I’m still frustrated with the overall taste of my creations. I’ve made a lungo coffee just to see what it gives and my girlfriend liked it more than the espressos. In fact so much, that she asked me for another one in the afternoon. A declaration of war if you ask me.

Fortunately nobody asks me, so we can still pretend to live in peace. I profit from the calm before the storm to ask her a favor: I need a little water spray bottle of which she has plenty. I’ve heard that spraying your beans before grinding them can improve your coffee. I’m desperate and got nothing to lose.

Hero of the day

I spray my beans (3 sprays) with my “Pscht”. Yes, that’s how french people call a spray bottle, because it makes this sound. Their language is a joke. Anyway, the beans get fairly wet. I’m a bit worried as I see little droplets of moisture in my grinder. But exceptional results need sacrifice and today my grinder is the unlucky one.

I pull my shot. I hear my Gaggia work against the puck. 5 seconds pass, 7 seconds, still no coffee flow. Usually it starts at 4 seconds mind you. After 11 seconds I finally see some sad droplets of coffee emerge. I stop the extraction at 31s, 30g (19g in). Without the water I had 38g in 25s.

I taste the coffee with my girlfriend. It feels like kissing a chocolate bar. A cold shower in a heatwave. It’s so much better than the ones before. My mind is once more blown. I’m back on track. My girl forgot about the lungo already. Victory!

Why though ?

I’m in no position to give a profound answer. I can only repeat the things I’ve heard and read on the internet. So take it with a grain of salt.

Coffee can become statically charged when ground. It’s the same effect as your hair if you rub a rubber balloon against your head. This static charge makes the coffee magnetic, which creates clumps. Clumps are very bad (tm) because they create channeling, our arch-nemesis.

Different grinders create different amounts of static charge. Some have counter-measures built-in, other don’t. Mine doesn’t. In fact, the DF64 is said to create a lot of static charge by some.

Fortunately, the fix is simple: Spray the beans with water. Why does this work? Because water is a polar molecule. This means that it interacts with the statically charged coffee by moving. This movement consumes the energy of the static charge, removing it entirely.

Summary

My new tools were a fancy upgrade for my coffee process. But a 1 euro water bottle made the real difference. Magic.