Analyze Espresso with Real Data to Make Improvements using the DiFluid
What's the best way to improve your coffee? The answer is simple - make adjustments using hard data.
In this video Luke is explaining how you can use a product like the DiFluid refractometer to measure TDS (total dissolveable solids) and make assessments to improve your espresso. The DiFluid is a pocket sized refractometer that is simple to use and it partners with an app to make sense of the readings it produces.
On his kitchen bench in the video Luke has a cold brew and two espresso extractions from his GS3. One which was brewed at 9 bars of pressure and the other at 3 bars of pressure. He takes us through the process of assessing each of these with the DiFluid and explains the data and what it all means. The difference in results from the 9 bar to the 3 bar extraction is quite surprising.
The DiFluid is a very handy tool for anyone looking to improve their coffee and it certainly has helped us make changes to the recipes that we use here Artisti.
Unedited Video Transcript
0:00
g'day everyone today I'm going to be
0:02
talking about how you know whether
0:04
you're making a great tasting espresso
0:06
well firstly you need to know that you
0:08
need to be able to measure it and how do
0:10
we measure it well it's called TDS and
0:13
that is total dissolved solids and
0:16
basically that means when you're passing
0:19
water through a coffee bed how much of
0:21
that actual coffee ends up inside your
0:24
cup now to do that we use a product
0:27
called a refractometer which allows us
0:29
to take a liquid sample from a cold brew
0:32
or espresso or whatever you're brewing
0:34
and pass light through it and the
0:37
refracting light allows us to have a
0:39
measurement which is going to be
0:40
measuring things like the minerals and
0:42
salts that are in there to give us a
0:45
number that we can work with to do a bit
0:48
more of a science equation on
0:50
foreign
0:52
[Music]
0:55
geeky and Technical in this and because
0:57
there's so many other videos already out
0:59
there that cover this in the crazy
1:02
science side I want to keep it pretty
1:05
easy for everyone to understand just to
1:07
give you a way to make a better espresso
1:10
or coffee brew that you're working with
1:12
so TDS means total dissolved solids and
1:17
basically if you've got water and you're
1:19
passing it through your coffee bed let's
1:21
say in a group handle with espresso how
1:24
much of that actual coffee ends up in
1:26
the cup combined with your water and to
1:29
do that we use a product called a
1:31
refractometer now there's a whole range
1:33
of different products out there the the
1:35
Highlight product for the real sciency
1:37
geeky kind of person would be the VST
1:40
that's definitely a scientific grade
1:43
refractometer where you'd have to be
1:46
clinically sterile and and using filters
1:49
and very particular about what you do
1:51
and it'll give you amazing high-end data
1:54
and there's a lot of other products in
1:55
there coming down to the product we're
1:57
using today which is the DI fluid and
2:00
it's a simple easy to use small little
2:02
product that we reckon is going to help
2:05
you assess coffee so no matter what
2:07
product you end up using to measure TDS
2:11
basically you're going to end up with
2:13
some data and when you get data it
2:16
allows you to take the series of numbers
2:18
and then equate it basically to what
2:20
you're tasting and it'll give you a bit
2:23
of a reference now if you're getting a
2:25
bad taste that number will allow you to
2:28
align that and start to think okay if I
2:31
need more TDs or less TDS I will be able
2:34
to affect that flavor profile to be
2:37
either sweeter more body or am I getting
2:39
too much acidity so that data just
2:42
allows you to start making some educated
2:45
decisions on how you're going to make
2:46
changes to Brewing so I reckon just
2:49
having some data is great it doesn't
2:52
have to be super perfect and yes
2:54
spending more money will make that far
2:56
more accurate but the DI fluid here is
2:59
basically a small pocketed USB
3:02
rechargeable unit they have a whole
3:04
range of little products that you can
3:06
use to measure all different sorts of
3:08
things now the one that we have here is
3:11
the one specific for coffee and it's a
3:14
tiny little unit like this which you
3:16
could basically take with you wherever
