Extracting a cup of coffee from an espresso machine?

A customer wants to use his espresso machine to pull (make) a 12oz coffee
 The customer does not want to make americano's 
 They want to run the shot till they get a cup (12oz) of coffee.

They have travelled to Europe and tell me this is how everybody is doing it.

My questions 
Is this true?
how would this method affect the espresso machine? pumps etc?
If this is true what type of grind would they be using?

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Brady, I did a bit of temperature testing earlier this morning. I don't have any high tech devices to measure temperature and simply use a very accurate digital thermometer/styrofoam cup test, which is good enough for me. The machine I own/use daily is a 2 group NS Aurelia. Here goes...

Ran 10 oz. of water through the group (into a 12 oz. cup), water started out at 199 and remained steady at 200 once the cup had the 10 oz. in it.

Then dumped that and waited approximately 30 seconds and ran 2 oz. into the cup, temp was 198.

Repeated the same thing and the temp was 196.

One last time and got the same temp, 196.

Did the same exact procedure on the 2nd group and had almost identical readings.

I was actually a bit surprised that the temp remained that stable with that much water taken out in a short period of time, but I have always been very pleased with the Aurelia, having used this machine for close to 8 months now.
Shadow said:
Brady, I did a bit of temperature testing earlier this morning. I don't have any high tech devices to measure temperature and simply use a very accurate digital thermometer/styrofoam cup test, which is good enough for me. The machine I own/use daily is a 2 group NS Aurelia. Here goes...

Ran 10 oz. of water through the group (into a 12 oz. cup), water started out at 199 and remained steady at 200 once the cup had the 10 oz. in it.

Then dumped that and waited approximately 30 seconds and ran 2 oz. into the cup, temp was 198.

Repeated the same thing and the temp was 196.

One last time and got the same temp, 196.

Did the same exact procedure on the 2nd group and had almost identical readings.

I was actually a bit surprised that the temp remained that stable with that much water taken out in a short period of time, but I have always been very pleased with the Aurelia, having used this machine for close to 8 months now.

Wow. I am quite surprised. Thanks for looking in to this and posting your results.

Agreed with the assessment of the Aurelia, by the way. Good machine.
holy cow!!! yuck!!!
On the OP: Offer a great Americano and if they don't care for that, unfortunately (or fortunately) they can go elsewhere. Show them what you CAN do first... maybe they will love it.

Caty,

12 shots would be intense! And expensive. We had a guy that has ADHD and says that caffeine would counteract his condition and was cheaper than meds. So he'd get a 9 shot latte every once in a while.
Crazy.

Caty Rent said:
What I don't understand and it wasn't yet addressed (I don't think anyway) is why don't you just give this guy like 12 shots of espresso? That would make more sense to me for the taste and for the machine.

Though I've never been to "Europe." Tee hee.
Months ago I had a guy come up, hand me a 16 oz. travel mug and ask how much it would cost to fill it with espresso. I simply told him "ALOT" and suggested two doubles topped off with drip. He was stoked over that and is now a regular customer. Sometimes he stops by twice a day for his fix. Since he is the only one to ask for that concoction I let him name it.
Perhaps some of you ought to read the OP. This customer is not asking Derryl to make this drink for him, he's looking for advice or help in making it himself, using his own espresso machine.

In our shops and communities, its a great thing if we are seen as sources for coffee information. In cases where our advice is sought, it's to our advantage to be able to have a good answer, even if it is a few days later. Customers will appreciate that you remembered the discussion, took the time to figure out how to help them, and followed up on their next visit.

If the customer were asking him to make the drink, I'd absolutely agree with the "we don't do that here" approach if you'd rather not work out how to make the drink as requested or feel like it is not a good representation of your shop standards.
Wouldn't this drink be a really long lungo or elonga? There is a diefference in taste from those and an americano.
I was speaking with someone last night who has a home espresso machine. He told me that his uses pods and that the pods have a differently ground coffee for espresso than for making regular 10 ounce cups. That should answer the question about strain on the pump.

But also of interest was my conversation with a roaster a few days back. In his opinion it's better to make Americanos in one long draw, rather than adding espresso into a cup of hot water. I'm sure he saw the look of shock on my face. Honestly, I don't know how people can drink it like that.
If the customer wants to make it this way at home, go right ahead. If they complain that it doesn't taste good, explain why. As a barista, manager, & coffee roaster, I am constantly educating the staff & customers.
That's all we can do.

As far has this effecting their espresso machine's performance etc. I'd ask what kind of machine they are using, & simply research the equipment online, via make/model.

Personally, I'd never serve this drink to a customer in store, however different brewing methods at home just need practice & patience.
This must be a canadian thing... I have a couple customers who ask for that too.
Shadow said:
Since he is the only one to ask for that concoction I let him name it.

Er... that concoction already has a name. More'n one, actually. 'Cowboy Coffee' and 'Red-eye' are fairly popular, 'Black Eye' and 'Hammer-head' just a bit less so.

BTW, I have a Scace and a Fluke 54II and the water from my HX needs four to six ounces pulled on Black Cat just to get the water up to temperature, and I get far more than ten ounces before the water temp wants to fall below 195. And the recovery time is pretty good, too. I can get the same performance from the other group almost immediately, and thirty second later, that first group is ready to do it again.
Well I've heard people calling a single shot added to drip being a "red eye" and a double shot added being called a "black eye"... also heard names like a shot in the dark, depth charge, etc.

But this guy likes a quad shot added to what drip takes up the rest of the cup and since he is the only one to order it I let him call it what he wants. I think small things like this allow customers to feel a bit of importance when they step up to order. Like they're a part of something.

So you have to flush 4-6 oz. for the group to be ready? What machine would that be? Or is it pretty typical with most HX machines? That's one thing I really like with the Aurelia, there isn't a need for any flushing to get it just right. Whether I pull 1 double a minute or once an hour it's always spot on the perfect temperature.

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