Hey all - so, I've been using a triple basket for a while now as the local shop serves PT's bella vita in triple baskets @ 20gms. I hadn't used a timer in a looong time, just got into a habit of judging the stream shape - but haven't been too excited about my shots in a while. Well - I dug out the timer and my shots were going way too long, thin, rat tailed streams that were running around 40ish seconds. I was totally missing the high notes on just about anything I tried. Most espresso blends were tasting almost the same. Well, I coarsened the grind and shortened the extractions a lot - and had much better results - floral punch in the face and could start tasting vast differences in blends once again.

Well, I know the standards for a double basket of 27 sec, 1.5-2.0 oz, but is there a standard for the triple basket? Since the single basket is also suppose to go the same time, does the same follow for the triple? It would make sense judging time temp and heat on flavor... but, how about the volume of the resulting shot? I read the great JonR guide on triples, but his times were 25 sec to 60 sec - and the higher times didn't work for me. I know, suck it and see, but if there's a guideline to start with, that's always helpful!

Geoff

That's an interesting chart there by AndyS. I don't know what the ratio would be. If it's 20gm vs. 18gm and the same output - I guess that would be 10% less extraction from the triple basket? FWIW - I stop pulling the shot at the same time using either double or triple basket - where the shot 'umbrellas'. I believe the shots were getting 'starbuck'd' (hmm... I like that, I'm going to copywrite that one... ) by over-extraction before and therefore all blends started tasting the same - flat and plain. High notes were killed by excess time of contact with the hot brew water. I wonder if JonR's triple 60 sec shots have the high notes?