Black Teflon Pitchers

Our custom black Teflon pitchers were a huge success at TEDinburgh 2011. We have a brand new pitcher arriving mid August and we plan to Teflon coat these.

The real benfit of these pitchers is just how easy they keep clean. Just a rinse under water or wipe with damp cloth. Our first production run of green Teflon pitchers about 2 years ago are still in use in busy cafe's in London.

We still have green Teflon pitchers available. Which are great.

See our friend Sang Ho using the black pitcher here.

TEDGlobal 2011 Edinburgh

This week begins the TED 2011 conference in Edinburgh. An event where industry leader's from around the world talk about important topics facing the world's future and important current events and trends.

To help promote a better understanding of coffee and coffee production an organisation was formed called Coffee Common. Their aim being to help raise awareness of speciality coffee and it's route from farm to cup to attendees. The hope being the attendees go away from the conference with a little more knowledge and awareness of coffee and how special a product it is and can be, from farmer to consumer.

We were asked if we would like to provide barista tools for the barista's participating at the Coffee Common event at TED 2011. We were delighted! A chance to work with some of the world's best roaster's, coffee professionals at such event doesn't come around often.

Here is a list of item's we provided:

Black Teflon milk pitchers

Espresso Gear tampers

EPNW Pitcher Rinser's

Espresso spoons

Bar towels

Grinder brushes

Bar brushes

You can find more about Coffee Common and the list people working with them here: www.coffeecommon.com and follow them on twitter @coffeecommon.

New Website

After 3 years we have decided to upgrade our website. The new site will require you to re-register if you already have on the old site.

We hope you enjoy using the new coffeehit.co.uk website, weve put a ton of work into it and feels it offers load of new and exciting features.

Please let us know your feedback and what you think. Send emails to paul@coffeehit.co.uk.

Thank you for your support, we really appreciate it.

Many thanks.

Paul

The Curtis Hot Water System

The Wilbur Curtis brand is pretty much unknown in the UK, hailing from the States it has a much broader following. They mainly do commercial bulk brewing equipment. Ive seen it a few times and was always impressed by the build quality and each piece seemed to have an innovative little feature.

The Curtis Hot Water System was no different. The feature I refer to in this case is the Aeration System. Every 30 minutes the Curtis will pump air into the tank to re-invigorate the tank of water. The problem with heated water sitting in a tank is it loses oxygen, therefore losing a lot of the taste and end up going 'stale'. By introducing air into the water it keeps the water invigorated and fresh. The user can also manually aerate by pushing the Aerate button.



Other cool features are Digital Display of Boiler Temperature, Digital Display of Water Tap Exit Temperature, easy to adjust Digital Display and nice slow flow tap to control flow and dose.



As you can see in the above picture, and as usual, we wern't happy with just leaving the thing alone. We could make it better!! So ive added a stainless steel box to reduce the drop of the water to the vessel. Ive also added Water Scales. These scales measure volume of liquids. The benefit of this is if you know your serving size, eg 350ml, you accurately dispense 350ml into your pouring vessel. Genius! Not us, the scales!

So lets recap, we have accurate, controllable, displayed temperature. We have an aeration system to make sure the water stays fresh. We have scales to control the amount of dispensed water. We have 22L of water capacity, we have a 23amp engine which keeps the water at a very stable temperature. This sounds great!

Testing..

I wanted to see firstly how hot the water was at the bottom of my Hario Buono Kettle. I Used a Fluke with the supplied probe.For me a good brewing temperature is around 88-93c. So I set the boiler temperature to 94c.


The result was a steady 90.5c, i put 3 litres through and it never varied more than 0.3c. My next question was how long does it hold above 88c for? It took 3 seconds to walk from the Curtis to my Hario Pourover Station and start pouring. But ideally you want to have completed pouring just before 2 minutes, this includes the pre-pour bloom, then to be all done at around 2:30.




At a minute it was reading 89.4c,

At 2 minutes it was 88.4c. Not forgetting these temperatures are at the bottom of the Buono. I fed the probe through the spout and was just poking out the bottom, it wasn't touching the base though. If you wanted a higher brewing temperature then just nudge up the Curtis Boiler Temperature.

Next was to test the water exit temperature from the tap.

You can see the probe (very poor photography, as usual) just below the exit. The Boiler Temp was set at 95c, its showed a tap water temperature of 94c and the Fluke showed a temperature of 93.5c. The Curtis only shows temperature in whole numbers, so it could be rounding up, but either way pretty accurate.

But for me the aim of the exercise was to see if we could provide a water delivery system that met our high expectations and was affordable. I think we've achieved both goals.

With the introduction of our Brew Stations, Hario V60 Coffee Drippers we are finding more cafes are offering pour over coffee as an alternative to espresso. its relatively cheap to set up, easy to put away and a great way to introduce customers to different types of coffee. Its a very interactive experience.

