above the mass market appeal of Starbucks, the corporation that had developed the gold standard for promoting espresso as we know it in the United States was also responsible for driving much of what we assume to be true of espresso machine standards. This from a company that, at the time, employed no engineers and had no understanding of the process of pre-infusion, temperature profiles or the importance of metal composition in the constructions of espresso machines. Section 1.02 Comparison between the United States and Italy (a) The United States lacks the institutional background I don’t expect Italian manufacturers to produce great American coffee brewers. They have tried, and quite frankly, they aren’t very good. Bunn, Curtis and Grindmaster employ engineers who are perfecting the process of brewing American coffee based upon a legacy of decades in the industry. Each new technical innovation: profile brewing, interfacing grinder to brewer and solid state controls rest on the shoulders of the engineers and coffee professionals who came before them. The best assets we have here in the U.S. are actually the growing ranks of consumer members who have brought their backgrounds in other fields to their love of coffee. Greg Scace brought his experience in scientific measurement processes to espresso machines as a means of understanding the process of extraction and we have experts in process control and PID programming regularly providing insight into espresso theory. It is often these consumer members that are unraveling the myths and secrets of great espresso; what they lack in professional espresso experience they make up for in a rigorous search for the answers. 3