1. When you’re loading coffee beans into the container, make sure that no extraneous objects get in it.

2. Use fresh ground coffee ONLY. (Ground coffee loses its quality much faster than coffee beans).

3. Clean the bean dosator and bean bunker every week!

4. Check the burrs once every six months

5. Avoid getting any water inside the coffee grinder.

6. Do not use coffee that’s already been ground; use coffee beans only.

At the Beginning of the day:

1. Put the coffee beans into the container. Leftover beans from the previous day should be stored in the refrigerator in a tightly closed container. The same goes for ground coffee.

2. Grind a small amount of coffee and check the ground for the consistency. You can mix the previous day’s ground coffee with the fresh stuff.

At the end of the day:

1. Take away any leftover beans from the container. Put them in a small jar with a tightly closed lid. Repeat with the leftover of the ground coffee. Don’t grind more coffee in the end of the day that you’ll be able to use that same day.

2. Clean the grinder with a brush.

Once a week:

1. Clean the coffee bean container in warm water with a special solution. It’ll remove the oily substance that’s left on the walls of the container and which has a negative effect on the freshly ground coffee.

2. Clean inside the dosator using a special brush.

3. Finally, clean outside the dosator with the same brush.

By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/6868049/The-ultimate-coffee-gadget-A-roasting-machine.html

The electric coffee bean roaster from Lakeland allows aficianados to take the home coffee-making experience to new levels of sophistication

For those who find freshly home-ground Ethiopian Yirgacheffe beans not rarefied enough, consumers can now decide exactly how those beans should be roasted thanks to these machines.

Specialist kitchenware shops say the machines, which cost between £150 and £325, are proving popular as Britain embraces coffee culture like never before.

Lakeland, the Cumbrian-based retailer, said it started stocking its £150 model after coffee fans started requesting ever rarefied equipment to create their perfect cup of coffee.

Martin Rayner, one of the company’s directors, said: “People are becoming really interested in coffee and they don’t just want to buy pre-roasted, ground coffee. They want to get involved in the whole process. Yes, it is a little bit geeky, but it is fun being at the cutting edge.”

The machines allow consumers to buy unroasted coffee beans – called “green beans” – from specialist retailers. These only lose their flavour once roasted, meaning the machines guarantee the freshest possible cup of coffee.

The machines heat up the beans, while also turning them in a metal drum, allowing them to roast evenly. The longer the beans are left in the machine, the darker and stronger tasting they become.

The machines have taken off as figures from Starbucks suggest that consumers are drinking ever stronger cups of coffee, with an increase of in the number of extra shots of espresso ordered over the last year.

The company said the number of extra shots asked for by British customers has risen by almost 25 per cent over the last year. They now add 125,000 shots each week, up from 105,000 each week a year ago.

By Johnathan Bakers
Source:http://www.vitamins-minerals-nutrition.info/use-cappuccino-machines-to-make-world-treats.html

You can increase your enjoyment of an international and ancient beverage even more by experimentation. Whether cappuccino machines or espresso machines are your coffee maker of choice there is a ton to try! That’s right get a great cup of coffee, whether you like it Mexican, Cuban, or Brazilian…there are many to choose from!

This is a daring way to start, but you can bake a coconut at 300F or 134C for about 30 minutes and then allow it to cool off. After this cut open the coconut and remove the meat by grating it. Mix the coconut bits and 1/2 cup milk and heat on the stove. Once its thick you can strain it and then pour it in your coffee for a great treat!

If you want to try a traditional Mexican way of drinking coffee then you can blend chocolate and coffee for a great drink. Pour a teaspoon of chocolate syrup into your coffee. Add a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg too. Mix all this will some white sugar and you have a delicious drink. You can also add whipped cream on top!

Try a Cubano which is drunk straight. You can also make this into an Americano by adding some rum or warmed milk. Don’t put too much milk though, keep it more heavy on the rum.

The English enjoy Grog which is made by cutting up an orange and breaking apart the slices. Cut a lemon and repeat. Now put one orange slice into the bottom of a glass and add 1/3 tablespoon of butter, a tablespoon of brown sugar, and a bit of ground up cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Just add about half a cup of coffee and you have an great drink! Add more cream or milk depending on your taste.

