OK ...

Think I'm on the way to solving the soy problem. Let's say (with chagrin) that it helps to let the boiler heat sufficiently that I'm not injecting water into the soy! BIG improvement there. Also chilled the frothing pitcher in the freezer.

Otherwise, in my one attempt this morning, I dialed the grinder 20 turns finer. Avoided a gorilla tamp, and came up with a more reasonable flow, 2.5 oz in 25 seconds. Got some crema but the shot tastes a little bitter. Kept the same full dose. Drowned it in soy milk and downed it. Off to the ferry.

Went to Blue Bottle for new beans, my morning "reference shot" (yum!) and some advice. Asked Charlie and she said consider whether I'm overextracting.

I'll review instructions about overextraction or other causes of bitterness.

Also just ordered a gram scale to be more precise about dosing, about $20 shipped from Amazon marketplace: American Weigh AMW-100 Silver Precision Digital Pocket Scale 1543 x 0.1 grain and 100 x 0.01 gram With 100 Gram Calibration Weight

A long journey begins with a few steps ...

A brief update: I wasn't sure whether I was overextracting because didn't know whether the bitterness I detected was to be expected, especially since what I produce on my home machine isn't nearly as condensed as what the professionals do when making a double ristretto at Blue Bottle.

So I pushed the grind FINER on purpose by another 10 turns. This stopped all flow completely, so I had my answer. It was too fine. I then went coarser by 20 turns on the Lelit PL53. Success! (This is ten turns coarser than the bitter results I got yesterday.)

I now got a shot with real crema, not the artificially induced foam of a pressurized portafilter. The liquid underneath had good intensity for home brew but has just a hint of bitterness, which may be a natural part of the taste of good coffee. The taste I achieved is more "rounded."

BTW I tested my tamp pressure yesterday by using the tamper on a digital bathroom scale on the countertop and found that my usual firm tamp is 35 lbs. I'm a big guy and find it hard to finesse that much because when I press down with what feels like slightly less force it's about 25 lbs. I read more about tamping on this site and see that it's not critical that tamps are an exact ideal 30 lbs. Instead, it's important to tamp consistently and to rely more on grind settings to find the balance between under- and overextraction.

To get a result that is richer, I will also experiment with pre-infusion by turning on my machine, turning it off when I see the flow start, waiting 20 seconds or so, then starting and timing my shot. The folks at Blue Bottle do pre-infuse their shots.

Soy remains a challenge. I went too far and separated the soy today by overheating it and then ran too low on soy to try again. So I stopped by Blue Bottle on my way to work and asked advice again of the baristas. Both said foaming soy is tricky. It can tend to make thick bubbles that aren't suitable for latte art and even when it works well it's harder to get the detailing. One of them showed me how he gets a whirlpool going in the frothing pitcher and said he needs to finesse things day to day depending on how the soy reacts that day. He said one of the difficulties with some home machines is they don't have a single hole at the end of the frother, which can make it more difficult to get the whirlpool going. He also advised that instead of trying to build more bubbles, try to fold the foam into itself to let it build. This has me thinking about the whirlpool, which would fold in on itself. I'm currently using the Pacific Select Vanilla low fat soy they use but may experiment with others for their foaming properties. I've heard the Costco brand is good and will also read more about what properties of a milk-like liquid form microbubbles. I noticed too that he didn't just foam once but in one instance very briefly foamed some liquid remaining in the pitcher. I didn't catch whether it was milk or soy. I've read elsewhere that's not recommended but the result was good, even though usually they start fresh.

Pre-infused this morning on my very basic espresso machine, about 10 seconds from start of pump. Turned off pump within 2 seconds of liquid emerging. Turned it back on 30 seconds later for about 20 seconds and got more flavorful espresso that brought more intensity to my soy latte. Stopped the pump within about 3 seconds of blonding and obtained about 2.5 oz.

Looked elsewhere on the site to a thread about steaming soymilk and tried one member's suggestion to add a small amount of milk to the soy to assist microbubbles. I used about 3/4 Pacific Select low-fat vanilla soy to 1/4 non-fat milk. Also per Blue Bottle barista's advice, allowed whirlpool to develop and kept the wand deep in the soy blend to stretch and allow bubbles to build. I didn't overheat. This time I got many more microbubbles but a little difficulty because had not fully immersed steam wand at the start so got a few large surface bubbles. Still not enough consistent microbubbles for latte art but at least the latte tastes good and isn't watery. I'll post more as I achieve more improvement.

Overall, what I'm trying to do is create the best results possible on a slim budget, not quite a shoestring budget but pretty reasonable at $1/day for the year: 1) $129 Saeco Magic cappuccino Plus refurb espresso machine; 2) $199 refurb Lelit PL53 grinder; 3) $7 tamper; 4) $20 scale (still coming); 4) $12 Krups frothing pitcher -- all for a whopping $367 so far -- a sizable investment still when one's wife is in school!

I wonder if this site might like a forum for getting the best results on a shoestring budget?

Discovered that the size of the frothing mug makes a difference. With a relatively large Krups mug, it's hard to get good bubbles. With a smaller one, it's better. Also, any newbies looking at this should check out the frothing instructions in tips and techniques on this site.