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Why a spritz of water before grinding coffee yields better results
- jimmaswell 3y agoWhat if you grounded the blades and inner areas? Would static be eliminated?
- cf100clunk 3y agoI tested that once on an old Black+Decker burr grinder by changing the OEM ungrounded plug to a grounded one. The superstructure was mostly plastic so grounding the whole unit wasn't possible, so I attached a length of grounded bare copper wire and ran it into the hopper after drilling a tiny hole (which made the polystyrene crack and require gluing). The results were not as I hoped: the bare wire thankfully seemed to conduct a lot of the static, but that meant the copper wire was coated in the grounds. The end result was that empthing the hopper was pretty well just as messy as without grounding. Your results may/will vary, and I never attempted other grinder grounding ideas. I bought a KitchenAid KCG8433DG, which does not have any issues with static.
- nightowl_games 3y agoDoesn't getting any moisture in the grinder cause the grinder to dull faster?
- bee_rider 3y agoI think this is a relevant question for those of us who are… doing this stuff at home and not expecting total perfection, haha. If my coffee is only slightly better, I’d rather not wear out my grinder. But, coffee beans already have some moisture in them, so I suspect the grinders can handle a little moisture. Just speculation though.
- chongli 3y agoThe study looked at the effects of the moisture on the grinder. They noticed a slight increase in humidity within the grind chamber that dissipated within a few minutes. Not something I’d worry about.
- roflyear 3y agoHe says "just a spritz" and it is true that just one spritz does help, but in the paper there was quite a bit of water applied - probably more like 3-4 spritz of water.
- xanderlewis 3y agoSpritzes? :-)
- cmiller1 3y agoI'm curious about how to add this to my coffee brewing process. Is there an optimal amount of water for a given weight of beans? Does it need to be a "spritz" rather than a "drop"? As in should I ideally find a spray bottle that nicely atomizes the water to apply it? Or would it be better to add the water to the beans, stir, then add them to my grinder?
- ysleepy 3y agoThe main known benefit is the reduced static electricity which reduced the amount of coffee sticking in and onto the grinder. The paper observes some difference in espresso brewing time in some grinder/brewer combinations, but this does not replicate well and wasn't investigated in regards to taste.
- foobarian 3y agoIn my experience only dark roasts have the static electricity problem, and since I prefer very lightly roasted beans this doesn't usually come up. But it is truly very annoying.
- orangepurple 3y agoAlleged "medium roast" can have this problem as well though. A few drops of water into 16 grams of beans kills the static and very little sticks to the grinder.
- roflyear 3y ago
- xanderlewis 3y agoJames Hoffmann talking about this yesterday: https://youtu.be/nLnB99VJ0HE?si=LIoZP0lwfsxvrqON https://youtu.be/nLnB99VJ0HE?si=LIoZP0lwfsxvrqON
- hackideiomat 3y agoLance made a video too, but in more detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuqVUsMPs-U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuqVUsMPs-U
- luag 3y agoLance Hedrick too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuqVUsMPs-U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuqVUsMPs-U
- lsllc 3y agoYes! he also interviews Christopher Hendon one of the paper's authors.
- searealist 3y agoHe doesn't mention if he used WDT, which is a strange oversight.
- papercrane 3y agoHoffman is a big proponent of using one, so I'd assume that he did.
- searealist 3y agoHe is also a content creator, so his main goal is to milk youtube views.
- adamparsons 3y agoMy understanding has been that youtube is more pet project for him, and square mile is what really pays the bills He's done a video before on what his normal process looks like, and its always had both the water spritz and WDT, so while annoying he didn't clarify, I'd assume he's still doing WDT in these results. My completely unscientific guess is its possible that WDT is redundant or solving a different problem, given WDT wouldn't be breaking up much of the static charges between smaller particles, just mechanically separating larger clumps that are visible to the naked eye. Still very keen to see someone rule it in or out because I personally loath WDT first thing in the morning
- 2devnull 3y agoBut as they point out residual moisture varies by roast, bean, time since roasting, storage, etc.
- mouse_ 3y agoAre we talking a metric spritz or an imperial spritz?
