Hi All,

Well im really enjoying my new found love of coffee making, making half decent espressos getting the hang of changing the grind as the beans get slightly old and impressive to me just changed beans and first trial shot was good.

Anyway not 100% sure about ristrettos i tried a shorter shot and got 2 x 1/2 oz Espressos from around 17g of beans in about 12-15 seconds. added together i got a single 1 oz which when i tried and held in my mouth was so full of flavour i could taste exactly what had been suggested Orange, sherbet and lemon.

I havent yet tried these beans as an espresso so will asap, but is it with the ristrettos being less weakened make it easier to find the flavours?

Cheers

PaulN

Hi,

Thanks thats Interesting, i thought the difference from an Espresso to Ristretto was the time its pulled in....

I liked the Flavours from it maybe more than a normal espresso but need to test more lol.

Thanks

PaulN

I believe the time it takes for both are around the same. The difference between a Ristretto and a "normale" is the volume of water that is used.
If you pull 2 ounces through 14 grams in 25 seconds, that is a standard double.
If you pull 1 ounce through 14 grams in 25 seconds, that is a double ristretto.
Considering it takes the same amount of time, a ristretto is typically ground finer.

That being said, I just saw the wikipedia article and there looks to be multiple variations of this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ristretto

shawndo wrote:I believe the time it takes for both are around the same.

For a full-bodied, balanced ristretto, I must allow more pour time than a double (e.g., 25 seconds vs. 35 seconds). Al's Rule elaborates on this guideline.

The Wikipedia article you cite proposes two ways of pulling ristrettos other than simply grinding finer and extending extraction time: Cutting the shot early and tamping harder (?!). The first alternative suggestion is obviously a shortcut that compromises the ristretto's taste balance by making it front-loaded; the second alternative suggestion, in my experience, is fiction.

Wikipedia wrote:One modern method of "pulling" a ristretto shot is to grind the coffee finer than that used for normal espresso, and pull the shot for the same amount of time as a normal shot. <snip> ...Another modern method for pulling a ristretto is to simply stop the extraction early, so less water has time to pass through the ground coffee. <snip> ...A third modern method, that serves as a compromise between the previous two, is to prepare the shot without adjusting the grind but to use the tamp more firmly.

Thanks,

Great read about Alis rule, nice to get more info on this. So were my Ristrettos a fake then cutting the extraction early?

Im certainly going to try finer grind to slow the extration next......

This really is good

Cheers

PaulN