Crema de la Crema: an espresso blog

KS came over this morning. I introduced Anita to him, and after checking out the way she looks, KS is just so eager to try her out. His girlfriend, Dawn is perfectly fine about it. Hey, I don’t mind as long as I know Anita is in good hands.

Anita looks so fine, except she had all these spritzes around her body, thanks to me and my inconsistent dosing and tamping. We — KS and I took turns pulling shots from her. From this meetup, we made a few discoveries about Anita.

We kept looking for the screw depression on the puck, but couldn’t find any, so we just kept dosing more. Then I realized the blunder after a while. Anita has no screw on her shower screen!

The beans for today were Zambia, Ecafe Shilcho Sidamo, and KS Blend. KS managed to hit on an ideal grind setting on the Compak K6 after a while, which produced a beautiful 25 second pour. Still a bit bright though. But the best pour of the day was 45 seconds long. In spite of the very very slow pour, and the expected over-extracted bitterness, it was the best espresso we have tasted for the day. It was neither bright nor bitter. The beans were KS Blend of Zambia Harrar Brazil Sumatra. Although this grind setting may have been ideal for KS, it may not work for me as I DLT differently. The Compak K6 was easy to clean, especially after the mods.

We unloaded the portafilter after pulling a shot each time, and noted that the pucks were still wet, despite the OPV (Over Pressure Valve). When we finally reached the ideal grind setting though, the puck was dry. Also, the dosing was correct, as you can see a slight indentation from the rim of the shower screen.

One minus point about Anita is after using the steam and hot water wands, even with the rubberized grips, the wands are still too hot to handle. I plan to add clips to the wands.

Some points observed about Quickmill Anita are:

1) The boiler is well-insulated, thereby conserving energy. The sides do not run too hot to touch.

2) The hot water wand may be in the way of the brew lever. You may want to swivel it away before turning on the brew.

3) The 3 litre reservoir is more than sufficient. We made about 6 drinks, performing water dances prior to each drink, also to heat up the glasses, backflushing about 4 times for about 5 seconds each time. But by the time we were done, the drip tray was full to the brim.

4) The HX maintained a steady temperature. Even when the red light (boiler) comes on after the portafilter was locked and loaded, it takes at most 5 to 7 seconds before the boiler switches off.

5) The extra portafilter included with Quickmill Anita comes in handy, as you can fit a blank in one of them to backflush. In ordering the naked portafilter from Chris, I now have a triple basket, in addition to the single and double baskets from Anita.

Future posts include frothing milk, and dissecting Anita.

This CGSG meetup was organised by Melvin at Highlander Coffee today at 11 am. I went late, and Adrian was already there, having finished his first Latte, which he remarked Ray the barista had made quite a nice rosetta on.

Having tried the doppios the first time round, I decided on a cafe mocha. Not as sweet as Starbuck’s, but definitely more milky. My 2nd drink was a cappuccino, a good balance between the coffee and the milk. The price for a single espresso is just $1.90. All in all, the milk drinks were an improvement over Starbuck’s. We managed to sneak in the backroom where they house a Diedrich roaster and a few coffee machines including a Gino 3 group machine, a Rancilio Silvia, & a Sunbeam EM6900. There were quite a few interesting charts; one of them was the SCAA chart of grading coffee, the number of defects, etc. Phil and Cedric made us feel entirely at ease and even showed us a video on latte art. Wow! Triple Rosettas. Phil gave us some tips on latte art as well.

Adrian announced that he’s starting a cafe soon. If you want further details, stay tuned to this blog. He’s already ordered a La Marzocco GB5. Now, people will get to taste what CGSG coffee is all about.

Cedric mentioned he favoured Jura over the Quickmill, which is one of the machines I’m looking into getting. He also mentioned that if you want a good coffee machine, to look at the roots, which is Italy. Not something I would agree on though.

With award winning coffees in my collection - a few Colombian COE’s, Gesha, ecafe Sidamo, it seems justifiable I should be getting a HX machine instead.

While the coffee was better than average Singaporean cafes, the service was a tad on the slow side. Understandable since Ray’s the only barista at the time. And he grinds on demand, meaning he measures out single serving doses into the grinder each time. With freshly roasted coffee, this is the way to go if you want good crema.

Well, KS has given in to hosting the next meetup (read previous post). I’m really looking forward to this one. Steve or KS advised we could have a cupping session. Some talk of having a conference roasting session maybe? Excellent company and excellent coffee to boot. That’s what CGSG is all about.

I had a mini meetup at Kai Seng’s yesterday. When asked pointblank why he shouldn’t be hosting the next meetup, he replied that his place was too small. Oh PUH-LEEZE! All that concerns the CGSG in me is the company and the coffee. Of course, the only other major factor would be GOOD coffee. And Kai Seng’s HX machine is way better than my Gaggia, which I subjected many of the CGSGers to when I hosted the 2nd meetup. It was pure torture. I’m sorry. The ones who didn’t make the 2nd meetup were spared luckily. Hmmm…  maybe that’s why Steve declined to turn up, after having tasted the swill from my machine a few days earlier when he helped me diagnose its faults.

We pulled the KS blend, which was so endearing it followed me to work later on the day. Endearing because it had this wonderful lingering fragrance. I wonder if it’s the Ethiopian Idido Misty Valley. Wonderful, you must try KS’s blend. He blended 4 different coffees into it. WOW!

I pulled my Zambia Malabar blend. He tried some and said it was one-dimensional. I tried some, and to me it wasn’t. I’m so used to the crappy swill that comes out of my equally crappy machine, that when it comes to pulling the same from fellow CGSGers’ high end machines, I basically can taste the BIIG differences in the coffee.

As for Kai Seng’s remark about his small place, it’s unwarranted. He probably just doesn’t want us to raid his coffee collection. (Just kidding. KS.) He offered to let me take some beans home. What a guy! Tell me why KS shouldn’t be hosting the next meetup. :)    ;)  KS Blend over Highlander blend anytime, anyday.

2 things that came up yesterday:

I suggested that we should try and design a logo for CGSG and make some cotton drawstring bags with the logo. Wouldn’t that be neat? I know everyone in the group should need cotton bags to age or store their coffee. After all, Singapore is the place to age coffee. We have the right humidity and temperature working for us in Singapore.

KS suggested going over to Keith’s restaurants during a less busy day/time to try some of his brew after I harped to him about Keith’s espressoes. I’ll be arranging this for the next next meetup after the Highlander’s and KS’s (if there is one).

Thanks to Steve Cairns for hosting the 3rd meetup for CGSG. We all had a great time.  I really enjoyed this meetup, as I finally got to touch and pull shots from the ultimate Expobar Brewtus II.  I used Vivace Dolce, roasted til verge of 2nd crack, rested for only a day.

Here’s a video of Kai Seng pulling a shot of Mexico Oaxaca from Sweet Maria’s. Steve has this neat sign that says “Espresso Open” on the wall overlooking his Brewtus.

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