- cheschire 3y agoAll science is performed in metric, and as this is ars technica you know it is not science, and therefore done in imperial. qed
- Horffupolde 3y agoA then B, ~A then ~B?
- bee_rider 3y agoAll computer science is performed in valid proofs, and as this is Hackernews you know it is not computer science, and therefore done in fallacies. qed
- aulin 3y agoCampari is the best and only spritz
- ipsum2 3y agoAll this research, and not a single A/B/X test. Also very common among audiophiles, even ones focused on being scientific, replacing human testing with precise instrumentation that ends up not mattering in practice.
- aqme28 3y agoYes. Every time I see coffee advice like this I wonder if there's ever been an actual study on it. I don't think I can tell the difference between coffee at 92 degrees vs 99 degrees. What percent of people actually can?
- hackideiomat 3y agohttps://youtube.com/watch?v=pZ-hKmz4PIY https://youtube.com/watch?v=pZ-hKmz4PIY
- dmix 3y agoTwo people testing one brew (per temp) but interesting none the less.
- tednjrdjyrr 3y agoThe access the internet gives us to this kind of content is incredible. What a fun and interesting diversion into coffee brewing temperatures and how it might affect taste.
- Frost1x 3y agoI think it's worth keeping in mind tweaking different parameters often yields varied levels of improvements. Going from near freezing to hot water yields very different results that you can definitely discern for example. Coarseness of the grind definitely effects results: if you run hot water over raw beans it's not great meanwhile if you could say grind to a point you broke down many molecular bonds in the bean (I'm using the term "grind" loosely here to illustrate a point), you'd lose all the nifty chemicals that you want to taste and so on. So there's varied ways to adjust each given aspect of preparing coffee (including times of everything, the process itself, the order of the process and so on). And how you tweak each given aspect will have varying degrees of noticeable effect on the taste of the drink (some have almost none). Beans roasted 3 weeks ago probably won't be discernable from beans roasted 4 weeks ago. Beans roasted today might be discernable from those roasted a week ago, though. Each of these aspects isn't inherently independent of one another either. Coarseness, brew time, and pressure are often very closely linked and adjusting one or the other often requires adjusting the other for desirable results. Now while some of these sort of tweaks are tiny, combining all sorts of tiny tweaks can result in noticeable larger differences. It might not be obvious what it is because of all of the small component improvements, but the end result is something that, even slightly, is noticeably improved, which is true for about anything. Ultimately the question is does all this effort combined yield enough improvement that's noticeable. Maybe one small improvement isn't noticeable like adjusting from 92 to 99 degrees. That combined with a series of other tweaks might yield something worth the effort though. I know when I first started brewing espresso at home I laughed at a lot of advice thinking certain aspects of the brewing process were silly so I'd skip them or just ignore it all together. Things like weighing my beans, tweaking grind size, and so on. My first few weeks of espresso drinks were... pretty disappointing. Why can Starbucks (which in terms of espresso is often lackluster) make better espresso than me at home? As I went down the rabbit hole and adopted more silly strategies, I tasted notable improvements. It's not just me either, I've had friends try throughout the process and it went from "thanks, that was drinkable" being nice to my not so great coffee to now people saying "wow that's really great, how do you make that, that's the best coffee I've had." It sounds stupid until you start tweaking all these little parts. I'm not entirely scientific about it, much of it is a hit of an art and inference with science mixed in. I'm at a point now where I think no matter how many slightly improved tweaks I make, I won't be able to tell the difference and it's not worth the time. From your example, 92 to 99 C might come down to how much energy the water actually has and how precise you can measure it. When you're approaching boiling, some parts of the water probably is boiling and made a phase transition, you're measuring an average of some other part that may not be a good sample of the whole. Those parts that are boiling may result in damaging organics in what you're brewing leading to bitter flavors you don't want, so backing off gives you some margins of error in your measurement. 7 degrees might not make too much difference if it's say 95 and 88 C (a little more time might make up for similar results) but something approaching a critical point like boiling might actually matter.
