How a Woman Can Use Cafelat To Make Espresso | If You Find It Challenging To Use It

[@mescellaneous]

after a few years of the robot... pressure means nothing! pressure is flow times resistance! resistance is "puck integrity", which will lessen over time as you degrade the puck! which means... you should actually increase the flow to increase the drag as it degrades, so you extract more solubles. having a high pressure but high resistance just means you degrade the puck slower, which is "choking" the shot. the only key mishap is not noticing when this drag has decreased. and part of that is knowing how much the piston/arms have displaced, compared to flow rate. i noticed that there ends up being a balance, and that high power is not the point at all! too low of drag is too diluted, too high of drag leads to choking. you can get the best extraction by starting at a lower flow rate, but focus on maintaining the drag/resistance. at the end, you'll find you'll hit high bar with not much effort. we have a manual machine! no point in brew by numbers, by formula. just need to get better at feeling "drag" or "resistance". my shots i think start as low as 4 bar or so.

[@lsin9126]

Thank you so much for making this video!! I have been searching high and low for a video like this. I am eager to get into home espresso, and have been looking into manual options due to counter space and budget. Problem is, I have very weak arms and I dont want to strain too much due to medical reasons. This video really helps :)

[@NadiaandRob]

That is amazing to hear :). Hope you can start enjoying your espresso. Work smarter not harder as they say!

[@LobsterPants581]

Love that you are sharing both of your perspectives and preferences with the Robot! It’s so rare that videos on coffee have more than one presenter. Really enjoy hearing what has worked well for both of you and your particular styles.

[@NadiaandRob]

Thank you and so glad you enjoyed it :). Very encouraging for us.

[@alexmontanus]

Bought the robot 3 years ago after seeing your video about it. I use it everyday and love it so much. My girlfriend doesn’t drink coffee, she never used it, but my son (3 years old) loves to help push the arms down. I sometimes make a flat white with the nanofoamer (yes also after your video) and make him a babyccino. Using the cafelat robot feels like a nice teamwork moment.

[@NadiaandRob]

I love it! That’s so amazing to read :). We still use the nanofoamer sometimes to make cappucino. We did get an upgraded device from the same Nanofoamer company called Subminimal to try out and have been enjoying that too.

[@udyb]

If I remember correctly, it is not recommended to grab the feet of the robot, because they are aluminum. I think it's also written in cafelat guide. Being shorter, Nadia should use a surface that is lower then the one she presented this. That will allow to lean upon the robot and use her body mass to pull the shot

[@NadiaandRob]

Yes, you remember correctly, however the ammount of pressure Nadia is applying to the legs is so little it could not possibly cause a problem. The legs are very strong, cast in one piece with the body and secured to the base. Since most people have only one counter height in the kitchen, this is an easy solution for women.

[@CH-iy4go]

Woman power! Thanks so much Nadia (and Rob). You looked like a seasoned pro on camera. This is exactly what I wanted to see. It is nice to have a woman shown making good tasting coffee with the Cafelat Robot. One more question, Nadia what ratio do you use, and what is the setting on your Baratza? I have been using the virtuoso+ for years. Thanks for the video!

[@NadiaandRob]

Thank you for the amazing comment and so glad this was helpful :). The coffee bean shown in video is weighed at 18.2g, water is weighed at 60g and the bean grind setting is around 6-7 on the Encore ESP. I find that ratio seems to work for me. The other bean I mention in the video I grind between 4-5 (depending on the day) on the Encore ESP and same bean weight and water ratio, but that gets pushed at 4 bars on the Cafelat. Doesn’t have much resistance so I try to keep a consistent flow and not over extract. I hope I made sense there 😊 - Nadia

[@CH-iy4go]

@@NadiaandRob perfect sense! Thank-you again!

[@nathanrhodes4131]

I am surprised that an adult would have any problem pushing the arms down and it makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrong. I am not a particularly strong guy whatsoever. Pretty normal build. I've seen people in other videos talk about really putting muscle into it, too, and again I'm just surprised...maybe I'm doing something wrong? I'm doing a ristretto: 20g coffee, pour 30ml of water in, and get about 16ml out. When I do a double shot, I do about 17-18g of coffee and 60 ml of water, getting about 35ml out. Thank you guys so much, I really admire your channel.

[@NadiaandRob]

Some types of beans I find are a bit trickier for me to press down on but mostly I can make an espresso that I happily enjoy. Very glad to hear you’re enjoying what we upload :)

[@NadiaandRob]

We actually created this video to show that you don't have to put big muscle into making espresso with the Robot! We'd gotten some queries, so this is our answer. We're glad you're enjoying the channel! Thanks for letting us know.