Top 10 Coffee Machine Mistakes You Should Avoid Doing
In addition to acquiring expertise in operating your machine, you should also be aware of the common coffee machine mistakes.
This article enlightens you about ten common coffee machine mistakes you should avoid for ensuring the machine’s long-lasting and optimal performance.
Top 10 Coffee Machine Mistakes You Should Avoid
The common coffee machine mistakes are listed as follows:
- Storing your beans incorrectly
- Using the wrong grind size
- Not using cold milk
- Not moving fast enough
- Forgetting to flush
- Buying low-quality beans
- Not cleaning your machine
- Going grinder-less
- Uneven pressure when tamping
- Buying the wrong pod machine
Learning the technicalities and tricks of using a coffee machine is a prerequisite for extracting the best out of your coffee grounds and your machine. After all, making a great coffee is an art that warrants high technical acumen.
A perfect coffee that rejuvenates you from within requires more than buying a good-quality coffee machine.
Explore this article till the end as we will elaborate on the common coffee mistakes you should avoid so that you never mess up with your favourite latte or cappuccino.
Improper Storage of Coffee Beanse
You would have purchased the best of the coffee beans; however, if you don’t know how to store them correctly, it defeats your purpose. Learning how to store your coffee beans correctly is a key to making great coffee.
Ensure to never put your coffee beans in the freezer or other compartments of your refrigerator. Due to their porosity, the coffee beans can capture the strong odours from food items like onion and garlic when kept in a fridge.
Moreover, the cooled or frozen coffee beans also lose their strength and flavour. While buying coffee beans, you should get a stock that lasts for few weeks at least rather than
purchasing fresh beans again after a few days. It avoids inconvenience in your daily life.
If you get your coffee beans in a paper bag, ensure to fill them in an airtight container and store them in a place away from light. However, if you get your coffee beans in a foil bag equipped with a valve, you may store them in the same bag for two weeks.
Using the Wrong Grind Size
Even the world’s best coffee beans may result in below-par coffee if you are using the incorrect grind size. The rate of extraction is affected by the grind size.
Thus, the grind size is responsible for extracting the flavour and aromatic compounds from the coffee beans. The finer grind size of coffee beans results in slower extraction.
Ideally, the coffee from the beans should flow out evenly from every spout in the form of dark liquid initially. The lightening of the coffee flow and formation of the cream takes place afterwards.
Making an ultimate espresso coffee requires you to focus on the three important factors: time, dosage, and grind.
Your espresso shot should run for 20-30 seconds. If it runs beyond 30 seconds or finishes too quickly, you need to adjust the grind.
Using Milk at Normal Room Temperature
If you are using milk that is not cold, you may not get desired success at making great coffee. Using room temperature milk does not provide you with the velvetines for fine-tuning your latter art. Thus, ensure to use the cold milk for making your coffee in your coffee machine.
When the hot steam passes through full-fat cold milk, it produces awesome and frothy microfoam bubbles. Also, bear in mind that the over-steaming of the milk changes the nutritional value and flavour of the milk.
Keeping the Brewing Process Slow
Take your time to collect all the supplies and get ready for the brewing process. Once the process gets started, you must stay alert and ensure to take fast steps at the right time for keeping it going smoothly.
One of the common mistakes while making espresso coffee is to leave the portafilter in the group head for a longer duration than required before activating the water pump. This may cause burning of the coffee grinds and result in a bitter cup of coffee.
Therefore you must put the portafilter in the group head only when you are ready with brewing.
Not Flushing the Water at the Start
Pulling an excellent shot of espresso requires you to keep the ideal temperature. Thus, ensure to warm up your machine before you start brewing your latte.
Don’t forget to flush through some water after locking the portafilter into the group head before you start making your coffee. This would activate your coffee machine and ensure that it is set at the correct temperature required for brewing a great coffee.
Buying Poor Quality Beans
Don’t compromise on the coffee beans’ quality while buying them.
If you buy beans that are not good enough, your coffee machine may not deliver optimal performances. If your coffee machine is not making great coffee, the answer may lie in bad coffee beans.
The coffee beans come in wide varieties of flavour and roast level. These also differ in terms of origin or blend profile. Ensure to purchase the fresh coffee beans always. Pick the coffee beans that are close to their roast date and preferably at least within two weeks.
If you buy lower grade supermarket coffee beans, then your coffee machine may not produce good coffee. Also, don’t purchase the coffee beans that do not have the roast date on the label, as these are likely well past their best.
Prefer trusted coffee brands as these provide fresher beans with improved quality. Always ask for sealed and airtight bags with a valve while purchasing coffee beans.
If you have freshly roasted beans in a paper bag, transfer them into an airtight container at home.
Not Cleaning Your Machine
Every machine requires proper care, cleaning, and maintenance to perform to its optimal capacity. As your coffee machine makes coffee for consumption, you must ensure that the coffee produced is flavoured and healthy.
A clean and tidy coffee machine performs better for long periods and requires less maintenance.
Ensure to keep a regular cleanliness routine for cleaning your coffee machine at regular intervals. Also, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for doing perfect cleaning.
Using Pre-Ground Beans
The golden rule to make a great coffee filled with rich aroma and flavour is to grind the beans as you make coffee. When coffee beans are broken, they are oxidized, and their rounded lively flavour diminishes.
Thus, get yourself a grinder for grinding the coffee beans and avoid using the pre-ground beans that produce flat-flavoured whites.
Uneven Pressure While Tamping
An excellent espresso shot requires a good extraction of coffee from the coffee beans within the coffee machine. While tamping the coffee into the portafilter, the uneven distribution of weight affects the extraction process.
The uneven pressure while tamping results from the coffee beans packed loosely in some areas and tightly in other places. This varies the time taken by the espresso for extraction as the water flows more in the areas of least resistance.
As per experts, you should aim to maintain the pressure of 10–15kgs body weight to ensure an even and flat surface while tamping.
Getting the Wrong Pod Machine
The pod coffee machines are a great alternative to espresso machines as these make a decent cup of coffee that is close enough to a barista-style coffee.
A pod coffee machine uses the same settings every time for making a coffee, including the same temperature and volume of water, same filter design, same pressure, etc. Thus, it doesn’t result in a high-quality coffee but makes adjustments for making a good coffee.
Therefore, if you are a coffee enthusiast who takes pride in sipping world-class coffee with a distinctive aroma and flavour, you should do proper research before buying a pod coffee machine.