- neverrroot 3y agoMany who are really into coffee know this “trick”. Still, you have to remember that there is no silver bullet that covers 100%. You can of course find beans that don’t benefit from this treatment or where things get worse, but in my experience, for my purpose, it helps with almost all beans I use regularly. Best you can do is try out for yourself and see if it helps. You and what you like is all that matters, don’t do things just because others do them.
- dmix 3y agoI've got a burr grinder with a large hopper I usually keep filled with beans, how do I wet the beans in that case?
- hprotagonist 3y agoempty your hopper, store the beans in a separate container, and weigh and grind per brew.
- alfiedotwtf 3y agoWas just about to comment the same thing. Keep beans air-tightly stored away from the sun but not in the fridge. When making a coffee, measure only what you need. IMHO the biggest factor is not the gear, it's the beans - I would rather "good beans and a $50 espresso machine from Aldi" than "burnt beans with a La Marzocco Linea Mini" every time.
- dmix 3y agoAnother thing is grinders too apparently. I watched a video once explaining why espresso machines are so expensive and they said they'd rather have a $700 espresso machine with an expensive grinder than a $4000 machine with a cheap grinder.
- sva_ 3y agoI often hear the priority list being 1. Quality of beans 2. Quality of the grinder 3. Quality of the espresso machine I'm not exactly sure what sets apart some grinder from another. Some say they more evenly grind the beans (similar particle sizes) but I am not sure if that is all there is to it.
- fnord77 3y agoI can't believe they milked an academic paper out of this. I know people who have done this for years.
- bee_rider 3y agoEh, most journals are mostly digital nowadays, it isn’t as if they are going to run out of room. The methods might be interesting, and if nothing else it seems like accessible material. If it is well written it could be a nice quirky paper to stick in a senior year undergrad course… And, that people already do it doesn’t mean it is unpublishable. It is good to figure out why common behaviors work.
- hackideiomat 3y agoEspecially because people didn't know ALL the effects. This is not just about static, but also how it impacts shots.
- epistasis 3y agoYou might be interested in James Hoffman's opinion of the paper, a coffee wonk who has been using the RDT for a long time, but found a lot to learn from the paper: https://youtu.be/nLnB99VJ0HE?si=1Pc47qo94ZxbTlZq https://youtu.be/nLnB99VJ0HE?si=1Pc47qo94ZxbTlZq
- elromulous 3y agoDirect link to the paper https://www.cell.com/matter/pdf/S2590-2385(23)00568-4.pdf https://www.cell.com/matter/pdf/S2590-2385(23)00568-4.pdf
- analog31 3y agoAsk HN: To anybody who has tried this, does it gum up the grinder?
- avtolik 3y agoThe opposite. It helps with retention.
- nosefurhairdo 3y agoNope. I use a little spray every time I grind. Also used to wet a fingertip and stir the beans with it for the same effect. I'm not grinding for espresso, but reducing static is nice for cleanliness and minimizing grind retention. Tons of coffee nerds have been using this technique for many years now, never heard of it causing grinder issues.
- keep_reading 3y agoBusiness partner / coffee expert was huge into the online barista community and knew about this method for years. We did it with our commercial grinder and it worked great to reduce the amount of cleaning the grinder needed
- c0pium 3y agoThe method in this paper is different than most existing RDT applications since achieving the best results requires much more water than anyone was previously suggesting. The heuristic that James Hoffman has espoused is 3-4 spritzes of water per 18g of coffee. Obviously this depends on the spritzer you use, but it’s much more water than people have used before so questions about that effect are valid. The paper addresses these concerns somewhat by measuring humidity in the grind chamber, and they found that it dropped to ambient on the order of a minute after grinding finished.
- maxlamb 3y agoYes I had some beans stuck in the grinder after trying the technique, I guess you could try to push them in or remove them somehow but it makes the whole process take more time and laborious to make sure you dont end up grinding old rancid beans the next time around
- lfuller 3y agoAs I've seen several comments on this here - people have used spritzes of water to reduce static when grinding coffee for years, but the interesting part of this study was the finding that beyond reducing static, adding enough water prior to grinding actually reduces flow rate and increases extraction by preventing the creation of coffee clumps / aggregates. So it confirms the anti-static properties that everyone already knew, but has interesting implications for increasing extraction without changing any other variables.
