I hope that you now have a Beatles ear worm. Over the next few weeks I'll be recounting my multi-year espresso extraction journey... it's a road that is both long and definitely winding...
The pathway I'll describe has many individual stepping stones:
- Portafilter baskets - VST;
- Grinder burr set - conical to flat;
- Pre-infusion;
- Portafilter baskets - Sworksdesign;
- Dynamic shower screen springs;
- Slow feeding - CremaLoop.
Each of these changes has caused me to alter my grinder setting to achieve optimal extraction results... but this doesn't mean that the only change has been grind size (more to come on this crucial detail in later weeks!).
As a little taster for this series, the first major change I made to my early espresso extraction process was the addition of VST portafilter baskets to my arsenal. VST baskets have relatively large holes in their base and therefore one must grind finer for reasonable extraction times. Grinding finer opened up a whole range of flavour and texture. Grinding finer also slightly reduced the clarity of the espresso shots. As with most things in life a change generally has multiple consequences! Over the next few weeks I'll outline the steps I took to attempt to achieve the goal of optimising flavour, texture and clarity simultaneously.
To read about the Slayer shot click here
To read about the coffee love affair which is Gesha click here