Recap and Glossary
Recap
- We create margins of error for shot times and beverage weights. Some recipes are stricter than others, allowing a smaller margin of error.
- Shot time and grind setting are interlinked.
- Micro-adjustments and tiny changes to the grind bring about only a 1-second or 2-second change in shot times.
- Macro-adjustments are the large changes needed if you go outside your shot time target range.
- When you make macro-adjustments you need to purge your grinder; when you make micro-adjustments you don’t.
- Most grinders don’t give you all the beans you put into them straight away. This phenomenon is called grind retention.
- Some designs have as much as 60 g of retention; some have as little as 0.5 gram.
Glossary
Barrel The section of a grinder that houses the coffee burrs and where coffee grinds gather
Beverage weight A measurement of the size of a coffee beverage that includes all the consumable coffee liquid, i.e., it does not include any brew water that doesn’t make it into the cup or service vessel
Blend Single-origin coffees combined together
Burrs The cutting/crushing disks used in most espresso and filter grinders; usually, one burr is stationary and one spins.
Grind retention The sum total of all grinds contained inside a grinder, between the burrs and the opening at the grinder throat
Grind setting The position on the grinder dial or collar that stipulates how far apart the grinder burrs are set
Hands-free dosing A system of dosing coffee wherein the portafilter latches into a housing on the grinder so that the barista doesn’t need to hold the portafilter as the grinds fall into the basket
Macro-adjustment A grind adjustment intended to correct a recipe that has strayed to outside the shot time target range; it requires a purge of the grinder.
Micro-adjustment A minor grind adjustment that corrects a shot time from the edge of the margin of error back to the middle;