- c0pium 3y agoIt also bears pointing out that the amount of water needed to achieve these anti-clumping effects is probably twice what people are using following existing RDT (water spraying) methods.
- searealist 3y agoWDT was already super popular, so the declumping properties aren't very useful. And the static issue is mostly limited to non-traditional light roasts.
- laweijfmvo 3y agoI imagine that the clumps being discussed here are much smaller and much more electrostaticly attached than a NDT can deal with.
- searealist 3y agoWDT would be an extremely obvious thing to test in both the original paper as well as the follow-up videos by Hoffman/Hedrick. It is absent in all three. Also note that Hoffman found RDT only helped in _some_ grinders. WDT also only helps with some grinders.
- stouset 3y agoThe clumps in question are electrically bound, so WDT likely won’t do much to break them up.
- webnrrd2k 3y agoI have to wonder how much this static electricity is in an actual coffee shop... I'd think that the machines would be legally required to be electrically earth-grounded. Wouldn't this remove the static charge as the coffee is physically ground? And, even if the coffee particles are charged after physical grinding, wouldn't water flowing through them in the espresso maker also electrically ground them, thus removing the charge?
- lfuller 3y agoI consult for a specialty coffee shop, and in my experience the electrical ground of the machine has no impact on static generation - I doubt the burrs themselves are grounded. The amount of static you get very much depends on the specific grinder you use. Our large-batch shop grinder creates massive amounts of static and requires water to be added to not end up with a mess, while our espresso grinders tend to generate less. To your second point, one of the fascinating things about this study is that the static charge during the grinding process causes the coffee to clump - that means that by the time the water hits the coffee puck it is too late to avoid the static-induced clumping.
- GuB-42 3y agoOn average, what comes out of the grinder is electrically neutral, so there is no more point in grounding the grinder more than for any other electrical device. The problem is at the particle (coffee grind) level, some are positively charged, others are negatively charged. The result is that if two particles of the same charge come close together, both will shoot out in opposite direction, and that direction is not necessarily where your basket is, and it will make a mess. If however, two particles of opposite charge come close together, they will stick together and neutralize, but by doing so, they will form a clump that may cause uneven extraction. The idea with spraying the beans with water is to prevent static buildup before particles have a chance to form clumps or make a mess.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- aendruk 3y agoLike others I’ve been doing this at home for years with uncooperative beans e.g. most decaf, but it’s fun to have it modeled. My highly technical method has been to stick a finger under the faucet then twizzle it around the beans in the weighing cup.
- jihadjihad 3y agoHaha, you're not alone--I do the exact same thing! I feel like too much water could affect the burrs somehow? I don't know. So I am with you! A few drops jostled around and it's good to go!
- psytrx 3y agoYes, too much water on the beans can lead to water gathering on the burrs, which can lead to rust on the burrs. I use the teaspoon method (just the handle), cover it in water and stir the beans a couple of times. Just a single data point, but I've done this for 2 years at ~2.5 shots a day with no sign of rust on the burrs. YMMV
- Drew_ 3y agoI also do finger+faucet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it actually adds _more_ water than a single spritz.
- dannylandau 3y agoJust tried this trick, using a bottle spray on some beans in the hopper before grinding. And this was before I read this article, very timely!
- alacode 3y agoI'd be worried if there's an increased risk of mold growth.
- pivo 3y agoI've been doing this for years and haven't seen any evidence of mold, even in more humid summer months.
- antisthenes 3y agoYou're worried mold is going to grow in the 5 minutes between grinding and brewing?
- stinos 3y agoMore like in the 24*60 - 5 minutes between brewing and grinding again the next day. In all seriousness: it can takes surprisingly little time for ground wet coffee to form mold. Think 48h range especially when it's relatively hot.
- AlbertCory 3y agoAs a couple people pointed out: Human taste testing is the only way, if you want to up your game. I just published a paper on this on HN (sorry, one arm's in a sling, so don't ask for a link). If what you want is Science, then this is great; don't get me wrong.
