July 2007
Newsletter
The first part of my Magnum Opus,
Domestic Espresso Machine Repair, is now up on the website for
all the world to see. This bit deals with the Rancilio Silvia,
with the Lelit/Imat/Nemox portion to follow next month. I've
tried to pitch it at the level of the intelligent DIYer, without
too much handholding. At the end of the article I plan to go
into detail on various little tricks which can be generalised to
most domestic espresso machines, but you can see where I'm up to
now at http://www.coffeeco.com.au/articles/repair.html .
One thing that's become clear
lately is that people often send machines in for "repair" when
what is really needed is maintenance, or in layman's terms a
bloody good clean. The machines arrive with totally clogged
showerscreens, hardened gaskets, steam wands blocked up with
ancient dried milk and a general air of neglect. After an hour
of elbow grease they suddenly start to look and work "as good as
new". In the past I've charged my time for repairs and cleaning
at $60.00 per hour, but this is about to change. From now on
repairs will still be $60.00, but cleaning is going up to
$100.00 per hour, primarily because it's no fun at
all.
I'd far prefer that the customers
do it themselves and save the money. You can see what's involved
at http://www.coffeeco.com.au/articles/august2002.html and http://www.coffeeco.com.au/newsletter/october2006.html It's definitely not rocket
science.
On a more pleasant subject, I've
been working on a new espresso blend for the last year or so. My
aim with this particular blend was to get the most "chocolate"
flavour possible, so that the addition of milk gave the taste of
a "Mocha Latte" without actually adding chocolate to the mix.
When you consider that "Mocha", generally thought of as a mix of
chocolate and coffee, was originally meant to approximate the
flavour of Mokha, the coffee from Yemen, you might say I've
tried to bring things around in a circle.
However, what I was after required
more body and less wild berry fruit than straight Yemen Mokha,
because I wanted to also give the same sort of mouthfeel that
adding chocolate gives to the drink. This has required cupping
quite a few African and Indonesian coffees for both their body
and flavour characteristics, as well as the odd mild Central
American bean. You only have to look at the monthly specials for
the last year to get an idea of some of the candidates.
Anyway, I finally think I've got
the right balance of coffee, chocolate, body and smoothness in a
single package; I'll be interested to hear your opinions on the
subject. So this month's special will be
Espresso Cioccolato $38.00/kg
Ultra smooth and chocolaty with a
rich creamy body and lingering, low acid cocoa
aftertaste.
If it gets a favourable response
it will be a permanent addition to the coffee menu.
Speaking of favourable responses,
I got a huge response to the question "email vs online" that I
asked in the last newsletter, with about 60% in favour of email,
so it looks like I'll be emailing out the newsletter for the
foreseeable future. I'm still working on ways to do this
efficiently, and at some stage I may need to get everyone who
wants to be on the mailing list to re- subscribe, but I'll worry
about that AFTER I get the repair article finished. And for
those who suggested it, I'm sorry, but there aren't any email
clients I know of which will allow you to add 5000+ addresses to
your "BCC" field! <G>.
Alan
|