Since opening one of Seattle’s earliest artisan espresso shops in 1988, one of the defining characteristics of the craft behind our counter has been the grinding of coffee for each shot, literally on demand. This is now the standard practice for virtually all specialty coffee establishments, making the grinder’s role industry-wide a demanding one. To […]

Hello Faithful Reader, If your reading my blog your probably pretty well dialed in on making artisan espresso. You have fresh coffee, sharp grinder burrs, clean PID machine with proper settings on temperature, pre-infusion, and brewing pressure. You have clean, filtered water and perfect barista technique. So you are able to make pillowy ristretto shots […]

Hello Readers, Although I am struggling to find a commercial grinder that doses well, and makes great coffee, I am very happy to report that at home I do not have that problem. The Monolith by Kafatek is a perfect home grinder. Denis Basaric is the engineer that has designed and built this machine. Although […]

Dear Reader, What Christian Etzinger has accomplished with his grinder designs is to transport the powder out of the machine into the porta-filter with perfect particle-distribution integrity. In other words, no micro-particle drift and no clumping. In addition there is no ground coffee trapped in the body of the grinder. (Only the unavoidable gram or […]

Dear Reader,   I have been using the grinder daily for over a year.  The grinders ability to transport ground coffee into the PF without any disturbance of the particle distribution in the powder is the best I have ever seen.  (See original posts). A true on-demand design that works. However the small burr, 21mm, […]

Dear Readers,   I’m having some serious fun exploring mild arabicas from all over the world.  My primary interest is Ethiopian coffees.  Lately we have sourced a Sidamo with extraordinary  blueberry in the fragrance and the finish.  And, every Sunday we offer a new single origin at our Brix and Alley 24 locations.  So far […]

November 16th h 2016 Author: David Schomer,   When all the factors are in control, machines are clean and temperature stable, coffee is fresh, barista techniques are solid, and grinder burrs are sharp, my baristi on the bar are mostly trying to control the flow-rate of the espresso oozing into the cup. To truly capture […]

After a couple months using the Baratza Sette grinder at home I see a slow shift towards a coarser grind occurring. (After several months I have been backed into the finest setting the machine can produce.) Kyle, the ever helpful owner of Baratza said they have noticed this as the burrs break in over time. […]

The bottomless, or naked, port-filter is especially well named.  Because there is no hiding: the entire integrity of the espresso program, from grinder burr sharpness, barista technique, coffee freshness and roast, and machine calibration is on display.  There is no hiding using this porta-filter.  And of course the closed, or traditional port-filter, is a huge […]

Hello expert baristi…we are planning our next Pro Barista class for mid November.  Contact Jes at trainer@amxix.site to get a spot.  We are limited to eight students, as always.   Here is a picture of the last class to graduate, with students from New Zealand and Korea.