Lavazza experiment @ Demitasse.net

"Everyone knows" that to get a decent shot of espresso one needs to use coffee that is fresh, ground just before use to a fineness that depends on the blend, espresso machine, humidity, and so forth, and needs constant adjustment during the day.

Or not.

While travelling in Canada recently I had occasion to buy a bag of preground Lavazza coffee for use in a moka pot in my hotel room. This coffee was roasted and ground (for moka, not espresso) in Italy, then transported to Edmonton where it sat for an indeterminate time in the supermarket. Once I bought and opened the coffee I stored it in the original bag in my room's freezer for 4 days. It then accompanied me back across the ocean to Hawaii, and sat in the freezer here for over a week. Out of curiosity I decided to try it in my pump espresso machine.

Here is a photo of the resulting shot.

(Click to enlarge, your choice of size)

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other_shot_med.jpg
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Now, this should have been a disaster: coffee was ground for moka instead of espresso, coffee was not fresh, not carefully tamped... Instead, the resulting shot was rather pretty. (By the way, the above photo was taken quite a while after extraction - I had to hunt down my digital camera, haul in a decent lamp, etc.)

This raised the question of whether this was reproducible. I waited another week, and tried again, this time documenting the whole process. The results are below. Remember, these are with preground beans, opened on June 14, stored sometimes in the freezer, sometimes not, and not used until July 8.

All photos are in 2 versions - a huge one straight from the camera, and a smaller more modem-friendly (but still too large) version. File sizes are listed with the photos.


bag.jpg 612.21 KB bag_med.jpg 161.58 KB	Here's the bag of coffee, 'fresh' from my freezer.
dose.jpg 495.48 KB dose_med.jpg 115.21 KB	The portafilter, casually loaded...
tamp.jpg 585.04 KB tamp_med.jpg 142.00 KB	...and tamped. Anticipating a fast shot, I used a harder tamp here than my normal light levelling tamp. Probably a mistake; the resulting shot was long (around 45 seconds). By the way, this is in my 'medium double' basket (nominal 16 gram capacity, probably less with this coffee).
Pour_divx4.avi 3.39 MB	Here's a terrible movie of the shot. Made with a digital still cam, bits spliced together (hence a few seconds missing in the middle), in rare divx4 format, and quite large (approx 3.5megs)...I strongly suggest you not download and view it! Oh, the microphone is mounted on the camera - listen for the coffee hitting the glass, and note how quiet the machine is by comparison.
shot1.jpg 686.17 KB shot1_med.jpg 154.37 KB	Here's the final shot, immediately after the pour. (Crema photographed more washed out than it was in real life, though this shot was not as nice as the one from the previous week.)
shot2.jpg 539.85 KB shot2_med.jpg 100.33 KB	Another photo, lit and positioned better (off the machine).

Moral of the story: I don't know if there is one. However, the next time someone has a problem with her espresso such as no or little crema, shot too quick, etc., I might be a bit slower to suggest that the fault is old or preground coffee.

Oh, the taste? Interesting question. There were three dominant flavors, overlaid. One was the characteristic Lavazza flavor, common to all their blends. Not one of my favorites, but OK for breakfast in a moka pot with plenty of hot milk. One was a completely nasty Robusta taste, probably more pronounced than usual because of the age of the coffee. Finally, under it all was an unexpected smooth, thick chocolate taste which if separated from the others would make a pretty great espresso.