Ok, so I have been playing with my setup long enough to know that it is I that needs the most improvement. So I have been reading with great interest all the postings about dialing in a bean. I have figured out this much:

If the taste is sour, most likely the shot is underextracted and I can either increase the time, coarsen the grind, lessen the dose or increase the temp. If the taste is bitter, then the shot is most likely overextracted and I can do the opposite. I am leaving out pressure on purpose as there are already too many variables and I was to keep this simple for us newbies.

I know I am opening up myself for all sorts of corrections and I welcome constructive advice.

My question is how do you know which variable to start with? Maybe there is no real system and each person has their own favorites to tweak. I realize I will never be great at this because I don't work at a bar, and can't keep brewing shots endlessly trying different parameters. At my current pace, it will take years to get somewhat decent. For now, I just start with other's recommendations and try to tweak from there but almost always it gets worse and I just go back to the starting point. I find that my taste is closest to Chris Tacy and so I usually use his parameters to get me close. But I am about to get a new roast and I haven't been able to get any recommendations from the roaster about shot profile. I don't know how to start even! I don't want to burn through 2-3 lbs of beans to get close (or maybe nowhere!).


Sorry if I'm rambling on, but I just drove the family home from Disney (about 3.5 hours with four kids!)

The search feature is your friend . . .

Dialing in a new espresso machine, a step by step guide

I was searching but didn't really find what I was looking for until just now. I already read what you linked to but I was really looking for Mano Lite: A Short Guide to Dialing in Espresso SOs and Blends

This read gave me much to think about!

Thanks for answering though!!