At last! The big and heavy package from Seattle we had been waiting for so long.
First of all, the Hydra is one pretty damn cool espresso machine. It’s great to work with and it looks great. Besides that here’s a few very subjective and unscientific observations and thoughts after a few weeks:
- The espresso tastes very different – mostly in a good way. Generally speaking I find it sweeter and more balanced than before, most likely because of more stable brewing temperatures and perhaps the pre-infusion.
First glimpse of the beauty
- I’ve realised (once again) that I know and understand very little about espresso and machines. With our old Linea you had only one parametre – brewing time. Switch it on and off, that’s all. With the Synesso you have brewing temperature, pressure, brewing and pre-infusion times. For each group head. It’s very interesting to try different parametres for the same coffee but at the same time it can also be quite frustrating and difficult to find the right ones and just to change one at a time.
- Temperature plays a huge role when it comes to pulling espressos. This came as no surprise to me but brewing three otherwise similar espresso with different temperatures was eye-opening experience. Even a small change in the temperature affects the coffee a lot.
- The effect of pre-infusion time is a bit of mystery to me. I’ve always, for some reason, thought that espresso should taste sweeter when it’s pre-infused longer. It would make sense if all the coffee gets satureted and extracts more evenly.1 Longer pre-infusion, say over 5 seconds, seems to make the puck sludgier than a sub-five. At the moment I don’t know whether this is a good or bad thing but I’m going to do some “wannabe-research”. I’d love to hear any comments, thoughts or facts regarding this topic.
Synesso camouflaged
- There seems to be more channeling than before. I don’t know if it’s because of the machine that’s quite different than the previous, my skills (the most likely option) or duration of pre-infusion. Okay, I haven’t played around with naked portafilters too much before so it’s a bit difficult to say whether that kind of channeling has occured before (pinholes and obvious channels). What I’ve understood earlier is it that the longer pre-infusion the less channeling there should be. This just doesn’t seem to work, at least not often enough. I’ve started grooming the coffee again instead of just tamping it straight away but it still occurs. I’m quite puzzled with this one really. Has anyone else had similar problems?
- Dosing seems to be more important. It seems that a small difference in doses, say 18,5 gr and 19,0 gr, has a larger impact in the taste than with the Linea. Again, it’s impossible to say anything more as I haven’t worked nor experimented that much with the machine yet.
Though I had been drinking mostly filter coffee for some time now my interest in espresso reappeared with the arrival of Hydra. It inspires me and makes me want to learn more about it and espresso in general. I actually feel a little smug to be able to work and play with such terrific machine and three similar Anfim grinders.
Synesso installed
With the old Linea you could brew beautiful espresso. At least for me it was difficult and a bit of gamble but it was possible. Great espresso brewed with Synesso isn’t necessarily more delicious but it certainly is easier and more consistent to brew. I love Hydra’s sleek and functional design – no flashing lights, no LED-displays, easily adjustable brewing temperatures and the steaming wands. It’s not an easy machine. Hydra demands quite a lot from the barista in order to use its full potential (eg. different temperature and pressure setups for different coffees). For the time being I am just learning the basics of the machine,that is how to pull tasty (but perhaps not mind-blowing) espresso consistently. All in all, Hydra is a tool – the espresso is only as good as the barista himself.
I’m really bad with all this more scientific stuff, I really should try learn some [↩]
Synesso Hydra, part 2
At last! The big and heavy package from Seattle we had been waiting for so long.
First of all, the Hydra is one pretty damn cool espresso machine. It’s great to work with and it looks great. Besides that here’s a few very subjective and unscientific observations and thoughts after a few weeks:
- The espresso tastes very different – mostly in a good way. Generally speaking I find it sweeter and more balanced than before, most likely because of more stable brewing temperatures and perhaps the pre-infusion.
- I’ve realised (once again) that I know and understand very little about espresso and machines. With our old Linea you had only one parametre – brewing time. Switch it on and off, that’s all. With the Synesso you have brewing temperature, pressure, brewing and pre-infusion times. For each group head. It’s very interesting to try different parametres for the same coffee but at the same time it can also be quite frustrating and difficult to find the right ones and just to change one at a time.
- Temperature plays a huge role when it comes to pulling espressos. This came as no surprise to me but brewing three otherwise similar espresso with different temperatures was eye-opening experience. Even a small change in the temperature affects the coffee a lot.
- The effect of pre-infusion time is a bit of mystery to me. I’ve always, for some reason, thought that espresso should taste sweeter when it’s pre-infused longer. It would make sense if all the coffee gets satureted and extracts more evenly.1 Longer pre-infusion, say over 5 seconds, seems to make the puck sludgier than a sub-five. At the moment I don’t know whether this is a good or bad thing but I’m going to do some “wannabe-research”. I’d love to hear any comments, thoughts or facts regarding this topic.
- There seems to be more channeling than before. I don’t know if it’s because of the machine that’s quite different than the previous, my skills (the most likely option) or duration of pre-infusion. Okay, I haven’t played around with naked portafilters too much before so it’s a bit difficult to say whether that kind of channeling has occured before (pinholes and obvious channels). What I’ve understood earlier is it that the longer pre-infusion the less channeling there should be. This just doesn’t seem to work, at least not often enough. I’ve started grooming the coffee again instead of just tamping it straight away but it still occurs. I’m quite puzzled with this one really. Has anyone else had similar problems?
- Dosing seems to be more important. It seems that a small difference in doses, say 18,5 gr and 19,0 gr, has a larger impact in the taste than with the Linea. Again, it’s impossible to say anything more as I haven’t worked nor experimented that much with the machine yet.
Though I had been drinking mostly filter coffee for some time now my interest in espresso reappeared with the arrival of Hydra. It inspires me and makes me want to learn more about it and espresso in general. I actually feel a little smug to be able to work and play with such terrific machine and three similar Anfim grinders.
Synesso installed
With the old Linea you could brew beautiful espresso. At least for me it was difficult and a bit of gamble but it was possible. Great espresso brewed with Synesso isn’t necessarily more delicious but it certainly is easier and more consistent to brew. I love Hydra’s sleek and functional design – no flashing lights, no LED-displays, easily adjustable brewing temperatures and the steaming wands. It’s not an easy machine. Hydra demands quite a lot from the barista in order to use its full potential (eg. different temperature and pressure setups for different coffees). For the time being I am just learning the basics of the machine, that is how to pull tasty (but perhaps not mind-blowing) espresso consistently. All in all, Hydra is a tool – the espresso is only as good as the barista himself.