Crumbly Soggy Puck?

by **owlbass** on Sat Oct 20, 2007 7:08 pm

I can't seem to get a firm puck after my shots. It happens sometimes but not consistently or nearly enough. My espresso taste just fine and I can't identify the problem. Could someone please help or direct me to a good article. Thanks Owen

by **cannonfodder** on Sat Oct 20, 2007 7:15 pm

owlbass wrote:My espresso taste just fine

That is the key. Don"t worry about the puck, just the cup. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say your dose is changing. A lower dose tends to produce a soupier/looser puck than an overdosed basket.

by **owlbass** on Sat Oct 20, 2007 7:20 pm

My loose pucks started when I stopped pre tamping(Meaning dose half then tamp and then dose the rest and tamp again). So that would make sense. Thanks for your help

by **AndyS** on Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:01 pm

owlbass wrote:I can't seem to get a firm puck after my shots. It happens sometimes but not consistently or nearly enough. My espresso taste just fine and I can't identify the problem. Could someone please help or direct me to a good article.

Owen, my friend, please allow me to make an analogy. Suppose you read a restaurant review that went like this:

"The food was delicious, the price was surprisingly low, but I don't recommend this restaurant because I wasn't satisfied with the bowel movement I had afterwards."

Reading that, could you possibly take the reviewer seriously?

DO NOT obsess about the consistency of the puck; just throw it in the compost pile and forget about it.

IT'S THE COFFEE THAT YOU'RE DRINKING, REMEMBER?

by **timo888** on Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:05 pm

AndyS wrote:Owen, my friend, please allow me to make an analogy. Suppose you read a restaurant review that went like this:

"The food was delicious, the price was surprisingly low, but I don't recommend this restaurant because I wasn't satisfied with the bowel movement I had afterwards."

Reading that, could you possibly take the reviewer seriously?

DO NOT obsess about the consistency of the puck; just throw it in the compost pile and forget about it.

IT'S THE COFFEE THAT YOU'RE DRINKING, REMEMBER?

At about 9:00 a.m. , the Indian star tortoise soup was sent to Mr. Zhang. Later, the cashier told me that Mr. Zhang was not a fool. He felt the soup was not as good as that served at the Tianshan restaurant. He also had loose bowels after he ate our dish. So he phoned our restaurant to complain, exclaiming that he wanted to be reimbursed 3,000 yuan. Our boss summoned Rong to find out what had happened. She came back looking very unhappy.

by **owlbass** on Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:17 pm

Ok,
Maybe I came off as sounding like a noob on my first post. But although I feel I pull good shots of espresso I am always reading and trying to make them better. So I was just trying to see if the soggy puck was the next step towards the so called 'God Shot'. But your analogy was good none the less. Owen

by **timo888** on Sun Oct 21, 2007 10:25 am

AndyS wrote:IT'S THE COFFEE THAT YOU'RE DRINKING, REMEMBER?

I remember reading as a kid an anthropologist's account of time he had spent living with a pygmy tribe. They happened one day upon an elephant lying dead on the trail. It had been dead for several days and in the heat the stench was overpowering; but the pygmies gleefully set upon the carcass, cutting off with their knives large chunks of meat and eating them there on the spot, raw. When the anthropologist asked them how it was they could eat the meat amid such stench, they replied, "We eat the meat, not the smell."

by **AndyS** on Sun Oct 21, 2007 10:58 am

owlbass wrote:Maybe I came off as sounding like a noob on my first post. But although I feel I pull good shots of espresso I am always reading and trying to make them better. So I was just trying to see if the soggy puck was the next step towards the so called 'God Shot'.

Your original question was reasonable, you have no reason to apologize for it.

Others may disagree, but I feel there is ZERO correlation between the firmness of the puck and the quality of the shot. I have had the misfortune to receive horrid espresso from quite a few coffee shops where the pucks were beautifully firm.

by **Niko** on Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:45 am

At least you get pucks!
Depending on the bean(s), I get nothing but pulverized crumbs and powder in the knockbox, nothing solid lately.
...maybe I should ease off on the 150lbs of force when knocking out the PF

by **Ken Fox** on Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:59 pm

AndyS wrote:Owen, my friend, please allow me to make an analogy. Suppose you read a restaurant review that went like this:

"The food was delicious, the price was surprisingly low, but I don't recommend this restaurant because I wasn't satisfied with the bowel movement I had afterwards."

Reading that, could you possibly take the reviewer seriously?

As a sometimes world traveler who spends about 2 months a year in France, from where I type this, I can tell you for sure that there are places I have not gone back to based upon my bowel movements afterwards.

ken


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