Ever since John Weiss' [RapidCoffee] Banish Uneven Extractions with Weiss Distribution Technique thread 30 months ago, I've frequently tried the technique with varying results, none conclusive.

On a recent road trip I discovered Delta Café Roasting in Orange County CA. [GPS Tip : Filter Food POIs on "ROAST"] Impressed with their facility and unflinching willingness to "talk the talk", I purchased a couple of pounds of their espresso roast.

Today, at the office, the MC4 was grinding 'sugar cubes' and my normal hand was not producing the full profile of the roast's capabilities.

A couple of seconds WDT and the coffee was transformed. A light rap, tamp and the full fruited chocolate profile of roast was exposed.

This coffee is oilier than what I normally roast or purchase and I've never seen a coffee come out of the MC4 as this one does.

BTW, Delta Café espresso is very reasonably priced at $8.50* the pound. It's earned a place in my permanent rotation.

* Oct 2008

Why would you waste so much time? If you really cared about coffee, you'd get a better grinder for your office.

This is an interesting question, as I recently resumed using the WDT in a much more mild fashion. No yogurt cups, I just dose 2/3 of the way, stir that up without making a mess, tap it down, and finish dosing. This way I avoid the yogurt cup trouble, and it adds a lot less time to my routine.

I did this because I've noticed my shots just getting a little edgier, and noticeably uneven, on the Super Jolly. Originally I had stopped using the WDT some months ago when I realized that that, at least for the coffees I was using (or maybe the climate at the time), the WDT wasn't helping much if at all. I was getting nice shots from a much simpler routine of even dosing from the doser, and then cutting across to level. Those shots are still fine, but a little stirring is going a long way in the cup again.

It would be odd if this were seasonal; "It's the clumpy time of year, get out the pins."

another_jim wrote:It would be odd if this were seasonal; "It's the clumpy time of year, get out the pins."

It could be the coffee. I have moved from Oklahoma to Houston since the last time I did the WDT, and I am using totally different coffees (other than my own home-roast, although I would be hesitant to generalize from that... I wouldn't attribute a professional level of consistency to it ).

shadowfax wrote:Why would you waste so much time? If you really cared about coffee, you'd get a better grinder for your office.

I prefer this coffee with the MC4 over the MaxH, something I don't recall previously. The flavors are rounder and more integrated. With the MaxH, the flavors are more striated. It's purely peculiar preference.

another_jim wrote:It would be odd if this were seasonal; "It's the clumpy time of year, get out the pins."

Tis the season for clumps, queue up the Johnny Mathis Christmas music...

"Its beginning to look a lot like coffee clumps
every grinder you use:
Take a look in the rosters bins glistening once again
With coffees and blends aglow.
It's beginning to look a lot like coffee clumps
Beans in every grinder
But the prettiest sight to see is the portafilter that will be
On your own brew group....."

Thanks for the perspective Ian. To contrast I just pulled a few shots of an ultra-light roast SO Kenya (just beyond first crack) and the coffee grounds behaved night and day different then my typical home roasted mid-second crack coffees.

The grounds are (obviously) very dry and fall out of the doser quite well. All I did was a dose, level and tamp. The flow wasn't perfect but the shot was a berry bombshell (to be expected from an SO Kenya). All in all I was impressed with the behavior of the lighter, drier grounds. I hadn't considered roast degree with regard to WDT.

Part of the fun is the process.
I tried the small yogurt funnel and it does make a difference.
The 3rd time when dumping grounds from wide beverage glass into yogurt funnel, I thought
shaken not stirred. Next I transfered the grounds into Tupperware bowl with lid and shook it;
removed the lid, stirred a bit and filled porta filter. This may not be my final word on it,
however shaken not stirred tastes about the same, to me.