A Case Study

Fayaz (of BetterBrew.Coffee fame) bought me a bag of specialty coffee for my birthday. Both a gift and a challenge. Medium roast, single origin, high quality coffee that should not be wasted, but left in my hands to brew and brew well. 

Roaster: Origin

Location: Cape Town, South Africa

Coffee: El Salvador Finca Nazareth Natural

The ominous warning of the label says it all - “Not for Beginners”

Actually it says: “Bold fruit - Not for Beginners” 

That note on the label more about taste than a warning for inexperienced brewers but it somehow played on my espresso brewing insecurities. 

[Spoiler alert… I messed up the espresso extraction. Do I eventually get it right? Read on to find out!]

Here was my approach to brewing this coffee, each step will expanded further down:  

1. Research how to brew for roast level - medium roast specifically

2. Analyse the details on the bag label 

3. Plan a recipe

4. Prep the machine

5. Brew, taste and troubleshoot

Research How to Brew for Roast Level

I only confidently brew dark roasts. I’ve tried lighter roasts previously and struggled, so it was time for expert help. 

I watched a YouTube workshop from La Marzocco:

Advanced Espresso: Dialing in by Roast Level

It was an educational watch, I highly recommend it. Lots of useful takeaways and insights. It helped bring some concepts together for me. I won’t reiterate the information, but you’ll read how I tried to apply the lessons as I write about it.

Analyse the Bag Label

Here are the details, and a little bit about what it could mean and my thoughts:

Altitude: 1450m indicating a high altitude therefore a denser bean. 

Roast Level: Medium to light, also indicating a higher density. [Denser indicates harder to extract, compared to porous beans that release the soluble coffee more easily]

Flavour Notes: 

• Tropical Fruit - Soursop and Cashew Fruit specifically, indicating sweetness, and these fruit types have a fruity acid, possibly citrusy, but some astringency (sharpness).

• Cherry-Chocolate - sweet, roasty, sugary with fruity tartness.

• Purple Grape Finish - sweetness again, on the finish which means a lingering fruity sweetness.

Process: Natura/Natural, helping with the “sweet/fruity” tasting notes, but may also have a “fermented/alcohol” flavour. Also, possibly some astringency… nicely tying up with the flavour notes. Reference: Barista Institute

Body: syrupy, meaning a full, smooth mouthfeel.

Acidity: bold, wine grapes. I think that means it’s leaning to those fruity acids. 

Brewing Suggestions: Espresso with milk, but also Aeropress, Moka Pot and Pour Over. I had to really think this one through. Espresso is a quick extraction, and I think the suggestion for milk was to help bring out sweetness for better balance. The goal is always to balance acid and sweet. Notice that most of the notes lead to acidity. Also, the other brewing options are faster brew processes (compared to the French press, my old favourite), using medium grind sizes making me think that the intended flavour develops quickly, in particular the brighter fruity flavours. So the challenge would be how to bring out the chocolatey, sweeter flavours. 

Based on this, I have a good idea of the intended flavour, mouthfeel and overall experience.

Plan a Recipe

I know the recipe advice from the roaster is to have espresso with milk, but I want to try to brew black. I want to think about the ratio, timing and grind size and then see it extract and then taste it. 

And I’ll do the same for the milk drink.

Plan for Espresso No-Milk

• 18g coffee dose, to match the Breville basket dosing.

• Ratio of 1:3 - 18g of coffee, with 54g out. This would be a long shot, or a lower ratio lungo. 

• I’ll max out the temperature on the Breville. The standard temperature is 93º C and I can take it up by 2 degrees. So, 95º C. 

The thought process is that this is a denser coffee, and it’s a lighter roast. The longer extraction at a higher temperature will help push through to get the “roastier” chocolate notes we need for balance. I don’t expect a syrupy body but not thin either.

• I’ll aim for 28 seconds from the first drop. Even if you are an advocate for the timing from when the pump is switched on, with my challenges, if I can get it into this timing zone then I’ll less likely waste this coffee. I think it is a safer timing option for me.

• Grinder Setting: I’ll start on 3 on the on-board grinder. The manual recommends starting on grinder setting 5 and adjusting from there as a general starting point but I know I need to go finer than that for this roast. 

• Burr Settings: The Breville does have an adjustable burr, but for now I have it on the factory setting (6). If I run out of options on the external grind setting dial, I could look at adjusting the burrs. 

Plan for Espresso with Milk

• 18g coffee dose, to match the Breville basket dosing.

• Ratio of 1:2.5 - 18g of coffee, with 45g out. This would be at the higher end of an espresso ratio. 

• Grinder Setting: 2

Everything else will stay the same as the plan for “without milk”.

Prep the Machine

Things to know about the Breville Barista Express and the on-board grinder:

• The machine needs time to warm up and come to temperature

• The grinder dial only has full steps and not intermediate steps/micro steps for the grind size

Setting the temperature: I switched on the machine and then followed the manual to increase the water temperature/boiler setting to 95º C. I let it heat for at least 15 minutes at least, but it can go longer. The machine does switch off after 20 minutes though.

Preheating: I cleaned the portafilter and locked it into the group head to heat up with the boiler from the start, but over the course of waiting for the boiler to come up to temperature I ran water through the group head and portafilter just to help the preheating along. I also placed my cup upside down on the warming tray.

