When I used the Pavoni, I would raise the lever, let it infuse for about 5 seconds then pull the lever until I got the first drips of espresso out the portafilter. Around half a pull if I remember correctly. Then lift the lever again to let the water chamber fill back up (3 seconds?) then pull the shot. That would get me around 1.75 ounces if I remember correctly. That was the best technique I found and I tried a lot of variations

Dave do you recall if that was with the single or double basket, and were you weighing out the dose?

Ive seen many others using that technique, I guess that is the Fellini method Ive read about?

I always used a double basket on that machine. Don't know if that is the Fellini or not. I always thought it was the Dave method. I was not weighing the dose at that time. It was years ago.

Yea I hear several different methods refered to as Fellini or something. Sometimes after charging the "pump" giving a partial stroke till you get a few drops and then bringing the handle up and giving another full stroke. (like yours)

Sometimes giving a half stroke and then another full stroke, with no concern if you got a couple drops or a half shot out already.

And probably half a dozen different versions of the above mixed in, Im sure Ill develop my own twist on the same

cannonfodder wrote:When I used the Pavoni, I would raise the lever, let it infuse for about 5 seconds then pull the lever until I got the first drips of espresso out the portafilter. Around half a pull if I remember correctly. Then lift the lever again to let the water chamber fill back up (3 seconds?) then pull the shot. That would get me around 1.75 ounces if I remember correctly. That was the best technique I found and I tried a lot of variations.

Sounds about like what I'm going to start doing here. I brought my little scale up and I'm going to start pulling more water through the double shot basket. I'll report back later on what effect this has.

Ray

another_jim wrote:In that case, the obvious trick is very low temperature brewing on any coffee, about 85C to 90C (185F to 195F), since this will get you the body, sugars and caramels, but suppress a lot of the acids and bitters.

A bit late to the game, but...

Jim, I found this advice intriguing. Everything I've learned here suggests that brewing even a couple degrees too low can result in sour, unpalletable espresso, which has been loosely backed up by experimentation with my PID. I've never taken it as low as you suggested though. Is there some kind of inverted bell curve behavior happening here?