All the equipment is available to see/use/abuse in our showroom. Just make an appointment and come down.

Teflon Coated Portafilters

I'd seen Teflon coated portafilters before. So I wasn't coming up with any ground breakingly new product. Customers had asked me about them so I made some enquiries. After falling off my chair id call my customer back and tell them the price then they would fall off their chair.

To pay that much for something that may or may not work, or not sure how long it will last was a lot to ask for. As one customer put it 'If it lasted for 10 years then id pay that, but there's no guarantee'.

As I asked around and spoke to experienced baristas who had come across them and used them there were several points that came to light.

1. The whole portafilter head had been coated. This was causing portafiters to slowly unwind from the group head when brewing.
   
2. The top of the portafilter was getting scratched. Due to the basket being taken out and then placed back in the portafilter the friction was causing the Teflon to scratch at the top.
3. I cant see if its working. Because most Teflon (think pots and pans) is black or dark grey this had been used to coat the portafilters. The problem here was coffee oils are dark and get darker still the longer you leave them.
4. Spouts were left uncoated. Also the abyss, my term, was uncoated. The abyss is the area between the hole in the centre of the portafilter and where the coffee exits onto the open spouts. Have you ever seen in there? You would need a medical device to see what goes in there! Could be a whole family down there??!
   
5. Cost. Ouch!

So the fun began.

Once I knew how the Teflon portafilter could be improved I set about finding a specialised company that would coat several portatfilters for me in different grades of Teflon. Teflon can be more non-stick, but less hard wearing through to less non-stick to more hard wearing. After months after searching we found our company that would do it for us. Great!

So we set about 'fixing' the problems that I listed above.

1. We would leave the outside of the head clean, uncoated. Only coating the inside of the portafilter.
   
2. We would leave the 5mm above the grove for the spring uncoated. This is where the basket was rubbing against the head. We would even go as far as leaving the ridge uncoated in case the customer removed the spring the potential for the metal spring to scratch the Teflon when the customer placed the spring back was too great.
   
3. I decided on a colour that was, at a quick glance, easy to see if the Teflon was clean. Even if it was just to reassure yourself that the Teflon was working. No holding the portafilter up to the light, moving it around to get a reflection. We also wanted a colour that was 'food-safe'. That is if for any reason it chipped and went into a customers drink either you would see it or your customers would. So green it was, Kryptonite Green as i like to call it! The colour allows you to see if you need to wipe out your portafilter very quickly.
4. Having the spouts coated seemed so very obvious. Coffee touches the portfilter head, it touches the spouts as well. We were so lucky with the company we use for the coating, they take their profession very seriously and the craftsmanship to coat the spouts is amazing. Like the heads we didn't want the outside of the spouts coated, only the insides. This took skill and care. But that wasn't enough what about the abyss? That part of the portafilter no-one has probably ever seen. The black hole between the centre of the portafilter and the little length of tube that the spouts screw onto, then the little part of the spout where the coffee exits from. We had it all coated. So now we every part of the portafilter that touches your delicious espresso is coated in Teflon. Easy to clean. And best of all better tasting coffee!
5. I knew I could do it for cheaper. I wanted to be able to walk into any cafe explain the Teflon portafilters and make it at a price where it was affordable. Mission accomplished.

Field Test

Now I needed to test the various Teflon coats in a real world environment. Me making a few coffees with them and going 'ohh look, nice and clean' wasn't going to be enough. Could they stand up to the daily abuse of a busy cafe and with a barista that prides themselves on cleanliness. Up stepped James at Dose. James is one of the UK's finest barista (even if he is a NZ'er). To say he likes things clean is an understatement. Even though he is busy all day producing delicious coffee he still cleans every part of the coffee making process at least once an hour. That meant for us taking out the basket regularly, would that stand up? Cleaning out the portfilter head regularly, which Teflon coating was best?
After a few months of daily use we had our winner on the Teflon coating but more importantly we had seen that it worked and was a real joy for the barista to use.


Cleaning

To clean the Teflon coated portafilter all you need is damp, clean soft cloth. No scrubbing with abrasive clothes. No soaking in chemicals. Just water and cloth.

To help the Teflon stay intact, some other tips are to keep the portafilters apart if you do soak them in hot water. Don't allow them to bang together. Just rinse in hot water, wipe with soft clean cloth and load back into your group head. Easy.


Available now from Coffee Hit

Anfim Modifications

We have been asked by several customers over the last few months to modify stock Anfim Super Caimano's. So I thought id write about and show some photos of the modifications we carry out and why customers are asking for these modifications.

Firstly, why the Anfim Super Caimano?

Many you may not have heard of Anfim never mind the Super Caimano. The stock coffee grinder for many cafes and restaurants up and down the country is the Mazzer Super Jolly. The Super Jolly is very well built and priced right. So it has been the grinder of choice for many espresso machine companies and roasters to package with their equipment up for their customers. It wont break down, its strong. Job done.

