Friday, October 6, 2023

An App to Measure Baskets + Ask SWorksDesign Anything

An App to Measure Baskets

BH Unlimited Update, Oct 6th 2023

Hey Baristas, there's something brewing in the world of espresso right now and it's got us excited. It's intuitive, simple, and cheap. You don't need to buy a new espresso machine to get the benefit, and you'll be able to make nicer-tasting espresso and pay less for it, too. This week we're talking high extraction filter baskets — they work, they've got huge potential, and we implore you to give them a try. AND 👀 in case you haven't changed your filter basket setup since the last big leap forward — 12 years ago!! — then now is the time to make the change. At this stage, we wouldn't say more holes and more 'open area' are the way to go for tastier espresso, but we are absolutely persuaded that the holes going right out to the edge of the filter basket is a must.

Over the last couple of months we have been helping Professor Stephen Abbott design an app that gives baristas a means of comparing and critiquing new espresso basket designs. It also allows you to compare the build quality of two baskets from the same make and model. There's nothing better than easy tech which strengthens the feedback loop between baristas and designers.

In this new post we walk you through how to use the app, and you'll find a video where Professor Abbott loads up photos of the Sworks Billet Basket and the Pesado HE% basket, and compares these to some older designs from Pullman and IMS.

Sworks Billet basket (left), Pesado HE% basket (right)

While a new set of fancy filter baskets might seem like a big investment (about 200 bucks is the going rate) compared to the low cost of traditional baskets, the high extraction and fast flow they offer mean that you can use less coffee to make espresso at the same strength — and get tastier shots to boot.

If you're not convinced, try using the app to analyse the baskets you're currently using. How evenly sized are the holes? How much of the edge of the puck isn't getting extracted properly, because the holes don't reach the edge? Armed with this information, perhaps you'll find it's time to start raising your expectations of how well-made a basket should be.

It's always been the case with espresso machines that if the baskets are bad, then it doesn't matter how brilliant the rest of the technology is, the shots just won't taste good. Now you've got an easy way to find out exactly how many holes your baskets have compared to other baskets, how uniform the holes are, how evenly spaced they are, and the big one — what is the percentage of 'open area'? Here's a link to the Basket Hole Analyser. Please let us know how you find it.

Ask Sheldon Wong / SWorksDesign Anything

We're now taking your questions for the next AMA feature with Sheldon Wong — the founder of Sworks. Sheldon's ground breaking work with his small independent fabrications company is the true Maven in the high extraction filter basket space. If you follow Sworks' Insta, you'll notice, almost every week, he's teasing his subscribers with his latest brain waves for new products.

If you have a BH membership and you'd like to ask Sheldon about his ideas on espresso extraction and the world of high extraction filter baskets, and the advancement of smart espresso accessories, then please head over here and drop your Q into this form.

Strategies for Managing Gas During First Crack

If you've been waiting for the discussion to get around to roast curves — we got roast curves in this chapter of How to Roast Coffee.

There's a trick for marking the first crack. Of course, on most roasters you can hear the beans popping and Scott recommends marking the first crack after you hear two or three beans popping. But the trick, you can't quite tell, is to use the environmental temperature rise (ETRoR) — in practice, this is your exhaust temp.

Like the bean temperature RoR, the ETRoR measures the rate of change of the temperature. So, if the temperature is going up quickly, the ETRoR is high. If the temperature plateaus, the ETRoR will drop to zero.

During the run-up to first crack, your ETRoR typically shows a series of peaks and troughs. At the moment first crack begins, you may be able to see the ETRoR drop to make one last trough and then rise and plateau at a higher level. If you see this pattern, you can use it to mark first crack. First crack begins when that last trough drops to its lowest point, just before you see the ETRoR rise and plateau.

In this example, the smooth blue line is the temp of your probe in the bean pile. The red line is the ETRoR. The black vertical line is where the roaster marked first crack but the bottom of the last trough is where it actually began.

This week in How to Roast, Scott walks you through how to mark first crack on various machines, and gives you strategies on how to manage gas changes leading into first crack. Scott also shows us some proven strategies on how to manage gas changes with washed coffees compared to naturals.

Quick Links

If you haven't read round one of Battle of the Baskets, where we bench test a few designs, you might want to start there first.

Nice interview with Jessica Easto here about her second book, How to Taste Coffee, now available for preorder.

We're hoping you all caught Season 1 of The History of Coffee podcast from James Harper and historian Professor Jonathan Morris. They've just completed Season 2. Season 1 debunked about 200 coffee myths that I grew up with so we're looking forward to diving into Season 2. Most baristas recognise the importance of studying coffee origin, but we think it's just as critical for you to be aware of the challenges and the darkness from where our industry originated.

Bartholomew Jones from Cxffeeblack talks health, coffee science, and gentrification with clinician Peter Martin and anthropologist Ted Fischer from Vanderbilt University.

Green coffee traders and social enterprise Raw Materials have a pretty awesome sounding course they're hosting at El Fénix in Colombia later this month. Here's their brochure (PDF). It's a week-long course called Plant to Port. El Fénix is a community wet mill and QC station which all started in 2016 with a Kickstarter campaign to fund the construction of a community wet mill in Quindío, Colombia.

Coffee Education — Without the Advertising

At BH we never do ads for other company's products on our website. There's no product placement in any of our courses, newsletters or blog posts. Our only income comes from what you pay for your subscriptions.

When you see machinery or coffee gear mentioned in any of our educational material, or featured in our course videos, we have chosen to use that equipment because we like using it, because we think it's historically significant in the evolution of the espresso machine, or because it shows you something you need to see about modern coffee culture. It's as simple as that.