From Nyatoh to new Blends: Overcoming Extraction Issues in Fully Automatic Machines

So we’re R&D-ing a blend designed for fully automatic machines. It’s been a rocky ride. We never really got the kind of extraction we wanted with our typical espresso blends like the Nyatoh (currently our boldest fully arabica blend). Intensity of the coffee was always lower and we were having trouble getting the same level of sweetness. So ultimately the shots kept getting drowned out by milk; the black would be slightly better but it was clear that the coffee suffered from a serious identity crisis. Nyatoh was being an A-hole.

These trials and hurdles ultimately inspired me to write something to rationalise why we were getting these issues. I’m going to try to make this as easy to read as possible, but there will be some tech talk in here which I hope is simple to understand.

What are fully automatic machines? It’s in the name, these machines typically use pre-ground coffee beans or whole beans with an automatic milk frother for making cappuccinos and lattes. For the focus of this article, I’ll be talking exclusively about using whole beans with the fully auto machine. For reference, we used a Phillips LatteGo. 

Fully automatic coffee machines are convenient and cost-efficient. These machines are easy to use, low maintenance, and can produce a consistent cup of coffee with the push of a button. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a good cup of coffee, but it is repeatable. It mainly boils down to these limitations: These machines are unable to grind the coffee beans as finely as espresso machines, and they generally have smaller baskets/ ground coffee chambers coupled with higher beverage yield vs espresso. 

Where espresso machines are typically paired with a standalone grinder, the fully automatic machines usually have one built in. However, these built-in grinders are not designed to grind as fine as their standalone counterparts. This is not a design flaw, fully automatic machines are built with reliability and user friendliness in mind, coffee quality is not the number one priority. With finer grinds, the risk of reliability issues increases significantly. The motor works harder, the coffee grounds easily cake up nooks and might even create clogs in the system. The pump also has to work harder to withstand the higher resistance presented by the finer grounds. 

So how does this translate into the final cup? Extraction and dose, that’s how.  The coffee dosage is an important factor in extraction. Espresso machines generally use 16-20 grams of coffee per double shot, while fully automatic coffee machines use around 6-12 grams per serving. Thelower coffee dosage in fully automatic machines results in less potential solubles to be extracted and therefore lower flavour intensity. 

On the other hand, the fact that the fully automatic machines don’t grind as fine means that there is less surface area for the water to interact with in addition to a much faster interaction because of the quicker flow through the coffee. This equates to a lower rate of extraction. You may however increase the amount of water dispensed to prop up extraction however it can also dilute the beverage; again resulting in lower intensity. 

In short, the fully automatic machine boasts infinitely more convenience and repeatability at the expense of quality and precision while the espresso machine allows for skilled hands to maximise potential for quality. Whichever you decide on is a personal choice and willingness to compromise. They’re quite different market segments. 

So what did we do as a roaster to compensate for the shortcomings of a fully automatic machine? We pushed the roast darker (not that dark) to improve the rate of extraction. Darker roasted coffee has a higher rate of extraction due to a more brittle and porous cell structure (heat+expanding gasses). We figured that it would also improve reliability to some extent on the grinder. We found cup quality to improve significantly without needing much tweaking. 

We’re probably not the first ones to think like this and it might have been common knowledge. That being said, now time is the best time to learn anyway.

We also will have a new product coming soon, so that’s pretty awesome.