Litmus Coffee Labs' First Product: The UFO Spray Head

Litmus Coffee Labs' First Product: The UFO Spray Head

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Test Drive: The Linea Micra Espresso Machine from La Marzocco

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An In-Depth Look at Gruppo Cimbali’s Coffee Technician Wheel

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Litmus Coffee Labs' First Product: The UFO Spray Head

Pick Your Pourover: Comparing and Contrasting the Most Popular Models

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Litmus Coffee Labs' First Product: The UFO Spray Head

Test Drive: The Linea Micra Espresso Machine from La Marzocco

Ready to find out how La Marzocco’s Linea Micra measures up? Read on for our full Test Drive review!  BY VASILEIA FANARIOTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Photos courtesy of Vasileia Fanarioti  The Linea Micra espresso machine by La Marzocco is the newest addition to their impressive line of home espresso machines. I was lucky to get my […]


Florencia y Fortunata: A Café Empowering Women in Peru

The Cusco café, founded by Carolina Peralta Minaya, sells coffee from women producers and features women demonstrating their skills behind the bar. BY JORDAN BUCHANANBARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE Photos courtesy of Carolina Peralta Minaya Traceability, sustainability, and conscientiousness are key values pervading the specialty-coffee trade. For many consumers and traders, these values inform their decision to […]


4 Coffee Shops Worth a Visit in Madrid

In recent years, the Spanish capital has developed a vibrant specialty-coffee scene. Here are some cool cafés to visit for a caffeine fuel-up. BY TANYA NANETTISENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT Featured photo by Jorge Fernández Salas via Unsplash The espresso bar at HanSo. HanSo Café, a Perfect Spot for Breakfast   In Chinese, HanSo roughly translates to “a […]


Out Now: The February + March 2024 Issue of Barista Magazine!

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Litmus Coffee Labs' First Product: The UFO Spray Head

Litmus Coffee Labs' First Product: The UFO Spray Head

minimum dose size?

Jan 31, 2024 |

I use the Hario switch to brew my coffee and am trying to reduce my caffeine consumption. Hence I would like to brew smaller cups of coffee. I am currently using 10g of coffee with 160g of water. (1:16 Ratio) I am wondering if there is a minimum amount of coffee...

Litmus Coffee Labs' First Product: The UFO Spray Head

 

Litmus Coffee Labs first product, the UFO Spray Head.

Litmus Coffee Labs first product, the UFO Spray Head.

  

For our first product, we’ve chosen to offer an upgraded spray head for the Curtis G3 and G4 batch brewers. Why did we choose the Curtis?  The Curtis G4 Thermapro is the most capable batch brewer on the market, but its spray head is its proverbial Achilles heel, and we wanted to fix that.

Note the way the original Curtis spray head favors the grounds in the center of the bed. It may be difficult to tell from the photo, but the spent bed is much lower in the center and raised on the edges.

Note the way the original Curtis spray head favors the grounds in the center of the bed. It may be difficult to tell from the photo, but the spent bed is much lower in the center and raised on the edges.

The G4 has the industry’s most versatile programming and user-friendly interface, and it performs more consistently than most batch brewers do. However, the spray head greatly favors the grounds near the center of the coffee bed (evidenced by the large, depressed area in the center of the spent coffee bed). The result is exceptionally uneven extraction, which yields more bitterness and astringency and lower overall extraction levels. 

Our goal was to help the machine reach its full potential by improving the evenness of its extractions. Our device produces better and higher extractions by distributing water more evenly across the entire coffee bed. 

  

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Dozens of beta testers over the past few months have found our spray head yields a more uniform extraction as well as a higher extraction. That means your coffee will taste sweeter, less bitter, and less astringent. As a bonus, you’ll be able to use a bit less coffee grounds to produce the same brew volume and brew strength. Our mighty little spray head will pay for itself many times over, in both quality and cost savings. 

Thanks for reading. You can buy the UFO and Litmus Coffee Lab’s other products here.   

   

About the Author

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Scott Rao is an industry veteran and author of several best-selling coffee books: The Professional Barista’s Handbook, Everything but Espresso, and The Coffee Roaster’s Companion.

 

  

Litmus Coffee Labs' First Product: The UFO Spray Head

Perfect Little Beans

Chinmey Hill Coffee uses specialty-grade beans with zero primary defects (such as black beans or sour beans) and less than five secondary defects (such as broken beans). This is important because primary defects will greatly affect the taste of the coffee. Having zero defects allows the coffee to be the most optimal flavor.

Window for Optimal Flavor

Chimney Hill Coffee ships our coffee the same day it was roasted, so you will receive it before it enters the window of optimal flavor.  This means you’ll never miss the opportunity to enjoy the coffee’s peak flavor.

Coffee Ratings

Coffee undergoes many scoring processes by professionals who achieved their Q Grader certification. Coffee is first graded when it’s green. If there are defects the coffee is determined to be “not-specialty grade”. For those coffees that pass green grading, they are sample roasted and cupped. (Cupping is the official term for critically tasting and scoring coffees. The official cupping form is standard worldwide, and where the 100-point scoring system comes from.) A coffee’s dry fragrance, wet aroma, flavor, aftertaste, body, acidity, balance, and overall impression are taken into consideration while uniformity issues and defects, will lower the overall score.

Specialty Coffee

Specialty coffee, coined by Erna Knutsen in 1974, refers to a coffee that receives a quality grading score of 80 percent or higher. While “premium” or “gourmet” seem like they’re synonymous with “specialty,” they simply are marketing terms with no defined standards. Specialty coffees are grown in specific and ideal micro-climates, and have distinctive and unique flavor profiles, with little to no defects.

Third-Wave Coffee

We’re currently in the third wave of coffee. The first wave of American coffee put pre-ground, vacuum-sealed cans in kitchens across America. The second wave started with the late ‘60s introduction of Peet’s coffee (by Alfred Peet) through the proliferation of Starbucks. The third wave of coffee focuses on origin transparency, nuanced flavors, and artisan roasting. The term “third wave” is synonymous with specialty coffee.

Litmus Coffee Labs' First Product: The UFO Spray Head

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