Hi all,

Noob question here (for the record, I tried searching before posting)

I have a Rancilio Silvia/Vario combo and am using the naked portafilter and black cat espresso. According to Intelligentsia, the black cat I'm currently using (roasted on 4/11/11) calls for the following: "20g in, 30.3g out, 39sec 201f." I'm using a .01g digital scale to weigh my coffee and using a straight tamp followed by a Staub tamp/polish. My shot's are progressively getting better since I started using the machine (3 weeks ago), however I'm just not sure which basket is best for my needs. I started using the stock triple that came with the naked portafilter but found that there was such a huge gap between the polished puck and the top of the basket (not sure if this is a good or bad thing). Recently I bought a La Marzocco style, ridgeless double and find it virtually impossible to get 20g in the basket without it being too close to the top of the basket and subsequently the shower screen (post tamp).

Any thoughts or assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

I am no expert on the Silvia, never having owned one, and all I know about that machine is that it is finicky and hard to get good shots out of.

That being said, your coffee is too old for espresso if it was roasted on 4/11, which is 13 days ago, certainly it is old enough to make your job very much harder.

Using a Silvia with coffee that is beyond its prime is basically turning yourself into Sisyphus; you are trying to get that big boulder up a steep hill, but I do not rate your chances as good.

ken

Try dosing with the ridgeless basket with at least 2mm clearance between the puck

Thanks Dan. I'll go with that.

The straight sided Marzocco ridged triple basket is the deepest out there. It will take a lot of coffee. Next down is the ridgeless Synesso/Faema style basket with the tapered base. If you have straight sided LM triple and it holds too much coffee, try the Synesso ridgeless triple basket. It holds around 2 grams less than the LM. After that you have the LM ridgeless double, then the Faema style ridged double basket that most machines use. The LM ridged double basket also has straight sides like the LM triple but it holds about the same amount of coffee as the Faema style double basket. However, the LM double takes a 57mm tamper. A standard 58mm Reg tamper will not fit. Baskets are inexpensive so I have a pile of them and use them all depending on the coffee.

the black cat I'm currently using (roasted on 4/11/11) calls for the following: "20g in, 30.3g out, 39sec 201f."

I'm very curious as to the source of these numbers as their website currently says 17 - 18 grams, 198 F, 27 - 29 Seconds, and 1.9 fluid ounces for Black Cat Classic Espresso. I do applaud someone coming up with a beverage weight vice a "fluid ounces" measurement.

From a "how does it fit in the basket" standpoint, 20 g of Black Cat Classic Espresso and an LM doubles basket are a very nice match.

Ken Fox wrote:That being said, your coffee is too old for espresso if it was roasted on 4/11, which is 13 days ago, certainly it is old enough to make your job very much harder.

That may be true for Ken's palate, home-roasted single origins, and dosing style, but it's not a rule.

Particularly when we're talking about Black Cat prepared as a high-dose ristretto... 13 days rest probably tastes better than 3 days. Looking at the Black Cat twitter, it seems like they are usually extracting coffee that has been rested for a week.

Of course, when a pro barista uses coffee that was rested for N days, that is typically from a sealed bag that gets consumed on the same day it was opened. 13-day-old coffee that has been open for several days is not equivalent to 13-day-old coffee just opened.

When I was beginner, I had to use very fresh coffee, otherwise my extractions would fall apart. (blonding, channeling, etc.) With more experience I can get a proper yield from a much greater freshness range... and the decline in flavor/aromatics is more linear as the coffee ages.

More on-topic, I recommend ignoring the 20g prescription, which is geared towards a commercial setup. You can adapt their brewing ratio to your needs. 20g/30.3g = 66% ratio. So for example if your machine/basket works better at an 18g dose, you might shoot for a 27g beverage weight if you are trying to imitate that style of ristretto.

I also recommend learning what a good flow rate and color progression look like; this will help your barista-fu just as much as the scale.

Thanks for the tips everyone. Really appreciate it.
I'm obviously still getting the hang of things and every little tip helps.

Particularly when we're talking about Black Cat prepared as a high-dose ristretto... 13 days rest probably tastes better than 3 days. Looking at the Black Cat twitter, it seems like they are usually extracting coffee that has been rested for a week.

It does seem that Black Cat Project tweets seem to be posted no less than 10 days post roasting which I suppose led me to believe that Black Cat may still be usable after several days rest. For example, after opening the bag on the 14th of April, whatever didn't go directly into the hopper went into an air tight container where it's been slowly depleted as it's been needed. I still find it fairly flavorful after 14 days, however my palate may be too juvenile to tell how bad it really may be.

One more question; If I was to use the exact same parameters, i.e. dose, temperature, time, etc, but used two different baskets (my stock triple and my LM style ridgeless double), would the extraction be similar or does the extra distance between the coffee and the dispersion screen make the difference?

portamento wrote:That may be true for Ken's palate, home-roasted single origins, and dosing style, but it's not a rule.

Particularly when we're talking about Black Cat prepared as a high-dose ristretto... 13 days rest probably tastes better than 3 days. Looking at the Black Cat twitter, it seems like they are usually extracting coffee that has been rested for a week.

There are no hard and fast rules in anything involving coffee, however ---

I have not had a single coffee, anywhere, that in my opinion was better on day 13 than it was on day 7 or day 10. And I'm not talking about such much discussed newbie issues like how much crema one gets in a shot. If one wants absolutely the most crema one can get, then one should start pulling shots a few hours after a roast, which is not what I would suggest.

The only coffees I have ever had that were better on day 13 than the were on day 6 or day 10, were coffees like some Yemens that are so overladen with gamey/ funky tastes that they are undrinkable when young and only become drinkable after some of the most objectionable elements have aired off.

All of this really begs the question -- and granted, staling is a complex chemical and physical phenomenon. But if one thinks that it is necessary to allow freshly roasted coffee to stale so much, for 2 weeks for goodness sakes!, only so that one can use enormous doses in a basket to produce a very concentrated shot -- is one really drinking the best part of the coffee, or is one just celebrating a technique for concentrating what little actual coffee character remains in already-stale beans?

ken