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Backflushing is a term to describe the cleaning process for an espresso machine at the end of the day.

Keeping your espresso machine clean - really clean - is an often overlooked process.  An unclean machine will very quickly taint your lovely espresso drinks with a bitter sometimes metallic taste.  It is impossible to keep your espresso machine clean without the use of chemical cleaners like Puly Caff powder.  What you are doing is stripping the internal pipework inside the group head of coffee grease and tannins.  It is through this pipe work that clean water has to pass before it reaches the ground coffee.  So keeping these pipes clean will make your coffees taste consistently better than most of your competitors.

Here is what you have to do.

1. Remove the group head handles and put a blank disk into one of the group head handles.
2. Press the free flow button on your machine, so that water continually flows from the group head
3. Using a stiff brush, wipe away the loose coffee grains from the shower plate.
4. Fill the blank disk with the hot water and put the handle upto the group head, as if you were going to make a coffee.  Allow the water to flood over the group head handle, in doing so, washing away loose coffee grains.
5. Pour away the water in the blank disk and put a teaspoon of Puly Caff powder in the disk.
6. Put the group head handle with the powder into the group head
7. Press the free flow button and allow the pump to work for about 6 seconds.  No water will come through the spout as the blank disk has no holes.
8. After 6 seconds stop the water and listen for a 'gurgle'.  Repeat step 7 and 8 six times.
9. Pour away what is left in the blank disk and repeat step 4.
10. With the blank disk clean, put the group head handle into the group head and press the free flow button, allow the pump to work for 6 seconds
11. After 6 seconds stop the water flow and pour away what is in the blank disk.  Repeat step 10-11 six times.
12. You should now have a cleaner machine than before.  If this process has been done on a regular daily basis, you machine should be spotless behind the group head.  If you have not done this regularly or you are not sure when it was last done, you may need to repeat the whole process again.
13. Remember to do this on each group head.

This whole process takes no more than 2-3 minutes on each group head at the end of the day, but it is so important that I cannot stress it enough.