Grinder Cleaning and Espresso: Essential for Excellent Extractions
Brewing for espresso enables one to experience a coffee with a fuller range of dimension - the pressured water can pull out many more flavors and aromas from the grounds than gravity brewing. This also means that if your grinder is dirty, you will certainly taste it in an extraction.
The coffee oils that make up your brew are also left behind on
grinder burrs. They get rancid quickly, creating a greasy, yellow tinge
(you
may have noticed this inside hoppers) and
gumming up the works.
- Rancid coffee oils stick to fresh grounds,
- Dull the taste of fresh espresso,
- Leave an overpowering burnt taste,
- And, most critically, decrease aromatic dimension.
When grinders are cleaned (and have a fresh layer of coffee oils to eliminate that metallic taste), we can really take in the coffee's entire story - we are able to perceive more nuanced aromas.
For example, you may still be able to perceive a heavy chocolate back end in a Leftist shot from a dirty grinder, but perhaps not be able to perceive the acidity up front. Or, you may perceive a nuttiness from a dirty grinder, but can differentiate "pecan" from "peanut" when given a shot from a cleaned grinder. Specific tasting results vary, but the gist is the same: clean your grinder and you'll taste a wider array of nuances within the same taste parameters.
I'll post more soon on the ways to best clean your espresso grinders and bulk grinders.
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Helen Lang Mar 2, 2009 – 11:56 AM
Can you recommend a good home grinder that will give me the proper grind for my stovetop espresso maker?
Thanks.
Helen
Erin Mar 3, 2009 – 2:04 PM
I sure can. As far as finding a grinder specifically for your stovetop espresso maker, any of the grinders I’ve suggested will give you a fine enough grind to ensure a good extraction. If you haven’t read it yet, I’d suggest reading my blog post on Moka Pot extraction, too.
First off, you have to start with a burr grinder – there’s no way to get a consistent grind with a blade grinder, the likes of which have been compared to taking a rock and pounding on the beans! You can read more about this by clicking on over to Jeremy's blog post about burr grinding here.
There’s definitely a jump in price as well as quality when you move from a blade grinder to a burr grinder. I’ve collected my suggestions and made sure to include grinders of varying prices.
Mazzer Mini
I’ve had personal experience with this grinder, and highly recommend it, if you’re looking to really invest. It’s commercial grade, well built, and small enough to fit on a kitchen counter. We use the full size Mazzers on bar in our retail stores.
Here are some other suggestions: Rocky Doserless Grinder, La Cimbali Junior, Solis Maestro Grinder.
I also recommend spending some time reading the “Consumer Review” pages on coffeegeek.com. It’s a great website.
HotWomen Mar 27, 2009 – 12:51 AM
Thanks for the information. Any other posts or blogs you can recommend read?