Consistent GOD shots - Page 2

[Psyd]

You are misinterpretting me and accusing me of something I expressly declined to say.
It's like a music critic who listens to all his music under water.

No, you kinda said it. If one doesn't drink a straight shot, one can't say it's a god shot. Lemme repeat. Pfah!

It's like a music critic saying that it's a masterpiece of composition, and having someone say that it can't be because it isn't a piece of classical music composed for a classical orchestra. Both sound like they might be true, and both are fallacious. The syllogisms are faulty.
Again, just because you believe these things to be true doesn't mean that they are. I understand the purist feeling that the straight shot imbues, but to suggest that someone that tastes two or three capuccini a day isn't qualified to identify a god shot in milk while he would be able to if he only stepped out of his routine and tasted them on their own isn't just wrong, it's unreasonable. And while you can hide a multitude of sins under five or six ounces of milk, two ounces microfoamed aren't going to kid you into buying a sow's ear as a silk purse.
If you suck at pulling shots, I'll know it in my cappuccino. If you pull a god shot doppio and don't screw up the two or three ounces of fresh 2% that you're steaming, I'll know that, too.

By the same logic, *$ serves espresso

They do, actually. They just serve bad espresso, poorly? I may be missing a point that you're making but I'm not sure what you meant by that. Elaborate a bit, I'm a leetle slow today...

[Marshall]

Well, you can always take the Alice in Wonderland approach that, "words mean whatever I want them to mean." But, I think you've lowered the bar on what "godshot" means pretty low to think it can be judged in two ounces of milk.

Your music critic analogy is way off. I used the example of a critic who only listens to music under water for a very specific reason. His senses are muffled and, for that reason alone, should not be relied upon. I made no judgment about the critic's taste in music or the OP's taste in coffee.

[another_jim]

Pfah! I've had both, but judging the shot in the environment that you are most familiar with it will indicate it's quality compared to past shots. If the guy drinks cappus all the time, and tastes the shot as an espresso, he has little basis for comparison. God shots, AFAIC, are like Gods. Individuals experience them differently, and anyone that says yours isn't 'right' is either selling something or a fanatic.
Never make the mistake that what works for you is 'right' because it works for you, or that something that doesn't work for you is 'wrong' because it doesn't work for you.

Drink your cappus, brudda, and enjoy your godshots

A superb cappa is based on great roast tastes. A blend of medium roast SL28s and South or Central Bourbons, plus some darker roasted Indos, will deliver a Viennese cafe almond, blackcurrant and distillate blast consistently, year in, year out, and will be relatively easy to pull. A blend based on Harars or Mochas will be a lot trickier and less consistent, but once one has the right coffees, getting the same cappa time after time will also be easy.

But because this is a formula, it is not a godshot, just a very good cappa. A godshot sets you off on a mad and very expensive quest to get an even better one; if it doesn't, it isn't a godshot.

[Psyd]

A godshot sets you off on a mad and very expensive quest to get an even better one; if it doesn't, it isn't a godshot.

So, if you pull a god shot and then put it in milk, it isn't a godshot?

If you plan on putting it in milk, it can't be a god shot? When does a god shot become not a god shot?

I think that the god reference is beginning to have religious overtones and reverberations, and I'm starting to remember a particular George Carlin routine that comes to mind.
If I pull a doppio and steam some milk and the result makes me put on pants and drive to a friends house. breaking not a few laws along the way (cause, like, it's cooling, officer!) just so that I can wake him up to show him what I've done with his new blend, and we go back to my house to beat the machine to get it to provide us with another one, that kind mad expensive quest? Or are you talking about the one that got me to run 220V into my kitchen, and plumb in my 4300+W, two group, two-hundred pound $7800 espresso machine and flank her with two Mazzer Majors quest?
I'm not sure where the supposition that those that take their espresso with a bit of steamed milk or a bit of sugar are somehow less enthusiastic, less discerning, or less capable than those that take it straight. My drinking buddies pride themselves in drinking their whisky at cask strength as well, but sometimes I have to remind them that cask strength whisky is actually designed to be diluted.
I still fail to see why I can't identify a god shot in milk, or the intention to put it in milk makes it less of a god shot. God shots can only be pulled with blends intended to not be pulled as cappuccino eventually? Ehm, sure...

