Anyone master them? I just bought the 18g basket today.

I didn't find them any different to use than any other quality basket. Not that they didn't require dialing in but they aren't more difficult to use than any of my other baskets.

There was a lot of hype on these things. Did you find any difference in the results?

mitch236 wrote:I didn't find them any different to use than any other quality basket. Not that they didn't require dialing in but they aren't more difficult to use than any of my other baskets.

+1

innermusic wrote:Did you find any difference in the results?

No.

innermusic wrote:There was a lot of hype on these things. Did you find any difference in the results?

Yes, I find a difference. Now these are the only baskets I use.

Well I'm not there yet. I've got the grind so that the beginning of the pull almost chokes the machine, yet by 10-15 seconds in the flow is too fast.

JonR10 wrote:Yes, I find a difference.

Would you elaborate?

For what it's worth, the espresso lab at Counter Culture Coffee switched to VST's baskets a few months back and I've been using them at home for a couple weeks. While I've made no attempt to formally compare them with other baskets, my first impression was that the difference between the VST baskets and larger (18 grams) Faema-style baskets, if any, is fairly small. Sometime in the next month or two, I plan a blind taste test in hopes of separating the technical merits, taste differences, and technique differences between the most popular basket choices.

I find that using a slightly convex CONCAVE distribution and a flat tamper is giving me best results.

If you're like me then you do NOT have Scottie's $100 plastic dosing tools, so you might try using your grinder's hopper lid to get the distribution right.

Since your pour starts so slow maybe try ~17g at the same grind setting. Start with 17.5g to 18g in the basket and tap or shake lightly to settle so the coffee grounds are setting flat. Then set the hopper lid edge on the centerline and rotate to create the concave distribution. Tamp once, straight down (I never twist or tap or polish).

If you do WDT like me, then you can dose 17g and just stir to create the concave distribution and tap to settle before tamping.

I've seen others accomplish the same thing using a curved finger and Stockfleth's move, but that doesn't seem to work for me as well.

HB wrote:Would you elaborate?

I intentionally didn't for two reasons; firstly I have had my fill of negativity from others on the subject of VST baskets already, and secondly my taste impressions are subjective.

There are scientific measurements to show that the VST baskets perform consistently across a range of extraction ratios (same dose and grind) while other baskets do not, but I have not seen any blind tasting results....so I'm looking forward to seeing yours, Dan.


But to answer your question, I feel that using a finer grind for the 18g double basket gives a more even extraction with slower blonding and I now get the same volume shot from 17g to 18g dose as I formerly was getting using 20g doses. My shot consistency is better now, with same weighed dose producing same finished shot mass within a couple tenths of a gram on every measured extraction.

I feel my shots are overall improved for consistency and smoothness, but of course that's totally subjective and so I'm looking forward to seeing your blind study results.

JonR10 wrote:I feel that using a finer grind for the 18g double basket gives a more even extraction

You can also use triple basket and then grind even finer...