We now carry all the accessories to complete the look of being a professional barista all in the comfort of your own home. Not only does it complete the look, but it also will prevent your counter space from being dirty and protect your nice counters.
The purpose of the knock box is to have a container to dump the fresh coffee puck from the portafilter. You keep the knock box next your machine and when you have removed the portafilter from the grouphead, you knock the portafilter face down on the wood bar. The puck will fall out into the container. This is the barista option, compared to the method of taking the portafilter to the garbage every time.
A tamping mat's purpose is to protect your counter. Tamping your ground coffee on the counter without a mat can damage your counter with scratches or even dents. Depending on the material of your counter, the portafilter can slip when you are tamping. You place the mat on the edge of your counter near the machine and when you are ready to tamp your ground coffee in the portafailter, you place the portafilter at a 90 degree angle to the counter and tamp with the force of about 20 - 30 lbs.
The coffee podium has a sole simple purpose and that is to give a bit of elevation to your espresso glass. All you do is place the podium on the drip tray where your glass normally goes and then put the glass on top of the podium. Although this may seem unnecesary, it's function is to prevent the splashing out of your cup that normally would stain your unit. Of course, this will also give your manual barista set-up more of a professional look.
A surefire way to perfect your espresso experience and get a good shot every time is to improve your consistency. Weighing out the amount of coffee each time will bring consistency. With the digital scale, the first step is to weigh the portafiter on the scale and then hit "tare" so that you will be able to measure how many grams of ground coffee is in the portafilter. Once you hit "tare," remove the portafilter, fill up your portafilter, tamp and then measure the portafilter. The sweet spot should be around 15 - 17 grams of ground coffee. With the Solis machine, the sweet spot for a tasty and stronger espresso is 17 grams. The amount is all about preference at the end of the day.
