All things beans. Discussions about green and roasted coffee beans - where to purchase them, how to roast them, how best to grind them for the S1/V2/Mini/Dream/Dream T. Also, discussions about grinder and roaster hardware.
My new V2 should be arriving today and I am very excited! I think I've got everything I'll need (except money in the bank! ).
My wife likes just a little bit of caffeine, and always asks for her coffee drinks made with half regular and half decaf coffee. I've been reading about the need for different grinder settings and maybe different temp for decaf (and ? faster degradation of the beans after roasting). Does anyone have any experience pulling shots with blended caf and decaf? I suppose I could pull separate singles of regular and decaf but that sounds like a pain. I'll probably just experiment until I get it right, but if anyone has any advice I'd welcome it. I gotta get her some tasty drinks going right from the start to justify the cost of the machine!
I would keep them seperate.
Get a good scale and weigh them for the blend, it's not that much of a pain. This way you'll know she's getting exactly half decaf and not just some random mix of the jar.
There is quite a difference in the grind & the decaf will pour faster & blond quicker. I've noticed quite a variation in caffeine content between different blends. The Black Cat I have now packs more of a punch then the La Bella Vita I had before. Perhaps you could find a low caffeine Espresso blend she likes.
So you ground the caf and decaf separately but put them both in the double portafilter together? Or pulled them separately and mixed them in the cup? Do you even remember? :)
I remember very well.
The decaf always stays away from the rest of the beans - it only comes out for those 50/50 blends and I do the premixing into grinder by exact weight. I get 7.5 grams of coffee into a basket, then add 7.5 of decaf for a total 15 grams and it gets dumped into the grinder (I use the basket as a little measuring container).
I'm still not clear on your exact procedure. Did you grind the beans together with a finer grind than usual, or did you grind them separately with just the decaf finer? Sounds like you pulled them together in the same basket (at a higher temp than usual?)
Thanks,
RK
P.S. Got my machine yesterday! Got it all hooked up last night and used the water hardness test strips that Chris included; looks like my water softener isn't working properly - it flunked the hardness test. Gotta get the softener serviced before I can use the machine. :( Oh well, I'm glad Chris included the test strips and I'm glad I tested before filling the machine with hard water!
Those strips aren't particularly accurate. Go to your local pet/fish store & buy one of the Carbonate/General Hardness (KH/GH) liquid test kits ($15) if you want to get an accurate reading on your water hardness.
RobertK wrote:I'm still not clear on your exact procedure. Did you grind the beans together with a finer grind than usual, or did you grind them separately with just the decaf finer? Sounds like you pulled them together in the same basket (at a higher temp than usual?)
Yes, I grind them together and pull the shots together.
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