Coffee Hit's Blog

Most places serving coffee get their hot water for tea and Americano’s from their espresso machine. This is quiet convenient. But there are several problems with this method.

If your aim is to serve high quality delicious drinks, including Amerciano’s and tea, and of course thats your aim, then using the hot water from an espresso machine isn’t really the device to use. The water from a double boiler espresso, such as La Marzocco, comes from the steam boiler. A steam boiler typically operates at 120c to 130c. They are also on typically half full of water and the rest is steam pressure which allow you to steam milk. So although your steam boiler may have a capacity of 7 liters, its actual water capacity is about 4 liters. Its a similar story for heat exchange machines, but it has further effect on these machines in that it effects the brew temperature. As you draw hot water out fresh cold water enters, instantly effecting the pressure in the HX boiler and therefore steaming capability, hot water temperature and brew temperature.

The hot water coming out of a La Marzocco Linea’s hot water tap can be around 100c. We ran some tests on our showroom Linea, pulling water for tea. The temperature exiting the spout was 99.8c. We find an acceptable drinking temperature to be 60-65c. We then timed how long it took to reach 60-65c. After 16 minutes it had reached 63.5c. This seems like an eternity when you want your coffee in the morning! And even then it tastes burnt and bitter.

That is why so much steam and hiss occurs when you pull hot water for tea and Americano. And 100c water doesn’t do any favors to coffee or tea.

It also puts a great deal more work and strain on the various components of your espresso machine. The elements, solenoids, contactor’s and relays all work overtime if your pulling hot water constantly from your espresso machines. But above all your serving your customers poor quality drinks. It can take 30 minutes for an Amerciano to cool to acceptable drinking temperature. It also adds unpleasant acidity and a burnt taste.

More modern La Marzocco espresso machines have a mixing valve where a small box with a valve mixes cold water with the super heated water from the steam boiler giving a more desirable hot water temperature. While this is admirable it doesn’t reduce the added stress to the espresso machine and is not temperature stable at all. It tends to be cool at the beginning then heats up slowly.

A much better solution is a hot water tower. The latest model from Bunn has digital temperature control, solid state relay and is extremely temperature stable. Has a digital to display to let you know the temperature of the water. A hot water tower will give you as much hot water as you want, at the temperature you want.

Leave the espresso machine for espresso!!

If your to browse our site you will notice two products ranges have way more products than any other. One is tampers the other is milk pitchers. I’m constantly looking out for better, well designed pitchers and tampers. Almost an obsession!

Well I now have a new milk pitcher to add. Our Classic pitcher has been a huge success. Its cheap, has a nice spout and it works. Its been used by World Barista Champions and hundreds of professional Baristas the world over. Then we took it one step further and Teflon coated them and they are awesome! So why another pitcher then?!

There are a few things that niggled me with them and Baristas fed back on.

1. The handle wasn’t welded on straight
2. The handle didn’t line up straight with the spout
3. Milk would get into where the handle joins the body
4. The welding was poor
5. Its ok

If you have one of our Classic pitchers you may not have ever noticed the above, but if you go grab yours and take a look you might see what the Baristas mean.

Also number 5 isn’t what we do at Coffee Hit, we want the best there is available!

So introducing our New Classic Pitcher! Ta da!

The New pitcher fixed all the above issues.

The Pitcher is approx 20% heavier, meaning better gauge stainless steel. It just feels better quality and were happy to have it in our range. We will still offer the old Classic as some customers might prefer it.

The New Classic pitcher will become our new Teflon pitcher as well. We also have some exciting work in progress on coloured pitchers for milk identification.

http://www.coffeehit.co.uk/milk-frothing-pitchers/c29

At this time of year we look forward to a break and to spend time with family and friends. Its often easy when we are busy to spend long hours away from family, this time of year allows us to close down for a few days and spend some quality time with our family.

Our last day for shipping is Thursday 22nd of December. We re-open again on the 3rd of January.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and an amazing 2012.

Here is the new products we have put on our site for this week:

1. Espresso Parts Barismo Tamper - Lovely heavy tamper made of stainless steel and brass.
2. Rattleware Teflon Pitchers - This time we Teflon coated our Rattleware pitchers. In all 3 sizes: 12oz, 20oz, 32oz.
3. Genuine Aurelia Group Gaskets - We tried aftermarket gaskets but they just didn’t fit, usually they weren’t thick enough. So we went straight to the factory.
4. d’Ancap - Ancap cups are pure class. To give you an example of the weight the Inker espresso cups weigh 127g and hold 78ml. Ancap espresso cup weighs 156g and holds 50ml. Great quality.

