Some pointers on extracting a Ristretto from a La Pav please.

14g is the max dose I can get out of a double basket before choking/overextraction. So if I tamp harder I would have reduce the dose? Also the how-to guide suggests not polishing the top of the puck, but tamping at the corners (of a circle- er?)

Do i want a quicker pull on the lever, or any variation thereof?

And one pull of my lever results in around 20ml of espresso so I'm guessing there is no dumping of the last bit of extraction? Also I have never seen pre-drip when infusing the puck - ever. What does that mean (other than I've never had pre-drip)?

Thanks.

You can either adjust the grind to be slightly more coarse and pull faster through the grinds, so you end up with less of an extracted shot, or you can use a finer grind and then choke the machine out and cut the shot. I usually do the latter myself.

Adjust the grind so it chokes the machine, then back off one or two clicks on your grinder (or whatever adjustment you have). Then use a light tamp (since the finer grind will slow the water down on its own). Then lift the lever and do a 5 to 10 second pre-infusion. I start the pull, until you see the droplets forming and trying to join into a stream. Then pause and back off on the pressure. Then continue forward. At this point, sometimes I cut the first second or two of the shot, then pull for about 10 to 15 seconds and get as much as you can out.

You'll end up with a short / concentrated shot.

The first method (a fast, brief pull through coarser grinds) will give you a short shot, but it will be more in-line with a normal shot, just less volume.

Those are the two methods I have used.

A good method for testing is to use the 2nd method above and cut the shot (5 seconds at a time) across 5 shot glasses. Then test each one and see which flavor profile you enjoy best. That is always an interesting test to do

Ray

To answer your question about "pre-drip" - don't worry, if you grind a fresh coffee pretty tight using a decent burr grinder it is very likely you will never see any drips during preinfusion (before you start the pull).

Sometimes you can get a heavier, richer, sweeter ristretto by preinfusing for less time (say 3-5 secs), which will obviously also reduce the volume.

"pre-drip" is usually a symptom of too coarse a grind, not enough tamp or beans which are shot.

Are you using decaf? I don't drink decaf, but the neighbors wife wanted coffee one night (late at night). She and her husband came by and she brought some decaf beans. I tried to pull a shot for her on them, but I couldn't get any back pressure (no matter how tight the grind was). In that situation (using decaf beans), you might tend to see a bit more issues with water dripping out of the portafilter basket prior to pulling the lever (but I'm not expert with regard to decaf, so they may not all exhibit this problem).

Ray

Thanks,

another question: I packed in 14g, tamped relatively hard. lifted the lever, 10s later started the downward motion. The lever came down with a standard amount of pressure, but no flow. The lever was all the way down and only a couple of drips in the cup. So I re-rasied, 5s, and pulled and this time I had flow. To get 1oz I had to re-raise and repull.

Maybe its dumb question, but; where oh where did the first volume of water go? And how come this is a new development seeing I havent changed grind, tamp, dose, or pressure?