As the world has been spending more time at home, coffee roasters have recognised an opportunity of pandemic proportions to bring a Nespresso compatible capsule onto the market.
At Bassett, we know many people love the no-mess, no-fuss format that capsule coffee brings to home life, but how can a single-use capsule do more for us in terms of the sensory experience? World Barista Champion Paul Bassett's passion for exploring coffee’s creative potential has led him to innovate a new breed of the capsule to home-brewers looking for quality.
Understanding the limitations
The first and most pronounced of these is the amount of ground coffee that can be used in each capsule, this varies from 5 – 6 grams which is well below your average café which uses anywhere between 10 - 14 grams per espresso. Further, the Barista making your café brew is able to make grinder and brew ratio adjustments on demand and manage the optimal age of the roasted coffee, all with giving this experience the upper hand. This major limitation reduces the potential body and richness that can be achieved from any capsule.
To this day many roasters try to work around this by roasting the coffee a lot darker to achieve some sort of comparable outcome. Though as much as this may increase the perceived body of the coffee it has primarily increased the taste of roast, char and ash like characteristics that now overwhelm the possible delightful taste characteristics that the coffees may have had to offer.
Quality in equals quality out
Our 'quality in, quality out' philosophy stems from a desire to understand coffee’s intricacies and a passion to realise and express its true potential.
We believe the best way to create a delicious tasting capsule coffee while aiming to reduce the limitation of 5-6grams that can be used is to use full bodied, sweet and rich flavoured specialty coffees. These coffees need to be roasted in a way that maximises these inherent characteristics while minimising the imparting taste of the roasting process.
The capsule extraction parameters are extremely important when it comes to maximizing the potential body and flavour that is achievable. If the grind setting is too coarse and the extraction runs too quickly we will end up with a weak and watery espresso, while if the grind setting is too fine the result will produce an overly concentrated and harsh tasting espresso. An ideal result should produce a well-balanced espresso that is sweet, full bodied and rich in flavour and that can adapt from when had on its own to when milk is added.
Getting the most out of your Bassett Espresso Capsule
As a consumer, there are a few things that you must do in order to see this outcome through.
- It is imperative that your machine is clean and you use fresh, filtered water each day;
- Make sure that you purge the water through the system for 10 seconds before use;
- Preheat your cup before extracting your espresso;
- When making milk coffees, we would use a ratio of 1-part espresso (35-40mls) to no more than 3-5 parts heated milk and foam. This way, the coffee flavour will adapt appropriately regardless of whether milk is added.
- Give your milk coffees a stir to ensure they are well combined