TIL the guy who fixes my espresso machine had a point about water temp

I've been pulling shots at 200 degrees for years because that's what some blog said. The repair guy at Espresso Parts in Seattle told me my beans were getting scorched and to drop it to 195 for lighter roasts. After three weeks of testing, the sour notes I hated are gone and I'm actually tasting cherry and chocolate now. Anybody else get told their gear settings were all wrong by a random tech?

2 comments

2 Comments

harper9142h agoMost Upvoted

Never really thought about it until my shots started tasting burned and i tried dropping it to 195, total game changer.

leo_black761h ago

@harper914 that's exactly what happened to me, except I spent six months thinking my machine was broken before the tech showed up. Who knew the blogosphere could be so wrong about something as simple as water temp? Really makes you wonder how many other "expert" tips we're all just blindly following. Bet the guy fixing our stuff has seen every mistake in the book. I just wish he'd told me to drop the temp before I blew through three bags of expensive beans trying to figure out what was wrong. Now I'm paranoid the repair guy is going to show up next week and tell me my grinder setting is off by 2 microns or something.