In this video we are doing more barista training and looking at the difference between old school puck preparation and new, modern puck preparation. Jimmy goes full nerd in this tutorial running the comparison like a proper science experiment. He puts the two different methods back to back and runs three shots using each method measuring the shot times and extracted yield.
The results of Jimmy's experiment paint a very clear picture and after watching this tutorial you will clearly see how poor, careless distribution of coffee in the basket adversely affects the extraction. Spending those few extra moments taking care to weigh out your dose, distribute the coffee and tamp evenly will really make a huge difference in the flavor of the coffee you are making.
In this day and age there are numerous tools available to baristas to help make this process even easier. We have access to automated tampers which not only makes individual tamp pressure consistent but it also provides uniformity across all the baristas working in the same espresso bar. We have distribution tools like the NCD (Nucleus Coffee Distributor) to evenly distribute the ground coffee around the basket. There are barista scales and dosing pots as well as a whole host of other tools that are becoming more and more popular and utilized by baristas such as the WTD (Weiss Distribution Technique).
We hope this video makes sense and provides enough reason as to why you should be implementing a more modern approach to your puck preparation.
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Video TranscriptÂ
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Hey, guys, I'm going to talk you through the old school puck prep versus
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the new school modern puck prep that we do today.
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I'm going to take you through three extractions using the old school method,
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and then I'm going to take you through another three extraction
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using the new school modern method that we use today.
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And we're going to manage our yield and record our time
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and look at the inconsistencies and the consistencies of both methods.
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So we've used these this old school method
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ten, 15 years ago, when I got into coffee, I was doing it.
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I'm guilty of that.
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And I still see a lot of people doing these methods and I'd love to just help
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everyone grow into where we're up to now in the in the modern coffee making.
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So let's get into it straight away.
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We're just going to go straight to our group handle.
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Now, I'm going to do all of these shots using this one head
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just so we can get consistency there.
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Now we'll just go straight into our portafilter.
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I'm not bothering using the scales.
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We were just filling the basket straight up
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and I'd give it a quick tamp.
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Might even give it a little knock on the side to make it all nice and tidy
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there.
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I am going to chuck my scales up so that I can measure my yield as well.
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All right.
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So I've got 46 grams of yield.
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I have a achieved, I've achieve that in 26 seconds.
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So let's keep track of that 26 seconds.
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Ahh what did I say?
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46 grams of yield there.
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Great.
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Let's go again.
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Like I said, using the same head.
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It's really quick.
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This method was definitely something that we're all used to just kind of
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standing here filling out the portafilter is actually a really bad use of my time
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that would that would be one thing.
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Straight on there. Big push.
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Bit of a knock.
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Nice, clean, tidy basket but
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super inconsistent.
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Cool.
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So in 28 seconds,
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we've now got 45.4 grams of yield.
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So obviously shots are looking okay.
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But I'm going to say,
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not tasting all of these today it's definitely.
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That's for another day.
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But this is
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just going to give you a demonstration
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of of the different
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different process of old school
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versus new school.
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And how you can benefit from going
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the new school method.
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There you go in 23 seconds
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I have 44 grams.
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All right.
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Let's jump straight over
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to our modern coffee making and I'll introduce a few extra steps.
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Now, I'm not adding extra steps to slow you down.
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There's ways you can still do this process faster,
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such as grinding into a dosing pot on scales is going to be consistency.
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So straight into there.
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I'm going to use this grind time to actually clean my portafilter.
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And have that ready.
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Now I've got 24.3 grams.
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I only want 22.5.
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So straight away I know that that's not my recipe
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and I want to be more like
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22.5.
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I can do that repeatability is important.
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I'm going to break up the clumps,
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do some good compacting there,
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distribute the coffee around the basket so that I can get full extraction
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out of all of that coffee and add NCD tool
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that's going to make it nice and well distributed.
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I'm going to do a consistent 14 kilo tamp
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so that when I come up here
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I run an extraction.
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Now with. Wow!
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So straightaway
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I've actually got a 36 second extraction.
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I got 45.9 grams there.
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So 45.9 grams of yield.
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So our yields reasonably consistent but 36 seconds worth of extraction time.
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So that means I've gained
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a whole 8 seconds on top of the old school method
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of opportunity to extract more flavor from that coffee.
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So ideally I'd be changing my grind size if I was hitting 36's all the time.
