AndyS wrote:You're correct, these definitions are tricky. I usually like to go a little beyond this point:
........ What's your preference?

Bleached blondes are like decaf or GMO.. I prefer the real thing to adulterated or modified.

Great visual training aid! (Though might be considered a bit sexist. )
All three have their place in my crema lapping.

The first would be a Ristretto.
The second the occasional play with Cafe Cremas.
The third day in and day out Normale.

It's been said already, but I think this is very much coffee specific - even with a pretty temp stable draw, I've found a coffee or two that really benefited from being pulled long, perhaps by drawing more from different coffees in a blend as the pull continues, perhaps by different solids being dragged out from the same beans, or perhaps just by the flavor effects of dilution itself, but in any case, the effect is certainly not always a bad thing. You can imagine that with a blend and a non-flat extraction profile, this effect could be pronounced. Darn it, I need to start logging so I can recall examples...

AndyS wrote:The conventional nonsense -- er, wisdom -- is that the blondish extract at the end of an espresso extraction ruins a shot by making it bitter. Therefore, it is considered a bitter mistake to let the shot run too long.

Do you taste it that way? I don't....

I have to agree. So does my partner who has much better taste buds than me (as females often do).

I figure that's part of the problem with espresso folklore .... looks <> taste. Surely the standard should be a properly blind taste test.

Illy's scientific american article was illuminating in that it suggests bitter tastes come later. It appears there are more variables than extraction time and that different setups produce different graphs. Grind is probably a big variable.

I find my "short pulls" to be more "imbalanced" than when I run the full cycle on my auto (14g, double basket, 2oz). The chocolate side seems to come into play later in the pull.

I also have some home roast that almost starts out yellow. How in the heck do you view blonding then?

AndyS wrote:I guess I find right about here to be my favorite: <image of sweet, sweet Scarlett> How about you?

The Johansson Protocol can save any thread... I have to believe she does wonders for espresso, too.