Jackson? Welcome to the Dark Side . . .

^thats me:)


Feels good Jason, feels good

Really enjoy using the grinder. Stopped doing WDT, since I think it made the shots worse. Now, I grind right into the PF using the yogurt cup to keep the grounds from going everywhere, remove the cup, tamp lightly and nutate a bit to make sure everything is level, then I apply the 30lbs of force. Remove the tamper, tamp again lightly to get all the stray grounds from the sides, and polish with just the weight of the tamper.

The Vario has made my whole routine so much quicker and easier. Shots are consistently a lot better too.

Unfortunately, I feel like I've hit a wall. My shots lack the sweetness and complexity I've come to enjoy at places like Caffe Artigiano, and other great shops. I attribute this partially to the lack of temperature stability/ consistency with my Gaggia, and also to the fact that I'm stuck at 11 bars with a non-adjustable OPV. But the biggest hindrance, I think, is my lack of experience. I notice the difference between my shots and the best shots from my favourite shops, but I don't know how to bridge the gap. That gap is a lot smaller than it was, but it seems the last bit of distance is the hardest to traverse. (kind of like losing weight. The last ten pounds are the hardest.)

To be sure, the grinder has dramatically improved my espresso, but not as much as I'd hoped.

I've had that same feeling before too, like you're not getting any improvement. I think that's just the way it goes as you improve your equipment and technique, every little bit more of improvement becomes that much harder to get (especially since once I got used to the new and improved espresso). I've got a gaggia too, which I'm sure is a limiting factor in how good my shots can be (or at least consistently good).

I've been considering an upgrade too, maybe a new grinder, and I'm taking a class at Barismo next week, hopefully I'll learn some new tricks, or at the very least just get to try out some new beans and gear.

But here are a few things that have worked for me to help improve my shots:

1. Try lots of different kinds of beans. I'm lucky that I can pick up locally fresh roasted artisan beans near by, but I've also ordered from a bunch of places online, it was great to see the range of possible blends/roasts, and to learn what worked on my setup.

2. Keep a note book. At some point I started writing down a couple notes for every shot, some of them are detailed with brew ratios and some tasting notes. Others are just a couple lines on dose, grind and if it was a good or bad shot.

3. Try preheating your reservoir water. The temp swings are a real issue with these small boiler machines, and this helps a lot. Now the pumps aren't rated to be pumping hot water, but I've found that just getting the water up to 120 F makes a noticeable difference, and the reservoir water will get to 100 F just sitting for an hour or so, I haven't had a failure yet (/crossfingers).

4. I hesitate to mention it because I don't have anything more then anecdotal evidence, but when I switched from a lava convex tamper to a flat tamper I felt like my consistency improved. I didn't do any back to back comparisons, so take this with a grain of salt.

TrlstanC wrote:4. I hesitate to mention it because I don't have anything more then anecdotal evidence, but when I switched from a lava convex tamper to a flat tamper I felt like my consistency improved. I didn't do any back to back comparisons, so take this with a grain of salt.

Yeah, I wouldn't put much stock in this, although I have heard that it may be better to have a tamper that's roughly the same shape as your dispersion screen. So, since the screen is flat on the Gaggias, perhaps a flat tamper would be better. The pours look good, though. I don't think it's that.

I'm convinced it has more to do with temperature, dose or pressure. Most of this, I think, comes down to lack of experience. I know it could be better. I know what I don't like. I think I know what I'm missing out on, but it's beyond my present knowledge and skill to identify the problem and fix it.

Brokemusician77, have you tried grinding finer and dosing less? That may help.
Sorry for the late reply, maybe you've found a solution on your own already?

Ben