[RapidCoffee]

Getting back-to-back god shots is easy. They've made a special machine for this called the God Shot. After numerous secret tests and updates they now decided to release the third version under it's codename: GS3

Actually, such a machine does exist. Really. It grows the coffee from seed, harvests and dries it, roasts it, grinds it, and makes a godshot every time - all at the push of a button. Unfortunately, the plans were bought up by a conglomerate of LaMarzocco and Big Oil. The GS3 was released instead.

But, if it's in a cappa, any claims of it being a "godshot" should be taken with a grain of salt.

This sentence would be equally true if the five words between the commas were deleted. Any godshot claims should be taken with a grain of salt... at least, until we can send out samples for cupping over the Internet.

[Marshall]

I'm not sure where the supposition that those that take their espresso with a bit of steamed milk or a bit of sugar are somehow less enthusiastic, less discerning, or less capable than those that take it straight.

I don't know who you are arguing with. It isn't anyone who has posted in this thread.

[Marshall]

This sentence would be equally true if the five words between the commas were deleted. Any godshot claims should be taken with a grain of salt... at least, until we can send out samples for cupping over the Internet.

Well, I try to be at least a little diplomatic!

[cannonfodder]

Well, if the shots are consistently God shots, then they by definition are no longer God shots but very consistent and exceptional shots. A God shot is by definition a rare occurrence. To me, a God shot is a shot that just happens with no special preparation by the barista that produces a shot of above average quality, a shot so good and magical that it had to have been touched by the hand of God himself. Upon drinking it, the heavens open and the angles sing and you spend the next weeks/months/years trying to reproduce that magical occurrence.

The better you get, the rarer the God shot becomes. They go from once a month to once every few months to one every year to one every few years. It is a sign that your skills and understanding of the process has evolved, practice until you good becomes better and your better becomes best.

[RapidCoffee]

Well, I try to be at least a little diplomatic!

Ha ha. That's never been one of my many flaws.

Well, if the shots are consistently God shots, then they by definition are no longer God shots but very consistent and exceptional shots. A God shot is by definition a rare occurrence. To me, a God shot is a shot that just happens with no special preparation by the barista that produces a shot of above average quality, a shot so good and magical that it had to have been touched by the hand of God himself. Upon drinking it, the heavens open and the angles sing and you spend the next weeks/months/years trying to reproduce that magical occurrence.

You've nailed it. Magical, rare, and impossible to produce with any consistency. Sometimes even the angels sing.

[Marshall]

Ha ha. That's never been one of my many flaws.

You were very gracious when I scorned the WDT. Some of the alt.coffee regulars would have eviscerated me.

[cafeIKE]

For anyone to claim repeated gshots is risible and indicates an incomplete understanding of the term.

Milk in a gshot is the gustatory equivalent of Coca-Cola in a '64 Mortlach.

[pauljolly65]

The better you get, the rarer the God shot becomes.

Darned if that isn't true. I recall two epic shots back in February, and I had such a shot just ten days ago. Mindblowingly good, so good that my wife and kids began to mock me when, after every sip, I exclaimed, "Man! This is soooo good! Ahhhhh!" My repeated attempts to recreate it that morning (and in the ensuing days) met with failure...but it was that lovely kind of espresso failure wherein every shot was good, just not god.

So I guess that we should rest happy with the fact that our "saint shots" ("very consistent and exceptional", to quote the good Mr. Stephens again) are so much better than what we could find out on the town for $2.50. While I've had some really great shots at places in SF, the tremendous (Godly?) ones have all been at home when the roast had rested just so, the grind was just right, my tamp was perfectly firm, and the water was perfectly hot and at just the right pressure and softness to reveal what was possible. I couldn't recreate them any more than Van Gogh could "paint a starry night again, man."

[CoffeeBuzz]

I'm the OP.

I've read some interesting discussion, as well a a recent post that borders on insulting, but not a single poster has shared their own personal results using this recipe.

