Whichever you choose

Not all baristas can grind finer on the spot, so mostly choose to stop the flow sooner.

So, based on the Wiki definition of Ristretto, you weight the beans in, but measure the volume out.

This is the definition of Ristretto from Kenneth Davids' book 'Coffee: A Guide to Brewing and Enjoying (5ht Edition)':

"Espresso Ristretto. "Restricted" or short espresso. Carries the "small is beautiful" espresso philosophy to its ultimate: The flow of espresso is cut short at less than 1 ounce, producing an even denser, more perfumy cup of espresso than the norm."

Excerpt From: Kenneth Davids. "Coffee." iBooks. https://itun.es/us/sAAkQ.l

Again, the volume out is measured.

I'm not sure about the sugar though.

So according to that website's defition is simply half a double. This is really vague because you could achieve this by simply stopping the extaction when it is half done (10-20 seconds) or you could grind finer, dose the same, and stop the extraction around 25-30 seconds. Both methods would deliver a different tasting beverage, which one is the correct one?

I grind finer for a ristretto than what I would for an espresso to accomplish the same brewing time target for both.

In my basic newbie experience: With good beans, correct dose, grind and distribution/tamp (no channeling) you can get the balance and mouthfeel you want with minor adjustments of grind size, keeping the weight of beans and yield (liquid in the cup) the same. I shoot 18g with a 36g yield. At first I thought I had to shoot 1:1 or so ristrettos to get a sweet intense cup with lots of flavor and sweetness. Pretty soon found out I could get even better cups with the standard ratio, and more coffee in the cup at the same time.

Grind coarser and the shot will be a little faster and you'll get more sour with thinner mouthfeel. Grind finer and you'll get a slower shot with more bitters balancing the sour, maybe a little sweeter and thicker, but can become harsh and unpleasant. In between, depending on coffee, lies balance with sweetness and pure flavours. This is often a 30 sec shot with VST basket on my E61 machine. I can appreciate cups a couple of seconds each side, just slightly different profile. I'm not making two or three shots in a row unless it's a major mess-up.

I now have a single origin Kenya in my hopper, pretty light scandinavian roast. I let it really cool down and make sure the crema is gone before I drink it: fruity and sweet, but grind really have to be right, or it'll be too acidic/sour.

Fresh really good beans is needed tho. A concentrated cup of not very good beans will taste very concentrated not good.

I also thought I extracted more doing a 30-35 sec ristretto, as it's a more concentrated cup made with same amount but finer ground coffee beans. But learned that I extract less coffee with the smaller amount of water and restricted flow. That might be a good thing if the beans are not very tasty if fully extracted.

40ml sounds like a good ristretto doppio to me.

But I tend to drink a 14-16g to 20-25ml I love how dense and oily the shot is.

In my years as a Barista to me a Ristretto was achieved by short pulling the shot, ie I'd only extract the first 12 odd seconds into the cup, in doing so only extracting the sweeter flavours into the cup, if you grind finer you are technically overextracting, you are allowing the water to delve deeper into the grind particles running the risk of pulling bitterness into your cup due to the time in which it is in contact with the particles, the espresso shot is set up to extract fully with the best flavour profile at a given set of parameters usually a grind size that extracts an ounce from 7-9g of coffee in around the 25ish second mark or 2 ounces from 14-18g in the same amount of time a ristretto is half the volume in half the time but only resembles the sweet fruits of the initial pull. In the real world all the measuring and weighing whoohaaa goes right out of the window, one of the best ways to get to grips with your pull is to watch all facets of it, set your time and volume guidelines and adjust to ensure the shot pulls the way it should and keep an eye on the blonding, the time it takes for you to weigh your coffee into your portafilter I could start to argue with you around humidity and the likes as well, so with most respectable machines just dose, tamp, and pull and expect to get around an ounce from 7-9g in around the 25ish mark, for ristretto just pull your cup out at around 12 sec and continue to watch the pour till it completes to give you an idea of how the shot actually pulled, many factors can confuse you like freshness of the beans and oil contents so the method of looking for blonding at around the 22sec mark was always a good indication for me.

B.C wrote:...for ristretto just pull your cup out at around 12 sec and continue to watch the pour till it completes to give you an idea of how the shot actually pulled, many factors can confuse you like freshness of the beans and oil contents so the method of looking for blonding at around the 22sec mark was always a good indication for me.

That's not a ristretto, it's the first third of a double espresso. See the "test of thirds" in the video Newbie Introduction to Espresso - Taste Diagnosis for more details (skip ahead to 10:20).

If you compare the first third of a double and a correctly extracted ristretto, the former will be intensely imbalanced (think German chocolate baking powder) while the latter will be more intense than a double and ideally sweeter. To put it another way, a ristretto extraction shifts the flavor profile towards the first third but shouldn't eliminate the last two-thirds, otherwise the taste profile will be terribly imbalanced.

I agree with an earlier comment that Jim's How to Adjust Dose and Grind Setting by Taste is a better guide than rigid adherence to a definition. If you want to communicate your preference for espresso types, Brewing ratios for espresso beverages is a good starting point (e.g., I typically start in the 65-70% brew ratio range).

B.C wrote:In my years as a Barista to me a Ristretto was achieved by short pulling the shot, ie I'd only extract the first 12 odd seconds into the cup, in doing so only extracting the sweeter flavours into the cup, if you grind finer you are technically overextracting, you are allowing the water to delve deeper into the grind particles running the risk of pulling bitterness into your cup due to the time in which it is in contact with the particles, the espresso shot is set up to extract fully with the best flavour profile at a given set of parameters usually a grind size that extracts an ounce from 7-9g of coffee in around the 25ish second mark or 2 ounces from 14-18g in the same amount of time a ristretto is half the volume in half the time but only resembles the sweet fruits of the initial pull. In the real world all the measuring and weighing whoohaaa goes right out of the window, one of the best ways to get to grips with your pull is to watch all facets of it, set your time and volume guidelines and adjust to ensure the shot pulls the way it should and keep an eye on the blonding, the time it takes for you to weigh your coffee into your portafilter I could start to argue with you around humidity and the likes as well, so with most respectable machines just dose, tamp, and pull and expect to get around an ounce from 7-9g in around the 25ish mark, for ristretto just pull your cup out at around 12 sec and continue to watch the pour till it completes to give you an idea of how the shot actually pulled, many factors can confuse you like freshness of the beans and oil contents so the method of looking for blonding at around the 22sec mark was always a good indication for me.

Doing this only gave me an extremely sour shot, with 2 different beans. 2 Ounces from a 14gr - 15 gr gets me an very watery bitter shot.

I changed the grind to a finer grind and got a 13.8gr of coffee in 29 seconds from a 14gr dose. The beverage was intense in flavor, yet balanced. Very dense, and I really liked it. I do prefer this than a regular espresso, but I am liking the best is 22gr in 25seconds from 14 gr dose.

I get what you say, weighing, grinding on the spot, etc... takes a lot of time. But time I have in the afternoons one of the pros of brewing your own espresso I guess .

It doesn't take long to weigh. I know that I get about 18g right at 12 seconds from my Super Jolly. I weigh, use a spoon to take off a few 0.1 grams and tamp. Don't think those few extra seconds will make the shot worse, rather better as it's a consistent way to make the shot the way I intend every time.