I purchased the ExtractMoJo in November. I was going to wait until this spring, but Vince Fedele changed my mind. I'll explain later. The ExtractMojo, for anyone not familiar with it, is part software/part hardware. The software portion gives you your coffee/water ratio, and is dependant on the information you provide it.
For example, mine is set for total coffee yield. I tell EM that I want to end up with 8 ounces of coffee. It mathmatically computes the amount of coffee I need, as well as the amount of water to use. You can set if for ounces, but I weigh everything, so mine is set to grams by volume.
EM takes into account the amount of water retained in the coffee grounds as well. So, if you select total coffee yield, it will call for just a bit more than 8 ounces, for mine, it comes out to 259 grams of water. It also tells me to use 15.89 grams of coffee. Once you've entered your info, you brew your coffee.
The hardware portion is a digital coffee refractometer. It measures the total dissolved solids in your coffee. The target % by default is 1.3% on the software for the international gold cup standard. You take a sample with a lab pipette, place it on the lens on the refractometer, wait for it to calibrate, then press the read button. It will then tell you what your TDS is. If it's 1.2%, your reading is too low, which means you need to adjust
your grind a bit finer. If the reading is over 1.3%, it is too high, and you need to grind courser.
The target TDS on your software can be changed to a higher or lower number, it's all dependant on what you like. The package is not cheap. I purchased the version for coffee only, which was a bit less than the coffee/espresso package. ExtractMoJo is the most important tool I have, and without it, I would be guessing at brewing coffee. My brewing technique, and the quality of my coffee have improved so much, and I recommend this package to anyone who wants to get the best out of their coffee.
Please keep in mind that I am no coffee expert. The more I learn, the more I realize how much I really don't know. But one thing I do know, is that anyone who cares enough about quality coffee should have it. After using mine, I cannot imagine not having it.
As I said at the beginning, I was going to buy this package in the spring. I sent an inquiry at Howell's website, with a couple of questions I had about EM. That was around 9pm on a week night. Within an hour, I received a response with the answers to my questions.
Over a period of a couple of weeks, I would randomly send more email questions. Nights, weekends. Even Thanksgiving. I received a response for every email I sent. They all came from Vince Fedele. If you don't know who he is, find out. Because if his dedication to the product, and his dedication to support of the product, I knew that buying it was the right thing to do. And because of his 'above and beyond the call of duty' responses, I made the decision to buy it then instead of waiting.
Buy it. When you start using it, you will wonder why you waited to long to buy it.
James