Priming the grinder: I set my selected grind setting (setting 3) and I ran the grinder several times to warm it up. I then cleaned out any stray beans and bean debris that collected in the grinder chamber. I ran the grinder several times to make sure it was clear of stray beans and to warm up a little.

The challenge with a home use machine and grinder is that it does not stay on all day or work all day, so it needs some warming up at the start, especially with the “high risk” extraction I was attempting to do. 

Brew, Taste and Troubleshoot

Espresso No-Milk

First Attempt: Under-extracted, ran very quickly, from the first drop it took only 9.5 seconds, no body, harsh, alcohol in a bad way, no sweetness, terrible finish and very hard to drink. But, the brightness was evident. 

Troubleshooting: Grind setting 3 was too coarse and I also forgot to adjust the temperature so it brewed at the standard boiler temperature. 

Correction: Change grind setting to “fine” (3 steps finer on this machine) on the dial, and remember to increase the boiler setting.

Second attempt: Ran for approximately 25 seconds, light fruity, and clean aroma, not syrupy but not thin body, brightness with less astringency/sharpness as the first shot, faint sweetness but more like the sweetness from a tart fruit than sugary sweetness, citrusy flavour with an underlying bitterness similar to grapefruit, brightness lingers on the finish. Brightness and citrus notes improved as the coffee cooled. 

Troubleshooting: Possibly reduce the boiler temperature by 1 degree to address the bitterness if I attempt this again. 

I decided not to try another attempt. I got what I needed from the first 2 attempts. 

Espresso with Milk

With the lessons from the last brew, I knew I had to at least start and the “fine” grind setting. I also had to move to the 1:2.5 ratio so I needed to find a way to slow down the extraction.

I would need to grind finer and that meant I would have to reset the burrs on the Breville grinder.

I read the manual, and watched this video: Breville Barista Express Top Burr Adjustment

I could not correlate a one-step change in burr setting to the settings on the grind size setting dial. I was already on fine when the burr was set at “6”, so if I move it to “5”, what setting on the dial would get me the same result as the last shot? 

There’s not much information out there. A rough estimate is that it gains you 2 to 5 dial turns. So I turned my dial to 2 and went through the brew process as a test. 

It ran way too fast. Around 13 seconds from first drop. I tasted it black to see if it was close and it was. The expected taste was there but it was too sharp and overpoweringly chemical-like. It was under extracted.

I moved to the “fine” grind setting and tried again. We’ll call this the first attempt with milk.

Note, I left the boiler temperature at maximum.

First Attempt: Ran for approximately 20 seconds for the 1:2.5 ratio. Steamed, unsweetened almond milk added (a nut milk designed for steaming and coffee). First taste was surprisingly sour. Very bright acid even with the milk. I had to add a sweetener to continue and that made it  taste a little like lemonade. 

I think I’m understanding the “not for beginners” warning on the label, because the boldness of the sour fruit is possibly better suited to a more experienced pallet. 

Troubleshooting: May require a finer grind setting to bring out the chocolate, sweeter flavours. 

Correction: Change burr setting to 4 and grind setting to 1 to help extend the extraction time to get a more fully flavour profile.

I made the change to the burr setting and ran the grinder to see if everything was seated correctly and a heap of grounds fell through. My first thought was that those grounds were meant to be in the basket on the last extraction, I may have under-dosed my last round. I also thought that maybe this happened because the grinder burr setting is now closer and does not give up the grounds as easily as before.

Additional Troubleshooting and Correction: I single dose my shots making it easier to change grinder settings without needing to purge beans in the process. I weigh the dose up front but I don’t weigh after grinding. So I have to add an additional step to weigh the portafilter and grounds after grinding to confirm the dose is correct. 

Second attempt: Ran for 16 seconds for the 1:2.5 ratio (shorter than expected considering the changes made). Steamed, unsweetened almond milk added (I could not bring myself to have dairy on a work day with a meeting planned soon after this coffee… I’m working from home during the pandemic). 

Was it a success?

I think so… The citrusy-brightness was balanced with a more toasty bitterness that was familiar but interesting. I really liked this cup. 

Why did it work?

I think I may have used brute force by grinding too fine, so even with the fast run it extracted a balance of all the flavours. 

Concluding Thoughts

This case study was an education in technical brewing knowledge and getting the best out of my Breville Barista Express. Significantly, it broke me out of my safe zone of only brewing darker roasts. And it really challenged my inexperienced tasting skills.

About tasting, it’s not as difficult as it is made out to be because it’s not just about flavour notes. Coffee has multiple taste aspects that require individual attention (brightness, acidity, sweetness, body, flavour and finish, not forgetting the influence of fragrance and aroma). Deciphering the taste requires effort in thinking about each of the aspects as you sip on the coffee. As you improve the extraction and taste it with purpose, you can appreciate a coffee as complex and as challenging as this one. 

Did I enjoy this coffee? Eventually, yes! With and without milk. 

Did I extract it the way the Roaster intended? Possibly not exactly the way the roaster wanted, but in the right zone. Also, I had to enjoy the brew so pushing it to have more bitterness was for my benefit while still looking for what the roaster intended with the roast process.

This coffee has been challenging but fun to brew. Check out Origin and consider giving their coffee a try: Origin Roasting