You can also try an Austrian way of drinking brew. Start by melting about 1/8 cup of your favorite chocolate with a tablespoon of cream on your stove. Now just add a half cup of coffee and whip it up and allow it to settle. Pour into a cup and add some cocoa powder or cinnamon for a traditional treat.

Try out a new twist on the traditional coffee makers with a Turkish “dezva” or special pot used to make this type of coffee. This coffee is strong to the taste. You’ll add water into the pot with and then you can add some sugar. Allow it to boil and then remove it from heat and add a teaspoon of grounds. Stir it up and heat it once again. When you get a foamy consistency on top remove it from heat to cool.

Try iced coffee from Vietnam by buying a Vietnamese coffee press. Once you have this you just need to put in ground coffee and pour some condensed milk into a glass. Pour boiling water over the press and allow the dripping process to begin. Just add ice for a cool summer drink.

If making it at home is not so fun, then hop on a plane for a world tour of the greatest coffee drinks!

By Joey Papa Source: http://www.ehow.com/how_5714911_hook-espresso-machines-portable-cart.html

Hooking up espresso machines in a portable cart is a bit challenging, but with the right foreknowledge and proper tools, it can be accomplished with ease. Before you begin, know the type of electricity you need to support your machine and the size and dimensions of the cart. If set up correctly, an espresso cart can become a lucrative business, because it requires little overhead. Once the espresso machine is hooked up, don’t dismantle it unless it needs repairs. Keeping the machines ready will make your daily setup easy and free of concern.

Things You’ll Need:

• Portable cart
• Generator
• 2 water containers, 5 gallons each
• Milk
• Espresso beans

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Connect the Power

1. Step 1

   Determine what type of power your specific machine requires (110 or 220). Purchase a generator that will support the power requirements.

2. Step 2

   Connect the espresso machine and its pump to the generator. Turn the generator on, and test the equipment to make sure it’s operational.

3. Step 3

   Check the pressure gauges on the espresso machine to determine whether it is working properly.

   Hook Up Water and Drainage

4. Step 1

   Fill a 5-gallon water container with purified water, and run the intake hose from the espresso machine into it.

5. Step 2

   Place a second 5-gallon container under the machine’s drain to collect excess liquid.

6. Step 3

   Turn the machine on, and allow it to gain enough pressure to test the steam and group heads. Check your pressure gauges to ensure the machine is operating correctly.

Great post from James Hoffmann. Source:http://www.jimseven.com/2009/12/12/7-tips-for-dialling-in-an-espresso-blend/

I am sure you will enjoy it. I did.

By James Hoffmann.

“These tips probably apply more to a commercial environment than a domestic one, but hopefully there are some useful reminders for anyone in here.

We’ve all ended up chasing an espresso, somehow a delicious espresso remaining elusive. These may seem obvious but all get overlooked from time to time.

1. Plan for palate fatigue

Palate fatigue is inevitable, and too much coffee doesn’t just change and dampen your ability to discern flavours – it also quickly affects your enjoyment of coffee too. David Schomer made a very good point once – coffee never tastes better than when your body really wants it. We can often be a lot more forgiving of flaws when drinking that first cup that we really want. The opposite is true for me also. After too much coffee nothing tastes good. When my body has had enough caffeine an espresso may be technically correct but I won’t find it delicious. At this point continued tasting is not particularly useful.

Scott Rao recommends not just spitting the espresso you taste, but also rinsing immediately afterwards with water. This is pretty much the best way I’ve found. Drinking less coffee slows my caffeine ingestion, and the rinsing slows general palate fatigue.

2. Don’t overreact

Frustration dialing in a grinder often leads people to react too quickly to a bad shot. Making sure that you’ve isolated the problem before making a change is very important. All too often a shot will run fast and a barista will immediately change the grind a little finer. The next shot runs too slow. Double check before making a change, because everyone makes mistakes – an accidental underdose for example.

3. Purge

Even the best grinder in the world retains quite a lot of ground coffee. Most visibly in the throat between the burrs and the dosing chamber, but also in the dosing chamber as well. Every grinder benefits from a decent purge – 10g to 15g is plenty. Consider it an investment in the next shot, rather than a waste. Ending up with a dose made up from a mixture of grind settings is not a good thing.

