I recently received my order of a Sworksdesign step down billet basket. I've mentioned this in previous blog posts but for those of you new to this newsletter I'll provide a brief recap.
There's been quite a bit of discussion in the industry which questions the fundamental nature and functionality of modern portafilter design. Most espresso machines use 58 mm diameter portafilter baskets, and I have not seen any information on why this diameter was chosen as the industry standard. Older style lever machines often used significantly smaller diameter baskets... classic Cremina and La Pavoni manual lever machines generally employ 49 mm diameter portafilter baskets. The key issue here is that, for a given weight of ground coffee, the aspect ratio of the basket will be quite different for 58 mm versus 49 mm diameter baskets. The 58 mm basket will be significantly more shallow than the 49 mm basket with related changes in appropriate grind size and extraction consistency. Lance Hedrick, quite the coffee personality, has been talking a lot about how much he enjoys extractions from these smaller diameter baskets.
Sheldon Wong, at Sworksdesign, has been manufacturing equipment to convert machines using 58 mm baskets to 49 mm basket extractions. I purchased the first stage conversion which is a basket that I insert into my bottomless portafilter which steps down from 58 mm to 49 mm. There are two versions... I bought the deeper one as I like a large shot, this basket holds a maximum of 20 g of ground coffee.
So here are my initial thoughts. The basket is beautifully manufactured and super solid. As you can see in the photo, there is a pronounced step where the diameter reduces. In the reflection from the front panel of my coffee machine, you can also see that the basket is deep and protrudes significantly from the bottom edge of the portafilter. This means that I cannot fit the basket into a portafilter with spouts.
I am very much enjoying the extractions I'm getting from the basket. They're mellow and sweet and the extractions are consistent and really pretty (the extraction pattern which I can see from the bottom of the basket is very even).
The problem though is that the increase in work flow associated with this basket is significant. 20 g of ground coffee initially sits well above the step in the basket. I need to redistribute the ground coffee and then do an initial tamp to compact some of the coffee. I then need to tap the rest of the coffee into the 49 mm space as well as scrape coffee from the step into that space. I then need to retamp. The amount of headspace above the tamped puck also means that the puck ends up being quite soggy and when I empty it into the knockbox it needs to be transferred to the bin otherwise I risk mould growing! I know it doesn't sound like much but it probably takes five times the amount of time for me to set up this basket than it does for me to set up my tried and trusted 58 mm VST basket.
So, the bottom line is that I slightly prefer the extractions from the step down basket... but is the significant increase in work flow time worth it? At this stage it feels marginal to me, and I'll work this out over the next few weeks.
I hope this has been helpful.
To read about coffee extraction click here
To hear about coffee in the movies click here