Seattle Coffee Gear | The Grind
Seattle Coffee Gear
September 2010
Recipe: Fire Apple Latte
As summer comes rapidly to a close, let's look ahead to the delicious flavors of fall -- time for a little caramel, a little apple, a little cinnamon ... and a lot of spice.

Ingredients
Directions
  1. Combine syrups together in a serving mug
  2. Pull two shots of espresso and mix in with syrup
  3. Add milk to taste
  4. Garnish with a splash o' cayenne (if you live on the spicy side)

Long-Term/Winter Storage Tips
Need to store your espresso machine without use for more than a couple of weeks? In addition to a thorough cleaning of all components and descaling the machine before you put it away, we highly recommend draining your machine's boiler -- this will limit scale build-up while the machine is out of use and also prevent any damage due to freezing.

If you haven't done it before, read these step-by-step instructions for guidance.
Ask the Experts
Q. I love my Ascaso Dream! Is there anything special I need to do to make sure I'm using it correctly?

A. By far the most common repair we see on Ascaso Dream machines is replacing the boiler because the element has burnt out. It's not that the equipment itself is faulty, it's most often operator error.

These single boiler espresso machines don't have an automatic boiler refill, so you have to make sure you're consistently refreshing the water in the boiler by engaging the pump.

It's best to bring your machine up to steam temp, froth your milk, then temperature surf/refill the water in the boiler and pull your shots.

Gail shows us how to do this and talks about the importance of temperature surfing and active boiler refilling in this video.
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