Hi,

I have been watching a lot of YT videos about the LMLM which I am waiting to be delivered.

I noticed that in most of the videos, people are putting 17 grams or so of coffee but most are using the portafilter with the two spouts (double) and not the single (1 spout)

My question is why, and does it make any diff in taste of shot?.

Thanks

The double spout acts like a tri-pod in conjunction with the handle. The single spout won't sit upright on its own.

JB

I think most machines come with the double spout by default too.

Personally I prefer the double spout unless I change coffees and I need to examine the extraction to watch for dead spots, channeling, blonding time, etc. but once I'm done and the coffee is dialed in, for me, there is no need for a bottomless. Also, not a big fan of the single spout as it doesn't sit on the counter.

The only reason I can think of to use a single-spouted portafilter is if you're pulling into a small cup (e.g., a shot glass) that's too narrow to contain the two streams and you don't have a bottomless portafilter.

Aside from being able to sit on the counter without tipping over, double-spouted portafilters are also used to "split" a double shot into two single shots. In a busy cafe it's usually not feasible to change the grind back and forth for single and double shots, and splitting a double is much faster than pulling two singles. A split double doesn't taste the same as a true single, but most customers won't notice.

That said, here in the USA many cafes have just one "Espresso" entry on the menu, and it's a double. You can't order a single in those cafes.

The single that came with mine was at an awkward angle to to rest of the machine with the portafilter locked in, which made it hard to observe the pour. I'll only ever use the double or bottomless portafilter because of this.

What about no spout. Gives me extra head room for taller cups. Works great with the Cafelat portafilters.

I've gone back and forth. I think portafilters with spouts, single or double have more mass and retain more heat. With bottomless portafilters, the coffee hits the cool air immediately out of the basket. With a spout, the coffee leaves the basket into warmed air and then takes a nice ride down a 160* slide into the cup with much less exposure to room temp air. Bottomless shots are pretty, but they are a bit cooler.

Chris coffee sells a single spout for your double spouted portafilter. You do have the balance problem but I solved that with some pvc I had lying around to hold the pf (2 pieces: larger diameter for the spout area and smaller diameter to balance the other end of the handle).

i've always wondered something too, slightly offtopic but, when i split a double espresso shot, do i end up with 2 single espresso shots? or does it not work that way?