It is fitting on a site about espresso machines to make a post about crema and espressos in general. If you love your espressos but aren’t really knowledgeable about what MAKES a good one, you may find the article below to be helpful. A good super automatic espresso machine takes care of all of the tamping, steaming, pressing, and whatnot for you, and perhaps by reading what is involved with MAKING great crema, you will appreciate the “super automatic features” of the Jura Capresso Impressa Z5 Coffee Machine all the more!
Coffee Crema – Taste Or Trash?
By Robert Booth
Who has not stood at a cafe, having just ordered a coffee and heard someone nearby exclaim: “look at that lovely crema!” Or, you yourself were justifiably proud of the honey-drip of crema-goodness which your espresso machine was capable of producing.
Indeed, the rich golden brown, sometimes reddish coloured oily foam on top of the freshly extracted espresso does look beautiful, and when properly steamed milk is added, it can even be artfully crafted into all sorts of beautiful patterns. But, is it tasty? Sweet? Flavoursome? Or indeed, necessary?
The last year or so there have been some interesting articles, in which comparisons were made between coffee with, and without crema. That is, the coffees were espressos, extracted normally, and then some were drunk with the crema, and some had the crema skimmed off, and were drunk without. And guess what…quite a few of the “skimmed ” espressos were deemed to taste better than the ones with the crema still on it.
If you can get your head past the apparent loss of “tradition” and look at what actually happens when you make an espresso, it all starts to make a lot of sense. During the process of “espressing” the coffee, which is forcing hot water at high pressure through the coffee grinds, you extract the volatile coffee oils, which get suspended in the hot water and end up as a froth in the cup.
In freshly roasted beans that crema can be quite sweet, as all the flavour components are still available and the oils are still fresh. But in beans which have been stored for a while, some of the volatiles have evaporated, some have gone rancid and the crema which gets extracted can turn acrid. Also, when making espresso, the hot water can burn the volatiles, and the resulting crema tastes ashy, or even quite bitter.
Although you can remove the crema from a cup of coffee produced with an espresso machine, this sharp bitterness can taint the coffee when you use a stove-top espresso maker. Some people like this flavour and sometimes call it “Italian style”.
When you are making coffee with a French Press, Drip-Filter, Syphon or any of the other “gentle” coffee-making methods, you will find that there is no crema, and that may well be enhancing the coffee.
All the flavour components transfer from the grinds into the liquid, almost “as they are”, and even the more evasive flavour notes will come to the fore, such as fruit or flower, spice and liqueur notes.
This is why official coffee tasters generally “cup” (taste) with French Press-made coffee; it allows their experienced noses and palates to pick up much more of the character and flavour profile of the coffee. So, you like espresso, don’t really want to make French Press, can’t always get very freshly roasted coffee beans… how do you get the best out of your coffee?
Try reducing the temperature of the water that hits your coffee grinds. If you cannot turn down the thermostat on you boiler (ask a professional to help you if it is located inside the machine!) then use a “cooling flush” just prior to locking in the porta-filter. A cooling flush will flush all the super heated water out of the group and the top of the boiler, so you start tapping out of the body of the boiler, where the water temperature is at its most stable.
Generally you flush until you see the boiler-element light come on. That is when you close the tap, lock in the porta-filter and pull the shot.
If that sounds like too much trouble, or you know you will be in a hurry when you make your coffee, simply scoop off the crema with a teaspoon… that works too.
As with all things: you will never know until you try it… ultimately it is up to you to decide which coffee tastes the best: with, or without crema!
Naturally there are other factors which can contribute to excellent coffee, and these factors are the same for coffee made in a cafe or on your own kitchen bench. Check out http://www.amazines.com/Email_Article.cfm?articleid=1752521 and you will see it is quite easy to make really good coffee at home.
And if you want to learn more about making coffee with a French Press, have a look at http://goodcoffeeathome.com/plungerfrenchpress.php: there are some really nice one-cup French Presses which make wonderful coffee-on-the-go!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Booth
http://EzineArticles.com/?Coffee-Crema—Taste-Or-Trash?&id=4558585
Welcome, fellow coffee lover, to this review site for the high end home espresso machine “the Jura Capresso Impressa Z5“. You are here likely because you are debating the purchase of the Jura Z5. You already know that you will love the convenience and the luxury of owning a super-automatic coffee center (it truly is wonderful), but you want to know if you are investing in a worthy machine. 
