# Coffee just not smooth-tasting. Which factors make most difference?



## fiveportions (Jun 29, 2010)

I use a Magister 2 group machine with an Iberital MC5 grinder.

I've had the machine serviced, descaled and bought a new water filter for it.

But the coffee still tastes harsh. It's not especially strong, the strength seems just right but the taste just make you wince a bit. NOTHING like the smooth, rich tasting coffees I buy when out & about which sometimes actually taste stronger but rich and smooth, leaving an almost chocolatey after-taste (even without the cocoa-spinkle).

I would like to know which are the primary factors I should experiment with, after which I can tweak the secondary factors.

The coffee beans are 100% Arabica which I know is a robust coffee, but when I've put a spoonful in a proper little domestic hob-tob espresso percolator I can get a smooth and nutty coffee. Using the same semi-skimmed milk just. I'm making white Americanos mostly.

I've been messing around with the grinding adjustment and dosing amount. Admittedly, the main reason for this was to have coffee come through at a reasonable rate as with a fine grind it can take ages to get a mugful of coffee from the trickle that comes out.

How much difference does the tamp really make? Would this affect the flavour of the finished product?

I'm using semi-skimmed milk because everyone thinks it's healthier, although I think the difference in fat content isn't that consequential, especially as it's only a top-up, not a whole cup full. Should I expect full-fat milk to make a difference? -And does using frothy milk vs milk straight out of the bottle make a difference other than appearance?

I'm ready to spend a couple of hours messing around with the machine/grinder but I don't want to make it worse than it already is. I don't find the adjustments on the grinder particularly precise or easy to make.

Thanks,

Fiveportions


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Hi Fiveportions

Great post.

First thing I would suggest would be to weigh your dose.

Dialling in the coffee to the correct level of coarseness, getting the right weight in grams for your basket and then the tamp are all variables you can control.

The water/pressure are fairly constant, and the taste will be further defined by how long you extract for.

The tamp will affect the taste / flavour, as this is the water flow restriction variable

A light tamp will let more water through in the same time than a hard tamp will, when no other variables are changed

Are you dosing fresh per cup, or are you leaving ground coffee in the dosing chamber for any period of time?

Where are you based?


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## DonRJ (Apr 3, 2010)

Which specific beans are you using? and if you can give a run through of your espresso making routine including machie prep, pour time etc it will help us coffee maniacs diagnose your problems and give specific advice if we can.

Don


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## ChiarasDad (Mar 21, 2010)

Are you confident in the brewing temperature of this machine? (I've no clue about the particular piece of equipment you mentioned, so please pardon me if this is an utterly stupid question.)

Over a period of months this year the quality of my shots began deteriorating, until a few weeks ago I really couldn't get anything enjoyable at all. Only then did I check my temperature and realize that I had a badly failed thermostat. This was on a much lower-end machine than yours, of course, but the effect was awful coffee from excellent beans and decently adequate grinder and technique, and it was easy to correct once the cause was identified.


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## awlred (Mar 10, 2009)

Hey 5portions.

Two ideas come to mind on what may be happening..First off are you pulling an americano entirely through the puck of coffee? In other words filling the whole cup from the espresso machine.



> Admittedly, the main reason for this was to have coffee come through at a reasonable rate as with a fine grind it can take ages to get a mugful of coffee from the trickle that comes out.


The slow trickle is a good thing, it extracts the sweet notes from the coffee and keeps it smooth. You only want to pull about 1oz - 2oz of coffee from the machine the rest of the cup should be hot water from a hot water tap or kettle off the boil. It may not sounds like it but that syrupy shot will give you the best cup and a good flavour.

The other may be the temperature of the machine. I'm not familiar with the machine you're using but an under or over heated extraction would produce a sour or bitter shot.


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