Hi, just a quick note for this forum. I am the Melbourne coffee critic that wrote the article exclaiming that Melbourne's coffee is poor. I still believe that. The guidelines for a good espresso are: 25-30 sec pour for a 30ml shot, at 9 bar pressure. Now, thats only a rule of thumb, but if you can achieve that you will get a good espresso (subject to bleeding the grouphead if its been sitting idle for more than 10mins, as the heat exchanger in the boiler tends to overheat the grouphead, because the boiler water is circulated through the group head to keep it at the right temperature). Try one other thing, put a teaspoon of sugar on the crema of the espresso. It should all float on the crema, and not sink and dissapear until you stir it in. Thats all i ask. Most Melbourne caffes (and Syndey caffes, having been to sydney twice in the last month for bussiness, I have tasted poor coffee there too). The espresso must not only look good with a great thick rich brown red crema, but it must have a mouth feel that is light and creamy. Thats the test. its not hard to learn how to make a breat espresso, but it just takes a little attention, and at $3 a shot, i'll be sending bad espresso back to the barista from now on. Cheers TEXT