3:17
you are it's got a 30 day battery life
3:20
USC chargeable
3:22
and it will be specific for measuring
3:25
your coffee so make sure you do buy the
3:27
right one there's about four in the
3:29
range that look like this that you could
3:31
be testing your citrus in your lemons or
3:34
your watermelon or a whole lot of other
3:36
crazy stuff and when you get into using
3:38
the app that it connects via Bluetooth
3:40
you can select all of these different
3:42
things what what they have done in their
3:45
app it does have an SCA standard which
3:48
is great so any measurement did you do
3:50
once you select whether it's a cold brew
3:53
or espresso you're going to be able to
3:55
measure your data to what the sca
3:57
standard is so that's really cool and if
4:00
it's outside the parameters you'll be
4:02
able to start to make some decisions and
4:04
changes to get back into making a better
4:07
coffee
4:08
in the Box you don't get a lot you get
4:10
the reader you get a little cloth which
4:12
is used to clean the front there because
4:15
it is basically a lens and lights
4:17
passing through it you wouldn't want to
4:18
use paper towel you don't want to
4:20
scratch that so one of these little
4:21
cloths that you might find with your
4:23
glasses is really good to keep that
4:25
clean it may be an alcohol wipe in there
4:27
as well in between samples to make sure
4:30
that it's nice nice and clean and
4:32
doesn't contaminate between samples you
4:34
get a little USB cable and a cool little
4:37
pouch there to hold the unit and I seem
4:41
to have misplaced a little dripper that
4:43
does come with these as well now the
4:45
problem with the dripper is that once
4:47
you use it it's a plastic one it's
4:48
contaminated contaminated on the inside
4:50
they're super hard to clean so once
4:54
you've used it you'd throw it out you
4:55
may want to buy some more but then it's
4:58
quite wasteful in the industry so I'm
5:00
going to teach you just how to use some
5:01
really nice clean spoons and sterile
5:04
spoons in the process it's a bit easier
5:06
as well and we can look after the
5:08
environment now I do have another TDS
5:10
reader here that we utilize in measuring
5:13
our water and the quality of the water
5:15
for our coffee machines so this unit
5:18
here is going to help us look at the
5:20
water quality that we have here today
5:22
but it's not good to be able to look at
5:24
the complexity of coffee it really
5:26
doesn't read that well so not one TDS
5:29
reader does everything and I'll show you
5:31
what happens there with our water here
5:33
we're on tank water so it's a little bit
5:36
different to what our town water supply
5:38
would be as well now if you want to get
5:40
super technical you need to know about
5:42
your water and the measurements of the
5:44
actual Water by itself before we start
5:46
to actually add coffee to it so they're
5:49
two different areas that you'd have to
5:51
use some equations of a mass to really
5:53
get right into but we're going to again
5:55
keep it a little bit we'll see simple
5:57
for you today just to make some easy
5:58
readings and some great assumptions on
6:00
how to improve your espresso so we
6:03
decided to buy one of these di fluids
6:05
we'd check them out on the internet and
6:07
they actually send us two
6:09
um so we've got one of these that we're
6:10
going to give away so keep an eye out on
6:12
our socials how you can win that one and
6:15
we're going to use that to assess these
6:17
samples so let's get straight into it
6:19
just one thing before we get into this
6:21
it does have an app so jump on your app
6:24
store download it and you can connect
6:26
straight to your phone via Bluetooth
6:28
it's pretty simple and that app is
6:30
what's going to give you all of the data
6:32
to make your assessments so what we're
6:34
going to do is we're going to start off
6:35
by measuring the water that we have here
6:37
and I'm going to use just as an example
6:40
our normal water TDS reader so we just
6:43
turn this on this is just tap water
6:45
straight from us it's filtered and I'm
6:47
going to turn it on
6:50
there we go and we're going to pop it in
6:52
there and we're just going to wave it
6:53
through
6:54
pretty simply and it's going to give us
6:57
a reading and we can press the hold
6:59
which catches that so it's saying 14
7:01
parts per million
7:06
all right so so there's not a lot in my
7:09