- cf100clunk 3y agoThere is a burr grinder that never has a problem with static cling so does not require the spritz of water: the KitchenAid KCG8433DG Burr Grinder (the last two letters refer to the colour of the body, so mine is Dark Gray). The grinding mechanism is conical and shockingly quiet, unlike the typical flat disk burr grinders I've had over the years from Braun, De'Longhi, Black+Decker, and Cuisinart, with all their static mess and irritating loudness. The conical nature of the grinding mechanism seems to force the grounds downward quickly and directly into the lower hopper with no static or mess. The lower hopper is cylindrical, meaning that the contents pour into my coffee maker's basket so much more cleanly than from the rectangular or oddly shaped hoppers from the competitors I've mentioned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpjGfpN4y7w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpjGfpN4y7w
- deelowe 3y agoConical burr grinders are much better. Kitchen aid isn't the only brand. I have a brazata encore that works very well and there's a good modding community for it as well. For example the burrs can be upgraded fairly easily which is typically needed if you want an expresso grind.
- cf100clunk 3y agoI'd never heard of that Brazata Encore, not that I'm in the market anymore. Good to know though. The KitchenAid allows removal of the top ring in the conical grinder, allowing ultra-coarse grinds. I've never had to do that because I find that the coarsest grind is already great for my French Press.
- charles_f 3y agoWhile the encore is a good machine, pretty much everyone is agreeing that flat burrs provide a better consistency than conical
- cf100clunk 3y agoThat is not at all what I have found, but who am I to argue with "everyone", heh heh.
- 01100011 3y agoI've used one of these types of sprayers for a couple years: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08X7HLJP7 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08X7HLJP7 I originally did it because my hand burr grinder would end up with ground coffee stuck inside due to the static electricity. One, quick, half-spray is all that's needed. Lately I also use the spritzer to dampen the filter and the grounds while I wait for my water to heat up.
- rokkitmensch 3y agoThis is also known as a "bloom" if you do it before the full immersion. Helps the CO2 boil off before you load the rest of the water in, which keeps the grounds from clumping at the top and not fully extracting.
- secondcoming 3y agoI just spritzed my headphones and the audio quality is definitely better
- redandblack 3y agoI generally don't follow recipes and rules although I do read them - but always experiment during cooking. Coffee is one of those over the last 40+ years. After many iterations (filter, mocha pot, simple espresso), I have arrived at a French press for my morning coffee at home - I grind coffee reasonable fine and onto the pot while getting water ready in a electric heater. I add just under 3 tablespoons of water and then slow stir for a good 2 to 3 mins. Then add remaining water. After a couple of mins, it is a really smooth coffee in a mug and ready for the scrum call. I do the same for tea as well - tea leaves, black as I prefer with milk, stir, wait and a relaxing cup at night. I found the stirring to be the most useful - mentally a few mins of inconsequential living, and then with a good cup
- hammock 3y agoI use a similar method and the stirring / first drench (the “bloom” - 45-60sec sufficient in my experience) is important for letting all the air come out of the grounds so that they can dissolve in the rest of the water and not float on the top where the extraction will be suboptimal
- Drew_ 3y agoIf you wanna save time, you can skip the bloom (water and stir) since it doesn't really have an effect for immersion brews like the french press.
- e12e 3y agoI suspect adding a small amount of water has a similar effect to letting the water cool to 95C - I certainly assume the heat capacity of "a little bit" of water is less than a full press. So, sure, skip the water&stir - but be mindful of the temperature.
- stjohnswarts 3y agoI'm still a drip man but after about 20 years of trying all kinds of coffee, french press is still what I fall back to when I'm not in a hurry and want just a smooth flavorful coffee. I always grind my coffee and use within a day or two, nothing smells as nice as fresh ground.
- dubeye 3y agoMy local coffee shop does none of the fancy stuff bar you see in vids. Bar grinding beans. No weighing or spraying or stirring. Tastes amazing.
