Why is my espresso bitter
Bitter Espresso: The top 3 reasons your coffee tastes bitter
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[Music]
nobody likes bitter coffee and sometimes
the reasons aren't clear i mean
yesterday it tasted good
but today ah it's rough maybe i need
a more expensive tamp you don't need
another tan today we are looking at the
top three reasons why your espresso may
be tasting so
bitter and what you can do at home or in
your cafe
to fix it
[Music]
hey my name is josh and i'm here at the
coffee science and education center and
we're looking at
business now what is business sometimes
people get the ideas between
acidity and business confused now if we
look at the sca flavor wheel we can see
flavor notes that sit with fitness like
ashy
smoky roast or even hoppy like beer
but then on the opposite side of the
flavor wheel we see all our acid flavors
what do i mean by these sort of acid
flavors think about
sucking on a lemon or a lime or even a
dry wine
those things are acidic when we're
talking
bitterness we're thinking burnt toast
we're thinking chocolate
at dark 70 get it into your sort of
bitterness
bite so now we're going to look at how
to bring these things back in a balance
between
acid bitterness and sugar
now with that out of the way let's look
at those top three reasons the first one
cleaning yeah we're going to get the bad
stuff out of the way first
there's probably a higher chance your
machine isn't
clean there's a reason why your coffee
tastes so good
at the very start of the day and not so
much at the end of the day
what do i mean by this well we know that
when you pour a lot of coffee
inside the machine basically you're
getting a build-up of coffee oils
it gets on the group handle it gets on
your basket it gets on your shower
screen
and that is tainting all your coffee
extraction
with that really dark flavor and
sometimes quite metallic taste
so i'm happy to say the fix is really
easy just clean your machine
if you hourly clean your machine by
using your blind filter
locking up and just running water
through and then releasing it 10 seconds
three times each
on every group head your coffee will
always taste like a winner
at the end of the day you want to use
espresso cleaner get that
in at least once and then do a couple
clean flushes afterwards
make sure you scrub all the shower
screens the baskets
and the handle and your coffee will love
you but if you're at home you're not
punching out
hundreds of coffees at a time so at
least daily
do the clean water back flush use that
handle lock it up
run that hot water through second reason
we're talking over extraction
now extraction can pull things out of
whack and you need to be on top of this
basically if you over extract your
coffee you're going to get that
bitterness flavor
what do i mean well if you use too
little coffee in your basket
you don't just your water recipe to
match
basically it the amount of water flowing
over every particle or coffee will draw
more out of the coffee than you really
want
then there's also the case of your
coffee might be too fine so now your
water's sitting
too long around every part of a coffee
within the basket
again over extraction so again adjust
the grind size
and then you'll get that better flavor
we're always going back to a recipe
what is a recipe what is the recipe you
want for your coffee
basically talk to your roaster and then
work it out in your machine
the end result is a recipe is just a
benchmark
baristas who know their stuff are always
two-week in the recipe to make sure they
get the best flavor out of their coffee
for that day for that coffee with their
machine
and third reason we're talking about
dark roast coffee
now where does dark roast coffee come
into this whole spectrum of coffee that
we like to enjoy
well dark roast coffee when you go
darker you quite often start
accentuating notes like smokiness
roasty chocolate nuts all these sorts of
flavors
is where business lies in the spectrum
of flavor in coffee
now dark roast coffee is not a bad thing
there's a whole
segment of our society that loves dark
roast coffee and the reason being is it
has good cut through
it's smooth it's creamy bruises love
working with it because it's really
really tolerable on bar
it doesn't change too much you know what
you're gonna get but then with dark
roast coffee
don't try and then turn it into a light
roast coffee it's not designed that way
what do i mean by that is when you have
it as a black uh as a black coffee
that black coffee can sometimes be too
bitter too sharp and just really doesn't
bring all those light knives to flavor
because it's dark so then what's the fix
well there's a couple things you can do
try light roast coffee
it can't be all things to all people
second thing you can do
is you can actually reduce your
extraction start pulling it back
closer towards a restreto style recipe
every time you pour a coffee the first
dark parts that are coming out are all
your solubles that dissolve easily in
water
so if you reduce that extraction you'll
get that better flavor you're looking
for
then there's also another tip that i can
give you if your machine
comes with the ability to reduce its
temperature that can
save your dark roasted coffee it's a
relationship you're committed you still
want to save it
let's work with it basically if you drop
that brew temperature
it's actually going to cool less out of
coffee slower
basically that's a good thing for your
coffee if you over brew your tea at home
or if you over brew your coffee you'll
get really strong bitter flavors
if you reduce that temperature that
whole process is slower
and therefore your end product is a lot
more tastier
there's actually one little small tip i
can give you right at the end just don't
tell anyone i told you
but basically you can drop just a little
bit of salt in that coffee and
completely changes the flavor
but that's just for you to try at home
so tell me in the comments what are your
tips and tricks of getting around
espresso extraction and over extraction
what do you do that might be a little
bit different to what i'm doing on bar
to make sure that coffee is always
tasting good
if you've got new tips and tricks i'm
definitely interested in hearing and
i read all the comments and we
definitely do comment back
so let us know what your tips and tricks
are subscribe if you want
and i'll see you next time