Comment

Comment by Stickman on April 15, 2008 at 7:48pm

Not if you rinse them after every use!

Comment by David Seng on April 15, 2008 at 7:42pm

I personally would never work with naked portafilters. Too hard to work with and when you're busy, spouts are a no brainer. Bottomless pfs will not solve the problem.....at the end of the day, your baskets will be manky from all the espresso that has dried on underneath.

Comment by Loren Anthony on April 15, 2008 at 8:47am

In response to David Seng ....



Really? I never thought about it like that ..... I guess the argument can go either way then huh ?
What about bottomless portafilters ? Does that solve it all ?

Comment by comforteagle1965 on April 15, 2008 at 8:40am

I just tell my people to spend more time at the bottom of the steaming pitcher. Still produces enough texture without a light drink.

Comment by Ray Hencken on April 15, 2008 at 7:58am

I rinse because I'm a neat freak. I'm constantly cleaning my station of excess grounds, drips, etc... I need to read up on the reasoning why not to rinse. I've never tasted metallics in my espresso. Since I dry my portafilters & spouts prior to dosing, I don't don't have drips on my grinder or tray. For those that don't rinse, how many bar towels do you go through in a day? My bar towel gets filthy with coffee as it is. Maybe I'll stop rinsing - perhaps I'm just wasting energy. As Loren said, I just never wanted to mix new coffee with spent coffee.

Comment by Loren Anthony on April 15, 2008 at 7:15am

Yea I agree with Ray.... I just assumed they were making sure it wasn't a "Starbucks latte". So I made the standard latte and they still dug it . We unfortunately only do to-go cups right now . When you out a lid on that after admiring the latte art, the foam rests on the inside of lid anyways and is pushed back when u sip! No biggie!

I rinse my portafilter when I think about it or see the spouts are dark with espresso I must say. I'm not a veteran barista, but it doesn't make sense to me to have all these specifications on rinsing the grouphead to make sure there's no grounds in it and making sure you serve/prepare the drink to avoid the espresso sitting there, if you're going to be mixing that with old espresso oils from a previous shot anyways y'know?

Comment by David Seng on April 15, 2008 at 6:05am

I'm lucky in a sense where the worst I get is a decaf soy latte. People know who we are and what we do...they know we take coffee seriously because they see a 2 roasters next door in our factory roasting all day.

In terms of rinsing after every extraction....I can think of no worse habit a barista can do! You have dripping portafilters that go all over your grinder and grounds tray.....YUCK!.....not only that, the first few mL of espresso will in fact, not be espresso...it will be hot water! I take my baskets out rinse the portafilters and wipe dry only during down time about once an hour if I can. I never flush water through the basket....it traps way too much water.

Comment by Ray Hencken on April 14, 2008 at 5:30pm

Hmm, I never thought of the "no foam" request as wanting milk not micro-bubbled. I just assumed they were asking it not be like starbucks. Guess those customers of mine stopped asking for "no foam" because they were still getting it our standard way.

Comment by Bel Townsend on April 14, 2008 at 1:37pm

No foam is better than grande, 1-shot,decaf, skinny frappe latte. After a few days of serving those, the satisfaction of having these customers paying £2.45 for a glass of milk wears off, and you start wanting to scream "Buy a bloody milkshake!"
It does depend on the venue - not meaning any offence to you guys cos you obviously know what you're doing, but in some (chain) places, when you order a latte, you get boiling hot thin milk, then a raft of dry foam floating on the top. If you don't like that, which I don't,you get so used to asking for no foam that when you are confronted with a decently made latte, you don't know what it is....

As for portafillers - wipe every time, rinse when you can?

Comment by Jaime on April 14, 2008 at 8:47am

some people do not like foam because of the texture, others think they are getting a larger drink when they ask for no foam (like little to no ice in you soft drink). Putting more milk in the drink does dilute it, but people like what they like. If they ask for no foam, I just don't strech it as much and hold back the foam, I still want that creamy sweet texture and taste, not hot waterly milk. The one that I still struggle with is super hot and no foam, just bury the tip and let go while you have a smile on your face. I know that it is a poor drink, but in the customer's eyes it is heaven.

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