Lately, when I think about some of the fancy-pants new machines hitting the market, I feel completely at aloss. For the first time in a really long time, it seems like- as faras the coffee industry is concerned- technology might be moving fasterthan we are able to process it. I don’t mean to say that we fullyunderstand all technologies that have been presented to us over thepast couple decades, but if I were to speak honestly, there have beenquite a few times where I have gone off on some crazy tangent about howit would be so cool if ______ would happen, or if someone would develop______. I mean, just look at the few posts I have in this blog…portafilters and portafilter baskets made of glass? Grinders with useradjustable graphs that manipulate macro and micro particle sizes?Really? But at the same time, I often look at the (lack of)technology advances in grinders and think how painfully far we couldstill go if we would just apply ourselves, apply our finances and (weas baristas) apply our voices for change.
The Fuji PXR3 controller
The last decade gave us temperature stability and temperature “profiling” as we thought it was. The introduction of the Fuji PXR3into temperature PID (proportional, integral, derivative) controlerswas, in my opinion one of the more important advances of the pastdecade. All of the things that have come since might not have come atall if we hadn’t had the temperature stability provided by thesedevices. A giant thank you to Greg Scace and Andy Schecter is inorder, I think, as they were both really the “founding faters” on thisone.
Because this could be flying over the heads of quite a few individuals that frequent this blog, I’ll back up a little bit. A PIDcontroler, very simply, works much like a very sensative thermostat.It is a computer that uses calculus algorithims to respond totemperature flucuations and variations. They are being used all overthe place now… espresso machines, coffee brewers, hot water towers,even roasters. I know I have a burning itch to PID my toaster :0)
The temperature stability world is now something I feel we have dialed in nicely. Having worked on painfully UNstable machines for a few years I can promise you that the new temperaturestability of, give or take, 0.3-0.5 degrees (sometimes even less) iscertainly a giant sigh of relief. It’s an awesome feeling to leavebehind thoughts such as “Did I run enough water through before theshot to bring the group up to temperature? Did I run too much waterthrough? How much water is the correct amount of water anyway?“
Slayer debut at SCAA/WBC 2009
Just as some would say we started to get temperature control under our belts the introduction of pressure profiling gets thrown into themix. For the most general of general statements regarding pressureprofiling… typically you are pulling a shot of espresso at 9 bars ofpressure. With the introduction of pressure profiling it gives you theopportunity to start at a lower pressure and then slowly build thepressure over the course of the shot and then slowly lower it again.Or you can give it full pressure from the start and lower later. Oryou could do a slow build to full pressure then cut off all pressure.The possibilities are somewhat endless on this front. I can tell youfrom personal experience that when I stood in front of a Slayerat WBC 2009 in Atlanta I felt completely clueless for the first time ina long time. I knew that adjusting the pressure was giving medifferent results in my shots, but I didn’t know why and I didn’t knowwhich adjustments were leading to which result. Surely if I had spentmore than just the hour or so I did in the booth I’m sure things wouldhave come together better under the Slayer crew’s guidance andexplanation, but I really felt overwhelmed by possibility. It was anawesomly horrifying feeling to have everything seem so “beyond” myability to comprehend. If that wasn’t enough, last year La Marzocco,the fearless leaders of the espresso machine industry (and I’ll leteveryone else argue on that point) introduced a machine that reallyleaves me scratching my head. Labeled at the same WBC event simply as“New La Marzocco Technology Inside” was what we now know as the Strada,a machine that allows us the most play with pressure that we have everseen. A paddle on the front of the machine allows the user fullcontrol of all things pressure. On the Slayer a certain pressure“recipe” is created, for example, 3 bars to start, then build to 9,then hold until 25 seconds into the shot, before slowly fading backdown to 3 and then totally off. Where the Strada differs is that itallows you to do, more or less, whatever you want. Sliding the paddletowards the left builds the pressure higher, to the right relieves thepump’s pressure. You could, if you wanted, build some crazy pressureprofile for a specific coffee where you introduced 2 bars of pressure,then built the pressure to 8 bars, then spiked it to 9 for a secondbefore bringing it back 7, and then spiking it again, then fading to 5,and then 3 and then off… I’ll let your imagination run from there. Thepossibilities with this machine are a little beyond most any barista’scomprehension right now, as far as I’m concerned. I really don’t thinkthere is a barista out there who could walk up to one of these machinesand feel totally confident they could tweak the pressure all over theplace and be able to predict what the outcome was going to be (and becorrect) more than 5 out of 10 times. The results from a drastic changeis pressure is something I can detect, but I’m not sure I couldpinpoint the difference between an 8 second ramp of pressure and a 7second ramp.
So we have this “pressure thing” that we are trying to get our minds wrapped around. We are starting to understand more and more of iteveryday, that is for certain. Slayers are popping up in artisan cafesall over the place with some of the countries best baristas putting themachine through it’s paces. We are learning the machine and learninghow to best manipulate it to get the best results.
And now the talks surrounding temperature profiling begins. In other words, being able to fluctuate the temperature during a shot upand down the same way we are currently doing with pressure. Gaa! Ihaven’t the slightest clue what this is going to do for the espressoworld in the future, but I’m excited to see, that’s for certain. Beingable to sweeten and soften a shot by raising and lowering temperatureduring different parts of the extraction is very intriguing to me. Ifanyone reading this has a machine that allows this to happen and wantsto do some experimenting please contact me.
Temperature stability? Check.
Pressure adjustment during a shot? Check.
Temperature adjustment during a shot? Check?
Technology is in the fast lane, pulling away from us, and it’s about time.
-bry
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