Go to the Article: Espresso Myths, Debunked
well, for us Italians its easy, for us its just un caffè'...
This babansky guy is so dreamy
excelent class, thank you so much, I can´t wait to put on practice all learned.
great class certainly debunked a few myths for me.
Great myths analysis!!! I've always had these questions, and for some other reason i focused too much on trying to get the perfect shot and never realized that it was good already... Geez, thank you guys for clearing that out...
excelente
Shouldn't your tamp be level, otherwise the lowside gets heavily extracted and the high side not so much?
Thanks for the awesome course! Loved all the information you guys provided.
So I have always heard that once the espresso shot is pulled, it then expires after 8 seconds and is no longer what the espresso is meant to taste like. Is that true at all? Does espresso expire after it has been pulled?
Yep same question,I know we need to relax when making coffee but how much time can a espresso sit on the counter before its properties are diluted, or what are the characteristics that coffee lose that affect the taste?...
I have always been under the impression that espresso expires after about 10 secs but recently I have been hearing that is not true from reputable sources. But im not pro.
Thank you all
The truth is that espresso starts to "change form" after you pull the shot. There's a lot of variables why an espresso shot could start to become more acidic as it sits, but try it for yourself. A great espresso shot will hold true (in my personal experience) for about 2 minutes total. Temperature can change any flavors drastically, and this does happen with espresso. Milk tends to stabilize the shot a bit and, therefore, your barista probably would want to toss that in your drink as soon as possible, because your palate would much rather prefer that over a colder espresso shot. Hope this helps.
Level tamp is very necessary. Otherwise your shot will channel and cause one side to be over extracted and one to be under....water is a lazy jerk and finds the fastest way through the shot. Level those tamps.
I bet this will be a really hard question to answer because "expiration" is most likely a colloquial term for when a certain % of the volatile oils and soluble gasses in the coffee dissipate into the air. The amount of these compounds will vary by type of coffee. This also explains why in comments farther down, someone mentions milk stabilizing espresso. Milk is a colloid, a mixture of fats and water/water soluble liquids. As such, it would be really good at holding insoluble pieces together (think: emulsifier, like how mustard powder holds together a vinaigrette).
Just off the cuff, I think 8 seconds is way too short for anyone besides a sommelier to notice. I bet a shot could be stable for at least a minute, but again, this is a super hard thing to "prove" as you'd have to be sampling the ratio of soluble to insoluble particles every second.
I have friends who spent several years in Italy. When they returned from italy, they brought with them a couple of cases of their favorite PRE GROUND coffee. They lasted 6 years or more before they used the last can. The last can used was still better than anything they could find around here (Being just a 1 hour ferry ride from Seattle).
They still made good espresso with the coffee they got from here.
The key to a good cup of espresso in their book was not pushing the grounds too far. On her machine 8.5 seconds was the most she would pull.
A little longer and you start getting into the bitter part of the bean. A little shorter and you don't much of a shot...