- bch 3y agoThat's great - you're correct in realizing some of these things aren't really suitable for a "production" env, versus (e.g.) a home enthusiast, which might essentially be a lab environment. There's space for both of them.
- L_co 3y agoMost high-end burr grinders have settings that allow you to adjust how much coffee comes out for a single dose. The machines also can be tuned to deliver a specific output for a given grind and dose. Given this, it's likely that the barista is still weighing inputs and outputs, even if you don't see them use a scale while you're there.
- yoyoyo1122 3y agoI would hope so when they're using espresso machines worth $10k+ more than mine
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- spoonjim 3y agoI’d love to see some coffee snobs do ABX tests of their voodoo coffee vs. something from Walmart
- LesZedCB 3y agoit's called cupping and we do it regularly. it's extremely easy to detect differences between coffees when tasting side by side. I roast my own at home, doing two batches of different coffees at a time, and try to compare them with each other as well as my previous batches. using grocery store coffee as a baseline is actually recommended as well. I highly recommend doing a cupping sometime, it's great for learning what you like, you may discover something.
- InCityDreams 3y agoWhat do you use/ how do you 'clean' your mouth between varieties? Water, I'd guess....?
- LesZedCB 3y agoI rinse my spoon in water but i don't do anything else. here's the full protocol if you're interested! I highly recommend doing it sometime, just get a few different coffees, ideally with a roast date < 4 weeks old. "best by" dates can be like 6 months post roast. the rating system is for professionals, but doing each tasting focusing on specifics like acidity, bitterness, body, etc is definitely valuable! https://sca.coffee/research/protocols-best-practices https://sca.coffee/research/protocols-best-practices or if you prefer a video, James Hoffmann has a cupping walkthrough. https://youtu.be/cSEgP4VNynQ?si=JM8DBxMUEaxyh5HZ https://youtu.be/cSEgP4VNynQ?si=JM8DBxMUEaxyh5HZ
- jihadjihad 3y agoI'd be interested in hearing from folks that live in more humid climes--is this as much of an issue there, versus, say, Arizona? Or is the static buildup consistent regardless of ambient moisture?
- pard68 3y agoLived in the Appalachians and Ozarks, both are fairly humid locales. Coffee is the most static substance on the face of the earth.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- guidedlight 3y agoHalfway down the article it mentions all this testing is with Starbucks coffee beans. Yuk!
- DesiLurker 3y agowhy am I suddenly seeing more posts about coffee & brewing. I can swear I did not search about it or click ads, is anybody else experiencing this?
- kwertyoowiyop 3y agoThis kind of passion used to only be seen in items about Emacs customization!
- quickthrower2 3y agoAudiophiles too?
- justin66 3y ago[flagged]
- stjohnswarts 3y agoyeah, I have a small electric ceramic burr grinder and I dont' have any of these problems. I also have a blade grinder for when I'm in a hurry/have guests. Still no problems, I might lose 1% to static.
- massifist 3y agoThis is good to know. I usually stir the fresh grinds with a metal fork which seems help remove static charge. It seems like the static problem gets worse with darker roasts (in my experience).
- loaph 3y agoThe darker roasts part is mentioned in the article too! It's because darker roasts have less internal water content to begin with since they have typically been roasted longer
- _kb 3y agoAs an alternative approach, the new Fellow Ode grinder integrates an ionizer [0] the grinds pass through for similar effect. A similar setup could be hacked into other machines or form part of a manual process for those wanting to experiment further. [0]: https://youtu.be/B-bXctXbXFc?t=205 https://youtu.be/B-bXctXbXFc?t=205
- laweijfmvo 3y agoJames Hoffman (linked above) discussed why an ionizer might not be as effective
- _kb 3y agoDirect link to discussion: https://youtu.be/nLnB99VJ0HE?t=570 https://youtu.be/nLnB99VJ0HE?t=570. Argument is the aggregate has already formed before hitting the ionizer (in the chute).
- anjel 3y agoOxo has a burr grinder with a stainless steel grind bin that supposedly discharges the static.
- midtake 3y agoI've never noticed static is a problem, but I use a $15 blade grinder and a $15 French press.
