unclefreizo wrote:But so then, is a week after roasting going to create freshness issues?

No, most coffees used for espresso peak between day 4 and 7, though some are great beyond that point. Why coffee needs to "rest" before making espresso elaborates on this point. As an example, Counter Culture Coffee used to recommend four days for degassing. Lately they're recommending 7 to 9 days; in other words, it changes with each crop and blend. Two common signs of "too fresh" coffee are buckets of crema that fall flat in less than a minute and the taste of baking soda.

Thanks for the links and info, all.

I dosed more during my session today and ground finer, and that seemed to help.

The crema came out looking better today, but consistently really yellow/tan looking, though there were some nice looking striations. It wasn't the darker mottled, marbled look that I generally hunt for, however.

Underextraction still?

How did it taste?

It tasted about the same to me, now granted I don't have the most discerning of tastes. But I did notice a definite difference between beans. This medium dark roast is definitely much more mellow and sweeter. It does still have the bitterness common to a lot of coffees that I'm trying to get rid of, but I think has to do with my tendency to underextract. I'm thinking about trying letting the first 1-2 seconds just run into the tray and then putting the cups under.

It's a little bit hard for me to watch color as well, since my portafilter has a black plastic bottom with two tiny little holes. I'm thinking about getting a naked portafilter. Obviously this has nothing to do with over/underextraction, but maybe it'll help me cut at the right time.

Under extracted tends toward the sour and weak, over extracted, channeling and high temperature tend to favor bitter. Odd about the dark roast, I always found dark roasts to be ashy and flat with the lighter having more origin flavor and sweeter. Once you get past full city the roast flavor overpowers the origin flavors, which is why most dark roasted coffee all taste the same. The soul has been cooked out of the beans, but there is an occasional exception.