ds wrote:...

My point being is that roasting is very wide spectrum precisely because of its result being reflected in the eye of beholder.

Have you ever measured a 20% extraction yield from an espresso? I see this is what his talk is all about; people are roasting for poor set ups. Once you get your equipment dialed in to extract higher (and he even says ~18% is as good as it gets with a Robur pulling a normal), then roasting that suits 15% extractions start to reveal themselves as roasty / bakey, and then what was sour and thin at 15% comes into sweet balance at 18-20%.

Scott Rao's new book is a goldmine of info to help get your extractions up towards the 18-20% box, it's worth every penny.

I have no problems getting 18%-19% extraction yields measured with VST Refracto...

Wow, Bens talk was great! One of the reasons was he was totally honest. He wasn't scared that he would hurt people feelings with his findings. Lots of great nuggets in that talk! Might need to watch it again...

I hemmed and hawed about buying Rao's newest book, figuring I would sooner or later, but Marshall's comment and the video discussion in the NRF I saw in the last day finally made me pull the trigger about an hour ago.

It's been since the WBC with Perger's use of a EK-43 for espresso, that I tried using my Ditting 1203 for espresso. I fiddled with it for a while but didn't spend time studying the science of extraction behind it all, mainly because I don't own a refractometer. I thought it was just an evenness of extraction due to a tighter uni-modal grind particle size that was yielding the results they desired.

Suffice it to say, after reading only the first 8 or so pages of Rao's book, I got curious once again about using my big 120mm flat burrs to pull a shot, along with my VST 20g basket. Especially since the burrs are the brand new machined type that are still like new in terms of sharpness. I was ignorant of the fact that the results in the cup were so reliant on extraction yield, I thought that it was mainly just a diagnostic tool, and part of the ways to figure out "what you were doing wrong". I assumed that the majority of what made a shot great was basket prep and a titan class grinder, along with great quality fresh coffee, and the machines were less important as long as they were consistent in their function.

Anyways, I dialed in my grind first using old stale coffee just to feel the grind fineness until I liked what I felt, then turned and ran some Linea Caffe's espresso thru and it only took 2 attempts to get a shot within tight standard parameters. The results were rather eye opening to say the least. It tasted like most of the descriptors in the Linea thread, just amped up in deliciousness, and it seemed to smooth out a lot of the edgy harshness. I only had the one shot that was decently dialed in, but I think I'll play with it more. I'm probably going to have to suck it up and buy a refractometer, I've always wanted to get one anyway, but this might push it higher up on the priority list. The flavor of the shot had far more depth and development, sweetness, slightly tamed acidity (Linea's isn't bright acidic coffee to start with) and a wonderful mouthfeel and tons of great caramels. I certainly want more espresso's to be like this.

I'm going to have to re-read Rao's latest book after watching Ben Kaminsky's video. May need to work some more on the Grindmaster too.

I also pulled the trigger on Rao's book this evening!