water it is rain water it's triple
7:12
filtered and it has a UV light that
7:14
kills all the germs so if we do this in
7:17
our Factory Our Town water has a much
7:19
higher reading so what we're going to do
7:21
now is use the DI fluid to measure our
7:24
coffee we just go down to the app and we
7:27
pop this little arrow there it says
7:28
bricks
7:30
well
7:31
there we go and you can go through and
7:33
measure a whole range of different
7:34
things we're going to pop in and search
7:36
for coffee
7:38
there it is there
7:41
brilliant so we're ready on coffee and
7:43
you can see there's a whole range of
7:45
options here we've got the ability to do
7:48
a drip coffee or an espresso and as we
7:51
come down into our chart we're going to
7:53
start to see some of the the values and
7:56
where it sits in terms of our reading
7:59
now the sca standards are in the blue
8:01
there and the NCA are in the brown and
8:04
down the side you've got from 1 to 1.7
8:06
and across you've got 12 to 26 and you
8:09
can see it gives you once you get market
8:11
and actually get a reading you can start
8:14
to see if you're strongly underdeveloped
8:16
or weak developed bitterness or strong
8:19
and and then you can make those
8:21
decisions how you can get back to where
8:23
you want to be or The Sweet Spot from
8:25
the sca standards which is what we
8:27
normally refer to to achieve a better
8:29
coffee now once you've done that reading
8:32
there's the ability to save it very easy
8:34
and you can start to categorize any
8:36
coffee where you are and and keep a bit
8:39
of a log very simply you can message
8:41
that out to someone via an email or text
8:43
or however you want to do that but that
8:45
log is there for a long time so if
8:48
you've got a blend that you're always
8:49
working with and over a year you want to
8:52
see to make sure that you're extracting
8:54
that well in espresso you can go back
8:55
and check the data or again as we do a
8:58
single origin over a month and make sure
9:00
that the recipe that we've chosen is
9:02
still working consistently on each week
9:05
when we change our roast or move you
9:08
know with different complexities of
9:10
roasting with the humidity or the
9:12
dryness on different days so you can
9:13
always still try and bring it back so
9:16
I've done a couple of different samples
9:17
here we've just got a cold brew that we
9:20
we did here as well which we use the
9:22
Brewer cold Brewer we've got our date
9:24
it's a Costa Rica which is the Cooper
9:27
Tara zoo we know our roast date we
9:30
actually use not an EK 43 for this but
9:33
it's a zm1 and the setting is it's be
9:36
0.54 of a millimeter between the blade
9:38
thickness there our dosing is 5 50 we
9:41
use 700 grams of water and our drops per
9:43
minute is 60 and Caitlyn has brewed that
9:46
one as well so we're going to assess
9:47
that then I've done two espresso
9:50
extractions now this one here just for a
9:53
bit of a bit of fun I've got my GS3 so I
9:55
just started at three bar for 20 seconds
9:58
and then I finished off at nine bar and
10:01
then the other one I just went for a
10:03
straight nine bar extraction and both of
10:05
those are using our standard espresso
10:07
recipe 22 and a half grams of dose with
10:11
45 grams out so it's a two to one recipe
10:14
in 30 to 32 seconds so we'll start with
10:18
the cold brew and as I said your data is
10:20
only as good as how clean things are so
10:23
if you've used your dishwasher and
10:25
you've got some chemical on there it's
10:27
going to read some of that as well so
10:28
ideally an alcohol wipe to either clean
10:31
what you're using is great and you want
10:34
to clean the top sensor here as well
10:36
with an alcohol wipe if you can now I
10:39
know my water is is there's not a lot in
10:40
there it's only 14 pounds per million of
10:42
minerals and things so it's super low so
10:45
I've just got some hot water here at the
10:46
moment and I'm just making sure it's
10:48
dried before I use it with a spoon so
10:52
I'm just going to take a little sample
10:55
and we're going to pop it straight into
10:58
the unit there and you fill it all the
11:00
way up
11:01
and we're going to make sure we're on
11:03
our drip and we're going to hit the
11:05
start extraction there as well
11:08
so we've got our reading here and we
11:09
need to start to dial in a bit of the
11:12
data that we have so if we come down to
11:14
