by peacecup on Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:52 pm
The more experience I gain, and the more I read about espresso making, the more I realize that the rules of the 30-second pour and the 30-pound tamp are made to be broken. They are useful guidelines by which baristas may obtain reproducible results, but there is clearly nothing magic about the number 30. In some cases rules such as these can do more harm than good - one can spend a lot of time and effort carrying around a bathroom scale and watching an egg timer. Also, for some machines the "sweet spot" just might not fit in the 30-30 category, and one may never be able to realize the full potential if confined to these rules. If one simply follows the rule to vary one parameter at a time (grind, dose, tamp, etc, as outlined several times on this forum), consistent and delicious results can be achieved. So leave the scale in the bathroom and reserve the timer for eggs - you might be surprised!
LMWDP #049
Hand-ground, hand-pulled: "hands down.."
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