RTHB Day 8 | Gaggia Classic Pro & DF64V - When Coffee Goes Wrong (POV)

[@kawonnowak]

I love my Swarksdesign WDT tool. Overpriced probably, but I've found the design to be really nice to use, it has made a real difference to the consistency of extractions, and I am pleased that I purchased it.

[@eduartCoffee]

Hi, thanks for the suggestion! Never heard of it before, will check it out for sure!

[@wingy72]

bad days I have had many! Keep doing you bro

[@eduartCoffee]

Thanks for the comment!

[@ralaggung2500]

if you want to make latte art with that style, you need to have keep the eye on the level of the coffee as well as focusing on the art to tilt the cup as you pour so it doesn't spill. If you want practice, do it with water few times to get the general feeling of tilting to cup back to level as you pour. I don't see anything wrong with the wdt. You CAN get the fancier spinning one if you really want but the one you have does the job fine.

[@florisdk1996]

Start steaming your milk a bit before the actual indicator light of the steamwand turns red. This way you’re able to maintain steam pressure for longer. What also helps is to fill you pitcher with milk right when you start your workflow and let it sit in the fridge until you start steaming the milk. This to be able to aerate better and steam longer

[@eduartCoffee]

Thanks for the comment and the tips! About the steaming indicator. My gaggia classic pro has a pid installed. It get's rid of the steaming pressure problem. So i don't need to start the steaming before the light turns on because the pid controls the steaming temperature and it ensures it stays low enought to not lose pressure :)

[@BenTr23]

Maybe you should try to use a blind shaker instead of a wtd

[@Jonathan_Prime]

Hey brother , this happens to all of us as a home barista. It’s a learning curve. I like the honesty in your videos. Because it shows not only the beauty but also the struggle. Keep up the good work 😊

[@eduartCoffee]

Thanks! That's exactly what i try to do with my content, give you guys an update of how my coffee evolves in time. And as with anything, it isn't always smooth sailing! So i think it could help others who start this kind of journey and they can see wee al have bad days and we all screw up coffees from time to time. Thanks for the support! Appreciate your comment! 😊

[@Leo2dr]

Wipe the milk steamer before you tap and swirl your milk. 1. cleans way better, 2. the big bubbles in the milk have a chance to float to the top where you want to burst them with the tap. With RDT, do it and shake just before hot starting your grinder. (Just tips, works better for myself)

[@eduartCoffee]

@@Leo2dr thanks for the tips! Will keep that in mind !

[@maksf1968]

Get the subminimal flick wdt. I think its awesome and handy

[@eduartCoffee]

I will definetly check that out! Thanks!

[@Volgin.]

Where did you buy that nice cup? Also, I suggest the 3bomber WDT, its adjustable and works very well.

[@eduartCoffee]

I bought it from a nice store, here in Romania named carturesti :)

[@ShinSuperSaiyajin]

I only have one suggestion for latte art: please tilt the cup as you pour.

[@HijoGris]

Was about to say the same. Once you have mixed the milk and coffee, tilt as you pour the design

[@onoitsglen]

I'm no expert as i just started using GCP as well but these are some of things I can suggest that works for me when steaming milk. Make sure you start steaming milk before the steam light comes on, Usually about 40 secs. Purge steam wand after 6-12 secs then you want to start steaming right after. You'll have more power when steaming when you these steps. Before you steam, you want to angle your pitcher little bit and only submerge the tip. Once you notice that you're milk gained more volume (compare to starting point) you can lower tip little bit and maintain the vortex until preferred temperature. After steaming, Just purge the steam wand and if the milk baked to the steam wand and hard to remove, you can just clean it after making your latte art. Lastly, if you're going to make latte art, tap, swirl and transfer to a bigger pitcher (made it easier for me).

[@eduartCoffee]

Thanks for all the tips!! About the steaming. As i have a PID installed, it controls the steam temperature also. This remediates the problem with pressure. So i don't really have that problem

[@onoitsglen]

@@eduartCoffee I apologized as I didnt know you had PID installed. yeah, the advised I gave is for gaggia w/o pid. I did installed the Barista Gadget Pro on my machine as well so i dont need to temp surf. I'm liking it so far as it kinda give prolong the steam power.

[@PositivelyNice]

The Subminimal WDT Flick is good.

[@eduartCoffee]

Thanks for the suggestion. Will check that out!

[@PavelPavlov1]

A few comments from me. Hope it's not intimidating, as it's a bit of a long list, but if I were you, that's what I'd like to see, so I hope it's useful. I know it could be pretty difficult to deal with the challenges in the beginning, so remember that any struggles you have are completely normal and things will fall into place. Just try to enjoy the drinks you make and don't be overly critical of yourself (as one might easily fall into this reading plenty of comments like this). Here you go :) Grinding: - After beans are finished grinding, use the bellows to blow out the leftover fines in the knock box, not in your ground beans. Having less of these very fine particles will make your shot cleaner. WDT tool: - It's not necessarily bad but you need to spread the needles slightly so it works better. This will make it not possible to easily put back in the original screw-in cap. What you could do is use a small cup with rice or sugar and stick it in with the needles down. Leveling tool: - It's at best redundant and at worst worsening your puck density uniformity, as its initial press down is uneven; and the following spins just redistribute the top layer but the unevenness in the density stays. You've got a self-levelling tamper (which is great), so just ditch the levelling tool, you don't need it. You can ensure the level surface before tamping with your WDT and gentle vertical taps on the table. Tamping: - You double tamp, which is good - keep it up. But you lift off too quickly and risk causing some "suction" that could potentially unseat the puck from the basket bottom / walls. That would obviously cause less resistance for the water and it'll flow mostly through there, causing less uniform extraction. Very easy fix - I suggest after pressing down, release the pressure slower on the way up. Puck screen placement: - Be careful to drop it in a way that it falls more or less level on the puck. If one edge falls first, there's a chance it'll dig in the side of the puck. You can see it if there's grounds "lifted" up over the puck screen. Purging water from the Gaggia: - Even with PID (as I see you have installed) it takes the Gaggia a good minute or two to stabilise temperature after just a short purge of water (1-2s). This is due to the very small boiler. Thus, I definitely recommend very short purge before you even weigh in you beans. This makes time for the temp to stabilise while you prepare the puck. Steaming: - Due to the small boiler and the fact the machine doesn't fill in water as you steam, the steaming power lowers rather quickly. One way to work around this is to start steaming 5-10 seconds before the steaming light comes on (just measure the time it takes from the button press to light on and subtract 5-10s). Reason is: when the light is on, the boiler heating element is off; and when the light is off, the heater is on. You want to start steaming right before the heater turns off because this way as you steam, you decrease the temperature and the boiler never reaches the temperature threshold that stops the heater. And having the heater stay on throughout the whole steaming gives you better and more consistent pressure. Steam wand cleanup: - The gaggia's wand is difficult to wipe. Either use a wet cloth, or purge steam for a few seconds into the inside of the cloth, to get it moist right before wiping. Be careful with the folding, so you don't burn yourself. It may be quicker/easier to get some water on the cloth from the drip tray grill instead. Final thing: - Don't know if you do, but keep in mind that after steaming the machine boiler has no, or very little, water in it. You do want to fill it with water before turning off the machine. You could purge the steam from the group and wait for water to flow (as if you're brewing a shot, just without locking in the portafilter).

[@eduartCoffee]

Hello! First of all wow! Thanks for taking time to give me feedback. It does look intimidating, but it's exactly why i do this. So people that know what they're doing, are able to give me advice, and help me improve my worflow. Keep in mind i took note of everything you said. Wanted to respond and ask some questions about some things. So: About the leveling tool, is it only my leveling toô that's bad? Because i've seen leveling tools being used a lot, even in professional cafés. So is it mine that's bad or too cheap or overall we shouldn't use leveling tools? About the steaming pressure. I think (could be wrong tho) that the PID takes care of that problem, as i have set a temperature for steaming, and it keeps the heating element on while the steam switch is on. That way i don't loose pressure. At least that's what i've learnt by documenting myself on the internet. About the grinder. I don't get why those ground blown by the bellow would be finer. If you could explain that to me. It's trill ground with the same grind setting. And not blowing them into my knock box will mean that i lose some of the dose, so i try to avoid that. But open to understanding what you said! And about that final thing. At the beggining it did the cooling down on camera, just after cleaning the steam wand tip. But someone pointed out it took too long and my milk just stood there in the meanwhile. So i stoped doing that on camera, i just did it after the "latte art" was over. If you check out one of the first videos you'll ser me doing it. Anyways thanks a lot for all your feedback!

[@PavelPavlov1]

​@@eduartCoffee Levelling tool: all of them are pretty much useless. They do help with tamping levelled but you already have a self-levelling tamper, so there's no benefit there. If you're curious about this, take a look at Lance Hedrick or James Hoffman's videos on distribution tools - I'm pretty sure they share this opinion. And don't put too much weight on what people use when making youtube videos. Complicated workflows and nice lights get views. Sometimes very well put together video hides lack of experience or effort in deciding whether something's actually effective. There's a big echo-chamber in youtube where if many people like/use something, even more people do. Steam pressure: Yes, totally. I overlooked you have a PID on that comment, so ignore that bit of advice, my bad :) Grinding: The thing is everytime you grind, there are some finer and some larger particles. The ones that tend to stick to the grinder shoot or other surfaces, tend to be finer, as they have more surface area relative to their weight. With my DF64 1st gen, the amount they represent of the total weight is very minor. Best is to experiment yourself and weigh the dosing cup with ground beans before and after the bellows and see how big part they are of the total weight. If it's significant to you, you could just compensate with adding an extra 0.1g or something to the initial dose. I personally wouldn't compromise the cup quality for the sake of not wasting that small amount of beans. But that's a personal take, people have different opinions. On the boiler refilling: Sure, great! I just wanted to mention this so it doesn't accidentally get overlooked. Rest assured that the Gaggia is quite well designed and even if you heat the boiler with no water, the worst thing that could happen is to blow a fuse that you'd need to replace - you probably won't damage anything else. But it's good to be careful anyway.

[@PavelPavlov1]

Just to add on the levelling tool: I don't think (or haven't tested myself) if it really affects that bad the final outcome. I'm just fairly confident it doesn't add anything useful, that's why it's a great step to omit in an already long puck prep process. That said, if you like it (many people do, as you see on youtube) and you enjoy your coffee - by all means stick with it. I'd say that counts for most things but it's a bit of a dangerous advice for beginners generally :)

[@PavelPavlov1]

@@eduartCoffee My bad, one more clarification on the bellows: After the ground beans stop flowing from the grinder, I do tap (ever so slightly) the bellows and that blows almost all of the leftover ground coffee in the dosing cup. Only THEN I place the knock box under the shoot and do a few proper taps to blow out the rest of the fines. Even visually you can then tell they're finer.

[@eduartCoffee]

Okay, i will keep all of this in mind for my next coffees, i will try all your advice and see how it will improve my coffee. Again thanks a lot !

[@propertwb]

What shower screen do you have on the Gaggia?

[@eduartCoffee]

I haven't changed it, and the previous owner didn't say anything about changing it so i would say it's the stock one. But if you were gonna say there is something wrong about water flow, don't worry someone pointed it out to me and i cleaned it, next video shouls be better :)

[@WilliamPropert]

@@eduartCoffee no, nothing wrong. Just very different from my new E24. Mine flows with larger drips.

[@eduartCoffee]

@propertwb that's where the problem was haha. Some of the holes were obstructed, so i had to take the group head apart and wash it. It is way better now

[@WilliamPropert]

@@eduartCoffee ok, thanks

[@mckenzie8616]

Came from youtube algorithem

[@eduartCoffee]

Well, welcome, hope you like it here, and hope you enjoy my content! 😊

[@gusehsla]

반갑습니다. 기게는 직접 업그레이드 하셨나요?

[@eduartCoffee]

Nice to meet you too! I didn't upgrade the machine myself. I bought it like that.

[@mbrylewski]

Which Gaggia do you own?

[@eduartCoffee]

Gaggia Classic Pro. I think it's the 2019 model

[@adrianioan9336]

Try with different milk 🥛 😊

[@eduartCoffee]

Hi! Thanks for the comment! What kind of milk should i try?

[@RWD1907]

Workflow is good, but you are painfully slow.

[@eduartCoffee]

Thanks for uour feedback. I'm sure with time i will get faster but theres a lot to learn 😊

[@RWD1907]

@@eduartCoffee I have thought again about what I wrote and would like to apologize. It doesn't matter how fast or slow you are, the important thing is that you have fun. Being a barista should be something we bond over and enjoy, so I look forward to following your progress. All the best. :)

[@eduartCoffee]

It's ok i didn't take it in a bad way. I can confirm that i'm having lots of fun! ☺️