Why did my carob coffee maker stop making foam?

Why did the foam disappear from the carob coffee maker? Read the tips and comments below and the foam in your morning coffee will become thick and appetizing again.)

Foam. What does it consist of and how is it made?

Many of us buy a carob coffee maker precisely because of the opportunity to get a high layer of beautiful foam with an appetizing creamy tint in a glass of fresh coffee.
This foam is called “cream” and by it you can judge the quality of the coffee produced (to be fair, this is not an absolute indicator). The foam on the surface of coffee consists of bubbles of carbon dioxide, essential oils, melanoids, sugars and proteins.
It preserves the aroma of coffee, and also makes such coffee more appetizing and beautiful in appearance.
The foam (cream) in the coffee maker “foams” under the influence of high pressure during the extraction process.
By the way, many people think that a coffee maker, among other things, also simplifies the process of making coffee.
However, this is only at first glance. After all, in order to brew good coffee with high foam, you need to understand and know how to make foam, why it can disappear and follow some rules.
And you also need to remember to pour water into the water tank in time, and in time to drain the water from the lower pan, where it inevitably flows during the process of making coffee.

What determines the taste of coffee and the formation of beautiful foam?

Let's return to our main question: why does a carob coffee maker stop making foam over time, because immediately after purchase it was even very high and beautiful.This includes the type of coffee beans (you should use oily varieties of coffee - Arabica), and the shelf life of the beans, and the degree their roasting, and grinding (too coarse grinding and too fine grinding are not intended for carob coffee makers), and the temperature of the water, and its hardness, and the amount of coffee in the carob, and the quality of its tamping.
In addition, over time, depending on the hardness of the water, various solid deposits can form in the carob coffee maker itself, which can prevent water from passing through them, heating the water and creating the necessary pressure in the system for high-quality coffee extraction.
In this case, the coffee maker should be washed using special detergents, which are now sold in all self-respecting hardware stores.

What can I do to make the foam high and beautiful again?

The foam simply does not want to form.
In this case, disassemble the horn itself (this can be done easily with a Phillips screwdriver), wipe it and rinse it well. Do not rub the cone too hard or too shiny - this can negatively affect the taste of the coffee. 
Pay attention to the small “holes” (as some of us call them) in the metal strainer. They should be visible through the light.
But that's not all. Look carefully at the disassembled horn. In the photo below you can see that it also has a small wire mesh (or rather, there are several of them; such a mesh in outdated horns and in some other models of coffee makers may be of a different type). It serves to filter the drink from small coffee particles. Do not pick out the mesh, but simply drop a little onto it with some substance that copes well with coffee grounds and other deposits. 
It is not recommended to use strong acids in the used cleaners for this purpose, because they may damage the metal filter.
After this procedure, rinse the mesh thoroughly to remove any remaining dirt and carefully reassemble the horn in the reverse order.
Now your coffee will again have a thick and delicious foam on the surface.

What to do if the foam in a new coffee maker disappears?

The method proposed above also works well for owners of new coffee makers. It often happens that after a couple of weeks a new carob coffee maker stops producing high-quality foam, and then it disappears completely.
This happens precisely because of the rapid clogging of the mesh wire filter inside the horn. Rinse it well as described above  and your problem will disappear.
Some people advise throwing away the wire filter altogether (but will this give results in obtaining fluffy foam? I think not). 
Fortunately, on some models of horns it can be removed. If you decide to do this, do it carefully so that if something happens, the wire filter can be returned to its place.

A way to get coffee foam without disassembling the horn

Some people don’t like disassembling the horn to wash the mesh filter for a number of objective reasons. Fortunately, you can wash the mesh filter without disassembling the horn:

• turn the cone over and drop a detergent (a gel is best for this purpose) that dissolves organic matter onto the outlet(s).
• wait for a while (see instructions for using the gel) and rinse the cone well.

Despite the obvious advantages of the proposed method, its disadvantage is some difficulties with high-quality washing of the mesh after cleaning it.

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