Coffee Tips

We’ve compiled a list of tips from our vast experience in coffee to help you at home and at the coffee shop.

TIP #1
Check how your next cappuccino is made at a coffee bar or restaurant. The milk should be freshly poured into
the steaming jug – it is impossible to correctly make a cappuccino from re-heated milk. The barista should
have an air of concentration as he steams the milk, and his hand should be almost motionless.
Lots of noise means a mess is being made of your cap. There should no bubbles larger than a large pinhead in
the drink when it is presented to you and coffee should be combined with foam all through the drink -
otherwise it’s a latte not a cappuccino.

TIP #2
WATER!
At Hill and Valley we always use filtered or light spring water to brew our coffee – we had not realised
how much difference water quality makes in our area until we advised a customer to try filtered water
two weeks ago and the result “changed” her coffee-drinking life. We cannot stress enough how important it is to use
well-oxygenated filtered water in brewing your coffee. Table-top water filter jugs cost
less than £15.00 and represent a sound investment for the coffee enthusiast.

TIP #3
Cleaning
Keep it clean. This may sound obvious, but clean machinery makes a huge difference to coffee flavour.Take the espresso machine
– we clean our espresso machines as we work, continually “pulsing” clear water out of the group heads to eject spent grounds.
We use the stiff “elbow” brushes and green pan scourers to remove deposits and oils inside the portafilters (under the baskets).
On a daily basis Steve and I practically perform colonic irrigation on the machine at the end of trading with blind filter basket
and backflush. We wipe the portafilter basket clean of all visible deposits before “throwing” a single gram of coffee in for each
shot. We have yet to find a coffee house in London that does this and in a Starbucks in London W1 we watched as espresso grind was
dosed into a basket almost a quarter full of old coffee. Is that in their training manual?? If you see this happen complain – send it
back – that was the previous guy’s coffee and you don’t want to drink it as well. Remember you just paid $4.00 for 8 grams of
coffee – it should be perfect and NEVER bitter. Brewed coffee machinery should be treated with the same care, especially airpots.
A delicate new crop Costa Rica won’t taste quite the same if it comes out of a pot still reeking of Old Brown Java, and beware the
old invisibly dirty black plastic filter paper holder. Get your nose in it – uuggh – not good! Give your filter machine or Moka Pot
a holiday from time to time – brew some clear water and see how clear it comes through. Unscrew your cafetiere mesh screen and check
and slush out the old grounds trapped under the “spokes”. Think coffee brewer – think E.R. (scrub) not toilet seat(wipe).