Friday, June 01, 2001


archives and such should be back on line. thanks for your patience while i worked on this. today i'd like to talk about coffee grinders. and since the weather remains cool, i think this will be the weekend to make a modern version of the pleasant italian chocolate candy called torrone. if the weather holds, look for the recipe. . .

many coffee fans feel that the rancilio grinder known as rocky is the best home coffee grinder on the market today. many others like grinders made by solis, etc. i myself received as a birthday gift the much-maligned saeco 2002. several experts claim the saeco cannot grind finely enough to produce good espresso in quality machines, such as my rancilio silvia. it certainly is not the quietest grinder, and it does tend to spit coffee powder everywhere while it grinds.

to some extent, having a quality grinder is just as important as a good machine for great espresso. if the coffee isn't ground correctly, not even using the best beans and most advanced espresso machine will allow you to make wonderful coffee. all the higher-quality coffee grinders use burrs, either conical or parallel. some advanced machines use a both in combination. the saeco i have is a parallel burr grinder.

for some time i have been searching for the correct setting on my saeco to use for espresso. when i had my old krups machine, nothing worked for me, and since i got my silvia last april, i have had all my coffee professionally ground in small quantities. i wanted to eliminate grind as a factor while i perfected my espresso making skills on the new silvia. but now i'm thinking i want to try to find if in fact the saeco will do for the silvia.

here's my plan: i'm going to order another pound of firenze from caffe d'arte and then try to find a setting on the grinder that will give me a nice 3/4 to 1 oz. shot when the water has been allowed to run through the coffee for 25 to 30 seconds. finding this setting is called "dialing in" the grinder. the saeco has 15 numbered settings, with marks at the halfway point, giving you 30 "clicks" from which to choose a grind.

i think i'll start by trying to grind some of the coffee i currently have at 2 and 2-1/2 and see how it goes from there. you'll hear the results tomorrow! coffee and torrone. . .umm, what an excellent afternoon snack. tomorrow could be an excellent day!

posted by fortune | 10:15 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments