Saw this Starbucks Advertisement in The Sun on Thursday, 22nd January 2009.
How to Prepare Great Coffee
Starbucks mentioned 4 points apart from the espresso machine:-
– Proportion
– Grind
– Water
– Freshness
Mind you, these tips does make a lots of sense.
I agree with almost everything they say (except their 18 – 23 seconds from extracting espresso).
I’m just surprise that they actually mention:
1. Coffee should be ground just before brewing
2. Fresh coffee = Less than one week old.
I wondered when have Starbucks ever practice these 2 important criteria in preparing great coffee.
I have been to a Starbucks just as they open in the early morning and their grinders were half filled with ground coffee which must be at least 8 hours old.
And I seriously doubt they even have any beans that is even anywhere less than 3 months old.
Coffee where passion is tempered with reality 
but actually,according to s.o.p ,we shud use the espresso beans for the astoria grinders for 7 days only..but sum stores doesn’t want to waste the beans,so they will keep it maybe a few days longer.
n yea…supposely we waste the yesterday’s ground coffee, but due to the same reason..they just keep it n use it for the nxt following morning.hurm..
“coffee shud be ground just before brewing”
yes,this is so true. because we will grind the beans for coffee of the week(c.o.w) right after customer request for it. n so do the coffee press, we will grind it before brewing it for customer:) (except for the espresso shot,its the other case than,hurm..but u r right, espresso shud be more important compare from these 2 methods right?
btw,why ur not agree with the 18-23 sec perfect shots of espresso?
yes,the real lifetime for espresso shot is 10 sec, but the perfect pouring time for espresso shot is 18-23 sec 🙂
or maybe theres other accurate information about it,is it?
i wud luv to know,cuz im still learning 2 🙂
Hi, its been quite a while since i drop by, very bz with work nowadays. Good work on the new layout on the blog. Excellent posts as usual. Your latte art is Awesome. Hope to try your double shot cap 1 day !
Starbucks coffee is average. I still go there because atm there is no decent coffeehouse in Malaysia yet.
Hi femz,
When we say Fresh Coffee = Less than one week old, the ONE WEEK meant here is ONE WEEK FROM ROASTING. They are not how long you put the beans in the grinder hopper. The grinder hoppers are not air tight. I would not put beans there for more than a day.
Actually, many professional barista consider Fresh Beans as those less than 2 weeks from roasting. After that the coffee beans will start to go stale. When I store my coffee beans in an air-tight container and even pump out most of the air (oxygen), the fresh roasted beans can tahan to about one month.
Even fresh roasted 2 weeks old beans start to go stale within the hour after being ground. So, to leave coffee ground in the grinder doser over night is really ridiculous, considering the beans were not even fresh to begin with.
Regardless whether you are making espresso or brewing coffee in a press, you should only grind the coffee just before making them.
Regarding the 18-23 seconds extraction:
ALL major barista competition DO NOT SUBSCRIBE to the 18-23 seconds rules. In fact, anything less than 20 seconds, competitors got their points deducted. A properly made espresso should be extracted between 23-30 seconds.
Btw, the “perfect shot” of espresso is just a catch phrase used by Starbucks on people who don’t know espresso. To most professional barista, they probably consider the 18-23 seconds espresso as a sink shot. But even if you manage to extract the espresso within 23-30 seconds, it does not means that was a perfect shot.
Using stale coffee beans will not give you a perfect shots. The barista could still make mistake during dosing, distribution or tamping. Getting the correct extraction time alone does not make a perfect espresso.
If you are keen to learn more, keep track of this blog and join us on our next Coffee Lovers Gathering.
Cheers,
Hi Jean,
Good to hear from you again. Where are you going during CNY? I’m in KL enjoying the little bit of peace and little bit less traffic jams.
whoa~ i don’t know the real right timing for espresso shot is 23-30sec, this is definately a sumthg to share about with other baristas in my store, n so do about the fresh coffee 🙂
i wud luv to join the coffee lovers gathering 1 day,
n hopefully u can join for any of my store’s coffee series and share a lil bit knowledge about coffee with us
looking 4wrd for the nxt coffee info, thnx 😀
Hi Femz,
When you have your coffee series, do let me know. If I can make it, I would like to give it a try.
Hey,
Coffee is the fuel to power me daily. Haha.. Chan i m celebrating my 1st two days of CNY visiting relatives. After that, back to work for me 🙂
p.s. : if u r into foreign currencies,
i have a trading log on my trades in forex, drop by http://www.chocolatepips.blogspot.com
Hey,
1st 2 days of CNY will be visiting. After that back to work.
Dear all, a good friend of mine is opening a cafe in KL, only hand brew syphon coffee, am trying to organise a meet up for anyone who’s keen to explore syphon coffee…. after the 2nd meeting, i think its high time for another round of coffee??? what say you??? 🙂
hi cris, where is the place ?