It's been four days since the original post, which is enough time to have ordered and received the beans. I'm looking forward to reading some meaningful reviews tomorrow. Time to put up folks.

[TimEggers]

Time to put up folks.

This was an excellent straight shot of heavy smooth chocolate that I pulled last year.

[CoffeeBuzz]

This was an excellent straight shot of heavy smooth chocolate that I pulled last year.

Excellent video. Your shot has more in common with my method than not. Hardly a drop before the 30 second mark, and ending at 1 minute. You ended up with a little more volume than my shots, but I'm using a single basket so it's pretty much a wash.

[shadowfax]

Well, if the shots are consistently God shots, then they by definition are no longer God shots but very consistent and exceptional shots. A God shot is by definition a rare occurrence. To me, a God shot is a shot that just happens with no special preparation by the barista that produces a shot of above average quality, a shot so good and magical that it had to have been touched by the hand of God himself. Upon drinking it, the heavens open and the angles sing and you spend the next weeks/months/years trying to reproduce that magical occurrence.

The better you get, the rarer the God shot becomes. They go from once a month to once every few months to one every year to one every few years. It is a sign that your skills and understanding of the process has evolved, practice until you good becomes better and your better becomes best.

All rudeness aside, I agree with Dave S. While I would be hesitant to use the term "godshot" as a rather silly term to begin with, the idea itself is exceptional in a way that defies even the oxymoron that I think Dave coined--"consistently exceptional espresso." The "godshot" is, for anyone, a shot that raises the bar for them forever. You're happy with x machine till it gives you something amazing, and then you can't get it anymore, and you become convinced that y machine will get it for you. Things of that nature. If you're getting these shots consistently, it means that you've either learned to be happy with your current results, or you need to raise your bar again. Just what Dave S. said.

Dave G. (The OP for those who aren't watching the "Real Name" field)--I had about 12 oz. of Vivace Vita when I christened my Vetrano a few months ago. It is fantastic stuff, and seems to kind of revel in updosing like no other coffee I have tried. I have never tried a single shot, but I definitely was stuffing 21-22 grams in my Synesso 18 gram basket.

Here is what I did with it: 21-22g coffee making a ~1.5 oz. shot pulled in 45 s for 5.5-6 oz. cappa. You could describe this as a scale up from your method, other than the shorter pull time, no? My notes read, "This particular shot was like a cup of dark chocolate, with some really nice "high notes," which I hesitate to describe as fruity." This seems along the same lines as your notes, although the method is quite different, esp. the dosage. I will have to dig out my single basket sometime.


super-thick


nice microfoam (well, for me )

I've come a long way from the last time I tried Vita, though. In the last 3 months I think my palate has sharpened more than ever. CCC's Biloya was a huge eye-opener for me--tasting a coffee with such a distinct flavor that could not be described as anything other than berries. Now I am picking a lot more interesting flavors out in my home-roasts. I would probably have a lot more to say about Vita if I ordered it again.

[Tim356]

Shadowfax,

Not to get off subject, but that is one hell of a freeze-frame on super-thick! What camera did you take that shot of the shot with? Well done man, nice artwork.

Tim

[espressoed]

As an espresso novice I'm very confused about one key point in reading through this thread. Does one have to believe in God in order to experience a God shot?

[CoffeeBuzz]

The insistence that a godshot or what ever you want to call it is unrepeatable underscores what can ONLY be interpreted as INCONSISTENCY IN YOUR TECHNIQUE OR EQUIPMENT. Aging aside, if you are unable to repeat your results one shot after another, don't complain to me. Look at what's happening at both ends of your PF, starting at the handle end.

Please don't make the mistake of thinking I believe I have eliminated all the variables from my process. I haven't. But at least I' realize that differences in the cup are due to differences in the materials and/or process. Oh yeah, and divine intervention has nothing to do with it.

I've only seen two post related to the actual recipe, which is what this thread is all about. How about it guys? Am I going to wake up tomorrow to some meaningful reviews, or to more hot air?

[zin1953]

By the same logic, *$ serves espresso

Well, they do serve espresso. They just don't serve DRINKABLE espresso.