DanSF wrote:Great to hear. I've also enjoyed Verve. Terry points out they are a bit on the lighter side but not compared to the SF-based roasters you were working with originally.

A great insight I got from a wise h-b post long ago is that commercial/prosumer machines are typically designed for a 14g double. So when feeling stumped by a bean, return to the machine's sweet-spot by grinding finer and dosing lower than the instructions on a typical website/bag of US-based roaster. Then adjust dose for taste per Jim's FAQ'ed approach.

Awesome advice, that definitely has been key to great shots for me.

I guess I could have picked up on this a bit sooner actually, the new Breville Dual Boiler 920xl comes with a dosing tool they call the razor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LWrVUD22gQ), which when used typically leaves me with 14-15 grams of coffee in the basket. At first I just thought it was poorly designed since it wouldn't leave me with near the prescribed dose from the roasters averaging 19-20 grams. I still dont really use it, and I definitely dont agree with their video instructions of tamping before using the dose tool to scrape off excess grinds.

With the Four Barrel & Sightglass blends I always started with their advised brew parameters (around 19-20 grams), unfortunately I never quite figured out the 15 gram dose trick, so I might try to revisit those in the near future. Sightglass is one of my favorite espresso blends in the Bay Area, would love to be able to pull it well at home, it makes a yummy cappa.

This morning I made my best cappa yet My Verve Sermon is now 10 days old so I upped dose to 17 grams @ 203 degrees and pulled a 28g double in 31 seconds (including pre-infusion). I think I could have got a notch finer for a little more bitterness, but the coffee stood out very well in the milk. I have a couple more shots left, then its on to another local favorite, Equator's Tigerwalk blend, roasted less than 1 mile away from my home in San Rafael.

LaDan wrote:will just cut my espresso a little shorter to get a more condense shot. Maybe you should try that. Don't wait until the blonding point. Cut the shot shorter, and use that for the milk.

Can you describe the taste before you add milk? Sour I guess!

reading your answer, I realize I might not be wrong!

I prefere cappucinno. When I pull my shot, I always taste it before pouring milk. If the taste looks balance and pour milk don't find it that great. The cappuccino is just ok.

If I cut the shoot just a few seconds before blonding and in a 28-30 sec range, it taste sour. When I pour the milk in the cup, sour taste is gone. Maybe the sweetness of the milk make the MAGIC!

One last thing, I find lowering pump pressure and increase dose was a BIG + for great cappuccino.

Your setup is more than capable of making milk drinks on par with the better cafes here (also good to see Equator getting some love on this board). The differences between a Vario and Robur are going to be most apparent in the highs, which is the part that get largely masked by the milk.

Most of the third wave shops I have spoken with here are dosing shots for their milk drinks (and by extension everything else) in the low twenties (in VST 22g baskets) with a yield of 22-28g out. The thing to remember is that the weight of your dose isn't an absolute, it's relative to the flow rate of the basket you are using. The taste you are chasing is the result of pulling up-dosed ristretto shots from VST triples. Your missing link is very likely the VST basket. The shops you are trying to emulate are able to grind their beans significantly finer than you are (at the same dose) by using them. As we know thanks largely to the gospel of Jim (and alluded to by Dan earlier): grinding finer (and adjusting dose accordingly) helps your shots cut through milk better.

I recently switched over to VSTs and (coupled with gaining a better understanding of dosing in general) it's made a profound impact on my milk drinks (and much more so than upgrading to a Major-E several months ago). VSTs/Stradas baskets (and dosing accordingly) are going to take your milk drinks closer to that SF third wave cafe taste than probably any other change you can make.

Great info thanks so much. I had looked into VST baskets a bit in the past, I must have brushed them off in the past thinking they were identical to the baskets that came with my Dual Boiler, obviously I was mistaken. It does seem like it could make a big difference with a home setup such as mine. I would LOVE to get a bottomless portafilter for my machine as well, but I dont think Breville has released them yet for the new upgraded 920XL machines.

Today I started pulling the Equator Tigerwalk today and noticed the same result as the other roasts i've tried recently, better tasting shots at lower dose/finer grind, thus supporting your point about the dosing being more specific to the flow rate of the basket being used.

I'm going to order the VST basket this week, since its a relatively inexpensive upgrade. Seems like the 18 gram Ridgeless is the one I want.

Wow, big update

So I just pulled the first 2 shots with my new 20gram VST basket this morning. What a difference this basket makes. Lots more flavor & a TON more sweetness from my shot. I knew I had to grind finer for the VST, my first try was still a gusher with a 8 notch adjustment on my vario & 19 gram dose (WAY Higher than breville basket could ever handle with this fine of grind). My second try was still probably a bit over extracted @ 34 seconds, but wow, first sip I took, I immediately noticed a much sweeter espresso profile, which I LOVE!!!

Am currently pulling Sightglass owl's howl (one of the lightest roasted 3rd wave espresso blends around), but still my favorite for its deep honey body & fruity chocolate finish.

Once I get the shot tasting just right, I will try making a capp, and I can only assume I will have a MUCH improved coffee "bite" flavor that stands out against the milk exactly as I have been hoping for.

Thank you so much elusiven for the VST basket suggestion. I also read through roughly 40 pages of the Breville Dual Boiler owner's thread on coffeegeek where they talk pretty extensively about the VST basket's impact.

So far so good Will report back with my results when I try my luck at going after the "perfect cappuccino".