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But you can see from my old school method that I'm not really sure what I'm going
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to hit consistently. So
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let's jump back over here
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get my grind going again.
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22.5.
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So you can see the last shot that I did
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the grind was like 24 point something so straight away.
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Now I can see that I'm actually on point.
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There must have been a clump stuck in there.
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Now I know because I'm measuring my dose that's consistent.
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That's the same as last time.
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This is
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straight away out of the dosing pot.
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I didn't do the best distribution coming out of the dosing pot,
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but I have more opportunities now to make sure I get that ready
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there, do a better distribution with that tool.
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And now again, repeat the process and that repeatability
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is really important.
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Great so I've got 34 seconds.
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44.5 grams of yield.
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So two second variable.
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That's alright.
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44.5 grams of yield.
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Awesome.
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Let's do one more, see where we land.
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Again
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21.7.
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We just as good as these grinders are, all grinders have variation
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and and they will retain coffee.
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So they are another variable in the chain of making coffee.
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So weighing your dose is helping you
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manage that consistency.
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All grinders do it.
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Once you start weighing, you realize.
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Cool alright.
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Last one.
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Great
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I got 45.3
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grams of yield
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in 35 seconds.
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Now, if I compare these two results,
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old school we got 26, 28, 23.
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That's a five second variable on our time.
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We are getting variations in our yield and that will be affected by
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the extractions.
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Yes it's happening on the modern as well.
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It it is a variable that we that we manage through our programing.
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But the biggest thing for me is the extraction times that I was able
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to achieve through better distribution, through better puck preparation
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and I've only got a two second variable from a 36 to a 34 second.
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This is why we're so big on this.
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We teach all of anyone that does training with us, anyone that uses our coffee,
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we teach them about good puck preparation, preparation
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because we're always trying to manage variables.
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Coffee's just constantly about variables.
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So straightaway your dose, your dose is going to impact the extraction time.
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It's going to impact the amount of coffee that you've got to extract good
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flavor from, and you want to make sure that you're managing your dose.
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If you're not understanding where
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and what amount of dose you need to impact flavor, but also just
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consistently doing the same dosage each time.
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You don't know
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if it's your dose that's an issue or if it's your grind that's an issue.
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And if you're not managing your yield, you don't know if you're actually
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getting the wrong amount of coffee in the liquid in the cup, yield in the cup,
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and therefore that's becoming an issue. So.
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So managing your yield,
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making sure you're getting the right amount of liquid in the cup,
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easy variable to
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manage is that dose to the dosing pots, weighing
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your shots is definitely going to help you manage that and distribution.
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You saw straightaway there that we're getting way longer
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extraction times that is due due to the distribution of that coffee.
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You are allowing the water to get from top to bottom
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and hit every granule of coffee on its way down.
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If you're doing that old school method and you're tapping the basket
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and creating cracks around the outside or through the bed of the coffee
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you're creating channeling, that's what we call it
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and that's where the water will find the least path of resistance
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and it will just go flying through and you run a 23 second shot.
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Now, if you make your grind finer because of that channeling,
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you're actually changing the extraction flavor and it's not going to benefit you
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through good distribution and great
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puck preparation using these modern techniques
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I was able to get up to 36 seconds of extraction time.
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Now I can go coarser and I've got much more room to work on
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the flavor of my coffee.
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Tamping is a variable pressure
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between staff that we just don't need an all of these things.
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When you have multiple staff in your cafe, variables a killer.
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Someone comes they've got a lighter tamp, next person tamps heavy.
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We've got all these different methods that people are using.
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Now this formula it's something that we teach
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because repeatable between our accounts but also between your staff members.
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So if you're a barista and you're trying to get the same extraction times
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as your other baristas in the place or your business owner,
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and you know that someone makes better coffee than the others, introduce
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good processes like this.
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This is how you're going to eliminate variables between your staff.
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I hope this was a good example to see the actual extractions
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and how much you'll benefit from good modern techniques,
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because if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them.
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Put them in the comments below if you've if you're doing this
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or you're introducing it into your cafes, tell me how it's going.
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If you want to work
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directly with me and Artisti we'll put our contact details in below.
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We're always looking for new opportunities
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to work with people that are on the same page as us and want to make great coffee.
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Thanks again.
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Subscribe if you haven't already liked the video
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and hit the bell icon so you get notified of future videos.
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Thanks guys.
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