Want to take your Coffee to the NEXT LEVEL?
So now that we’ve gone through the essentials HERE, lets take a look at the accessories that may not be essential, but will really step up your coffee at home.
- Scales
- Sharp Milk Jug
- Dosing cup
- Precision basket
Scales
Why use brew scales? In one word, consistency. Taking your coffee to the next level absolutely requires the use of scales.
So how do brew scales improve flavour and consistency? You wouldn’t cook a cake without using a recipe and weighing the ingredients. Coffee is the same, because brew scales allow you to calibrate your coffee and once you have perfected your recipe you will be able to duplicate that amazing coffee time after time.
Firstly, there’s a few key benefits of using brew scales.
- Using scales improves the flavour of your coffee.
- Brew Scales provide consistency in your recipe.
- Using brew scales aids bean conservation.
Using scales gives you the ability to refine and optimize the flavour of your coffee. Most coffee roasters provide a recommended recipe for their coffee. The recipe will differ depending on whether you use a coffee machine, pour over, stove top or other brewing method. Different brewing methods require different amounts of beans, water and extraction time. Brew scales enable you to find your ideal flavours and tweak the recipe as needed. Measuring your recipe with scales means that you will optimize your espresso for flavour and extraction.
Imagine going out to a cafe and getting the best tasting coffee you’ve ever had! Now imagine going back for another coffee and it tastes awful, burned and bitter. This is a very real situation that happens in cafes all over the world. A huge part of this problem is the lack of consistency in the coffee recipe. As we learned above, using scales enables you to find the perfect extraction for your espresso. Scales provide a level of consistency that simply outweighs what any one individual can create on their own.
Wasting coffee is never a good thing. Brew scales give you the ability to dose exactly what you need, every time. No more scraping overdosed grinds into the knock box! It is estimated that overdosing your basket can cause a wastage of up to 20% of your bag of coffee.
You can see our range of brew scales HERE.
Sharp Milk Jug
If you’ve ever seen latte art so beautiful, you almost don’t want to drink the coffee, then it’s likely been poured from a sharp milk jug. By sharp milk jugs, we are referring to the sharpness of the milk jug pour spout. A rounded spout can pour latte art, but it’s arguably a lot less controllable than a sharp milk jug. Selecting your milk jug for latte art will enable you to get increased definition, more control over your pour and take your designs to the next level.
Check out our range of latte pro milk jugs HERE. They are perfect for latte art!
Dosing Cup
A dosing cup creates further consistency, reduces grind wastage and allows you to continuously measure your recipe. A dosing cup is designed to increase workflow, keep your space clean and ensure all of your grinds make it to your basket! Grinders do vary slightly between doses, so using a dosing cup with scales is like using a measuring spoon for cake. To get the recipe right, you need to measure it!
Precision Basket
Although portafilter baskets may look similar, there is a BIG difference between the performance of standard and precision baskets. Clive Coffee have done an amazing job detailing the difference in the below video.
Particles will always come at different sizes, this is partly how an espresso gets its flavour. Small particles can get through the holes in your basket, creating a rich coffee, but large coffee particles cause issues by clogging the holes in your basket. Standard filter baskets are more likely to have jagged, uneven or even sharp edges around the holes which cause more clogging from larger coffee particles. Precision baskets are designed to have smooth, perfectly circular holes that reduce the likelihood of clogging. The difference in the baskets is microscopic, however your taste buds will be able to see it!
Unlike many others, VST baskets have holes across the basket’s entire bottom surface, allowing water to flow evenly through the entire bed of grounds. The precision-cut holes help reduce obstructions during extraction, greatly reducing channelling – making for a more reliable and less messy experience.
We have tested a few baskets and found the VST baskets give optimal results. You can check them out HERE.
So that’s how you can take your coffee to the next level!
Don’t forget, if you would like to go through this in more depth, we offer barista courses tailored to get you the most from your coffee. You can see our courses HERE.
