I am fairly new to espresso coffee, but the mini is driving me crazy. Dialing it in is really difficult because less than half a notch makes the difference between a good cup and something barely drinkable.

Each time I put a different coffee in it I need to dial it in, so I am constantly doing this and wasting a lot of coffee. Most of the time I settle for "good enough". It's either coming out like a faucet or barely dripping and causing the OPV to pop. I find it difficult to adjust it b/c of how much even the slightest turn affects grind setting.

To make things worse, I think my tamping skills suck. I have a little plastic tamper that came with the strega and I can't ever seem to tamp with any consistency- so getting the grind right is like trying to hit a moving target.

Any tips for fixing the situation?

1) weigh your dose for consistency using 0.1g resolution scale - likely your biggest problem dose varying.

2) get a real tamper

Although the MM e B I owned could have been a little better in the micro-adjust department it never kept me from getting consistent results in the cup.

How old/fresh are your beans? Have you taken the MM apart and cleaned the burrs, burr surround, chute, etc. or is it full of old stale byproduct?

Are you making adjustments with the motor running or off?

Assume you are using a .1 gram scale to keep been weight in the basket consistent?

Compass Coffee wrote:1) weigh your dose for consistency using 0.1g resolution scale - likely your biggest problem dose varying.

2) get a real tamper

+1

And stick with one particular (fresh) coffee until you get a handle on it. Changing coffees/blends/beans is only exaserbating your problem.

The MM is perfectly capable of making consistently good coffee. Not long ago it was considered the gold standard of home grinders. Try settling on one coffee for a while. You won't be wasting pounds of it dialing and re-dialing it in.

I have a .01g scale, and I roast my own coffee so maybe the coffee to isn't as consistent as if I were buying it from a professional roaster.

Does a tamper really make that big of a difference?

How much rest are you typically giving your coffee before attempting to pull shots? Too fresh is almost as bad as stale for shot consistency.

Tamper versus no tamper doesn't really make that much of a difference if any difference at all in the pull of a well built shot. However, attempting to tamp multiple times with an under sized tamper can/will usually disrupt the PF build.

Spend some time in the dose/distribution/adjustment threads and see if you can improve your prep in the basket. Helps to analyze and eliminate one element at a time. Grind, dose, distribution, etc.

Tamp is less critical than some elements but you want a decent tamper.

Matt

And I'll add using the WDT (Weiss Distribution Technique) helped get me on track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II8v2eEJ ... I8v2eEJlRY

Just adjust the grinder a small amount at a time, a small nudge will do. Are you doing the WDT, that helps quite a bit too. And yeah, get a decent tamper.
Maybe it would help to stick with one kind of coffee for say a five pound bag of green beans so that you don't have to adjust the grinder that much.