View Shopping Basket
Gifts
Friends & Family
Gift Certificates
Coffee
Main Range
Specialty Blend
Flavoured Coffee
Decaffeinated
Flavoured Decaf
Chocolates
Tea
Black Tea
Flavoured Tea
Fruit Melange
Green Tea
Herbal Tea
Lapacho
Organic Tea
Accessories
Plungers, Teapots, Infusers
Stovetop Espressos
Cups
Other
Medicinal Herbs
Complete range
Barista Supplies
Cleaning Solutions
|
Cleaning Solutions
All espresso machines share the same basic approach to making coffee. They percolate hot water under pressure through tightly packed roasted ground coffee beans to extract the flavorsome and fragrant brew known as 'espresso coffee'.
This process leaves behind a 'cake' of used grounds that is easily disposed of. But some of these grounds will remain in the machine along with sticky coffee oils which will eventually block the filters and become rancid. The result will be bitter coffee lacking flavour and a steady reduction in the effectiveness and reliability of the machine. The solution is simple - regularly clean the machine.
Cleaning procedures for espresso machines will fall into one of four categories. Compare your machine's brewing unit and milk frothing systems to these listed here. This will tell you how to maintain your machine in perfect condition.
Removable brewing unit
The brewing unit is designed to be removed from the machine for cleaning. Remove the brewing unit and place in a sink of warm water. Clean the unit of coffee oils and grounds, particularly the filters. Never place the coffee machine in the sink only the removable brewing unit and never clean the brewing unit in a dishwasher. Use sink dishwashing detergent and always rinse the unit thoroughly.
Cleaning the milk system
Just as there are different cleaning approaches for the four types of coffee brewing units, there are different cleaning approaches to the four types of milk frothing systems. Milk 'is a food very susceptible to bacterial spoilage and so great care should be taken to keep the milk system of the espresso machine in spotless condition, or you may get poor froth, bad tasting coffee or cause Illness.
Steam or milk frothing wand This is a pipe coming from the machine used to manually froth milk by forcing steam through the milk. These are best cleaned externally by wiping thoroughly with a clean damp cloth directly after use.
If the wand has not been cleaned and therefore has caked on milk deposits, soak the wand in a jug with clean, hot water until the deposits are soft and wipe clean. Never soak the wand with chemicals they can be drawn back up into the machine.
A tip never over froth the milk by exhausting the machine's steam capacity since this can lead to milk being drawn back up into the machine.
Steam wand and froth enhancer Froth enhancers are devices attached to the steam wand to help make richer froth when manually steaming milk. To clean the froth enhancer, remove and thoroughly clean in hot water ensuring all milk deposits are removed before replacing on the cleaned steam wand.
Descaling the machine
In addition to roasted ground coffee and milk, espresso has one other ingredient water. But water is not just water. The white crust you see in your kettle is hard water scale which is caused by the heating of water that contains calcium and magnesium ions. All tap water and mineral water contain these ions and they cannot be removed by filtration. They are perfectly safe to drink, however the problem is they cause scale to build up in both the coffee brewing unit and the milk frothing system the areas of the machine where the water is heated.
This scale reduces the efficiency of the machine by blocking the pipes, tubes and filters. It is important to recognise that coffee machine cleaners will not remove hard water scale.
The solution is to descale (or de calcify) your machine regularly. Descaling your espresso machine will remove hard water scale from both the coffee brewing unit and milk frothing system keeping it working properly.
|