our dose we can increase it all the way
11:16
up to our 50 grams
11:24
there we go now our Brew water is 700 of
11:29
water
11:37
oh it's going a long way here
11:44
there is a slider bar but the slider bar
11:46
really doesn't allow you to go this far
11:48
on your recipe so unfortunately
11:53
it is a little bit tricky when you're
11:55
trying to do a big batch so you could
11:56
actually Harbor all these measurements
11:58
if you wanted to as well
12:01
to make it a little bit quicker
12:10
there we go 700 confirm and our beverage
12:15
end weight
12:19
which is actually 700 again but I'll
12:22
just see so you can only go to 400 on
12:24
the slide bar so that's just a little
12:26
bit tricky it'll be handy to get to a
12:29
higher number a lot quicker
12:33
now we're actually a little bit less
12:34
than our 700 because there is actually
12:37
some absorption which gets caught in the
12:39
coffee
12:41
and let's say it was one gram of liquid
12:44
to one gram of grind it was 50 of our
12:47
dose grind so let's say we're a little
12:49
bit less on our end liquid weight in our
12:52
cold brew so there you go now we've got
12:55
our data you can see it's plotted it on
12:58
the map and you'll see that it's sitting
13:01
in the strong and towards the bitter
13:04
extraction so it is quite a heavy cold
13:07
brew there is no doubt I know this one
13:09
and this recipe it was it's quite heavy
13:13
there's a lot of thick mouth feel going
13:14
on so for us to change this we would be
13:18
able to start to either increase the
13:21
amount of water or decrease the actual
13:23
amount of coffee to hopefully get it
13:25
down right into the middle of the sca
13:28
standard there
13:30
so you've got your data and you can hit
13:32
the save button and you can run through
13:34
and start to record all the different
13:35
data the name of it your Brew time what
13:39
device you've used the equipment who the
13:41
Roadster is the degree of roast and you
13:43
can obviously save that for the future
13:45
so I'm just going to quickly pop that in
13:47
there and put cold brew
13:51
Costa
13:53
just for now
13:58
keep it nice and easy but I can go and
14:00
have a look back at some data here as
14:02
well so here's one that we did earlier
14:04
for the cold brew as well
14:09
I'll expand that out and you can see
14:11
what we got so we've we've got a 1.74
14:14
TDS of another one which we did this
14:15
morning
14:17
um
14:18
25.2 grams so I actually halved the
14:20
whole recipe just to make it a bit
14:21
easier and quicker for myself the drip
14:24
type cold Brewer
14:26
um what the whole Brew time actually was
14:28
the temperatures extraction well we use
14:30
cold brew so it's ice and cold water so
14:32
it should be pretty close to zero
14:34
degrees
14:34
we've used them as a grinder our grind
14:37
size and what did I
14:40
um find about it was quite a strike
14:42
slightly strong taste it's a monotonic
14:45
acid that I was tasting through there it
14:47
was a cinnamon roast the actual roast
14:49
date where you've actually got it or the
14:52
estate which is the San Marcos and the
14:55
actual species of The Bean the Katura
14:57
it's a natural process as well and then
14:59
just some flavor notes that came through
15:01
so it was a bit tart up front is what I
15:03
was saying with a nice spicy toffee but
15:06
it's definitely a heavy mouth feel in
15:07
this coffee so you'll be able to look at
15:09
that in the future with all of your
15:11
other recipes really easily once you've
15:14
stored them in there so what we're going
15:16
to do now is measure our standard
15:17
espresso extraction here first and then
15:21
we'll go back and measure the one which
15:23
we did at three bar to start with using
15:25
my GS3 so we're just going to take our
15:29
sample
15:32
okay and we're going to spoon that in on
15:35
the top
15:39
get a little bit more of that
15:42
there we go now you can filter all of
15:45
these as well which makes it a much
15:47
better reading I've popped down the
15:49
bottom here what our recipe is the 22.5
15:51
grams of grind or add dose and we've got
15:54
our 45 grams of in liquid weight so
15:57
we'll hit our
16:00
sample here to get a measure there we go
16:03
and we can see here that we're sitting
16:05
right in the normal section so right in
16:08
the middle pretty much where we want to
16:09
be our recipe is the two to one that's
16:11
how I've extracted this coffee so on a
