Quote:
Originally posted by Mule
Stuart, NO has great coffee. It is not an expresso town, but the coffee is great. Having spent several years working for a top notch coffe company I will say this about expresso. The alkaloids that cause coffee to be bitter tend to be relased in high volumes when the brewing temperature exceeds 180 degrees. This is why Bunn (the standard) and all other quality brewers operate at slightly less than 180 degrees. The brewing temberature of expresso (steam) is 212 dergees. This and the extra fine grind of the beans makes expresso significantly more bitter than coffee. If the little old man (or anybody else) makes un-bitter expresso he is indeed a wizard.
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That's not my understanding of how proper espresso machines operate (although some espresso machines and stove tops operate this way).
Best info I could find quickly is this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espresso
From the machine I used above (which is set to about that temperature), I can tell you that as the temp is correct, and if you get the grind/tamping right (and 8-10 bar pressure) then the coffee that comes out is far better than anything I've ever had from any other method. Its not bitter at all, unless over or under-extracted (too fine grind, tamped too hard, extracted too long - lots of things can go wrong).
However, if it comes from Starbucks while it may not be bitter, its still burnt (what do they do to those poor beans? it tastes like charcoal).
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