Hartwick BrightShot Espresso Machine Cleaning Tablets

Descaling and cleaning are different jobs. Scale is mineral; the film that builds up in your group head, shower screen, and portafilter basket is coffee oil, and it turns rancid, adding a bitter, stale edge to every shot. BrightShot tablets dissolve those oils with an alkaline detergent made for espresso equipment. On machines with a three-way valve, drop a tablet in a blind basket and backflush per your machine's routine; on machines without one, soak the portafilter, baskets, and screen in a tablet dissolved in hot water for 20 minutes, then rinse thoroughly. Home baristas pulling daily shots should clean weekly. Forty tablets is most of a year of care, and the first cleaning after a long gap is usually a visible — and tasteable — shock.