Yesterday the Starbucks Barista Machine stopped pulling shots. This led to blank, bleary stares of despair and confusion at 7 a.m. My husband and I blinked at each other in silent denial. Then he spoke the fateful words, "what do we do now?" For some reason, this clicked on a light in my brain, "fix it."
When your brain is trained to think in terms of desired outcome, sometimes it functions in a useful manner.
This morning, after the second day of pressed coffee (quite nice, actually) I went online to find solutions. There were even photos on one site, showing in detail how to clean a pump. I was pondering this attempt, when a line of text on another site got me thinking. Some portafilters (the handle-like gizmos that hold the ground coffee through which hot water is poured for a shot) are pressurized. These pressurized filters offset the pump pressure in the machine so that the machine can pull a shot from pre-ground coffee better than it would otherwise. The picture of a pressurized portafilter looked a lot like mine, if not exactly. These portafilters are typically found on basic home machines. That's what the Starbucks Barista is: basic.
The portafilter seemed an obvious problem since the machine seemed to pump fine till the portafilter was attached. In other words, if the portafilter were clogged the pressure of the whole system would be messed up as soon as the portafilter was put into use. So, I decided to unscrew the portafilter and see if it were clogged. If that didn't work, I'd consider attempting to clean the pump.
Here's what's what: You unscrew the 3 screws on the portafilter, placing them in a safe place all together so you don't lose the little sleeves on them. Then, carefully pull apart the portafilter (it kind of falls apart). I did this all over a mixing bowl, which was a good idea, as there are some small parts that can fall off (a couple of springs). If you need, take pictures at each step to make sure you remember how things go together. I found it pretty straight-forward, but everybody sees things differently.
Our portafilter was packed with gunk. It was frightening how disgusting it was. Were we drinking this? Yuk!
I soaked it all, screws, too, in vinegar with a little hot water, then scrubbed with a brush and used a pipe cleaner (aka chenille stem for you Martha Stewarts out there) for the small/tight areas.
When it was clean, I reassembled it and pulled a test shot.
Blessings on the internet and those fixit folks to whom I owe our dryer and barista machine and a great sense of accomplishment.
Have a happy and productive Friday!
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