- danielovichdk 3y ago[flagged]
- yulker 3y agoCan you expand on the rum ritual here? As in rum as a substitute for having coffee altogether?
- searealist 3y agoMost of these new techniques (spritz before grinding, pre-infusion, puck screens) don't help at all with traditional dark espresso roasts. If you aren't brewing light roasts, then you don't need to worry about this.
- wackget 3y agoIt can't just be me who thinks adding moisture to the already-filthy internals of a coffee grinder is a terrible idea. Sounds like a recipe for mould growth. I took apart my electric grinder once for cleaning and it stank of mildew even without adding water to the beans.
- Drew_ 3y agoIf you grind oily dark roasts, the oils stick around in your grinder and go rancid. That's what you're probably smelling. You just need to clean your grinder some what regularly. This isn't a problem for medium-lighter roasts and water added with RDT doesn't really have any effect in practice.
- quickthrower2 3y agoIf you do this you would clean out your grinder more often I presume
- mortos 3y agoHendon, the head of this research, stated that the humidity in the grinder went as high as 70% iirc but the humidity would dissipate within a matter of seconds. It may matter for some grinders but he stated no concerns.
- stjohnswarts 3y agoThe coffee will no doubt soak up any small spritz of water quickly, it's basically a desiccant. No chance mold will be able to use that water.
- m3kw9 3y agoSo that stupid pin brush people invested in to mix the grinds is now obsolete
- quickthrower2 3y agoWDT? I don’t think that is needed unless you have a crappy grinder.
- mortos 3y agoWDT basically always gives a boost in extraction, regardless of grinder. I haven't seen anyone recommend against it. You can get by without it but if you can put up with the minor hassle you should do it.
- m3kw9 3y agoMost times you will not reach this stage to make a difference, most of the adjustment is in the grind size, dose, and temp pressure. This is just gonna add another variable to where things can go wrong. Leave it to barista championship to do this
- tonymet 3y agoA water spritzer (spray bottle) is one of the most useful kitchen tools. Spray your bread before toasting to improve succulence and browning -- this works best on bagels & english muffins. Spray food before microwaving to avoid drying it out. Spray frozen foods before microwaving to kick-start heating (microwaves act only on liquid water). Spray sautés to speed up heat transfer. Your refrigerator , freezer , microwave & conventional ovens all dry things out. A big reason why leftovers are terrible is that they've lost all succulence. Also, all food needs water to cook properly . It stabilizes temps and moves heat around.
- cactusplant7374 3y agoAlso, air pop your popcorn and spritz it with water so low calorie Molly McCheese seasoning sticks.
- tonymet 3y agothis is a great general tip for salting or seasoning something dry
- jamiek88 3y ago> microwaves act only on liquid water This is a common misconception. Microwave ovens heat up a lot more than just water. They also heat sugars, fats, waxes, and can even efficiently heat some types of glass. Microwave ovens work on the principles of dielectric heating, not any form of resonance. The microwave radiation causes the molecules to rotate back and forth with the electric field to generate heat. It doesn't really have anything to do with the bonds. Reference: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/why-do-microwaves-only-heat-up-water.458951/# https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/why-do-microwaves-only...
- tonymet 3y agoFor practical purposes it’s a useful model.
- 3y ago
- Jeff_Brown 3y agoThe article is specifically about espresso but the title here suggest it works for any kind of coffee. Does this apply to traditional slow brew coffee too?
- adamparsons 3y agoI thought I'd share I finally tried this today, on a fairly low end grinder that clumps because of mechanical means, not just static means. After doing a little WDT to break up the larger clumps, I noticed I only had to do a very short WDT before the grounds looked ready. I noticed the shot took about 8 seconds longer than normal before I reached the target weight. Super cool! edit: to make this slightly more scientific: My spritzing was 0.5g. Hoffmans video seems to indicate his bottle takes four sprays to hit 0.5g, my cheap nasty bottle did it in two sprays. Definitely worth measuring with a 0.1g scale if you're going to try this, as 0.1 appears to reduce chaff on your grinder, but around 0.4 onwards was needed for this brewing outcome