16:14
little bit on the stronger side so we've
16:16
managed to get a fair bit more out of
16:18
there the 2DS is 10.88 and our
16:21
extraction percent is
16:23
21.76 so there you go it's quite a
16:27
heavier coffee we can see that the
16:29
temperature is 24 degrees
16:31
so I'm pretty happy with that we're
16:33
going to get quite a fair amount of
16:35
solid flavors out of that actual
16:37
espresso
16:39
so let's go and see what happened when I
16:42
started with three bar I'd be really
16:44
interested to see if that concentration
16:45
level has changed
16:49
so empty your sample
16:55
again my water is pretty clean so I
16:58
don't have to worry too much about that
16:59
I know it was only about 14 parts per
17:01
million I'm just going to quickly zero
17:04
that off
17:06
and we'll try this
17:08
much heavier thicker extraction
17:13
there we go
17:16
same recipe just changing that huge
17:19
pre-infusion time
17:21
there we go so we've got 15.27 TDS
17:26
and it's off the charts there you go so
17:29
the extraction percent is 30.53 so we
17:32
nearly doubled the extraction percent
17:35
just by
17:37
running that at 20 seconds
17:40
at three bar so we've really got a lot
17:43
more flavor out there by having a slower
17:46
pressure into that coffee through the
17:48
GS3 so whether that's something you'd
17:50
like or you don't like you definitely
17:52
want to taste these samples and then
17:54
start to make some changes according to
17:57
what you enjoy off the data you've been
17:59
presented with
18:00
so there you go that's a bit of a
18:01
interesting
18:03
um science experiment you might say the
18:05
cold brew was very different to what
18:06
we're having happening in our normal
18:07
recipe versus that really
18:10
um slow intense three bar extraction
18:14
brew that we got there now if you're
18:16
looking at doing a cold brew or some
18:19
sort of alternative Brew method which is
18:21
a bit more of an infusion or an
18:23
immersion style Brew what you'd be
18:25
looking to do is change your recipe so
18:27
the amount of coffee the amount of water
18:30
and the time that you can process that
18:32
through and that will give you a better
18:36
way to analyze what's happening with the
18:38
data you get on espresso well usually
18:41
you've got a pretty fixed recipe as we
18:43
do our grind in grind out and our time
18:46
and our water temperature but what I'd
18:48
start to look at with espresso is start
18:50
to look at how you're actually actually
18:53
processing and putting your coffee into
18:55
your group handle so whether you're
18:57
going to look at using a wdt an NCD see
19:00
how you distribute your coffee and
19:03
obviously your grind settings so it's
19:06
really more about that processing that
19:08
you've got control over with espresso
19:09
rather than your recipe change so if you
19:13
really want to get super geeky in this
19:14
there's a lot of other videos out there
19:16
Lance Hendrix has done a fantastic video
19:19
there where we covered the VST and two
19:21
other models and this di fluid and
19:24
really went into a lot more Tech about
19:26
that so we'll leave a link down below
19:27
check out his video it's pretty
19:29
insightful but you've got to know your
19:31
algebra so get ready for that one and
19:34
thanks Lance it was lovely meeting you
19:35
there at mice and thanks for everything
19:37
you're doing with the industry mate keep
19:38
up the great work so there you go I hope
19:40
that's given you a bit of information
19:41
about how you can look to improve your
19:44
espresso with adding a little bit of
19:46
science into there as well if the DI
19:48
fluid is something you want to look at
19:49
hey jump online in us there are about
19:52
150 bucks about 300 Australian and it's
19:55
just so small simple and easy to carry
19:57
with you no matter where you go so it's
20:00
like a little mini science lab giving
20:02
you some pretty good data to start with
20:04
again it's not going to be the most
20:05
accurate for a scientific approach but
20:08
again it's just got you some data to
20:10
start making some changes so that you
20:11
can create better espresso or cold brew
20:13
or whatever that you're Brewing so
20:16
thanks very much if you've got any
20:17
questions about it pop them down below
20:18
we'll happy to answer them we'll catch
20:20
you next time cheers
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