This will be a weekly post to quickly let you re-cap what new products we have added during the week. Hopefully you find the products interesting.

1. Ilsa Deluxe Pitchers 300ml/500ml/750ml – These were a bit self indulgent. Id heard of these pitchers and had been warned of the price, but when I felt one for the first time I knew we had to buy some and stock them. If you can afford them they are soooo nice.                                                                                                           
2. Spare Cloths for Hario Woodneck Coffee Dripper (3 Cup) – Cloth filters make an amazing cup of coffee. They give a really clean cup of coffee but allow some of the oil from the bean through which adds really body depth of flavour to the cup. Downside is they are hard to maintain. So now you can buy them separately.                                                                                                                                       
3. Delta CTA Timer - If you have bought an Anfim Super Caimano with Digital Timer Mod from us in the last 3 years you will recognise this digital timer. Sometimes they do break, but mainly the buttons become unresponsive. Now Delta have a new mechanism for the buttons which makes them much less likely to stop functioning.                                        
4. 16oz Take Away Soup Container and Lid – As the weather turns cold customers want warm or hot things to eat and drink. These will hold soup, porridge. Any hot or cold item you want.                                                                              
5. Pullman Australian Oak Barista Tamper – These tampers are amazing to hold. Beautifully designed they fit like a glove. Make an amazing gift.

At Coffee Hit we love new innovative products that help our customers make their job easier. Allowing them to concentrate on making amazing coffee and providing fantastic service to their customers.

I’m going to list what new equipment I feel is necessary in today coffee bar environment:

1. Pitcher Rinsers - Most coffee bars will have 2-4 milk pitchers around the espresso machine for steaming milk. On a busy bar making 200+ coffees a day thats a real workout for the pitchers. As the jugs get used they heat up and milk forms a crust on the inside and outside becoming unsightly and unclean. The heat makes it more difficult to steam lovely textured milk. This is because you have less time to texture the milk. Throw in orders for non-dairy milk such as soy and maintaining the cleanliness of your pitchers becomes really important. Pitcher rinsers quickly allow you to clean and freshen your pitchers. Installed next to your espresso machine it can also act as a drain for left over milk.
2. Knock Chute – Getting rid of used coffee pucks is something you will do a lot of so its worth getting it right. The best solution we feel is to cut in a knock chute. Once cut in you place a regular bin underneath. This allows you to have a very large capacity for used coffee. Also by placing your grinder just behind the chute any stray grinds will fall into the bin. You can also sweep around the grinder and straight into the chute and your bin.
3. Corner Tamping Mat - Best way to tamp your coffee in your portafilter is on the edge of your counter top. This keeps the spouts off your counter top and from picking up stray coffee grinds. It also keeps your portafilter steady while you tamp your coffee. The downside is can ruin the edge of your counter and mark or scratch your portafilter. The rubber corner mat fixes this. A must have coffee businesses.
4. Mini Scales - These scales are perfect for weighing out grind dose when setting up your grinder and testing the dose weight throughout the day.  Accurate to 0.1g they are perfect for weighing your espresso shot to get the correct brew ratio.
5. Bar Towels - Espresso machines expel water and steam and the best tool to clean up spills is a bar towel. These a great for cleaning up spills and cleaning portafilters and filter baskets. A clean espresso machine and coffee area means better, more efficient workflow and ultimately better tasting coffee.

When we decided upon a courier to serve our customers we didn’t want the cheapest, wanted one we could rely to give our customers and us the best service available. Of course there will be times when they make mistakes, they are human.

Interlink Express/DPD offer a great service in that our customer is emailed firstly when the order has been picked up from us, then again the morning of delivery. The second email has a one hour delivery window with which the customer can expect the delivery to arrive. This means no waiting around all day wondering when the order is going to arrive. For the customer and for us this is brilliant.

Interlink Express/DPD have now launched a mobile site. Allowing you to make changes from your mobile device.

Another addition to the service is the inclusion of QR code on the Calling Card. Customers can scan the QR code on the calling card and it will take them straight to the web page from which they can then:

Collect from the local depot
Change the delivery day to a more convenient date
Change to a delivery address where they know someone will be in to receive the parcel
Ask us to leave the parcel in a safe place

We hope you enjoy the new features.