...But its messy!! If you have used one you will know that the area around the base of the Super Jolly by mid morning service will be covered in coffee grinds. A big waste of coffee but also money. If you look even more closely you will see that most the flying grinds are on the left hand side of the grinder. This is caused by the motion of dosing the chamber of ground coffee. The dosing veins sweep around and push the coffee out to the left as they rotate in a clockwise manner.

Now when thinking of your coffee costs, i.e. what you pay for whole bean coffee, you think what you pay per kg right? Well lets also add in wastage. That is the coffee that ends up around the base of the machine, on the floor, removed from the doser after the service or cafe has closed. This can be quiet significant, in fact as much as 30% can be wasted. So say you prepare a double shot of espresso and you use 16g of coffee for that double, once you account for the flying grounds you actually need to grind about 21g to achieve your 16g dose. Ive tried it many many times and these numbers stack up. So your £8.50 per kg bag of coffee is really costing you over £11.

... Well how is the Anfim better?

Answer: The Doser! Whether by design or fluke (im guessing design) the Anfim doser drops the coffee straight down into your group handle. Not to the left, not to the right, but straight down where it should. It is also a very clean doser. That is after you have swept the coffee into your group handle there is very little coffee left in the dosing chamber. This allows the next cup to have fresh, delicious coffee and not a couple of grams of stale grounds from the last cup.

OK so we now have a grinder that doses very cleanly and will save me money, wastage and my freshness per cup served will improve. That's great by why the modifications then?

The Digital Timer

The first modification we did was to add a Digital Timer to the Anfim.

The original dial timer was removed and a square machined out to allow the digital timer to slide in and occupy the space under the motor. The timer basically allows you to run the motor for a pre-determined length of time. You can see on this shot we had it set for 7.4 seconds. It is very easy to programme. Hit the yellow arrow key, this makes the numbers flash from right to left and use the up and own arrow keys to increase or decrease the time. The red number above will show the time in operation when you start the timer. So it starts at 0.0 and counts up to, in this case, 7.4.

Why do I need a Digital Timer?

The reason you would install a digital timer to an Anfim is to control the amount of coffee ground at each coffee preparation. Once you have set up your timer to say produce a 16g dose, you only need to start the timer and you know the grinder will grind for long enough to produce a 16g dose. No more, no less, no wastage! This also allows you to grind on demand with the added benefit of a doser to declump as you dose the coffee through the chamber. So now you can tell your customers you grind to order. Not grind for day or grind for the next hour or ten minutes. We grind for each individual cup! Fresh, delicious and less wastage. better for you and your customers.

The round Stainless steel button you see activates the the timer. So when you need to grind, you place your portafilter on the forks under the doser, hit the button and start dosing. This is an anti-vandal type button that is water proof and no coffee will enter. It is also tested for 3 million + presses, so will last!

The black button at the back turns the whole grinder off and on. It also turns the timer off and the fan. (if you have one installed)

My shop gets through a lot of coffee...

In busy cafes the grinder can be in heavy demand under contestant work. It gets hot! Very hot! The burrs work better and the whole grinder functions better when there is a bit of heat in the machine, just like your car. But under heavy work load, also heavy revving in your car, it heats up. But unlike your car which has a water cooled radiator and the advantage of the car moving through air to aid in cooling, the grinder just stays hot and once the the large brass burr holders get hot they stay hot! So to assist it keeping the grinder cool we fitted a fan to the back of the grinder just behind the burrs.


This small, powerful fan extracts air from the motor and burr chamber. It operates when you turn the grinder on in the morning until you turn it off at night. This pulls the hot air generated by the grinding action out of the grinder not allowing the whole unit to heat up excessively.

The fan is nice and quiet as well.





Conclusion

So here we now have a grinder that grinds fast, sweeps the doser clean, doses straight into my portafilter, grinds on demand, improves my freshness per cup, keeps cool under heavy workloads, creates less mess and saves me money. Ill take two!!
Once you workout your yearly spend on coffee, say £4500 and our calculation shows you will save about 30% on wastage, that's £1350! So now you can actually afford two!!

Other mods we can do on your Anfim, or any grinder for that matter, is apply powdercoat, paint or chrome. You can choose a paint colour and we will have the body powder coated. We can also apply decals, that could be your logo, a design or you favourite tattoo design!!

If you would like to discuss the Anfim or the modifications we do just call us on 0800 033 7970

Next up the BNZ Conical...

Mazzer Doserless Kits

We have added Mazzer parts to our site to make your Mazzer grinder a doserless model. If you have an old Mazzer lying around or have picked a bargain on eBay or just want to convert your current doser Mazzer to doserless, we now have all the parts you need.

The Mazzer conical chute, the motor cover, the anti-static screen and gasket.

To see all the latest Mazzer items head over to latest items category and get modding!!