On June 25th I received two bags of Linea Caffe espresso blend. It was sent on June 23rd the same day it was roasted so a two day transit. The paper bags they use are not sealed. When I got the beans on June 25th I put them in a sealed jar and waited until today June 28th that is 6 days post roast. I tried the recommended 18g in and 25g out and every shot was very light in color(light tan), watery and bitter as hell. I tried updosing and downdosing, temperatures as low as 195F to as high as 203F, but the results were exactly the same.

Did the coffee go stale during 2 day transit by not being properly sealed? But if that is the case I would think more people would be complaining about this coffee.

It would not go stale, but high heat in transit is never good. That roast is on the very light side, no?
Perhaps, contact La Marzocco, and ask them the best parameters with that roast. Chris Tacy, in his LM MIni "review" mentions a LOT of basket switching, and liked other baskets more than the OEM VST style baskets.
You MUST grind VERY fine with those baskets. HQ baskets from EPNW were, I believe one of his preferred baskets.

BTW, for that price, I wonder why they don't vacuum seal? Again, if it's a light roast (In your view just past 1st crack) I'd wait 9-10 days, maybe updose, go for a medium pour. (meaning not to fast, nor "drip drip.")

I don't think Linea Caffe in San Francisco is related to La Marzocco. I honestly don't think anything will help this coffee it is extremely unpleasant. Maybe it was the heat during transit like you said, but everything points to stale coffee. The way it pours (fast blonding even after being grounded from a K10) and the way it tastes(bitter/harsh/disgusting). It tastes like I imagine a coffee puck would taste.

If it doesn't appear to have any robusta in it you might try a different brew method, just to be sure, I guess.

Judging by your gear you are not new to pulling shots, so I'm at a loss to suggest anything. All I was thinking was tighten up the grind because you didn't say how long it too to get 25g out.

Around 25secs for the 25g out. The flavor is so overwhelming that I can't see any parameter in any direction making much difference.

If the espresso is very lightly coloured and pours fast then I'd assume that the coffee is very lightly roasted? I believe Linea has that reputation. I would suggest down dosing and tightening the grind a lot and see if that helps. I can't see how the result is exactly the same if you have tried up and down dosing at the same 25g at 25s, though.

As suggested trying brewing it to see if you can get tasty flavours. If so then its man and machine that are mangling the bean

When you get a coffee two days post roast, it's still degassing, so a bag that isn't vacuum packed or lacks a one-way valve shouldn't be a problem. Lighter roasts can take 9 days or more for the flavors to open up.

Unfortunately I went through both bags already. The lowest dose I tried was 16g and the highest 19g. For the lower doses I used an IMS double basket and for the 18g and 19g doses I used an HQ14 basket. The flavor was exactly the same no matter what. Also, the way the extraction behaved every time with each basket was a normal slow flow at the beginning and about 12-15 secs into the extraction the funnel would double in size. This plus the bitter taste are the reason I think the coffee was stale. In the past when I have tried to use old/stale coffee the funnel behaves like that during extraction.

drgary wrote:When you get a coffee two days post roast, it's still degassing, so a bag that isn't vacuum packed or lacks a one-way valve shouldn't be a problem. Lighter roasts can take 9 days or more for the flavors to open up.

When you say that the flavors open 9 days post roast is that when it hits its prime or when it becomes drinkable? If it needs 9 days then how bad could it taste if tried on the 6th day like I did?