How to make the perfect cappuccino
Making Espresso
Filling (charging) the group handle
- Make sure you fill the handle with the correct quantity of coffee – i.e. two clicks for a double handle cup, one click for a single.
- Never “half-click” the grinder – next time you make a coffee the portions will be wrong.
- Don’t press coffee down too hard in the handle – just smooth the surface gently.
- Brush off the excess coffee around the handle.
Making coffee
- Do not leave a full, unused group handle in the group head – always make the coffee immediately after you insert the handle.
- Click the handle in place, ensure you move the handle bar all the way to the right to ensure a good seal. If not done correctly, the coffee will leak out of the handle.
- Use warm espresso cups – a cold cup will cool the coffee down very quickly and cause the crema to disappear rapidly.
- Brew the coffee, making the checks as described in the grinder section (and see fig.1 below), and serve as quickly as possible.
Making Cappuccino
Coffee should be brewed in the same way as espresso, with a slightly larger volume of water. As a guide, you should 1/3 fill your cappuccino cup with coffee.
Frothing Milk
- Use any milk you like – full cream, semi-skimmed, skimmed, soya, yaks milk - all work as long as they are really cold. However, you will find that occasionally a milk won’t froth, this sometimes happens in winter months when cows are fed silage as opposed to fresh grass. When this happens, switch milk brands temporarily or buy a milk specifically produced for frothing. (P.S. we lied about the yaks milk)
- Use a stainless steel milk jug specifically designed for frothing.
- Only 1/3 fill your frothing jug, it makes frothing easier and means that the frothed milk won’t overflow.
- Place the jug under the steam nozzle to a depth of approximately half an inch and turn on the steam. As the milk starts to foam, lower the jug so that the nozzle stays constantly below the level of the foam (see fig.2). Be careful not to allow the nozzle to get above the foam as this will splatter milk and foam all over you and the coffee machine. As the foam continues to rise inside the jug, the steam is also penetrating further into the milk, thus starting to heat it. When the foam has reached the consistency of a soufflé, raise the jug so that the nozzle goes deeper into the milk while placing your free hand on the side of the jug. When the temperature on the side of the jug is such that it feels hot but is still just bearable, the milk will be sufficiently heated. Remember, it is always better to under-heat the milk than over-heating and boiling it.
- If the frothed milk has been standing for a while, it will stick to the sides of the jug. If this happens either swirl it around a bit and scoop out the milk with a spatula, or add a small amount of fresh, cold milk and give it a quick blast of steam to loosen up the froth.
- If you need to refroth milk or top up a half-empty jug, always add cold milk and then refroth to stop the milk overheating.
- If you do overheat the milk and it goes flat, don’t try to froth it again, throw it away and start again.
- When you’ve finished frothing wipe the steam nozzle clean with a clean, damp cloth and give the steam wand a quick blast of steam to clear it out. This stops an unsightly and unhygienic build-up of milk solids on and in the steam wand and nozzle.
