I wouldn't use the term 'rubbish'... but then again i'm not frickin English!!!

James invites us to taste pure crema - yuck! (no duh)

Then, to try a skimmed espresso. ok, it's pleasant,. easy on the palate, maybe even sweeter.

I know... it's like the Reader Digest version of espresso!

I am a huge believer that all preferences are personal and therefor valid (especially to that person)... & that goes for this one. As for me, I will continue to drink my 'spro like the creator meant it to be - bittersweet & complex - fully realized and almost never perfect... but just often enough to keep me trying.

I'm not sure what I think about "pure crema," tasting ... but I just wanted to say hello to Sebastian (greatinfusions): you recently worked on my Elektra Semi-automatica .. It's working!

Howard

glad to hear it howard.

I tried it again with 13g of Nicaragua Jinotega, Angelina Estate, roasted (by Mojo Coffee) a little on the darkish side of medium. This time it was on my Pavoni at home. As always, it was split with the dual spouts on the portafilter. Skimming the crema this time unmasked a nuttiness that I hadn't noticed before or in the other half of the shot. I'm really enjoying the dual spouts and skimming one to compare the flavor.

I believe the point of all this is not so much to start a trend of skimming off the crema, but to reverse the trend of "crema uber alles."

It might be scientifically interesting to pull a shot that is 90% or 100% crema, but the coffee is what we're after. Crema is an indicator to my eyes, but the final score comes from how the coffee works in my mouth.

Hmm, after watching Jim's vid, I tried with my SM "Monkey" frenched, and personally I like the "straight" shots better without the crema and with milk drinks, better with. However, a certain amount of the crema stays in the glass when pouring it out into the latte cup. Crema alone is, ugh, bitter! On my single origin coffee I have gotten lemon, even berries out of the crema.
Without the crema on the monkey, it seemed to open up the coffee in a deeper level of flavor. Have to try the mixing method next.

Cheers!