Written by Josh French
Earlier this year our management team was given the opportunity to attend the World Barista Championship (WBC) event in Seattle, WA. We tasted coffee, schmoozed with other coffee professionals, tasted coffee, played with cool new coffee gadgets, explored Seattle, tasted coffee… you get the idea. Despite the plethora of cool new coffee gadgets, our chance to serve our espresso using Synesso’s new MVP technology at the trade show was by far the coolest experience we found all weekend.
Luckily, after having so much fun using their new machine, Synesso offered to send us the first U.S. model as soon as it was ready for prime time.
That time has come.
Our brand-new, one-of-a-kind, shiny, glorious Synesso Hydra MVP arrived a couple weeks ago. We’ve been working around the clock to formulate our plans for the technology, train our baristas, and install the machine in our downtown shop located on SW 10th & Yamhill.
Here’s what makes it so unique:
Historically espresso has been crafted by forcing water through a small puck of finely-ground coffee at 9 bars of pressure (130 psi). Using 9 bars of pressure, baristas have dialed-in their espresso parameters by changing the grind and the dose to achieve the best tasting shots they could. With Synesso’s Hydra MVP, we can craft espresso by controlling the amount of pressure we use during multiple stages of the extraction process -- in real time! This means that in addition to utilizing grind and dose as variables, we can also use varying amounts of pressure to help facilitate the extraction of flavor from the coffee.
The extraction begins with the pre-infusion phase, wherein only 3 bars of pressure are used in order to cause the puck to swell as it absorbs water. When the water has saturated the puck it becomes more cohesive and uniform, ensuring that the extraction happens evenly.
We then ease into full pressure by ramping up to 7.5 bars of pressure for a few more seconds to further ensure that the puck remains uniform and extracts evenly once we have applied full pressure.
Finally, after several seconds of full 9 bar pressure, we enter the fourth and final ramp-down phase wherein the extraction process is slowed and the relief of pressure helps to wash small solid particles into the cup. By ramping down in this manner, over-extraction is avoided and the body/texture of the shot is retained.
Our process with the MVP allows us to craft better tasting and more consistent espresso. In fact, it even has the ability to save the details of our best extractions to ensure we can repeat whatever processes produce delicious extractions. We’re really excited about this cool new coffee gadget and we hope to craft you a delicious espresso soon!
Join us Friday evening, October 23rd at our downtown shop where we will be co-hosting a bangin’ party with Synesso show off this fancy new machine.
802 SW 10th Ave, 5pm - 9pm
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