Seattle Coffee Gear Blog » Tips – Tech

How To: Installing the Saeco Panarello

Kat — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:00:15 +0000

Whether you’re looking to upgrade the stock plastic panarello on your Saeco Via Venezia or Aroma with the stainless steel version or you just need to replace a well-loved panarello on your Sirena, the most important thing to keep in mind is: Do not lose those compression fittings! These aren’t sold separately, so if you lose one, you’ve gotta pick up a whole new assembly.

Watch Gail as she walks us through how to install a panarello on the Via Venezia.

Testing: Nuova Simonelli Eureka and MDX Grinders

Kat — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:00:22 +0000

Yo know how important we believe a great grinder is and we take two commercial-grade options from Nuova Simonelli on. Gail demonstrates their grind, takes one apart to show the burrs and tests them out. We likey!

Crew Review: La Marzocco Linea Commercial Espresso Machine

Kat — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:51:06 +0000

While we’ve carried the GS/3 for awhile now, we’ve decided to expand our La Marzocco selection to include their commercial-class equipment. Our first round of testing and reviews covers one of their most popular machines, the Linea, which comes with choice of 1 – 4 group heads and is available in manual paddle, semi-automatic and automatic configurations.

Gail gives us a brief overview of the machine’s internals, walks us through its features and makes us a latte on what is fondly referred to as A Northwest Workhorse.

Measuring Temperature on the Saeco Xelsis & Jura Z7

Kat — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:34:09 +0000

Based on a viewer request, we practically measured the temperature of an espresso shot and a one-touch cappuccino on the Saeco Xelsis and Jura Impressa Z7 superautomatic espresso machines.

How-To: Mavea Purity C Water Filter Installation

Kat — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:21:25 +0000

Filtering your water is essential if you plan on plumbing in your espresso machine to a direct water line in your location. Without this, you run the risk of scale build-up that can only be removed by a professional taking apart the machine and physically removing the scale. How quickly this occurs will depend on your location — we did have a cafe attempt to go without filtration for just a couple of months and their equipment completely seized up as a result. Clearly, they were working with very hard water, but it’s not a risk we recommend you take, at all.

For commercial locations, there are tons of filtration options that will address a wide variety of water source needs. If you’re looking at that kind of a setup, then you’ll need to install something a bit more sophisticated and robust that will be able to address the multiple appliances that will require water (such as drip coffee makers, ice machines, water fountains and your espresso machine) in a way that’s easy to manage. But for just straight espresso machine filtration, the Mavea Purity C filters are simple, easy to install and do an excellent job of filtering out what you don’t want in your espresso machine’s boiler.

Watch Gail as she walks us through an overview of how she installed a Mavea filter on our La Marzocco Linea.

Tech Tip: Portafilter Positioning

Kat — Fri, 27 May 2011 15:19:00 +0000

When is it time to say when? We’re often asked where the portafilter should be in respect to the machine — at a 90 degree angle? 45 degree? A little over to the right? Every machine will be a little bit different and the key is to make sure that it feels snug. Additionally, you’ll find that you’ll move it further as the gasket ages.

Watch as Gail demonstrates the position on several of our demo machines of varying style and age.

New! Auber PID for Rancilio Silvia

Kat — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:00:07 +0000

We love this little workhorse, but one of the baddest raps she gets is in regard to her temperature instability. It’s the way the cookie crumbles when you’re working with a small single boiler using a bi-metal thermostat to manage its temp. Folks have been tricking out their Silvias pretty much since day one, and the most popular modification is to add a PID, which will maintain the boiler’s temperature within one degree of a setpoint you select. We tested several models and finally settled on these by Auber, which you can pick up and install on your own or add during purchase and have us install for you before the machine leaves our warehouse.

Watch Gail talk about what a PID is and walk us through its functionality. These will be available for sale within the next couple of weeks.

What’s the Difference Between the Rocket Espresso Gauges?

Kat — Mon, 02 May 2011 17:00:37 +0000

A fairly consistent customer question is why Rocket Espresso’s Premium Plus models has only one gauge, while the Professional and Evoluzione models have two gauges.

Watch Gail break it down for us.

Espresso Machine Maintenance with Urnex

Kat — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:25:10 +0000

Keeping your equipment sparkling clean is just as important as the freshness of your coffee and dialing in your grind & tamp — in fact, without the former, the latter will be an exercise in futility. If we have to tell you that rancid coffee oils will adversely impact the quality of your shot, we’re sorry. But if we have to be the first, then we might as well do it right, right? So we asked Louie Poore, who specializes in educating professional baristas on proper equipment care for Urnex, to give us the rundown.

First, he introduces us to Urnex’s new Full Circle, sustainably-produced cleaning products — including a toe-to-toe comparison of Cafiza and Full Circle’s coffee equipment wash.

Next, he walks us through using tablets to backflush the La Marzocco GS/3.

Finally, Gail shows us the newly arrived 1, 2, Brew Kit for Espresso Machines, which features the goodies you need to keep your machine in tip-top shape (plus a bag of Velton’s Coffee of your choice!).

Testing: Coffee Ground Attrition & Water Content in Frothed Milk

Kat — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:42:29 +0000

We had a few viewer requests lately around the weight of things, so we produced two videos covering the following questions: How much coffee is left in the grinder after grinding? How much water is injected into milk when frothing?

In this first video, we weighed out 20 grams of whole beans and then ground them in several different grinders, weighing the grounds afterward to see if any was retained in the grinder.

In the second video, we weighed out 200ml of milk (in most cases — the exception being the stand alone frothers), frothed them to the same temperature on several different machines and then weighed them afterward to see how much water was injected into the frothed milk.