No special gimmicks; I discovered (2 days ago) I was again on the track of sweet, creamy and citrus with orange and had to bump dose up and grind finer (like the first time with this beans). This gives slow flow, steady, not very majestic and the taste of cool cream, delicate juicy orange and the dark chocolate pitch. Also it's important to not drag it too long, or it will mute braightness.
92C, 14.7g, a tad less then 2oz (but nearer 2oz then 1.75oz)
Any differentiating from this slopes down from balance.

Just drinking!

Nice description Pawel!

Another enjoyable latte this morning. Amazing how the addition of milk transformed the espresso - softening its caustic nature and allowing for associations with milk chocolate.

Henry

Thanks Henry!
Nice to see you enjoying my posts.

Last days I'm fighting with Brazil Daterra Farms Yellow Bourbon. It was again a small present from my roaster. The problem is it is roasted Full City... well probably most wouldn't say it's a problem, but: I get wonderful aroma of almonds and almond taste with the first sip, which then continues yet fades a bit behind carmel, how much fades depends on the brewing temp. And then there is nice bitter warm chocolate aftertaste. Yet I'm longing to some higher tones in the cup, there aren't any! I bet if it was City+ there would be something satisfying. I even tried to cut earlier and all I got was some short waving of brighter tone, a bit apricot-like and that was all at 92C; a degree lower it is more present and less sweet, and the almond is a bit shaked and the aftertate is not that clean chocolate but kind of sweet grapes' flesh taste. Varying the dose in some reasonable borders doesn't bring much change. Tomorrow I'm going into extremes: a triple basket doses range at 92C and then some low dose (like 13g most) at lower temp (90C). I don't have much of this beans anyway so probably three trials will be all: I'll check 19g triple first (with the PNG Sigri triple at 19g was quite different then 21g: there were wooden flavours present, and some cherry seed taste and lots of cherriness while the latter was incredible sweet rich cherry liquor - one-dimenshional, but stunning); I think it will give better taste this way then at 21g.

Excellent FTO Klatch House Espresso Macchiato. Strong, sweet dark 80% chocolate with slight lemon acidity finish to round off the flavor. Simple, powerful and tasty.

Pulled on GS/3 paddle with 203.2F on boiler (about 200F on group-head), 6 seconds pre-infusion, 19 grams yielding ~2 oz with total 35 sec run-time on GS/3 timer.

The brazilla is drank out - I guess I was searching impossible flavours. At FC it simple is almonds in carmel. Lower temps kill the almond taste and that's not nice to do

Today (and yesterday evening) I'm at cherry-liquor triples with the PNG Sigri, though I forgot to adjust the grind the first time yesterday and I got (a tad overextracted) sweet heavy syroup, with some slight earthines and smoke. If not the slight overextraction it would be plenty tasty, anyway interesting what one can consciously get out of the very same beans.

I am having Sweet Maria's Espresso Profundo. Roasted to a Vienna. I have been doing a lighter roast experiment and was ready to hit the dark stuff. The acidity is pretty much gone at this stage, which is a nice change for me. My first shot of the day was just fantastic. It pulls like pudding and is just as smooth when sipped. The taste is bitter sweet chocolate dominated for me with a nice touch of berries. The aftertaste is rather long, but pleasant. A little smokey.

Howdy all, 'sbeen a while! (Been busy with the arrival of my first born, Jim Jr., last month.)

Yesterday afternoon I got out of the house and rolled up to Munroe Motors Ducati/Triumph in San Francisco and the conveniently located Four Barrel Coffee right across the street, and was surprised, not having been there for quite a while, to find some changes at the bar. They built up the bar at the left of the entrance, installed a GS/3 there, and are now serving all of their single origin coffees as espresso on request! Boy do I wish other shops would do this!

I asked Matthew (I knew I recognized him - as it turns out, formerly of Verve) to recommend something and he suggested a few options, from which I selected something that on the bag says Panama Duncan Estate, and on the board a little more that I can't recall. As he brewed it, it was sweet and mellow but with some pronounced dark and low tones (I believe sometimes described by some as woody), which I often don't like, but here were not overpowering and made for a nice complexity with the sweetness. I got a shot and also a breve, and it was a little muted in the half and half, but still very good and I thought it would make a good pick for home.

I picked up a bag, and this morning's first came out quite a bit brighter and more citrusy and lacking the low tones (or losing them in overpowering sweet grapefruit) using the same temp and dose but a tighter grind and longer resulting pull. I loosened up the grind quite a bit for the second but went too far and some of the low came back but with less sweetness and a little more bitter, and I will aim for the halfway point and perhaps try lowering my dose slightly later.

Much better today - now 6 days post roast, extracting 20ish grams from an LM ridged double basket (even sweep of the top of the basket, weighed one at 20.5) at 202ish to get 1.5 oz in around 30 seconds, sweet and mildly floral but also very buttery and mellow at this extraction volume, ummmm, mmmm, delicious!

SM Tono Alto - very nice. I added 1/3 Italian Roast Sidamo (a roaster's error) just to see for the second shot. It didn't change the flavor as much as I thought, but the dark roast character came out in the aftertaste.

short latte with black cat; a change from the ecco SO, but very good