4. Taste tells you everything

It won’t always point to the problem, but the balance of the espresso will give you a pretty good idea of what is wrong. Unbalanced, dominant acidity coupled with astringency points towards underextraction. It could be a number of reasons – pour too fast, temp too low, shot volume too short – but you can be pretty confident that you haven’t taken enough from the coffee. An excessive, dominant bitterness and an unpleasant finish will usually point to overextraction.

5. Take a broad sampling

When you are dialling in things like brew temperature this is incredibly difficult to do from only a few espressos. Tasting more will allow you to get a better idea of what is wrong. Little mistakes made from shot to shot can easily obscure bigger problems. I don’t feel confident about saying a brew temperature is wrong until I’ve experimented with a number of other things first.

6. Have a strategy

Be methodical when working with an espresso blend. Keep in mind that there are a number of different variables that we can change and work through. Brew time, dose, grind size, brew temperature and shot length are the ones we would typically play with – though pressure is steadily gaining more attention (though I’ve yet to see any conclusive advice on using pressure to improve a shot.)

That said – feel free to abandon dead ends. If you start with a 20g dose and no matter what you do it tastes underextracted/sour then increasing the dose is unlikely to fix that particular problem, so pulling shots at 22g or 24g may just be mean to your palate, rather than being a good way to use the coffee that you have.

7. Keep it clean

A dirty machine isn’t going to make good coffee. It seems obvious but dirt builds up incredibly quickly in any espresso machine and it doesn’t take much build up before everything starts to taste disappointing. Portafitlers, screens and blocks should be cleaned regularly and don’t be afraid of using chemical to clean often. A coffee machine can’t be too clean!”

By : Bart Forcey

Source:http://www.articlegallery.net/Art/309209/68/What-Makes-Espresso-Machines-So-Special.html

Ever imagine what Starbucks would be like if it didn’t have an espresso machine? The famous coffee spot just wouldn’t seem the same. So, where did this machine originate from and who do we thank for this convenience of “foam” coffee? An espresso is nothing more then coffee that is brewed by mixing hot water with ground up coffee beans. Believe it or not, the coffee espresso machine has been in existence for almost 100 years.

The first official coffee espresso machine comes to us from France. It was created by a gentleman named Louis Bernard Rabaut in’22. The machine was a simple contraption that allowed steam and water to flow through a filter lined with fresh coffee beans. Mr. Edward Loy Sel de Santias showed his version of the espresso machine at the Paris Exposition in’55. He impressed the crowd by being able to brew up 2,000 cups of what was then called fast coffee in an hour.

In’55, Mr. Edward Loy Sel de Santias brought his advancement of the espresso machine to the Paris Exposition. While entertaining the crowds at the Exposition he was able to brew 2,000 cups of this foam coffee in one hour. Luiggi Bezzera of Italy brought his espresso machine into the lime light in’01. His machine served the same purpose of Rabauts invention which was created 79 years earlier.

Americans received their first taste of this foam coffee in’27. Americans were not impressed with the burnt flavor the machine gave to the coffee beans. In’38, the taste problem of the espresso was fixed by adding a piston pump to the design. The pressure the spring lever applied to the beans changed the taste to a more enjoyable taste that we all enjoy now. M. Faema supplied the finishing element to the evolving espresso machine in’61 by adding an electric pump which would change the way we drink coffee all together.

With this advancement to the espresso machine the way was paved to have the machines introduced to households worldwide. In’91, the first ever espresso machine was able to be purchased by ordinary households.

The next time that you get that good old cup of of espresso or cappuccino in the morning just take a second and reminisce. Try to envision the pioneers whose inventions paved the way to make a simple cup of caf(c) latte possible. It’s hard to think about all the hard work and effort that is put into one simple cup of coffee.

So much hard work and labor was put into such a deceptively simple contraption that so many take for granted. In this fast paced world that we live in it’s great that we don’t have to wait 10-15 minutes to get a hot cup of coffee. In fact we can enjoy the luxury of a cappuccino right from our own households. The machine does all the work for us, all we have to do is push a single button. Picking a home coffee machine can be next to impossible. It isn’t a choice that you should be making without doing some research. Not all coffee machines are correct for everyone some people may like coffee pods some may not.