LEVEL 1: Espresso Foundations @ Toby's Estate

Recently attended an introductory barista training course at Toby's Estate (a well-chosen birthday gift from the other half). Was a good experience: plenty of hands-on practice at making espressos and flat whites.

To summarize the main points I picked up:

Freshness: after roasting, beans can last at most a month (under ideal storage conditions); ideally, they should be used within 2 weeks. When buying beans, you should look for the "roasting date"; if this is not available, that's a sign that the coffee could be old and therefore no good (the two-year "use by date" given on popular brands is, therefore, a nonsense).  After grinding, the ground coffee should be used within 10 minutes (!). This latter criterion means that the ground coffee we buy is doomed to mediocrity: it's not even fresh when we first open the package, and will only degrade further from there on.

[Comment: I'm taking all of this with a pinch of salt (or should that be sugar?). Having violated both freshness criteria to varying degrees over the years, I think that, while there is certainly a significant loss of quality, it seems a bit snobby to suddenly take the attitude that it must have been utter pigswill. I prefer to take the same approach I take with wine: it's nice to savour a $50 bottle now and again, but that doesn't mean one can't enjoy an $8 clean skin or vin de table the rest of the time.]

Grind: it turns out that a high-quality grinder is at least as important as a good coffee machine -- indeed, possibly more so, since with a good grinder you can still make excellent plunger coffee, for example. There are several reasons why a quality grinder is important:

• Firstly, grinding fresh is of key importance (see above point), so some kind of grinder is essential.
• A quality grinder (i.e. not just a pepper mill) ensures that the size of the grains is consistent, which is important in the extraction process.
• The coarseness of the grind should be adjustable to cater for different types of extraction method (e.g. fine for espresso machine, coarse for plunger). The coarseness may also need to be adjusted according to the specific machine, roast type, and even humidity (I'm not joking, or at least, I assume the trainer wasn't).

For a good grinder one can expect to fork out something in the region of $300-800. The ones you see in cafes can easily cost several $k.

Making espresso: a few points to note when using an espresso machine:

• The basket should be loaded to the top with the ground coffee (before tamping). The trainer did this by over-filling slightly, tapping (to allow it to settle somewhat), and then scraping the excess back into the grinder doser.
• The tamper is then used to press down and make the coffee uniform. It is not necessary to tamp with excessive force (the water pressure with naturally press down very hard anyway); the only purpose of the tamping is to make the grounds uniform.
• When running the espresso, the ideal flow is slightly intermittent. Stop whenever the colour of the froth turns yellow(er).
• Afterwards, look at the "cookie": ideally it should be slightly spongy to the touch. If it is too hard/dry there was too much coffee or it was too fine; too soggy there wasn't enough, or it was too coarse.

I was slightly surprised to learn that a barista-approved home machine can be had for under $800: the Sunbeam EM6910. This does seem to have mixed reviews, however, and I'm not sure if I would rush to get one of these. For $3k you can get an excellent machine for home use. 

Steaming milk for flat white: 

• The standard kit is two or three stainless steel milk jugs.
• The full amount of milk should take up about half the jug. The steamer should be immersed just under the surface, leaning against the edge, in such a way that it induces the milk to start spinning.
• With one hand cupping the milk jug (what!? I'm talking about coffee making!), you can feel when it gets hot enough (65 degrees celsius, I'm told). The sound of the steamer will change as the froth starts to rise. It is important not to over heat the milk -- it shouldn't be piping hot.
• If making more than one coffee, you then pour the top third or so into one of the other jugs, because the top is frothier than the rest. Add it back in when you've poured the first coffee.
• When pouring, it's easiest to set the cup on the bench, and rest the jug on the top of the cup. Pour slowly at first, then towards the end speed up. Near the top, the milk should start to form a white blob in the middle; at this point, pull the jug up and draw it across the white blob, hopefully making a nice heart-like shape.

Above all, the training course drove home the idea that making great coffee is about knowing the do's and don'ts (see above) and then practising. A lot. In the course, making round after round of flat whites and seeing what went right/wrong each time was extremely effective. Unfortunately, at home I would typically just make a single coffee and, good or bad, drink it and move on. So the final point is that you need to practise intensively until you can make a consistently good cup. This will require making more than you drink (unless you want to end up like Tweek), but will pay off in the end.