Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!
This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.
It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:
- Something interesting that happened to you
- Something humourous that happened to you
- Something frustrating that happened to you
- A quick question
- A request for recommendations
- Pictures of your pet
- A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant
- Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)
So how’s it going?
An update on my coffee machine journey: I am churning through coffee like crazy but I think I’m starting to get better at it.
I really struggled with foaming milk until I found the right video. The early ones as well as the instruction manual just said stick it in and it gets foamy. I wasn’t able to get any foam until the milk started boiling!
But I found a better video that explained that you need to have the steam wand almost at the surface so it’s pulling in air, and after a bit of practice I think I’m getting it now. I think some steam wands have a hole to pull in air where mine doesn’t.
Try this …
First heat a small cup of milk in the microwave. Turn the machine steam wand on, and wait for steam to emit. Then dip the end of the steam wand in and out of the milk while keeping the tip near the surface, this’ll foam the milk nicely.
Interesting you say that, everything I’ve seen says cold milk foams better!
I seem to be getting the foaming action going well now. I’ve done some more practice today and I’m pretty happy with how it’s going. I don’t normally have milk in my coffee so I’m going through way more than normal 😃
Another thing I do is heat the espresso head plus the cups by placing them in boiling water from the kettle for a short while before extracting. Makes the coffee in the cups stay nicely hot afterwards. We only have a lower end Sunbeam machine, but hot coffee can be made in a couple of minutes without leaving the machine on for a long time to heat it all up.
The knack is to heat the milk with the wand “deep” and also texture (apparently the jargon) the milk with the wand “shallow”.
The combination gives you the temperature and foam you want. After some trial and error.
