# Tiger Stripes



## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

I know where I stand on this but as someone else said recently, there seem to be mixed views on whether these are a good or bad thing. Anyone care to share your opinion, bearing in mind differences resulting from bottomless portafilters?


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## SlowRoast (Sep 24, 2010)

Recently, I've been judging shots but the tiger striping. Both at work and at home, both with normal portafilters. I've heard a lot about it being the coffee solids being extracted, which is a good thing, obviously.

I switched beans today, although it's still striping, it's lighter, as is the crema. My previous beans had lots of tiger stripes and lots more noticeable mottling and spotting on the crema.


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## fatboyslim (Sep 29, 2011)

I was always lead to believe the crema should be a lightish golden colour but David Schomer rocked my world when he said reddish brown!!!

Lately I've been getting the most fantastic reddish brown crema with much tiger striping and have to say these are usually the best tasting shots.

I think if you aren't getting the reddish brown colour and are getting more of a dark brown golden crema that is overextraction?

I'd say tiger striping is good if its reddish brown golden loveliness


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## SlowRoast (Sep 24, 2010)

I find the colours of the crema very controversial, I've had some very dark but sweet tasting crema's from Izzo beans, but at the same time down the road at The Store (Drury), when the extraction times are good, the crema tends to be quite light sometimes but again is sweet.

At the moment with these beans I'm getting fine spotting and mottling on my shots, but they taste good.

I'm going to stay on the fence with this one. Obviously though we all know a blonde crema is bad!


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## seeq (Jul 9, 2011)

Since my machines service I'm getting far better shots, I'm also getting tiger striping. my experience would lead me to believe its a good thing, however I remain open minded.


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## vintagecigarman (Aug 10, 2009)

Hey, who cares about the colour? I'm red/green colour blind, so reddish brown etc mean very little to me.

Sorry, I just take the simple approach - I note what I did to pull the shot, and if it tastes good I try to repeat it. An empirical approach, but it satisfies me. Not much use in a business environment though.

Sent via Tapatalk


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## xiuxiuejar (Jan 24, 2012)

... that's right that's right I really love those tiger stripes ... or something like that!

I always found the colour of the crema depended on the coffee being used. An espresso blend and dark roast produces much darker cremas. Moreover, the pressure of the machine affects teh colour of the crema. Those who have done the OPV modifications will probably have noticed a change to a darker crema.

Moreover, different beans will produce more or less crema. Any blend with robusta can be made to produce buckets of crema when freshly ground. However, some more acidic coffees may make lighter and less quantity cremas. A lot of people post videos of their 'perfect pulls' of 1 ounce coffee and half glass of crema. Then we have people thinking their techniques are awful as they do not produce such an abundance of crema.

Anyway, in general, tiger striping is seen as a good sign and should give way to blonding after about 20 seconds or so -I have been led to believe. But in the end, as long as the coffee tastes good, who gives a [email protected]*&


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## SlowRoast (Sep 24, 2010)

I didn't know the Robusta thing, but it makes sense now! My Izzo beans went a bit stale, but never the less I still managed to force crema out of it. I've forgotton what it was, but I think the blend is mostly robusta. (It's great to prevent the blink reflex...) and yet they still tasted stale.

The beans I opened today don't produce as much crema but taste a heck of a lot better.


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## xiuxiuejar (Jan 24, 2012)

Yes, I don't want to get into trouble again for talking badly about robusta. About 15-20% of the robusta crop is what they call top line/grade robusta and is used for italian coffee blends to give balance, body and produce crema. It is perfectly acceptable when used like this.

The cheaper supermarket brands use robusta, as many argue, it is a bean that is made to be best when stale. Not sure this is true but what is true is that if you grind 15g of old Douwe Eggberts etc into your double filter, give it a good tamp and wait, in 25 seconds you've got a great looking glass of espresso. Taste is another matter!


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Personally I see it as a bad thing, a sign of channelling, and I try to get the mousetails a solid brown all the way through the pour. Relating that to how it tastes, when I do get striping I tend to end up with a thinner tasting, less sweet shot. But that's just my findings and I have no proof.


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## onemac (Dec 15, 2011)

To answer your question, I'm still struggling to get two shots tasting the same - whether it's good, bad or indifferent although I do strive for a good shot. I was under the impression tiger striping was a good thing (gleaned from vids and demos).

So what do you do differently to get the mousetails solid brown Mike? Are you using a naked portafilter or 1/2 spout?

Al


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

Crema is rubbish , isnt it?


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

I use a naked pf occasionally to help pinpoint any technique issues that may be creeping in but predominantly use a 2 spout. Good dosing, distribution and tamping are what gets me a nice solid coloured flow.

I'm not saying this is the correct way... it's just my findings. Striping might be fine for all I know.


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