Marshall wrote:You are misinterpretting me and accusing me of something I expressly declined to say.
It's like a music critic who listens to all his music under water.

No, you kinda said it. If one doesn't drink a straight shot, one can't say it's a god shot. Lemme repeat. Pfah!

It's like a music critic saying that it's a masterpiece of composition, and having someone say that it can't be because it isn't a piece of classical music composed for a classical orchestra. Both sound like they might be true, and both are fallacious. The syllogisms are faulty.
Again, just because you believe these things to be true doesn't mean that they are. I understand the purist feeling that the straight shot imbues, but to suggest that someone that tastes two or three capuccini a day isn't qualified to identify a god shot in milk while he would be able to if he only stepped out of his routine and tasted them on their own isn't just wrong, it's unreasonable. And while you can hide a multitude of sins under five or six ounces of milk, two ounces microfoamed aren't going to kid you into buying a sow's ear as a silk purse.
If you suck at pulling shots, I'll know it in my cappuccino. If you pull a god shot doppio and don't screw up the two or three ounces of fresh 2% that you're steaming, I'll know that, too.

cafeIKE wrote:By the same logic, *$ serves espresso

They do, actually. They just serve bad espresso, poorly? I may be missing a point that you're making but I'm not sure what you meant by that. Elaborate a bit, I'm a leetle slow today...

Well, you can always take the Alice in Wonderland approach that, "words mean whatever I want them to mean." But, I think you've lowered the bar on what "godshot" means pretty low to think it can be judged in two ounces of milk.

Your music critic analogy is way off. I used the example of a critic who only listens to music under water for a very specific reason. His senses are muffled and, for that reason alone, should not be relied upon. I made no judgment about the critic's taste in music or the OP's taste in coffee.

Psyd wrote:Pfah! I've had both, but judging the shot in the environment that you are most familiar with it will indicate it's quality compared to past shots. If the guy drinks cappus all the time, and tastes the shot as an espresso, he has little basis for comparison. God shots, AFAIC, are like Gods. Individuals experience them differently, and anyone that says yours isn't 'right' is either selling something or a fanatic.
Never make the mistake that what works for you is 'right' because it works for you, or that something that doesn't work for you is 'wrong' because it doesn't work for you.

Drink your cappus, brudda, and enjoy your godshots

A superb cappa is based on great roast tastes. A blend of medium roast SL28s and South or Central Bourbons, plus some darker roasted Indos, will deliver a Viennese cafe almond, blackcurrant and distillate blast consistently, year in, year out, and will be relatively easy to pull. A blend based on Harars or Mochas will be a lot trickier and less consistent, but once one has the right coffees, getting the same cappa time after time will also be easy.

But because this is a formula, it is not a godshot, just a very good cappa. A godshot sets you off on a mad and very expensive quest to get an even better one; if it doesn't, it isn't a godshot.

another_jim wrote:A godshot sets you off on a mad and very expensive quest to get an even better one; if it doesn't, it isn't a godshot.

So, if you pull a god shot and then put it in milk, it isn't a godshot?

If you plan on putting it in milk, it can't be a god shot? When does a god shot become not a god shot?

I think that the god reference is beginning to have religious overtones and reverberations, and I'm starting to remember a particular George Carlin routine that comes to mind.
If I pull a doppio and steam some milk and the result makes me put on pants and drive to a friends house. breaking not a few laws along the way (cause, like, it's cooling, officer!) just so that I can wake him up to show him what I've done with his new blend, and we go back to my house to beat the machine to get it to provide us with another one, that kind mad expensive quest? Or are you talking about the one that got me to run 220V into my kitchen, and plumb in my 4300+W, two group, two-hundred pound $7800 espresso machine and flank her with two Mazzer Majors quest?
I'm not sure where the supposition that those that take their espresso with a bit of steamed milk or a bit of sugar are somehow less enthusiastic, less discerning, or less capable than those that take it straight. My drinking buddies pride themselves in drinking their whisky at cask strength as well, but sometimes I have to remind them that cask strength whisky is actually designed to be diluted.
I still fail to see why I can't identify a god shot in milk, or the intention to put it in milk makes it less of a god shot. God shots can only be pulled with blends intended to not be pulled as cappuccino eventually? Ehm, sure...

Elbasso wrote:Getting back-to-back god shots is easy. They've made a special machine for this called the God Shot. After numerous secret tests and updates they now decided to release the third version under it's codename: GS3

Actually, such a machine does exist. Really. It grows the coffee from seed, harvests and dries it, roasts it, grinds it, and makes a godshot every time - all at the push of a button. Unfortunately, the plans were bought up by a conglomerate of LaMarzocco and Big Oil. The GS3 was released instead.

Marshall wrote:But, if it's in a cappa, any claims of it being a "godshot" should be taken with a grain of salt.

This sentence would be equally true if the five words between the commas were deleted. Any godshot claims should be taken with a grain of salt... at least, until we can send out samples for cupping over the Internet.

Psyd wrote:I'm not sure where the supposition that those that take their espresso with a bit of steamed milk or a bit of sugar are somehow less enthusiastic, less discerning, or less capable than those that take it straight.

I don't know who you are arguing with. It isn't anyone who has posted in this thread.

RapidCoffee wrote:This sentence would be equally true if the five words between the commas were deleted. Any godshot claims should be taken with a grain of salt... at least, until we can send out samples for cupping over the Internet.

Well, I try to be at least a little diplomatic!

Well, if the shots are consistently God shots, then they by definition are no longer God shots but very consistent and exceptional shots. A God shot is by definition a rare occurrence. To me, a God shot is a shot that just happens with no special preparation by the barista that produces a shot of above average quality, a shot so good and magical that it had to have been touched by the hand of God himself. Upon drinking it, the heavens open and the angles sing and you spend the next weeks/months/years trying to reproduce that magical occurrence.

The better you get, the rarer the God shot becomes. They go from once a month to once every few months to one every year to one every few years. It is a sign that your skills and understanding of the process has evolved, practice until you good becomes better and your better becomes best.

Marshall wrote:Well, I try to be at least a little diplomatic!

Ha ha. That's never been one of my many flaws.

cannonfodder wrote:Well, if the shots are consistently God shots, then they by definition are no longer God shots but very consistent and exceptional shots. A God shot is by definition a rare occurrence. To me, a God shot is a shot that just happens with no special preparation by the barista that produces a shot of above average quality, a shot so good and magical that it had to have been touched by the hand of God himself. Upon drinking it, the heavens open and the angles sing and you spend the next weeks/months/years trying to reproduce that magical occurrence.

You've nailed it. Magical, rare, and impossible to produce with any consistency. Sometimes even the angels sing.

RapidCoffee wrote:Ha ha. That's never been one of my many flaws.

You were very gracious when I scorned the WDT. Some of the alt.coffee regulars would have eviscerated me.