# Different beans, different extraction



## bronc (Dec 10, 2012)

So I have a somewhat weird problem. I have an old Euromax President espresso machine - a grinder and espresso machine in one but it's a burr grinder so it's not that bad. Oh, and the portafilter is non-pressurized.

I was able to dial in my grinder to the sweet spot where I get a 60ml shot extracted for around 25-30sec depending on how hard I tamp (and I need to tamp quite hard in order to get good extraction time and I'm almost at the finest settings for the grinder). I did this using very cheap Robusta beans. Today I bought some 100% Arabica beans from my supermarket which looked fairly fresh (the once which you can get by the kilo). So grinding the same amount of coffee at the same setting, tamping it with pretty much the same pressure... almost choked the machine! Coffee was barely dripping and it would've probably taken it a minute or more to produce the shot so I stopped it. I tried very light tamping but again it was flowing super slow. Obviously, I'll have to play around with the grinder settings but can somebody explain to me why is this happening? I would expect a slightly fast/slower extraction with different beans but this was nothing like it - it was completely different with the different beans.


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## shrink (Nov 12, 2012)

different beans grind differently. A darker roasted bean will tend to break apart easier and grinder much finer, and a medium roast will typically grind a bit coarser with the same settings. Its also to do with how large the beans are, oil content, etc etc. Unless the roast, size and oil content are very very close between beans, you'll find you have to adjust between each brand change, even possibly small adjustments between batches of the same bean roasted at different times.


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## tribs (Feb 21, 2012)

Yeah, it can vary a lot. Never used robusta in my Classic but some beans need a way finer grind. Also roast level has quite an effect.

As shrink said







^^^


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## RoloD (Oct 13, 2010)

Different beans, and probably more importantly, different roasts will produced very different results when ground - this is to be expected and why people here put so much emphasis on the grinder.

I'm not sure what "looked fairly fresh" means - they could have been lying around in a warehouse for months.


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## bronc (Dec 10, 2012)

Hmm, I see. Well, I've been into coffee for a month or something so I don't really have a lot of experience and I'm saving up to buy myself a Classic. It's just mind-blowing for me that there is such big difference between two beans. I'll have to wait for my hand burr grinder because the dial knob on the machine is kind of broken and it doesn't want to rotate any more so I'm stuck on this setting now







Thanks for the input! Now I see why people here say that the grinder is more important than the machine.

@RoloD - I know but in my town and even in my country (Bulgaria) it's very hard to find freshly roasted beans because there aren't any local roasters. AFAIK, there is only one roaster in Sofia (the capital city) who has very good and fresh coffee (I think all of the coffees he sells have won the Cup of Excellence award) but I don't see a point ordering beans from there before I've received my Tiamo burr grinder.


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## RoloD (Oct 13, 2010)

bronc said:


> @RoloD - I know but in my town and even in my country (Bulgaria) it's very hard to find freshly roasted beans because there aren't any local roasters. AFAIK, there is only one roaster in Sofia (the capital city) who has very good and fresh coffee (I think all of the coffees he sells have won the Cup of Excellence award) but I don't see a point ordering beans from there before I've received my Tiamo burr grinder.


 Apologies - I assumed you were in the UK.


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## bronc (Dec 10, 2012)

No apologies needed. You guys are great! I think I'm gonna order some beans when I get my hand burr grinder from Has Beans as they do int'l delivery.


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